This is a collection of some of Charlotte’s newest things:

Do you see a theme?  Well played Disney marketers, well played.  Good job getting your characters on everything from the cup my kid drinks from to the training pants on her little hiney.  Disney has an even further reach than the toddler department.  I’m interested to see what’s next.  I’m not picking on Disney, exclusively.  Sesame Street seems to have their hands on preschool merchandise as well.  You should see all the Elmo stuff in our house.  The thing that has been sticking  out to me lately is PRINCESS.

She loves those snow boots.  I’m a good little suburbanite mommy so we searched the aisles of Target for the perfect pair.  I gave her the choice of all the boots on the shelf and she said “Pincess!”  We went to a 3-year-old girl’s party this weekend.  Princess theme.

Hmm.  I’m not sure how I feel about all this.  I’ve read the criticism of the whole princess industry and how it’s making our daughters image obsessed, subservient prince-seekers who will end up on the pole if we let them watch The Little Mermaid.  I’m worried I’ll have to start dressing like Pam on “The Office.”  She was “Dr. Cinderella” for Halloween to show her daughter positive princess role models.

Courtesy: NBC

I love princess stuff.  Love it.  I can try to deny it, but I’m a pink, glittery girl-girl at heart and always have been.  We watched “Tangled” this weekend because I LOVE THAT MOVIE!  Of course Charlotte loved it too.  I find the more recent princess movies have much stronger, more confident female leads then classics like “Snow White” and “Cinderella.”  I think they send better messages.

I took a class in college called Gender and Media Culture and it ruined every story for me, ever.  This is the class where we had to watch “The Accused” and “Boys Don’t Cry.”  We got to analyze the rape scenes and discuss how the Cinderella Syndrome is a worldwide epidemic, forever infecting women’s psyches.  Apparently all the princess fairy tales of our youth are the reason women end up contestants on “The Bachelor” because the only thing they’ve ever been told is that they have to find a man to be happy.  Oh, did you know that EVERYTHING is a metaphor for deflowering a virgin girl?  I didn’t either until I took this class.

So, you see my dilemma.  I decided to take it easy and just go with it.  She’s just a little girl and princesses are just a part of that.  If I make a big deal about it, it becomes a big deal.

She got that “Tangled” book pictured above with a little hair clip of Rapunzel’s hair.  I showed her how it lit up and you put it in your hair.  I was never more proud of her after what she did next.  She didn’t want it in her hair.  She took it and made it a stethoscope.  She “listened” to our hearts before making it the thing doctors use to look in your ears.  Then she said, “I doctor!”

I don’t think I’ll need to dress like Dr. Cinderella after all.  My little princess is already practicing medicine.

Yes, this is a resolution post.  It’s January 2nd for pete’s sake!  It was either write this blog post or go to the gym where I would have to wait an hour for an elliptical machine.  “Ain’t nobody got time for that!”  So let’s just go with it, shall we?

I heard it said recently that “goals not written down are just wishes.” So true!  Some of my goals for 2013 are very personal, others mundane.  I won’t bother you with them here, but I wrote them down elsewhere.  I’m not wishing 2013 away.  “Ain’t nobody got time for that!”  (Wait, I’m starting to think that reference too 2012.  You think?)

Anyway, I read a lot of blogs today about resolutions, or choosing a single word that describes a theme for the year 2013.  I’ve come up with my word.

Question

Yep, as in asking questions.  Instead of resolutions, I’m asking questions.  Everyday I will ask myself this series of questions.  I made most of them open ended.  For example, I’m not going to ask myself, “Did you eat healthy today?’  But, instead I will ask, “What healthy food choices did you make today.”  It forces me to think about my decisions.  Here is my list of daily questions for 2013.

• What did you thank God for in your prayers today?
• What did you do today to show Greyson and Charlotte you love and appreciate them?
• When did you pet the dog?
• What did you do at work that accomplished a task or showed leadership?
• What step did you take to make your blog better?
• How many blogs did you comment on today?
• What healthy foods did you eat?
• How did you get exercise today?
• What junk did you get out of your car?

Is this a good idea?  Do you think I can do it?  Should I add to this list?  What questions are you asking  yourself in 2013?

In case you didn’t already know.  I GEEK OUT over Christmas cards. I LOVE them!  I can’t wait to display them.  They are the only Christmasy thing I leave up well into January.  I made our card this year.  It makes me chuckle.  I find myself stealing glances at my silly little family.  It’s very “us.”

I’m worried not everyone will get the joke if they haven’t seen “Elf.”  Oh, and the “2” sort of looks like a “1” now that I look at it.  Oh well.  They’re printed now. What do you think?

My handsome Guest Blogger returns!  My husband Greyson is writing for his mother’s birthday today.  I’m very blessed to have a mother-in-law like Dottie.  She is a doll who makes life more fun with her sharp wit and generous hospitality.  Oh, and Greyson acts just. like. his. mama.  Seriously. All the funny things I love about him, he got from her.  Happy Birthday Dottie!  

A couple weeks ago, I wrote a tribute to my dad for his 65^th birthday.

Today, it is time to honor my mom.  Yep, my parents were born 10 days apart.

In the post about my father, I described our relationship and the closeness we’ve always shared.

However, to be honest, I am more like my mother than my father.  First off, I look more like my mom’s side of the family.  My sisters look like my dad’s side of the family.  But more than anything, I share many of my mom’s mannerisms.

I didn’t really realize this until I married Amy.  She points it out often.  Especially, since we’ve hadCharlotte.

There is one similarity I’m especially proud of.  My mom has a terrific way of listening to you and making you feel like what you are saying is valuable.  And she does this just as well with kids as she does with adults.

I admired how she is able to have very thoughtful conversations with my 6 year old niece Hollin.  Hollin often wants to go to DeeDee (that is what all of the grandchildren call my mom), to have a “serious” talk.

Sometimes this includes showing Deedee a picture or some other achievement.  DeeDee goes beyond the usual praise and finds a particular detail….perhaps the use of a certain color in a picture, to highlight and discuss.

It is never condescending, and always sincere.  It makes you feel special and it makes you want to share more.

I find that I do this with Charlotte.  Certainly, she is my little girl, and there is time for snuggling, and being silly.  ButCharlottehas a real intensity to her.  She has tremendous focus.  And she wants to be taken seriously.  To her, putting her dolls or stuffedSesame Streetcharacters to bed is very real.

I talk to her about it like she is a person, not my baby girl.  As her speech and vocabulary continues to grow, I’m noticing that it is at these times, she doesn’t want to share a simple pharse like “My baby”, but rather string together many words….some of which are new and hard to understand, but she is comfortable and engaged.

She wants to share more, and it makes me glad to be like my mom.

Thanks DeeDee, and Happy Birthday.

DeeDee with our niece, Hollin in 2010 showing us how fun life can be.

After what we’ve been through in the past three months I’m convinced that buying and selling a house brings out the worst in people.  Strangers basically pick the lock and wander through your home while you’re not there, judging the size and cleanliness of your closets before criticizing your paint colors.  If that’s not enough, they whine about your lack of counter space while totally overlooking the new carpet you just put in.  Then they put in an insultingly low offer while hiding behind their white-toothed Realtors.  Assholes.

I know this because we have both been these assholes, and been the victims of them.

Greyson and I are always appalled at the snobby things people say on shows like “House Hunters.”  They act like they are somehow entitled to granite countertops and “his and her” sinks just because he works in IT and she’s pregnant with their second child in the suburbs of Cincinnati.  (Yeah, we watch too much HGTV.)

It hurts my heart to think about the negative things people might say when they’re touring my house without me.  Don’t they know this is the house where we set up our first Christmas tree as newlyweds and brought home our rescue dog?  Don’t they realize we ate doughnuts in the yard with our best friends during the neighborhood garage sale?  Hello?!  We lovingly painted that nursery upstairs and our baby rolled over for the first time on the living room rug.  We loved here.  We live here.  This is our home.

And we’re choosing to leave it.  It’s an emotional thing.  So, I’m deciding to be gentler as I wander through others’ rooms in the homes where they loved and lived.

Except for the offers.  I’ll be an asshole hiding behind my Realtor.  It’s a buyers market and I’m counting on vicious white teeth.  (He he, Realtors really do have noticeably white teeth.  Am I right?)