Operation Tubetop

Sup Wednesday evening? I am definitely fighting some type of cold or flu. Of course this is all Office Twin's fault. He has been sick the past week and has come into work and has of course infected me. I am hoping and praying this is just a case of me being over tired from, you know, moving faster than I usually do. Last night was the Night Run and I will get to that in a minute. But first, here is my asshole mommy news! Yesterday when I got home, the Nanny said "I didn't know he lost a tooth!" and I stopped and shrieked "HE LOST A TOOTH?!?!" and she said "Yes, yesterday. I thought you knew." and at that point I should have just added "Quite. Now ask Jeeves to pull up to the front. I must meet Mitzy before we go to the Hamptons." Ugh. Poor kiddo. We have no idea where it is. We are sure he swallowed it. And since he can't talk, we have no idea if it registered for him. He seems happy, the new tooth-free hole looks alright (a lot of sh...

A bazillion apologies for not posting sooner! Last week was incredibly busy at work and I just did not have time to write. Which I hate because I love to write in this bizarro online diary. There was a lot to do and I was pretty exhausted. But the good news is that I can write a post tonight because the Kid has discovered that launching himself off the sofa is the most fun game EVER! and I'm too tired to stop him. Moving on to a topic that is near and dear to my heart: Halloween costumes! So I have been going through Halloween costume ideas. When I was kid, literally November 1st I already knew what I wanted to be. I would spend my days dreaming of my next costume. And as an adult, I still kind of do. These past couple of months I have been planning. It first started out with something Zombie Pride and Prejudice ... then it moved on to ghost bride... then I thought of Daisy from the Great Gatsby ghost thing. I tossed the ideas around, even bought fabric, but just couldn't d...

The temperature has finally dropped which means that I can now switch out my summer wardrobe for my winter one. My summer wardrobe is multi-coloured and contains about 80 dresses, 50 of which I don't wear. One day, beautiful, slightly transparent, brightly hued dresses, I will wear you again. What always strikes me when I do this big switch is just how much black I own. Sure there is a little royal blue and some brown but otherwise seulement noir. And I am ok with that. The Kid slept better this week. Sure, he somehow ends up in our bed in the middle of the night but at least he is falling asleep in his own room and not running out like a methed out banshee every 5 minutes. However, and there is a however, the other morning around 4 a.m., the Kid crested like a magnificent whale onto me. 45 pounds of kid knocking the wind out of you while you are fast asleep will lead you to scream very very bad words. This morning he woke up at 3:30 in the morning and sat at the foot of our be...

It was so so so nice to have a day off yesterday. I was expecting a package all morning and of course it did not come. Which of course makes me twitchy because I wore a bra and yoga pants expecting the mail man to come. I would have taken a nap as well. BASTARDOS! I was actually expecting two packages... Grrrr. But in the end, the morning at home wasn't too bad. I watched Murder She Wrote and wrote many many e-mails. At 12:30, I headed out to meet my friend at Miznon for lunch. We walked into the very loud restaurant and ordered our food. The guy smiled when I said "Tova" because that name don't get more Hebrew than that. Unless you are Swedish. He said it a few times and when I paid he said "Tovilein". I blushed. My friend and I sat down and talked and then my name was called out loudly. Say it again! We ate and caught up and then I made her sign paperwork because she is one of my board members for the autism center. After lunch we walked to Schwedenplatz a...

I always say this but it is true... I really do need an intern. Today was absolutely wild and thank goodness that tomorrow is a holiday for me. Huzzah! I woke up early and wrote several e-mails and messages and then got the Kid dressed and ready for kindergarten. He jumped on his bike and we made our way to school. It is literally just around the corner and the only hazards are little dogs and other pedestrians. He is pretty good about not zooming down but I hold him by the hood of his sweater lest he thinks I am running in heels down a hill. I kissed him good bye and made my way to work, wondering when I moved to Southern California because it is like 30 degrees Celsius and already the middle of September!!! I sent some more e-mails during the day and did my work and at 3:30, ran to the Ubahn to go visit my friend K.P. and her adorable twins and son. And chatted with her in laws. I drank wine, talked, held a baby and at 5:30 I had to run and catch the bus to go to the grocery stor...

Good morning Sunday! Looks like it is going to be another scorcher of a day. This heat is making me a little twitchy because I have about 50 pashminas in my closet looking at me. "Tie me around your shoulders!" "Casually toss one side over your back!" "Colour coordinate me to your outfit!" I know my lovelies... I know. Even though I am on a no shopping budget.. I did a little shopping on Friday online. I needed new shoes for fall and H&M had an amazing sale and I may or may not have got a couple of dresses as well. Dammit, no more money spending, Tova. The last time I wrote, I was having a quiet night at home on Wednesday. I ended up falling asleep early and yet I woke up in the middle of the night, unable to sleep for a couple of hours. On Thursday I met a friend at Cafe Hawelka for a drink (the Hawelka grandson was briefly there and I don't want to say he took off as soon as he saw me but yes, I think he took off as soon as he saw me) and the...

Well...that's an inappropriate title. Meh, I never said I was appropriate. Hello Wednesday evening! Am I happy to see you! I am home alone with the Kid tonight and to be completely honest, I was a little worried about this evening. As I mentioned the other day, the Kid has been difficult. We aren't sure what is causing it since he can't tell us but I am hoping and praying this too shall pass. I am very open on Facebook and in this blog about the challenges of raising a child with autism... I am also very open about my lack of smarts (for reference please see: carrots growing on trees). I feel like it would be a real disservice to not talk about the struggles we face with the Kid. I know that some moms who have children with autism read this blog and I don't want them to feel like they are alone; and it is incredibly therapeutic for me. One of my biggest pet peeves are people who have gone through a diagnosis of autism with their child (felt the dismay, the fear, the ang...

Yay! Monday night! Survived the first day of the week. Apparently the Kid had a freak out in Kindergarten today. My first thought is: oh crap, what is going on in his sweet little head. My second thought is: thank God I didn't have to go through another one. He is definitely going through a phase and I hope it passes soon... a phase of ignoring us and yelling at us whenever we ask him to do anything. I like that as parents that we always call continuous bad behaviour a "phase". When a child is being good, we never say it is a "phase" but rather shrug our shoulders smugly and think "good parenting". Yesterday the Kid was pretty great after the visit to the playground. We decided to head to the Prater because we have always had luck with him on the tram. We walked down the hill to the tram stop and waited just a minute for a tram. An old one (and this is important), pulled up and the Kid got out of his stroller and held my hand as he climbed into it....

Well, the Kid slept alright last night. He was a little bit difficult last night and this morning he yelled at me a couple of times. I of course handled it like a strong mother (I went into the kitchen crying "HE HATES ME!!!"). A friend wrote me that she was in the playground with her son and asked if we wanted to join. The Kid was excited to go and then I realized his stomach was a little funny. I told him we probably couldn't go and then he yelled at me again. So I said "Fiiinnne. We will go!" Tough love. Don't have it. He got on his bike and off we went. We met my friend and her adorable son and hung out for a while, trying to chat while making sure neither of our children face planted. The Husband usually does playground duty and for that I am eternally grateful. I am not great at playgrounds. They build these structures like a stage set for Hook and I keep expecting someone to start chanting "Rufio! RUFIO!" as they careen down the side of a h...

Sup Saturday? The Husband is at his aunt's birthday party and I am on kid duty. I am a little bit on edge because just after the Husband left, the Kid was just on the verge of a meltdown. I was able to distract him with chocolate so fingers crossed the next couple of hours go by smoothly. I don't want to jinx it but right now all is cool in the hood. I even let him eat his dinner on the sofa because I am not a good mom when it comes to boundaries. Meh, at least I'm not this lady. Yesterday I had the day off. I originally had the day off because I thought the Kid was off kindergarten but that was the week before. I decided to not change my day off because I really needed a morning of zen. And zen it was. I took a nap watching Matlock. MATLOCK! And then around noon, I got myself all dolled up and made my way to the Craft Wines Tasteival. There is a new company in town called Craft Wines that a dear friend of mine set up with a couple of other people and it is a pretty fab...