"The Summer Owes Me"

My husband made a comment the other day. It was freezing in our house and we were talking of insulation and heat bills when Jared says something like, "I figure we ought to have another nice week at least - the summer owes me." The good news is the summer is paying her tab this weekend. Weathermen are predicting jeans and t-shirt weather.

I have come to using clothing terms to talk about the temperature. Today is a light sweater day, yesterday was a heavy coat day. I do this because I can't quite figure out Celsius yet and I am beginning to forget what 70 degrees is. I called my mom to leave a message about this weekend (she's coming to visit) and I said, "Hi mom, I just wanted to let you know that you can unpack your heavy winter coat, it's supposed to be 20...I mean 70 something... maybe...just bring a light sweater.

All this talk of weather got my mind to wondering why this is the first subject we bring up when we are having an awkward conversation with someone we don't know very well. I figure it is because the weather is something we all experience and have in common. This conclusion led me to thinking about the other things we all have in common that we could use in lieu of weather-related convo's. Things like dirt and dust bunnies. I am fairly certain most of us (at least other women) could relate to a conversation opener that goes something like this:

"So my mom is visiting this weekend and I am on my hands an knees hours before she comes gathering dust bunnies and week old nasty bits of food that Norah stuffs in her high chair cushion." How are you doing?

It's true. I am only blogging right now to avoid more cleaning. It isn't that I think my mom cares or will judge me. It's that I care. In my perfect world, Norah's highchair would get a scrub down after every meal. I would take apart the cushions and shake things outside. I would wash the arms and legs with bleach water and make sure to gather all the food she so kindly decided was "blah, yuck". In reality She's lucky if I peel the food off her butt before I send her to play.

Speaking of Norah playing, we have a new activity. Block stacking. I try not to care about those milestone articles that say "at 18 months your child should be able to , may be able to, is a serious genius if she can..." However, they are good for suggesting new activities. I read one the other day that said at 18 months most babies can stack 6 blocks or something like that. I thought, "well let's just see about that." And guess what? She likes stacking blocks! And I LOVE the naughty monkey face she gets right before she knocks over our precious tower.