Category Archives: vacation

July 13, 2012 · 8:13 pm

Squinkies On A Plane!

Our trip to San Francisco is officially less than seven days away, and not surprisingly, I’ve become frantic, frazzled, restless, and obsessive.  I’ve been waiting for Crazy Packing Mama to emerge, and folks, she, along with anxiety-induced Shopaholic Mama, have arrived.

I mastered the art of car packing a long time ago, but air travel with two kids for six hours across three time zones in coach with picky eaters, no Kefir, and the inevitability of having to take both boys (together and/or separate) to the (scary, germy, yucky, smelly, small, and loud) airplane bathroom is new territory for this Mama.

Last summer, my anxiety-induced shopaholism honed in on flip flops (yellow) and sun dresses (maxi).  That was all in preparation for a beach vacation.  This summer, as we prep for our big city San Francisco adventure, it’s The Bag.  I capitalized the “T” and the “B” so you’ll have a better understanding the intensity (and idiocy) of this bout of shopaholic hysteria.

Here’s what I’ve been searching for:

An airplane-riding, city-roaming, café-dining, beach-walking, island-hiking, lap-top, wipes, and Transformer-holding, wine-tasting, kid stuff-schlepping bag with two outside pockets for water bottles/kid cups.  It cannot be leather or a technical diaper bag, it must have generous shoulder handles and a cross-body strap option, it will preferably be made by Marc Jacobs, and must be on sale for, oh, $19.99.

I haven’t found The Bag yet (surprise, surprise), but I get an “A” for effort (or an “A” for a serious nut case).   Perhaps if I just looked in my closet I’d realize I already own The Bag, but that would be no fun.   I’ve been to three malls in the last two weeks, including an outlet mall (and I don’t like outlet shopping or outlet mall parking lots), but The Bag (I’ve added italics for the sake of drama) is still out of my reach…unless I decide to buy the $198 Marc Jacobs “Pretty Nylon Medium Tate” bag at Nordstrom.  Fear not, I haven’t sunk that low…yet.  But I’ve sunk low enough to buy some other stuff essential travel accessories.

Kid headphones:

A travel DVD holder that holds up to 24 movies (Dylan is very happy about this):

A housewarming gift for my sister.  I realize I’ve ruined the surprise for her because she’ll read this, but I cannot withhold my excitement about this strange and amazing pointy plastic holder thingy from The Container Store that does its ingenious “holding miscellaneous crap” job in the kitchen, bathroom, office, or the moon.  Seriously, this is my Favorite. Find. Ever.  (More capital letters.):

An owl wallet.  $4.99 at Target…how could I resist?  Do you think it’s a mean owl?  Just wondering:

And last but not least, backpacks on wheels for the boys:

Thank you, Grandma Irene!  Since I will inevitably end up in charge of schlepping the boys’ bags through the airport when they’re “too tired” to do it on their own, I thought it would be nice to be able to roll them.  They’re so excited about the trip that they’ve already started to fill the backpacks with toys.  For some reason, they don’t hear me when I tell them we’re bringing a few toys to California.  (They don’t seem to hear me when I ask them to brush their teeth either.)   I just hope I can convince Dylan to check his massive collection of Squinkies rather than bringing them on the plane.  I can’t think of anything more terrifying than Squinkies on a plane.

p.s. At the time of publication, the Runaway Crazy Packing Shopaholic Mama shifted her focus to the sweater jacket/wrap/cardigan.  In black.  Preferably with pockets.  Perfect for cool San Francisco fog.

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Filed under Crazy Mama, packing, Shopaholic Mama, shopaholism, shopping, travel, vacation

July 6, 2012 · 11:08 am

NSABD

It’s National Share A Blog Day (NSABD)!  Okay, I made that up, but I’ve been thinking a lot about how to broaden my reach.  In other words, I want more readers, more Facebook “Likes,” more Twitter followers, a book deal, a talk show, and a boat!  (One with a bathroom on board, thank you very much.)

I like to dream big, but I’m also humble and have a hard time taking a compliment (go ahead and try) and asking for things, so I’d be over the moon happy with just a few new blog subscribers.  I figured since I’ve been entertaining you for almost two years with tales from the crypt Mama-hood (my blog-iversary, blog birthday or whatever you want to call it is just a few days away!), it’s about time you did something for me (said The Runaway Mama very, very nicely).

This is where NSABD comes in.  All I want you to do is share my blog with two people (or 10…that would be cool) (or 100…wow!) in your life.  And because I’m such a good Mama, I’ve made it easy.  Below you’ll see a recap of some of my most recent posts, as well as a few “oldie but goodie” acronym-themed posts – AOC and PVSD – in honor of this one.  And at the very bottom of this page is a new “sharing” button so you can easily share this very post (or any post at all) with every single person on the planet.  Just like that.  See, I did all the hard work for you.  All you have to do is share it.  Because sharing is nice.  And not sharing is crappy.  Here goes…

  • Wonky Mama (n.):  A Mama who has too much time on her hands and takes a dozen pictures of her son mailing his first letter at the post office.  Read “Postal” here.
  • Sometimes good parenting feels bad.  It’s that simple (except it’s not simple at all).  Read about it here.
  • Considering a postnuptial agreement?  Read “Testimony” here.
  • To have or not to have another baby named after a Star Wars character?  Read “Luke Skywalker” here.
  • Planning a trip to Legoland?  For an expert (I use that term very loosely) review, read “Legoland: The Good, The Great, and The Well…” here.
  • Do you like math?  Check out some Runaway Mama Word Problems here and here.
  • Acute Onset Chaos (AOC).  A must read, especially during the summer when play dates are plentiful.  Read about it here.
  • Post Vacation Stress Disorder (PVSD).  Required reading before your next kid-free vacation!  Read “PVSD” here.

Okay, that should do it.  Thanks for helping a Mama out on (fake) National Share A Blog Day.  From one Mama to another, “Abracadabra, please, and thank you” (that’s what Riley would say).  In other words, thanks for reading and sharing!

p.s. Have you signed up to receive email alerts when I publish a new post?  Have you “Liked” my Runaway Mama Facebook page yet?  Are you following me on Twitter?  You can do all of these things by clicking on the links to the right.  Over here ——–>

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Filed under Acute Onset Chaos (AOC), Legoland, math, motherhood, parenting, vacation