Category Archives: Mother-Daughter Blogs

No tears meatloaf

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A couple of days ago I mentioned how well my meatloaf when over in my house so I thought I would share it with you. Since if the lack of it drove my daughter to tears I’m must be doing something right.  Maybe as a cook, but not as mother.

Needed:

one pound pork sausage ( or you can get ground pork and add garlic, salt and fennel)

One pound ground beef ( The fatter the better.  A store near here has 27% fat ground beef, perfect)

One egg

Splash of water

salt, pepper

1/2 onion, chopped

1 big or two small cloves of garlic, chopped

One carrot, diced.

1 tablespoon of butter

1/3 of breadcrumbs ( I use store bought.  Homemade are great, but I’m not that ambitious)

1/3 cup of ketchup

I always mean to have worcester sauce in this, but haven’t yet and it’s worked out well, so maybe I’ll let go of that dream.

Here is how it all comes together, the food and the family.

 

Getting my daughter to eat breakfast, & Blogher ’11 : Sponsored

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Busy week.  Shot two days worth of Her Say ( check out at www.hersay.com). Body suddenly racked by grief on Tuesday ( see previous post). Leaving for super speedo getaway with family. Hard to find the time. When you buy a house the travel budget does dwindle. My kids are so excited for their trip. Vivien packed last night unaided.  This morning I found Vivien was ready to go and had put her stuff in my closet to let me know.

Fwd: Ready to go!

The day after we come back I am going to Blogher’11 in San Diego.  First time going.  I’m going in part so I can check out the activities at the Hillshire Farm booth.  I’ve been collaborating with them this month I’m going to interview their spokesperson, “Bridesmaid” star  Wendi McLendon-Covey.  She will be signing autographs and meeting people there.
I also want to check out the food styling workshop they are doing.  This would be of help to food bloggers and to wives of chef’s who try to take pictures of food with little success.  Who could that be? Mark has told me hilarious stories about what makes food look good in pictures, sometimes it’s car oil.  Seriously, yummy food and yummy photography are not the same thing.  Since I’m his wifeager I think I need more knowledge.
So, maybe I will see you there.
Okay, back to yummy food.  Here is a vid Vivien and  I did about how I get her to eat breakfast.  Yes, it is a win-win.
CLICK HERE to watch… in case you missed it.  Did I mention to click here, no not here, the other here.
Go to http://facebook.com/hillshirefarm for all their blogher info.

Yes, I am being paid a kings ransom to write about Hillshire Farms. It’s crazy money, I could have bought Candy Spelling’s place. Well, maybe some of her wrapping paper. But, I love smoked turkey.  I should have asked for smoked turkey.

Back Stage: Imagination Movers

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I super caved and bought the most expensive tickets possible for Imagination Movers in concert.  I kept thinking this year Vivien would grow out of them, but no, she asked every week.  When I saw for an upcharge you can get up close ( we were in nose bleeds last year) and meet the Movers I acted like the groupie mom I am.  I did finagle a tiny, tiny discount through a friend, but what the heck. You are only 5 once!

I took Vivien and her best friend. The Movers show was much better than last year.  It was in a bigger venue as well.  What made the show better this year?

1) They had an idea emergency.  Last year was more free form.  I kept thinking, arent’ they going to solve something soon?  Gave the show some structure

2) Nina.  She is front and center for a lot of the show.  The little girls love her!!  She isn’t wearing her pedal pushers anymore though.  Disney has given her a hand me down from mini and she sports a  red and white polka dot dress.  Bring back the capri’s I say.
a href=”http://www.flickr.com/photos/coolmomdotcom/5537726483/” title=”Nina goes into the crowd by coolmom.com, on Flickr”>Nina goes into the crowd

3) Wherehouse mouse made a cameo.   Of course we needed where house mouse.  What, was he holding out for more money last year?
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4) The Movers came in to the audience more.  They really worked it.  Vivien took off ( from row 7 thank you) and would gather around when a Mover- or Nina- came into the crowd. Rich patted her head.  We were both pretty excited.

5) Songs for the old folks.  As part of the encore they played a medley of some pop songs, U2, etc.  Nina can sing, think Smitty is the weakest vocalist, but they all play well.

Flaws?  Where’s Uncle Knit Knots?

After the show I did as the slip of paper that was in my tickets directed and looked for the Mover Reception.  It had said, “go downstairs”. I asked an usher where to go.  I must have looked like a VIP because he directed us toward a reception in a back lounge.  We waited a short while and then the Movers came in.  It was a pretty small reception.  I thought, really, more parents didn’t pay for this?  I noticed that the Movers seemed to know some of the people there. Then I noticed there were no snacks.  Since I and my kid and her friend always want to eat I started asking where is the food?  A worker said, “Oh, that’s at the other reception.”

“Well, what is this?”

” This is just for Sony.” she said.  Oh, right, I work for Sony ( not).

Quick let’s meet the Movers before they figure out we don’t belong.  Vivien’s friend held back, but Viv went right up to Rich.  She looks at me to close the deal.a href=”http://www.flickr.com/photos/coolmomdotcom/5537735321/” title=”100_4581 by coolmom.com, on Flickr”>100_4581

“Hey, Rich, my girl would love a picture.”  He was very nice.  We talked to him about shooting in New Orleans, where he has five kids.

“How did Disney find you?”

“They saw us playing at Jazz fest”.  Good idea Disney scout person
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Then Scott.  Snap.
mover scott
Me: “Weren’t you a pre school teacher?”
Scott:  ”no, 4,5 and 6″  He turned to Vivien “can you imagine if I was your teacher?” like that was a silly idea. Silly AWESOME.

Me: “She was just saying she wishes you were her teacher”.  Then I had to ask what was consuming me.

“Where is Uncle Knit Knots?”  ( not just me wonders ) Scott did one of the faces when you are still smiling, but you are thinking about something not smiley.  ”he isn’t on the show anymore.”

WHAT?  Then I realized he hasn’t been in the lastest episodes.

“Oh, that’s too bad.  We like Uncle Knits Knots.” (later I found there is a discussion board on Facebook about the “where’s Uncle Knits Knots?” question. It’s the “who shot J.R. of the preschool set)

Vivien, ” Yeah, cause he is boring.”

Then Dave, who is another super sweet guy.  He has a daughter named Vivian ( with an A, not our E). I said,

“great show”

Dave, ” yeah?”

“Oh, yeah, way better than last year”

Dave, “really?”

me: “yeah, way better.”
Mover Dave

Dave, “well, don’t make it sound like last year was bad.”

I chuckled and enumerated the ways that it was better.

Dave ” yeah, everyone kept asking for Warehouse Mouse.”

I decided to push for more info the beige Uncle.   “But, we did want to see Uncle Knits Knock.”  He gave that same face that Scott gave.

I pounced ” Is there bad blood with Uncle Knits Knock, was he hard to work with?  Did he not want to go to New Orleans to tape?”  I’m a Sony friend, I can ask!

” No, we all parted friends.  He has been acting for years ”  I know I recognized him.  ” He makes a cameo in our TV concert.

Then we talked to Nina, really the holy grail for 5 year old girls.  When Vivien tucked into her for the picture “Nina” ( played by Wendy) cooed, “oh, what a sweetheart”.
Nina!
We talked for a few minutes.  Yes, she lives in New Orleans for 6 months while they film and then comes to LA for her acting career.  My own Hollywood shuffle and all that I have known passed through my brain.  I thought, “oh, stick with the rocking kid show.” But, I didn’t and you can’t tell people that the grass is not usually greener and sometimes it is better to settle.  Who would believe me, except maybe Susan Lucci?

A hug from Smitty and the day was complete.
mover smitty
But, wait, just as we were leaving who shows up?  The train guy and the train lady. “chugga,chugga, chu, chu”. They had opened for the Movers.  Nice people, and he started break dancing right after we took the picture.
choo choo

Best concert since The Pretenders.

Tangles

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The combing the hair thing in the morning is so much drama.  I know how much it hurts.  When I was 8 my mom could only hold me down once a week and by that time I looked like Cousin It.  I have to make sure Vivien’s hair is sort of an order as she know has to wear it in pig tails ( or braids, but for some reason she hates braids) because there is a lice outbreak at her school.  Ha, good times. cheers

I spray the stuff on her head, use a wide tooth comb, go in small batches.  I sometimes worry I’m torturing her like that Toddlers and Tiara mom who waxes her kids eyebrows.  Everyday there are snarls.  Conditioning the hair the night before helps, but only a bit, and since she is getting over an ear infection I’ve let the hair washing go for a few days ( also supposedly lice loves clean hair)

Any suggestions or helpful hints for this issue are appreciated.

Should I just go for dreds?

Bone head mom

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I might as well have yelled “fire” in a crowded theater.  Here is the story…

Once a week I volunteer for Vivien’s class when they go to their school library.  By every week I mean every few weeks as we are at a public charter school that is underfunded and rents space, so we are often kicked out of the library if the landlords need it. It’s a great little library and our librarian is a dad who volunteers tons of time to sort, organize and label books, coordinate parental volunteers.  He is the kind of parent every school needs ( hundreds of).

For my daughter’s class another dad and I show up to read the class a story and help them pick a book to check out  for the week ( or two months depending upon the next time we get in the library).  Afterward we sort and re shelve books.  Rather I do, some parents don’t, I’m not naming names, but it hasn’t gone unnoticed. (arched eyebrows)

The other parent had read the book the last few weeks so I was eager to read this week.  Let’s face it, that’s the money job, right?

” I need a ringer” I said to Librarian dad.  He picked something about a dragon that was fun and I can’t remember the name because I got so in the zone while telling the story.  I had a little bit of opening night jitters, but I really sold it to the K-1 crowd.  I had them eating out of my hand!  Only a few inappropriate interruptions of non-sequiturs ( you know when a kid says something like, “my grandfather has an ax”.  That’s nice kid, I’m reading a story about a dog)

Well, flush with my bang up job of reading I moved on to helping them pick a book. I knew Vivien was proud of her mom and she was being such a good girl I helped her first.  Ha, whom I kidding, I always help her first.  When I was sorting before the class arrived I noticed two books with unicorns.  I filed it mentally, “must tell Vivien about unicorn books”.

Now, here comes the bone head mom move. I said ALOUD

“Vivien, there are two books about unicorns”
uni

UNICORNS she and her 3 best girl friends yelled.  But, here was the problem.  I MENTALLY noticed the books, I didn’t PHYSICALLY put them away.  As I scanned the stacks I did need to also assist some other kids.

“Where are the fairy tales?”  one little girl asked.  Check, found that. Meanwhile, their teacher is starting to do the countdown.

“You all have 2 minutes to find your book and line up.”  I am finding NOTHING about unicorns.  Now, I have introduced the concept of scarcity to these little girls and Vivien and her best friend, who had walked in holding hands were now at war.  I had found a book about moons or bunnies or somethng and tried to sell it to Vivien in lieu of unicorns, she took the bait, but so did her BFF so there was a conflict about who would get it.  Another girl said they should do “eany-meany”, but they had a fight over that which caused BFF to go and hide under a table as Vivien shouted,

” I don’t want her to count on me.”

“Oh, Librarian dad”  I summoned.  ”Where are the unicorn books?”

“Hmm, I don’t know.” It was hard to scan the books, repair a friendship over the din of “stupid, stupid” that was running through my head.

“Vivien’s mom” asked a little boy “where is a shark book?”  Scan for sharks and unicorns.

“Here it is”  Librarian dad found the first one.  Vivien tossed the other book aside and grabbed it.

“I want one too!”  yelled BFF.  Fortunately, the other two girls, who are about 6- 9 months older and possess a whole other level of maturity, had found books about butterflies and pirate girls, yes, I did sell them on them and it worked. Phew.

“Here is the other one”  my white knight said.

“Line up!”  The teacher commanded.   Just as I handed the boy a shark book.

“I got this one.” he said toting a book about turtles toward the door.

Vivien fell in line behind her BFF.  They were smiling.  I gave her a kiss and off they went to class.

As I sorted I said to library dad.

“Wow, what a blunder!  Why did I tell a group of 5 year old girls that there were unicorn books when I wasn’t totally sure where these books were?”  I knew the answer.  I wanted to be perfect mom.  The mom who volunteers, who cares about her kids school and also brings joy and happiness to her daughter.

“Yeah”,  Library dad said.  ”That was pretty stupid.”

I know there is no name calling in school.  But, he was right.

As long as I Don’t Stay in Vegas…

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A quick trip to Las Vegas for CES related activites.  Not one nickel went into a slot machine or any form of gambling.  Not one penny.  I lose enough, thanks. The drink I had was not very good, food expensive.  Which is why my first stop from the airport is the Whole Foods so I can have healthy snacks on hand without walking 4 miles through a lobby to try and find them and only end up with a hot dog by Nathan’s. CES is a too large convention for geeks.

But, the full night sleep in a hotel room?  OMG beyond fantastic.  I woke up at 6:30am per usual and was semi giddy when I realized I could go back to sleep and I did for for two more hours.  Mark was suppose to go with me so we could combo a little boogie time, but the LA courts had another idea.  Mark was called to jury duty.

I did meet some great people.  Lisa Stone from Blogher.  Ends up we have mutual friends and I’ve known her sister for nearly 20 years.  Small world.  I did a show live for pulse network.  It is a MAJOR ordeal to penetrate CES.  I don’t reccomend it.  No wonder I hadn’t been there in 12 years when I was there representing CNET and hosting a panel.  The fun part was doing the show live and whoever showed up to be my guest I winged it.  Like I like it.  Some of those I intereviewed were momfinds and zinio.  While talking to that gal I was so wowed by her cool mags online on her iPad I started to think for the first time, I NEED one of those.  (covet, covet)

Fun, but way too noisy dinner with my partners at Deca and various guests.  Like the guys who started Klout.com.  New cool social media. Good luck boys! Also Catherine McCord of weelicious.com.  She and I knew each other as hosts about 10 years ago.  She hasn’t aged at all.128_4263.JPG

I finished one book and then bought another. The Checklist manifesto.  Thought it was right up my alley when I saw the author on The Colbert Report as I do love a To Do list (see vlog).  But, it’s like a good magazine article that got turned into a book.  So often the case with Non Fiction.

24 hours is plenty.  I didn’t love that scene before I was a mom and now that I can come to this I really want to make it a short trip. 128_4264.JPG

I took the kids to brunch with friends the day after I came back and Vivien and doll are wearing an outfit set I gave her for her birthday.

I hit the jackpot.

Vivien is 5!

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I wish I could embed the song “September” by Earth, Wind and Fire.  I always loved it and then one day realized it was about my daughter.  ”do you remember/21st night of September” A song of celebration for the day my sweet girl was born. Except she was born in the morning, but close enough.
vivien at 8 months
My beautiful, smart, loving, no nonsense daughter who changed my life forever.  I am so, so lucky and blessed and honored to have my daughter.

The moment they pulled her out of me ( c-section due to frank breech) I heard her screaming and I saw her wriggling body as I lay flat on my back.  My first thought?  Terrified.  I was afraid of her.

2nd thought:  She is not me, she is not Mark, she is her own, strong person seperate from us.  Uh, oh, this wasn’t going to be like my little baby dolls. But, Vivien and I have worked it out and will continue to work it out for the rest of our lives.100_4042.JPG

Now, she has just started Kindergarten as the youngest in her class and soccer, and a loving big sister.  She is strong and her own person and also my baby doll.

I love you Vivien.  I can’t thank you enough for coming to be with us. Happy Birthday!vivien at 5

Preschool graduation

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Hey, I’m not going to kid you this has been a challenging week and I see no end in sight.  But, while I can blog the sadness I want to vlog the funny. This is a vid I did in June about that rite of passage, preschool graduation.  It’s still relevant as now Vivien has to gear up for kindergarten in just over a month.

Kids playing

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I don’t usually lounge around the house in a cocktail dress, but dang, I think I should!  Looks better than some of the cotton smock tops I trundle around in.  I had just finished taping Real Mom Red Carpet when I said, “Hey, camera man, get me talking with the kids in the background.” I had been wanting to talk about this subject and then they were showing it all happening.

I love them so much…and I love my Trina Turk dress, not equally, but you know.

The last days of disco

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This is Vivien and Rex on the last day she went to pre school.  Rex and I lingered for awhile when I dropped her off in the morning.  He loves playing there and I wanted to take lots of pictures of her and her friends.

I am far more sentimental than Vivien.  For survival it’s better to be more like her.  When I picked her up at the end of the day I asked her if she wanted to give the school a final look.  Knowing I would have touched every surface in true OCD style.  But, she didn’t want to.

“Come on, let’s go.”

She looked ahead.

This was Vivien the first day she went to pre school by herself.  She wore a diaper, and had curls.  She also lived in our big house.  Everything seemed so much easier.  It’s hard not to think of the time she had in preschool in terms of the upheaval, good and bad, that our family went through.  Buying dream house, getting pregnant, robbed by Madoff and company, selling dream house, dad’s worsening health.  Vivien’s forward moving nature has helped us always move forward.  Also, to our credit we tried to craft the move in a positive light.  She never saw me screaming, “Holy heck, we are f–ed!”

The moment had finally come when we had to physically walk out of our home.  The last mover had left, taking some things to storage, and other things to our rented home.  The new owners painter’s were arriving in the morning to cover the walls of our rooms.  To take down the wallpaper.  All the the things that I thought that would be there for years, that I had painstakingly chose, were to disappear after only a year.

My mom held two month old Rex as we stood on the walkway out front.  I had set up that we would have dinner out with my sister and nephew as I knew it would cheer Vivien to see him.

“This is when we say good bye to our house Vivien.” I said kneeling down to her level.  ”Would you like to go back in one more time and say good bye to your house?”

“No, Mamma, let’s just go.”

In that moment she helped me so much.  That’s right, let’s just go.  It’s just a house.  I had thought I would be ill to walk away from it.  But, I wasn’t.  I just buckled her and Rex in and we went to dinner.  Drove off and didn’t look back.

Late at night when I can’t sleep I sometimes visit every room from our house in my mind. How the sun hit different rooms at different times.  How I use to like to sit at the top of the stairs, look down the hallway thinking of how our kids would grow and change here. I think about how it felt to be there before the words, “It’s gone, it’s all gone” were said to me by my husband.  The Mandarin orange pillows I had custom made for my kitchen table that I had to leave, that center island, the IRA.

But, of course the best things from that house I took with me.  They are sleeping in the next room.

“Let’s just go, Mamma.”

Vivien takes the fun she had in pre school, the friends, the confidence, the toilet training.  All the forward moving things she gained in the last two years.  She walks out and still has it.  She innately knows that.  I hope that always stays with her.  There are so many things that can shake our confidence .

Once it’s gone, I don’t think you ever get it back.