life and puppies

It’ll be a sec before I can publicly address the unbelievable pain I’m experiencing right now. But for the .2 of adults that may be reading this blog who are similarly disconsolate, and who have never tuned in to the joy that is television’s Parks & Recreation, I urge you to try now. I believe you can find it in syndication on cable, and also on Amazon and Netflix. It’s truly a revelation of all that is American good.

This site, and my life, need a little more bling. Enter: switchplates. I had seen beautiful switchplates for sale on Rejuvenation and I was seriously close to pulling the trigger when I thought I may as well just check out Home Depot. Eeks! Yep, I bet the Rejuvenation ones are a lot prettier, heavier, more substantial and all around better, but if I’m going to replace all of the plates in our house, Home Depot it is. When AO went out for errands on Saturday, I asked him to pick up a few to test out my theory that this would radically improve our house.

The before pic.

Are you also thinking about how that register could be improved? Oy vey. You and me both.

The after.

What took me so long, amirite?

I think yoga would be a lot better without the down dogs. I think I’m going to refrain from engaging in that pose. It brings me only misery.

Before actually raising a Little One, I’d thought a lot about parents raising girls and, with that, princess culture and pink and purple and tea parties and make up and accessories and, essentially, how – if I were so lucky to have a girl of my own – I would steer clear of these traps. But then I got pregnant and, while I won’t say all of those concerns went out the window, they sure seemed a hell of a lot less important to me than making sure I had a kid who was healthy and happy. And then actually knowing and understanding that I was going to be a parent – the idea that I was going to be trusted to raise a PERSON – suddenly made it seem infinitesimally insignificant whether or not this little child thought being a princess was cool. In fact, I had to admit, that when she came out and started blabbering about it, she was right: being a princess is sorta cool. And I know what being a princess means and my daughter doesn’t.

Anyway, so I have a little girl who now asks to wear nail polish and bracelets and even earrings (and that last one is a no for now) and I largely give in because I can’t really think of a reason to say no. I see all of it as her genuinely exploring color and textures and her own taste. Here’s the thing: I can talk till I’m blue in the face that “looks don’t matter” but Molly, like me, cares what things look like. Other people may not share our taste – God knows my mom doesn’t often like my home choices – but we make our picks because we do care about how things look. And we can’t change that. And I don’t think we should have to, or be encouraged to. Even commoners have their tastes.