12 Things I Learned This Week, Vol 62

It was such a packed week, I couldn’t help but throw in a couple bonus lessons.

Lesson #1: If at first you don’t succeed, stalk Kelly Corrigan at another event. (But realize that when she said, “Let’s stay in touch,” she might not have meant you should start inviting her to family parties. Or did she?)

Lesson #2: Though my dad’s been gone almost 7 months now, it’s still a bad idea for me to be in a room of 250 people when someone talks about how much they love their father. (Especially if that room has really fancy napkins and I don’t have tissues with me.)

Lesson #3: There’s nothing like kids to keep you humble. After arriving home from my ladies’ luncheon (which involved a fair amount of hugging), Little asked when I was going to shower because I was so stinky.

Lesson #4: There are times my dirty minivan feels a bit out of place, so I could totally empathize with the woman in the preschool parking lot the other day. No doubt she was coveting the conveniences of my swagger wagon as she hurried away in her itty bitty Ferrari.

Lesson #5: While people may question the quality of a public school education in California these days, I have no doubt Big has learned more about isopods and oviparous animals in kindergarten than I ever did.

Lesson #6: Apparently keeping them safely trapped wasn’t among the lessons they covered. This week we found a roly poly on the dining room floor and a lady bug on the kitchen ceiling.

Lesson #7: If the dentist insists on giving your kid floss, he should really explain that its purpose isn’t to turn your playroom into Spidey’s web.

Lesson #8: Just when you think your kids don’t notice all the little things you do to make them smile, you find a backpack pocket stuffed with old lunch napkin notes you’ve packed along the way.

Lesson #9: You know your kid is sensitive when he sips his milk and refuses to drink it because he can taste that it came out of a cardboard carton, not a plastic one.

Lesson #10: When you leave the car all packed for your nanny to take the kids (and the team snacks) to a t-ball game while you head to a baptism prep class for the day, it’s really best not to take the keys with you when you leave. (Yeah, Saturday morning was a Cinco de-saster.)

Lesson #11: Until I clarified today, Little thought that when I went to a shower, it involved a bunch of ladies getting naked together.

Lesson #12: I need to go to (fully clothed) baby showers more often. Today, after a lovely lunch with friends, I came home to a cleaned out playroom and loads (figuratively and literally) of laundry done. The downside? I also came home to a husband who suddenly wonders why I don’t get anything done every day.

May your week be full of surprises—with the scales heavily tipping toward the good kind.