I had my annual all-over skin check at the dermatologist this morning.  As documented here more than once, too much sun exposure as a teen led me to overcompensate once I hit 25 and not leave home without a hat and high SPF.  The damage caught up with me more than a year ago, though, when a suspicious spot on my nose led to a pre-cancer diagnosis.  Today’s report was welcome.  Nothing questionable to remove.  However from a purely aesthetic standpoint, I had 2 skin tags/2 angiomas and a big mole on the front of my neck shaved off or cauterized.  The five shots were nearly painless and well worth the hassle for me to feel better with these gone.  Guess who’s wearing a high-neck shirt to do the news this evening?

Posted under Baby Thomas: Month 25

Here is the text I received Friday around 7pm: 

Hey Tara, We were just driving down [the] road and we saw Charlotte in the back corner of the yard with her pants off peeing in the bush.  Just thought I’d yell ya  

My reply:

Thanks for the heads up… Or should I say pants down!

She fessed up to the incident.  I explained to her that no matter how badly she had to go, come inside to go potty when you’re that close to a toilet.  Of course it doesn’t help that she peed in the rocks at Nana/Papa’s all summer while swimming and Daddy let her go behind our shed before.  All I could think is just wait until her brother gets in on this.  I keep hearing from parents of little boys how much they like to mark their territory, whipping it out anywhere and everywhere.  Wonderful.  At least if a brown spot appears in Daddy’s prized green grass this time he’ll know it wasn’t a neighbor dog!

Shelby Lee from Elgin

Posted under Baby Thomas: Month 25

I ran into a guy today whose wife is expecting.  They told me the last time we saw one another, though I had no idea how far along.  When I inquired about how she and the baby are doing, he said just okay.  I didn’t press but later found out she lost the baby this week.  Why did I even bring it up, I chastised myself.  What a horribly sad situation.  It was obviously a fear of mine, a miscarriage, especially with such a public position.  Viewers could eventually see I was pregnant, so I shared it with everyone both times once I made it past 12 weeks.  Losing a baby would be so devastating that I couldn’t imagine having to tell an inquisitive viewer in the frozen foods section of Walmart had it happened to me.  So many women go through this, yet it’s such an unspoken thing.  Only when you’re pregnant do you become privy to this secret club of females who’ve all gone through something so personal.  And that’s the time when you least want to hear about it because it raises your stress level.  My heart goes out to this latest woman I barely know, but now know is going through such a difficult situation.       

Julia's first day of preschool

Posted under Baby Thomas: Month 25

I agree with Dave that Charlotte is driving her brother crazy.  She’s constantly in his face.  Just this week I have witnessed her pick him up, wrestle him down, slap him too hard and push him–all against his wishes.  “No, Sissy!”  His cries ignored.  We intervene, of course, but Daddy is more bothered by it.  Perhaps I can relate to Charlotte and Dave to Thomas?  Like when I see a hair Dave missed on his head shaving, I annoy him if I try to pull it off.      Or driving the kids to school this morning I witnessed Charlotte desperately trying to get her brother’s attention by firmly repeating, “Thomas… Thomas… Thomas.”  Eventually, without looking her direction, he said, “What?”  It was hilarious.  How many times has the same exchange happened between Dave and me?  Too many to count.  Only instead of a Wow Wow Wubzy DVD Daddy’s watching Sportscenter.  So I sort of get why Charlotte has to go to extremes with Thomas.  She wants attention from her brother.  Isn’t that the same reason wives irritate their husbands?  We just want some lovin’!  (P.S.-I just did a quick, informal survey of the newsroom and the women in here know that I meant a hug or kiss.  The guys think I meant sex.  We really are so different.)

Posted under Baby Thomas: Month 25

My mom thinks Thomas anticipated the separation anxiety of Young Preschool today, so he put me through quite a night.  At 1:45am I was jolted awake with him yelling my name (“Moommmy!”) from his crib in addition to wails and other sounds.  I didn’t hesitate to scoop him up and take him downstairs, thereby letting Daddy get his sleep and Sissy stay in her bed uninterrupted.  This scene has been playing out about 1 out of 3 nights recently.  And I actually don’t mind sleeping with him downstairs even though, yes, I know this is a bad habit to begin and continue.  So there we were on the same reclining couch where Daddy and I spent Thomas’ first 7 months holding him.  I love that couch because of all the time I’ve been on it with my “babies”.  Now I’m cramped on there with a 2-year-old who pulls and contorts my arms and hands so that one is underneath him and the other is draped over the top with my palm laid in specific spots under his chin.  Let’s just say I woke up at one point with a major wrist cramp!  The fidgeting did not die down until around 3:20… so in all I probably got 5-6 hours of horrible rest since I stupidly stayed up until midnight watching a DVR’d reality show.  When Charlotte came bouncing down the stairs at 7:15am shouting, “School time,” I knew everything would be okay.  Thomas only cried for a few minutes before excitedly sitting on a teacher’s lap for circle time.  I left once I heard them singing “Wheels on the Bus”, one of Thomas’ favorites.  Charlotte, meantime, raced to her room without saying goodbye.  I went up to her classroom and there she was, legs crossed, quietly sitting on her little mat.  Walking by the infant room, I peeked in to see all the babies and teachers.  “I’m done with this room,” I matter-of-factly told them.  Then I remembered Dave still needs to get his vasectomy so I should have kept my mouth shut.  Oh tonight and in the coming ones, Thomas and I are moving to the downstairs queen bed in the guest room.  Screw the couch!

Posted under Baby Thomas: Month 25

I grew up watching TV–a lot of it.  We had cable and movie channels and MTV the first day it hit the air.  I had a TV in my room and so did my sister.  Not that it had anything to do with my career choice.  Pursuing broadcast journalism was more about my enjoyment of talking and writing.   Television was a primary source of entertainment for me over the years, no doubt.  But I truly believe always having access to it killed my desire in later years.  In fact, for the first two years of college my roommate and I did not have a TV.  And we didn’t really miss it.  Imagine higher education with no TV, internet or cell phone!  Now I admit life without a computer or smartphone wouldn’t be as fun.  Yet the concern over too much screen time for my children is a valid one.  Outside of my Atari 2600 and some handheld video games, I didn’t have multiple mobile options.  Now Charlotte and Thomas regularly watch TV and DVD players in the  house and car and on their laps and play games on our cell phones and computers.   They still play Duck, Duck Goose and Hungry, Hungry Hippos and run and wrestle and chase, too.  So there is no shortage of physical activity.  But I have already had a conversation with Daddy about the times we’re together as a family.  No road trip with my parents included much beyond a portable cassette player or eventual Walkman.  We should insist they turn off the cell phone when we’re out to dinner, I told him.  Or the minute we get out of the car to do something, the texting stops.  Isn’t it nuts?  I’m already concerned about the technology battles to come.  So I hope we’re doing the right thing now by keeping their options pretty wide open.  Someday I’ll tell them about Mommy’s Atari Club I started in 6th grade.  I dominated on the cartridges I had that the neighbor boys didn’t.  I can still see my high score for Spiderman on the top of the notebook paper chart.

Posted under Baby Thomas: Month 25

Charlotte has totally made up for many of her more challenging moments by proving over and over she’s a big girl now.   Take this summer… she taught herself how to swim, tie her shoes and use my laptop.  What floored us was when she demonstrated the shoe tying for Daddy and me then followed it up with the question, “Are you impressed?”  What?  She knows that word.  Yesterday she told me she was sorry for interrupting.  And this morning she walked Thomas upstairs, changed him into a pull-up and dressed him in a t-shirt and shorts that matched!  To think just a year ago they were both so much more needy and now one is getting the other ready.  It’s pretty incredible how that happens.  So to all the parents of young children just waiting for the day when they’ll be old enough to play together or do things on their own, you won’t be disappointed.  Today Charlotte is tying her brother’s shoes; tomorrow she’ll be helping him with his homework and driving him to school.  Of course I’ll fix them a light breakfast to go first.  Ha, ha

Posted under Baby Thomas: Month 25

Recently at a fast food restaurant’s indoor play area, a bothersome scenario played out.  I was with Charlotte and Thomas.  A couple, their daughter and an adult female friend were the only other ones in there.  Within ten minutes the dad had used multiple curse words and harsh language directed at his, I think, 5-year-old.  “Quit picking your a**.”  “Get over here or I’ll beat your butt.”  ”I’ll sell you to Mexican slavers.”  I kid you not.  When he used the F word that’s when I literally had to catch my breath in my mouth that was poised to say, “Please don’t use that kind of language in front of my kids.”  Then I caught myself and convinced myself that this situation is better left untouched.  He was not physically abusing anyone, though clearly verbally so.  Not that’s it’s relevant, but so you can get a mental picture… he had tattoos up and down both arms and a huge bull ring in his nose.  When they left, Charlotte came over to me and said, “He was being bad and I wouldn’t act like that.”  And, my friends, I was vindicated.  She gets it and that’s what matters.

Colleen O'Shaughnessy's wedding in Clear Lake

Posted under Baby Thomas: Month 25

It’s scary how much our kids are watching us.  How they’ll call us out when we slip up.  Like every time one of the adults in her life says “stupid” Charlotte will let he or she know that’s not a nice word.  It forces you to be more aware of your actions, that’s for sure.  Some of my “good” habits I practice in front of them include returning the cart to the corral in the parking lot, picking up random litter when I spot it, hanging up a shirt that falls off the rack in the store and using a lot of pleases and thank yous.  My “bad” habits include doing zero recycling in our house (like never returning plastic bottles we’ve already paid a deposit on), eating too much fast food and spending too much time watching TV or scrolling through my smart phone.  You know it’s bad when your 4-year-old tells you to “post that on Facebook.”  Some times we learn from the mistakes of others, so hopefully all my faults will not be repeated by my children.  But forget about telling them they can’t have dessert every day.  That would be a life sentence.

Posted under Baby Thomas: Month 25

Working out on the Stairmaster at a local rec center, I happily plug my earbuds in to listen to my choice of four TVs mounted on the wall in the weight room.  Then I some times regret it.  I am a news anchor, but am the first to admit too many people on the air (both TV & radio) overwhelm us.  Or at least the segments and interviews scripted for them are more than most busy parents can take.  Recently I have been told to check my feet for minor cuts that could lead to health problems, whip up authentic Mexican food that even my kids will like and sanitize all the flip-flops and computer keyboards in the house because they’re crawling with germs.  The topper was last night when a favorite Christian radio program informed me that the reason women only have an orgasm 1 out of 4 times they have sex is because of an emotional inability to let go!  Sorry if I have offended anyone.  That was not my intent.  Only to point out that we have become a culture of self-help and quick fix cure-alls that frankly I don’t have the time or energy to implement.  I feel pretty good if I have time to shave my legs and touch up my fingernail polish… oh, and brush the kids’ hair and recognize Thomas has a poopy diaper before he’s walked around with it for too long.

Posted under Baby Thomas: Month 25