It's a Not-So-Glam Day in the Neighborhood

Recently, I really enjoyed reading a post from Nilsa at SoMi Speaks about her typical day as a working mom. So, with her permission, I thought I'd outline my day in a similar fashion. Read on, then tell me about yours!

One of my go-to work outfits...bathroom fashion show in effect.

Wake-up. On the four days I work (Monday-Thursday), my alarm begins going off at 5:50 a.m. On a good day, I hit snooze four times and get up at 6:30. This allows me to be dressed and ready to leave the house by 7:30, which means Sophie makes it to school in time for breakfast at 8, and I get to work by 8:15. On a not-so-good day, I get up at 7, am ready to go by 8, and Sophie and I go through the Starbucks Drive-Thru for "breakfast in the car," before she arrives at school at 8:20-30, allowing me to get to the office by 8:45.

Shower. I try to keep my showers short, maybe 10 minutes. I get in, I use body wash, I shave under my arms (every day) and my legs (almost every day even in winter-can't stand going to yoga with stubble), I shampoo, then sometimes I shampoo again to give my hair more body, and then I condition.

Get ready. Once out of the shower, I brush and floss my teeth, clean and moisturize my face, put on deodorant and perfume, spray detangler on my hair and comb it, then dry my hair 75 percent of the way dry. I let the rest of it air-dry while I spend 10 minutes or so putting on makeup. My makeup routine, which I've been doing so long I can do pretty quickly, actually has quite a few steps. I put on lip balm and Neutrogena eye brightener to get rid of dark circles, then swipe on a light base and powder. Next, I use Benefit's Hello Flawless powder concealer to hide any blemishes or bags. Then, I put on lipstick, gloss, and blush. Finally, I brush and fill in my eyebrows a little, before putting on eyeshadow, eyeliner, and mascara. I know this sounds like a lot, but the name of the blog is Glam-O-Mommy for a reason! ;) Then, I throw on clothes and jewelry. ( I usually have at least an idea of what I'm wearing nailed down the night before.)

Sophie. While I am doing my wake-up/shower/get ready routine, J gets Sophie up, gets her dressed in her school uniform, and brushes and styles her hair. All I have to do then when I am ready is inspect her (pull up socks, adjust hair things, button buttons J overlooked LOL) and grab her backpack and whatever she needs for school that day (dance clothes for ballet, money for chapel, homework), which I always have ready to go and by the door the night before. And then we are off...

First Day of Pre-K

Commute. I work downtown and it's about a 25-30 minute drive with morning traffic (15 without). Sophie's school is three blocks from my office, so I take her in and get her settled and then am at my office within minutes. It's a pretty sweet setup and I'll miss it when Sophie goes to Kindergarten next year and goes to public school closer to our house.

Breakfast. As mentioned, I strive to get Sophie to school on time for school breakfast at 8. If we are successful, then I have breakfast at work as soon as I arrive, either a protein shake I bring from home or an egg or piece of toast or something I can buy in our cafe. And usually a Coke. I don't drink coffee, so this is my morning caffeine. On the days we are not going to make school breakfast, Sophie gets very excited about "breakfast in the car" LOL. We go through Starbucks and I get myself a Peppermint Hot Chocolate and some type of breakfast sandwich and get a Horizon chocolate milk and a protein box for Sophie. Sophie happily munches on the fruit, cheese, and scone, but makes me eat the hard boiled egg.

Lunch. When I am being good and focusing on my intake of calories, I try and bring my lunch, usually a soup and sandwich and some crackers or light popcorn, and eat a quick lunch in the cafe with coworkers. I also try to drink water with lemon during the day in addition to my 1-2 Cokes a day. At other times, I go out to eat for lunch. Last week was an exceptional lunch week. Monday, I had lunch with the mom of one of Sophie's classmates who I am getting to know better. Tuesday, J, who now offices closer to our house, was downtown at our offices for meetings, so we took the opportunity to have lunch together. (We used to eat lunch together every day when he worked down here.) Wednesday, my parents had joint eye appointments close to downtown, so we met up for lunch and it was nice to have an opportunity to chat with them without Sophie, who draws all their attention when she's with us, of course! Thursday, I brought my lunch and ate in the cafe.

Pick up. I leave work promptly at 5, pick Sophie up from school, then battle afternoon traffic all the way home. The afternoon commute always seems longer to me than the morning. I usually chat with Sophie about her day for a few minutes, then call my mother and talk to her until I pull in the driveway. Sophie often falls asleep in her carseat for the rest of the ride, as she no longer naps during the day.

Dinner. I don't cook. OK, that's not totally true. A few weekends ago, I cooked a nice spaghetti dinner on a Sunday. I've got a few things I can cook, but I don't enjoy cooking and it's the last thing I want to do after I come home from work. On the days I go to yoga I don't really eat dinner myself anyway. So during the week, either: A) J decides to cook, which happens about once a week. His meals tend to be experimental in nature. B) We make something easy like sandwiches, hamburgers, hot dogs, or macaroni and cheese. Sometimes I make chicken burgers, which are pretty healthy. Sophie also likes the kiddie Graduate meals, which are well portioned and food-group balanced, or Lunchables, which I augment with fruit. Or C) We eat out or one of us picks up food. Another option we've taken advantage of recently is the chef at Sophie's school has been making healthy dinners that you can order, pick up, and take home at the end of the day. It's $20 for a meal for four, so J usually eats the extra meal for lunch another day. The chef follows the same guidelines he does for the breakfast and lunch meals he makes for the school in terms of healthy ingredients, all food groups represented, etc. The fact that Sophie is eating well twice a day already makes me not get too hung up on what to make for dinner.

Exercise. I've been doing better at this lately. I used to Jazzercise three to four times a week pre-Sophie and do a Boot Camp class periodically, but all those classes are right after work and harder to fit in to my schedule these days. My BFF and I started going to Bikram Yoga two to three times a week about six weeks ago. We usually go at 7:30, which allows me to get home, help Sophie with pre-K homework (don't get me started), and get her something to eat. Each Bikram class is 90 minutes and we sweat and sweat and twist ourselves like pretzels and it is so hard, because I am so inflexible I might as well be a plank of wood, but it's 90 minutes where I cannot be on my cell phone and no one can talk to me except the instructor telling me how to contort myself next, so I think it's good for my mental health, if nothing else.

I am surviving...barely.

Free time. After we get Sophie to bed (around 8:30-9) or I get home from yoga (9-9:30), I usually watch whatever's stockpiled on my DVR (Castle, Modern Family, The Good Wife, Big Bang Theory, Scandal, Elementary, etc.) and check Facebook and Twitter for an hour or so, then get everything (bags, clothes, etc.) ready for the next day and go to bed.

Sleep. I usually start getting ready for bed at 10 and am at least in the bed, although maybe not asleep, by 11.

So that's my typical workday...wash, rinse, and repeat. And just to give you the idea of what the rest of my week is like...

Weekends. Since I am off every Friday, I have a lot of quality time with Sophie on the weekends. We often go to lunch and to Children's Museums or playplaces or the park or some other activity on Fridays. Saturdays, Sophie has been taking soccer for over a year, but recently switched to basketball, so we enjoy watching her in her class on Saturday mornings. Some weekends, Sophie and I have playdates with my mom friends and their kids, sometimes we go out to dinner on Saturdays as a family. We spent part of a recent Sunday at a pumpkin patch enjoying some family fun! Usually though, I spend Sunday running loads and loads of laundry, getting things ready for the work week, and going to the grocery store. I am lucky to have an understanding husband, who mostly enjoys playing games on his computer anyway, and thus doesn't mind when I want to meet my BFF out for dinner and shopping or the occasional Spurs game on a Friday or Saturday. I'm also lucky to have the Grandparentals nearby, who need a Sophie fix if they haven't seen her in awhile, and occasionally keep her overnight on a weekend, which lets J and I have date nights.

Future WNBA Player maybe?

At the Great Hill Country Pumpkin Patch in Medina, Texas

Riding like the cowgirl she is out in the Hill Country!

So what does your workday/week usually look like? Do you ever feel like you are in a rut because of the routine or are your days/weeks different? What's your favorite day of the week? (Hands down, mine is Friday Funday!) Least favorite day? (Mine is Sunday. See: LAUNDRY.)

It's a Party and I'll Obsess If I Want to

For the last few weeks, I've been obsessing...no, make that OBSESSING! over S's 3rd birthday party. Her birthday is August 28th, so it's not like I am running short on time to plan. However, unlike the last two years when I had a clear idea early on what I wanted to do for the party and had things booked and confirmed in June, this year I've been indecisive and wishy-washy.

Pool party? Carnival party? Zoo party? Bouncy party? Children's museum party?

It didn't help that we've attended a few of her classmates' parties recently and so, in the spirit of not repeating what everyone else is doing, I had to cross the carnival party idea, which I considered for the local Kiddie Park that S loves, off the list, as well as the zoo and the bouncy house (we actually did a bouncy house party last year). I crossed the pool party idea off the list because S has been having some issues with her ears since her last tube surgery, so we haven't been swimming as much this summer as we did last summer. And I nixed the children's museum party idea because a friend of mine had taken her son to one recently and the museum is so big, they didn't see much of the people at the party except for the 20 minutes they served cake in the party room. I want to see and hang out with our guests, thanks.

My criteria for S's party are as follows:

• Not at my house
• An activity or location S likes
• Something different than what we've done in years past
• Something that has built-in activities for the duration of the party

Then, I came across a local farm/petting zoo that hosts parties. The Nana and I took S out Friday to check it out and make sure she would like it. Given that she loves animals, I wasn't too worried, but just wanted to be sure. I also wanted to see how the party setup worked.

S and the Nana arrive at the farm. The Nana realized pretty quickly
she's going to need to wear different shoes at the party.

The only downsides to the farm party I could see were (1) the farm theme is dangerously similar to the cowgirl theme we had at last year's party and (2) it would be an outdoor party. In August. Which is hot as hell! (The main argument for the pool party-coolness!)

Luckily, the farm has several covered pavillion areas with electricity and fans to keep party guests cool. Each party gets its own pavillion. The kids will be able to feed and pet goats, llamas, pigs, bunnies, and guinea pigs and be able to see a real longhorn cow, donkeys, and a huge peacock that roams the grounds.

S feeds the goats--so cute!

S pets the goats. Of course, we smelled like goat the rest of the day.

The kids can also play in a huge sandbox and water table and playground. Every kid will also get a pony ride during the party-S will get two rides as birthday girl! And then they will take everyone on a hayride around the property!

Big sandbox--everyone will need a bath after the party for sure!

S riding Butterscotch the sweet pony. S got right up in the saddle. The kid has no fear!
No idea where she gets her fearlessness from. She seemed like a natural.

It took us about an hour and a half to do all of these activities on Friday...add in time for pizza and cake and I think that will fill up the two to three hours of the party perfectly. So, location-check! I put down a deposit and booked the party at 10 a.m. so as to beat as much of the heat as possible.

The Nana, my co-party planner, and I decided we would focus the decor around the animals, so as to differentiate it from last year's western theme. I've found two printable party designs on Etsy I like and am trying to decide between them:

Option 1 is probably my favorite. The seller has a version
where everything shown here in red is pink, which I really like.

Option 2 is also cute in pink and green...didn't have a picture of all the pieces together.

Both options have matching invitations and the pieces can be customized with S's name. I'm probably leaning toward option 1--what do you think?

I've also decided to make the party and invite planning easier on me by outsourcing all the photography. Last year, I was chasing S around in our backyard, trying desperately to snap cute shots of her in a cowgirl hat for the invite. Then, at the party, I got all stressed out trying to be the host, make sure everyone was okay and had what they needed, and take pictures. (In my family, I'm the designated photographer.)

A friend of mine introduced me to her friend who is a young, stay-at-home mom of four, who takes beautiful pictures, and is looking to expand into photography as more of a business instead of just a hobby. This week, I'm going to have her take some casual shots of S for the party invite and if I like what I see, I'm just going to hire her to take candids during the party, so I can actually enjoy the party (and maybe even end up in a picture or two LOL). Since she is just getting started, she's not charging very much for the pictures, but if she does a good job, she'll certainly get more business from me!

So, now I'm just obsessing over the details (cake! favors! food! what to wear!), but feel better that the location has been secured and the theme selected. And that I've solved the photography problem of years past. And yes, I'm sure I'm a little crazy, but I have great memories of the awesome theme parties the Nana threw for me when I was growing up, and I just want S to have the same. :)

What was your favorite birthday party like--either one you had as a kid or one you threw for your kid? I can always use more ideas to obsess over!

Seven Quick Takes Friday-Hospital Edition

1. At the beginning of this week, my plans included dinner with my girlfriend on Wednesday, followed by a joint shopping trip to Gymboree to use our Gymbucks on fall clothes for our kids, and a stop at Vera Bradley for me to splurge on a new purse and a matching tote bag, which I am totally justifying because I "need" them for our upcoming Jamaica trip. Then, on Saturday (tomorrow), after swim class with my daughter, I planned to leave her with my husband and get my hair highlighted and cut (it's too long/thick/unmanageable with DARK roots right now--classy) and get a mani/pedi (I've had no nails for almost three weeks now--horrors!). Sounds like a fun plan for a week, right?

2. On Tuesday, my husband, He-Who-Never-Goes-to-the-Doctor, aka He-Who-Never-Takes-Medication-EVER, voluntarily went to the doctor for unexplained pain in his abdomen. (He only mentioned the pain to me on Monday night, but apparently had started experiencing it Sunday night. Sigh.) The doctor thought it was appendicitis, so he sent him to an imaging clinic for a CT scan to confirm. At this point, I left work, picked up our daughter from school, called my mother to come to our house to watch our daughter, and then headed to the imaging clinic with my husband. Sure enough, they said it was appendicitis and sent us directly to the hospital. My mom took my daughter home with her to stay overnight and my daddy left his work and came to meet us at the hospital to sit with me during my husband's appendectomy Tuesday evening.

3. What should've been a 45-minute appendectomy turned into a 2.5 hour surgery because it wasn't actually appendicitis. Apparently, everyone has these "fat fingers" that hang off of your intestines called "Appendix epiploica". One of my husband's appendix epiploica had twisted on itself and died, which caused his pain and filled his belly with blood. It was near his appendix, which is why they thought that was the problem. The surgeon had to remove the dead, necrotic appendix epiploica and went ahead and took his real appendix out while he was in there. He still managed to do the surgery laproscopically, but rather than getting out of the hospital Wednesday morning as we thought he would after the appy, my husband is still in the hospital. Hopefully, he will get out today (Friday).

4. Once the surgery started going longer than expected, I started freaking out. And when the doctor finally came to talk to me, the look on his face was so serious (and he had been a jokester beforehand when he thought it was a walk-in-the-park appy), I was afraid my husband had died. It was terrifying. I was in shock and had a hard time absorbing his explanation of what was actually wrong with my husband and started crying. And I was really glad my daddy was there at that point so I had someone to lean on (I had been trying to get him to go on home because it was so late, and he goes to work at 5:30 a.m. Thank goodness he didn't listen to me!).

5. So I've spent all evening Tuesday, all day Wednesday, and all day Thursday at the hospital with my husband. Instead of dinner and shopping Wednesday night, my girlfriend brought dinner to eat with me at the hospital since my parents, who live clear across town, were taking care of my daughter. Thursday night, one of my coworker friends brought me dinner and ate with me. She also brought me my computer so I can spend this weekend trying to catch up on work. Or not. Thank goodness for good friends!

6. This is the longest I've ever been away from my daughter. I miss her now, but honestly, until Thursday evening, I didn't have time to miss her...I was too busy taking care of my husband, helping him get out of bed, walk around, go to the bathroom, shower, etc. Luckily, she has been having a ball with my parents--so much so that she barely talked to me when they would put her on the phone until Thursday night, when I got a quick "Hi Mommy!" before she handed the phone back to my mother. Now, we just have to figure out how to keep her from climbing on/jumping on my husband when they both come home today. That'll be fun.

7. So, I didn't make it to Gymboree and I'm pretty sure the hair highlighting-and-cut/mani-pedi plan is out for tomorrow (I will just have to suffer nail-less and rootsy for a few more days--not glam LOL). I am still going to try and take my daughter to swim class, because that's only a half-hour in the morning and I think my husband should be okay on his own for that long. I did make it to Vera Bradley and splurge on my purse/tote Thursday evening, because my husband was already falling asleep thanks to his pain medication at 8 p.m. and told me to go on home early, so I went there and treated myself (it was a tough week, don't judge me--shopping is my therapy) and then ran to the grocery store and stocked up on all kinds of lovely, soft food and soups and orange drinks (his fave) for my husband to eat and drink when he comes home.

Thank you, God, for taking care of my husband in his hour of need, for giving me amazing parents who always have my back, for the kindness, care, and love of friends and family near and far, and for the miracle of modern medicine/surgery to heal. It hasn't been the week I planned, but it could've been a lot worse. I'm so lucky and can't wait to bring my husband home!

Just Another Glam Saturday Night

As you may have noticed, the way I describe myself above is "I aspire to glamour. My life is not remotely glamorous." Ha! Tonight is a perfect example of that.

It's Saturday night. In my single 20s, on Saturday nights, I'd get dressed up. The evening started at 9 p.m. with dinner with girlfriends, followed by dancing at a club from 11 p.m. until last call at 2 a.m. This was sometimes followed by early morning tacos on the way home to my apartment and then sleeping till noon. Ah...those were the days.

When I started dating my now-husband at 29, our dates started out following that late-night/dressed up timeline, but then began creeping earlier (although I still dressed up). Once we were married, Saturday nights, if we went out, were more along the lines of dinner at 7 p.m., followed by a movie, or ice skating, or grabbing a drink at a bar or something until 10 or 11 p.m. and then home. (I still dressed up. Usually.)

Now that I'm a mother, Saturday nights are often like tonight. Feed and bathe daughter, put her to bed by 7:30 or 8 p.m. Watch crappy TV or the occasional movie on pay-per-view (while husband plays World of Warcraft on the computer and goes to bed early) while folding/ironing loads and loads of laundry. Go to bed at midnight. Wash, rinse, repeat. Tonight, I am wearing the shorts and t-shirt I threw on at the end of my and my daughter's Baby and Me swim class this morning, which means I didn't actually shower today and I didn't go anywhere. SO not glam.

Occasionally, if I am very lucky, I make plans to meet one of my fellow mom friends on Saturday night for a late dinner. We meet at about 8:30 p.m., after we've seen our kids off to bed for the night, with our homebound husbands on kid duty (mine playing Warcraft as usual). We meet at a semi-hip restaurant, semi-dressed up, eat, gossip, and talk mommy stuff for about three hours, then look at our phones in horror upon realizing how late it is, and go home. (We would stay out later, except that the kids get up SO early.) It's funny to think that about 10 years ago, the two of us used to dance on the stage at one of the local clubs and now we're obsessing over preschools and potty training.

Very occasionally, my husband and I will leave our daughter overnight with the grandparentals (my parents, who live across town) and have a date night. The last time we did this, a few months back, we had a late lunch/early dinner, then went to an 8 p.m. movie (Date Night LOL, which is a hysterical movie--if you haven't seen it, rent it), then went to a bar and game room. Where we saw people with babies all over the place. AT A BAR. Which totally ruined our night, because we kept saying to each other, "What is wrong with these people? It's 11 p.m., why do they have their baby out with them?! Ours has been asleep for three hours already! OMG, that couple has the baby's bottle PROPPED in its mouth in the stroller...they're not even holding and feeding their own kid! AAAGH!" Total. Buzzkill. So we just came home. And haven't had a date night since.

Don't get me wrong...I wouldn't trade this life for anything. My 20-something clubgoing days were filled with a lot of Single Bitter Woman angst and "I'm-going-to-become-a-spinster-cat-lady" melodrama on my part. I'm happy to be married and a mommy. And most Saturdays, tired from the week, I'm happy to stay in, watch crappy TV, and catch up on laundry. Really!

But sometimes, I miss a good night out, dressed up to the nines, and dancing the night away. Sometimes.

Fashion Frustration

The teachers at my daughter's day school think I am NUTS. And not just the teachers she has now...all the teachers she has had since she started school at four months old.

Most people bring their four-month-olds to "school" in one-piece sleepers. Not me. I was excited for my daughter to get to wear all of her cutely coordinated outfits, complete with socks or tights and matching headbands.

First Day of School

Don't get me wrong...when I was on maternity leave and we were mostly hanging out at home (her continually sleeping, me catching up on reruns of The OC on SoapNet), I often dressed her in onesies. Due to spitting up or diaper explosions, she often wore more than one a day. However, when we met friends for lunch or went over to visit my mother, the Nana, or went for a stroll and window shopping at the mall, I put her in cute outfits vs. onesies/sleepers.

Hanging out at home on maternity leave

Having a reason to put her in cute outfits every day was probably the only thing I liked about going back to the office initially. It certainly wasn't dressing my still-carrying-25-pounds-of-baby-weight body, learning how to balance 50-60 hours of work with being a mommy, or missing The OC every day! And so I took pleasure in it...dressing her in pants outfits with matching sweaters and socks, Fair Isle sweater dresses with colorful tights and headbands, anything that was multiple pieces with matching accessories. My daughter was the best dressed baby in the nursery. She was a single-baby fashion show.

Some of my favorite looks for her

While her teachers looked forward to seeing what I put on her each day and always told me she looked adorable when I came at lunch to feed her, they still thought I was crazy. My first tipoff was a few weeks into her school experience when the school had a Pajama Day.

One of my daughter's teachers went out of her way to point out that Friday was Pajama Day. We're all wearing pajamas, Mom, she said, even all of us teachers. Sounds fun, I said. OK, so you're going to bring her in pajamas then, right Mom? she asked me seriously. Um, yeah, I responded, realizing that she was making a point to me, because my daughter was the one kid not already wearing pjs to school every day! On Pajama Day, I brought her in to school in one of her cutest one-piece footie sleepers...with a matching headband. I couldn't help myself. The next week we returned to all pajama-free fashion, all the time.

Fashion fun at school was all well and good when my daughter was immobile and eating only out of a bottle...it became infinitely more complex when she started eating baby food, doing art projects, crawling/walking, and playing outside. More complex for me, anyway, in terms of laundry. While I appreciate that the teachers have more than one kid to feed, and I was still dutifully coming at lunch each day to help feed my daughter, it was mostly in an attempt to keep her and her clothes clean and food free. Orange food, which they seem to serve several days a week at school, became the bane of my existence. I began to dread doing her little laundry, which started to involve tons of Oxyclean, Clorox color-safe bleach, AND Tide...all at once on garments to get stains out.

This is the bib I sent to the school...
even the full arms don't seem to protect her clothes from stains!

Art was also annoying, because despite the teachers' claims that the paint was washable, a few outfits got ruined by this "washable" paint.

Why not give in and send her to school in her simplest, oldest, most boring clothes you ask? Because then the terrorists win! No, of course that's not why. I send her to school every day looking as cutely dressed as possible, because I love to dress her in pretty outfits. My daddy always told me growing up, "If you can't be sweet, be pretty" and I guess that stuck with me (I try to be both). I am admittedly high maintenance (see Why Glam-O-Mommy?). I always like to look pretty and I like for her to look pretty too! I care what I look like...why would I send my daughter to school looking like a ragamuffin? Some people do, but I just can't.

I love to accessorize her looks

As my daughter has grown and moved up into other classes, new teachers have led to new fashion challenges as well...one being the backup outfit. It's always a great idea to have a backup outfit in the diaper bag in case of emergency. I always sent one along initially. At one point, the teachers she had changed her into the backup outfit provided every day...just because. Not because of an accident or any true emergency...just because they wanted to, which I got tired of, because it created double the laundry for me! So, I nipped that in the bud by NOT sending an extra outfit AT ALL, and suddenly my daughter was able to make it through the day wearing the same outfit with no problem!

Lately, I have been sending one again since she's in a different class. In this class, the kids sit at a table and get to feed themselves, which means they can get their own food all over themselves and the kids around them because they are learning to eat on their own, with or without utensils! And they go out to the playground everyday, which means my daughter dumps dirty sand all over herself at least once a day. Joy.

I don't generally go to see her during lunch anymore, because my daughter is at a clingy stage and if I arrive mid-day for a visit, it just makes her upset when I leave and makes more drama for the teachers. If I do go, I try to time my visit with the playground time so I can wipe sand off her a little, but mostly I just eat lunch at my desk or go out with coworkers.

But back to the backup outfit issue...now I'm frustrated because these teachers have started changing her into just HALF the outfit. One day I came to school to pick her up and found her in the top from the backup outfit and the rest of her original outfit, which did not match at all. That day, they changed her because her original top got wet during the day. Perfectly understandable, but couldn't they have changed the entire outfit so at least she would MATCH?!

Then, yesterday I came to pick her up to find her in the leggings from the backup outfit and the rest of the original outfit, which looked bizarre. When I asked why they changed her out of her jean skirt and into the leggings, the teacher said it was because she thought the leggings were more comfortable for her. It was a little jean skirt for goodness sake! I hate coming to school and finding her looking like a HOBO CLOWN because she is in mismatched garments! (And the shoes she is wearing NEVER match the backup outfit...that's Murphy's Law).

Despite all my comments so far, I really like her teachers...they are absolutely terrific with my daughter. I love, love, love them aside from the ongoing fashion frustration, so I just gently mentioned to them that when they change her into the backup outfit, for whatever reason (even the ones I disagree with LOL), could they please go ahead and change her into the entire outfit? It seemed like this concept had never occurred to them! And like they were cautiously trying to appease an insane person as they said, OK, sure, we can do that if you want. No sudden movements around the crazy lady...

I don't think I'm crazy though. Obsessed with my daughter's cleanliness and appearance, yes, I'll admit that. (Don't EVEN get me started on the fact that her face always needs a good scrub to free it of food/snot/dirt at the end of the day or the fact that hand-washing time always includes the teachers encouraging my daughter to run her wet hands through her hair which restyles her hair into a faux hawk most days.)

But you know, I don't always go straight home after I pick her up. Some days we have places to go together, and on those days, I have two choices: (1) take my chances on what she will look like/be wearing at the end of the school day OR (2) take a clean extra outfit in my car to put on her when I arrive and plan to scrub her face/wet down and comb her hair back into control before we go. Usually I opt for number two when we have anything major to do that I know of in advance. Other days, I take my chances on the school, which means we mostly come straight home!

OK, I can't resist putting a few more pictures of my daughter in her cute outfits

Oh well...by then it's dinner time anyway, which gives my daughter one more chance to create challenging laundry for Mommy...

Why Glam-O-Mommy?

If you're reading this, you're probably wondering, why Glam-O-Mommy? Conceited much?

Well, I essentially gave myself this nickname when I was pregnant with my daughter, during a conversation I was having with my husband after an OB/GYN visit. On these visits, the waiting room was usually filled with lots of moms and little ones. Some of these moms were of the sweatpants-no-makeup-hair-in-a-scrunchie variety. And I'm not knocking them...OK, I guess I am, maybe a little. And I'm sorry about that, because I'm sure they are doing the best they can. But this isn't really a knock on them so much as it's about me and who I am.

As you might expect, I'm a high maintenance gal. I'm not like Sally from When Harry Met Sally (my favorite movie of all time), who is high maintenance, but thinks she's low maintenance (the worst kind of girl in Harry's opinion). I'm high maintenance and I know it. I own it. I special-order my food in restaurants just like Sally in fact LOL. I'm a very picky eater. And my high-maintenance-ness drives my husband a little crazy sometimes.

He would love nothing better than to roll out of bed on a Saturday morning, throw on clothes, go hiking, then eat lunch in a restaurant and hit the grocery store afterwards. All without showering. Sometimes after a night where he played hockey and came home sweaty. And he does this. Me? Not so much. I need at least an hour to shower, put on makeup, and do my hair before I would ever leave the house. To do anything. Even hike. In the woods. Where no one I know would see me.

So when confronted with these sweatpants-no-makeup-hair-in-a-scrunchie moms visit after visit, my husband started teasing me that I was going to turn into one of these moms as soon as the baby came, because there was no way I would have time to do my normal, high-maintenance-ness prep before I left the house every time with the baby, right? Wishful thinking on his part. I assured him that I had no intention of changing my high-maintenance-ness when our daughter arrived on the scene, because I was going to be Glam-O-Mommy!

The title came out of nowhere and kind of cracked me up, but also in a nutshell described what I aspired to be. I wanted to be the same person I always was, just with a totally adorable kid in tow. I wanted my daughter to become part of the life I had, not overhaul my life or give it a makeunder (in the beauty sense LOL).

And lest you think I am a totally vain, spoiled person who just wanted a doll to dress in pretty clothes, that's not what I mean. Well, I do like to dress her in pretty clothes, but I wanted to have a baby that would enrich and be part of the life I had...going out to eat, traveling, being part of my activities as well as her own. I didn't want my life to go away and for me to become someone different, who didn't care about how I looked, who didn't ever go out to eat or travel places, and who dropped all of my activities.

Obviously, my life has changed somewhat since I had my daughter, I'm rarely out past 8:30, for example. I can sing the theme songs for the Wonder Pets and the Backyardigans. I know all the new Sesame Street characters (Zoe, Abby, Elmo, Rosita, Murray and his little lamb Ovelita). Girls' night out now consists of me, my daughter, and two of my girlfriends and their children ordering food in at someone's house and chatting and eating while the kids play. On the other hand, my daughter has already traveled by plane to four states and another country in her 18 months on earth, has eaten in all kinds of restaurants starting at five days old (and a dinner cruise on one vacation), and generally goes where I go. I love her so, so much! My life is so much better with her in it. (I went through an almost two-year infertility battle complete with hellish drugs, expensive tests and procedures, and rollercoaster emotions to have her, so she is extra precious to me, but that's another post.)

Anyhoo, back to Glam-O-Mommy. Just how much of a Glam-O-Mommy am I? After what I thought was my water broke (turned out to be the plug, sorry for the TMI), I called the doctor on call because it was about 12:30 a.m. She told me to come on in to the hospital and get checked out just in case (I was 10 days out from my due date). I asked her if I had to come right away or if I had a little time to take a shower (I had been on my way to bed when this happened after a long hot August day in Texas and felt grungy). She said that was fine, so I took a shower, APPLIED FRESH MAKEUP, and STYLED MY HAIR WHILE IN LABOR before going to the hospital LOL. My daughter was born eight short hours later and I looked pretty good in our first pictures together!

Have I given in and grabbed my scrunchie since giving birth? No. Much to my husband's chagrin, I still shower, put on makeup, and do my hair before I ever leave the house. Sometimes I might be blow drying my hair while sitting on the floor looking at books with my daughter or applying makeup with one hand while I hold her Minnie Mouse for her with the other, but I still get it all done. I have not gotten a shorter do since giving birth either. My hair remains long and highlighted blonde. The one concession I have made in my beauty routine is my nails. A former nail biter, I've been sporting acrylic nails for about 12 years, which got rid of the biting habit and made my hands look much nicer. Pre-baby, I got them filled every two weeks like clockwork. Now, I struggle to find time to do them that regularly, so usually they come off completely by the third week and I am nail-less for a week or so until I can get my husband to watch our daughter so I can run get them done. Not very glamorous, so I just do what I did before I got acrylics. Keep. Hands. Hidden. LOL.

I do tend to put more emphasis on what my daughter is wearing these days than what I am wearing. I feel exhausted most of the time, which isn't very glamorous, even though I am lucky to work only four days a week. I would die for a full-body massage, which I haven't had in over a year. I haven't seen a movie in a theater in two years and haven't been to a play or musical in the same amount of time. So, Glam-O-Mommy? Kind of an oxymoron.

For me though, these days nothing feels more glamorous than when I arrive at my daughter's school after working a full day, and she runs into my arms saying, "Hi Mama, hi Mama!" That makes me feel like a star.