Seven Quick Takes, yes, AGAIN

One: Well, first things first, we have to address The Hair. My own comment probably got lost in the MYRIAD of other hair-related comments, so I will repeat it here: I seriously SERIOUSLY thought that was bad hair. ON ME. But the overwhelming response is that my air-dried hair is NOT bad hair at all, and that I am just probably very used to seeing it flat-ironed straight, and that all I need are a few curl-enhancing products and I will basically land myself a Pantene ad if I so much as walk out the front door. So first I should say thank you for all your comments and advice and willingness to participate despite that last post seeming to be of the Compliment Me! variety, which was not my intention AT ALL. I thought you'd hate the hair! I thought you'd sneer in the general DIRECTION of the hair! BUT YOU LOVE THE HAIR. I suppose we shall continue the Hair Experiment, then. First on the list is another air-dry episode; however, this time I will be armed with Products (recommendations welcome) and perhaps in another week or so, I plan to mix it up with some color. OH YES. You promise you will be brutally honest in both instances, don't you? I mean, that's the best part!

Two: Last night I came home to find a three-inch rip in our couch. Our couch is six-ish years old, but it was NEW when we got it and it was from Pottery Barn. Specifically, it was from the Pottery Barn Outlet back when the Pottery Barn Outlet was an actual OUTLET and not a substandard Pottery Barn store that Pottery Barn now manufactures items for. Anyway, my parents bought it for us as a Christmas gift for less than half the price it goes for now because it was “damaged” (the wooden legs were chipped a bit – I colored them in with a brown marker, easiest way to save $700 EVER) but now here we are, six-ish years later and it has a giant rip right where Dave rests his back every night. What, you don't have assigned seats in YOUR living room? So part of me is shaking my fist at Pottery Barn and cursing their shoddy craftsmanship, but the more realistic part of me understands that we've put a lot more wear and tear on this couch than most people would since it's the only place we sit besides the bed. The. Only. Place. When you have a small house, you have small amounts of furniture, right? So we have one couch, and when we're home, we're sitting on it. And when we're not, the dog is. And then this other part of me is angry at that last part of me because WHY AM I MAKING EXCUSES FOR POTTERY BARN, ANYWAY? My couch! Is RUINED!

Three: Regarding the above. Suppose you wanted to move in the next year or two anyway. Suppose your children weren't going to get any neater or better at keeping juice and milk inside their sippy cups and that the dog's paws are not going to get any cleaner when he comes inside the house. Do you cover that rip up with some duct tape and a slipcover and tough it out until you get into your next house so you can buy furniture that suits your new house? Or do you buy something new right now, that you hope will work anywhere you happen to move because OMG A RIP IN THE SOFA, can we please have ONE NICE THING IN THIS HOUSE, also please show me a slipcover that isn't straight out of Design Hell? … SIGH. Yeah. I know. Ok, ok, so the couch is never going to be the one nice thing we own, is it. The couch is always going to look like someone smeared it with snot and various other bodily fluids. BECAUSE IT WILL BE.

Four: Something I didn't think about before embarking on our Potty Training Adventure was that Lucy would be hanging around, meddling in everything. Loitering, if you will, much like tweens at Hot Topic. I have to be on my game at every moment. If Asher pees and stands up to pull up his underwear, I have to be RIGHTTHERE or else Lucy is THISCLOSE to pulling out the potty insert and dumping the contents of someone's bladder onto the carpet. Yesterday morning Asher had a minor accident (“Mom, I got pee on my legs”) (“Mom, I got pee on my underwear”) (“Mom, I got pee on the floor”) and while I am taking his wet pants off in the kitchen (without acting frustrated or annoyed!), Lucy is RIGHTTHERE, thoughtfully contemplating and then, as I turn my back for ONE MILLISECOND, thoughtfully exploring a small puddle of pee with her index finger.

Five: We're one month away from our Big Child-free Vacation. I am kind of nervous. Ok, I am really nervous. Both kids are going through separation anxiety phases and one kid is learning how to pee in something other than an absorbent wad of cotton and the other kid still wakes up a bazillion times a night and expects her MOTHER to be the one picking her up out of the crib and... yeah. I'm worried. I know they'll live and they'll likely be fine (happy, even! possibly even well-fed!) but I can't stop torturing myself with mental images of their prolonged anguish at my absence. Asher will weep openly while clutching a photograph of me to his chest; Lucy will sink to her knees in her crib and wail while rattling the bars of her toddler-sized prison. Honestly, I think the hardest part will be putting myself on that plane. Once we're in the air, there's no turning back, and I have to let it go, you know? But up until that point, I am going to be in a perpetual state of mild freakout. Sometimes I console myself with the thought of staying here, but most of the time, I just worry. I can't help it; I WORRY.

Six: Someone heard a rumor about something that happens when you turn 16...

  

Seven: …and I have a feeling her daddy isn't going to turn this mug down.

 

Comments

[NGS]

We are potentially going to move in a year or two and we have several rips in our sofa and I'm slightly embarrassed about them, but the thought of buying something new and then moving it is not...something I like to think about really. So we put blankets on top of the hole and just hope that none of our house guests is a Judgey McJudgson person.

So, I feel your pain.

[Parker_B]

Aww, Lucy is so cute! I would totally put duct tape on the rip (I think they sell it in all different colors now) and get a slipcover. I know they're not exactly stylish, but you could invest in a custom-made one. Obviously more expensive, but you avoid buying a brand new couch that may not work in your new house.

Just my thoughts...

[beyond]

i would wait before buying a new sofa. until your kids are 18. just kidding. kinda. this reminds me of the bad state of our great sofa. there was a rip in the big back pillow and we turned it over. works wonderfully for now.
re: lucy's finger in urine. just remember that urine is basically sterile. really. it's a finger in number two you can freak out about...
lucy is growing into the cutest little girl. love her pear outfit!

[Elizabeth]

Well. Our dog peed on our couch (which in all fairness, I hated) and I insisted on getting a new one, and granted I didn't know we were moving at the time but I SO wish I had waited and gotten a couch when we moved. I would have picked out something totally different. Like a sleeper. In leather. Or something that kid barf can be wiped off of easily.

Eli loves that magazine and sadly his "mimi" has purchased him a subscription. Perhaps Lucy needs one of her own as well?

[Kristin]

Actually, for the price of a slipcover, you could probably get a decent one off of Craigslist that would work fine for a year or two...

[Tiah]

Given your children's ages, I'd tough it out with the sofa. I do understand. I spent 8 years with a sofa that looked like a bunch of paint cans threw up on it then it achieved a starring role in a slasher movie. I believe the patter was technically called "Aztec." The Aztec's would be appalled. But we had no furniture or money thus could not be picky.

[amy]

I'm in the "don't buy a new couch yet" court. Or Craigslist is a good choice too.

[amy]

Oh yeah, and I'll be honest about the hair when you do the do-over session.

[Superfantastic]

We have assigned seats.

Also, slipcovers are from the devil. I'd go Craig's List over slipcover. Because the slipcover is perpetually slipping and you are perpetually straightening. It's maddening.

[Simone]

My hair is on the wavy side also, and I've had good luck with John Frieda Frizz-Ease 'Dream Curls' Curl Perfecter. Apparently it has a really long name. It's a spray, and it's on the cheaper end of the hair product spectrum. I think it was a Hair Thursday recommendation at some point.

I use it on wet (gently towel dried, combed through) hair, and scrunch a bit if remember to do so.

[Elle]

It wouldn't bother me in the slightest if someone else's couch had some cosmetic issues, but if it were in my own house? I think the OCD would get the best of me. Easy solution -- Ikea Ektorp. Relatively cheap, sturdy, comfy, and available in a bunch of different machine washable slipcovers. We have the loveseat in Klintbo Blue. Great for the family room now and perfect for a basement playroom one day. You know, assuming we ever escape the townhouse epidemic of Northern VA for a real house with a basement (ohhh, what I would give...).

[Lacey]

Okay, as someone who is cursed with hair that can't make up it's mind, I truly love the Redken Curly hair line. I don't have the bottles right in front of me, but it's the green product sub-line. I think it's fresh curls. If I'm only going to do one product and let it air dry, I use the anti-frizz shiner. You squeeze a little into your palms, rub it until it feels almost watery, smooth it through your hair/finger comb it in, and then LET IT BE. Easiest product use EVER. Promise. But, for the record, I liked your Air-Dried Hair Without Product.

[Lacey]

Oh, and as for the couch - just put some packing tape over it and call it a day. Maybe hide it with a pillow. Or, if you're creative and the material is such that it wouldn't melt, buy a funky iron-on patch and be obvious about it. You know, call a spade a spade. I doubt Lucy would leave tape alone, if she's all about exploring Asher puddles...

[Cat]

PB quality DOES totally suck!!

As for your trip I would be way more worried abt the babysitters!! Do they KNOW Lucy keeps getting up? If it were my mom no way would she babysit and if she DID I have a feeling there would be a LOT of CIO, whether I liked it or not.

[Cat]

I meant to say for next time Crate & Barrel is way better quality, in my experience.

[alex]

I would definitely make some kind of repair to the old couch, especially since you are going to be moving anyway--when replacing a couch, delivery and disposal are significant expenses.

But I would not cover the rip with duct tape. I would buy a curved needle and some upholstery thread, and carry out amateur sofa surgery. The result would probably look no better, and perhaps even worse, than the duct tape version, but when I looked at it, I would tell myself that it demonstrates I am Thrifty and Self-Reliant, the sort of person who would have done well in pioneer days or as the last survivor of an accident in the wilderness.

[Raven]

Repair and slip cover that sucker. Slip covers have the bonus of being WASHABLE and with all the various child/dog fluids, I hear this is a very good thing.

Somehow I got lucky enough to get through kiddom with only one major couch purchase and now we are onto the fancy sofa since he's a teenager. (we've had it since he was like 12 or something)

[Windy]

One product saved my air-dried curly hair life: Frizz-Ease Dream Curls Curl Perfecing Spray. I also apply something curl-enhancing fresh out of the shower, but I can substitute lots of products. But then, when hair is no longer sopping wet I put Dream Curls in. Then DO NOT touch your hair until it is dry. Then, if it still looks like crap, I put more dream curls in. It can freshen your hair at the end of the day too. It's a miracle.

Don't buy a new couch until you move and see size of rooms and decide paint colors.

I am three weeks away from leaving my baby for vacation and my anxiety dreams have already started. Will I ever be able to relax again?

[Fran]

One more vote for slipcover and wait here. I hope your kid-free vacation goes better than mine did. But then we were close enough to drive back early when I couldn't stop crying after talking to them on the phone. Flying somewhere is probably a good idea!

[Penny]

I would look into re-apolstering your couch cushion. It'd be a shame, from a cost and environmental perspective, to dump a whole couch because of one rip.

We took our first child-free mini vacation 2 years ago. It was only for 2 days, and we had dropped our 2 year old off with the grandparents first. The vacation was EXCELLENT, but I couldn't help worry worry worry about whether our kid was crying and feeling horribly sad that her mommy was gone. The last day of vacation I kept hounding DH to hurry UP already, we have to get BACK! And we sped all the way back there, and when we arrived, the kid was asleep, and when she woke up, she was all "eh." Which taught me a big lesson. But I think this lesson must be learned in the parents through trial and error only, so: you will fret and your vacation will be awesome and worth it but you will probably still fret and when you practically bolt in the door to see your kids again, you will be relieved and then...maybe sorrowful you aren't still on vacation. But then the NEXT vacation will be even BETTER.

[Karen]

This post is reminding me that there are several chocolate smears on our blue couch (bought TWO YEARS AGO, brand new) that I have to clean off. No, the children will not get better at keeping the furniture clean. We view all furniture purchases for the next, oh, fifteen years, as being "transitional furniture purchases". Because honestly, expecting anything to stay neat and tidy and clean when you have small children is like shoveling during a blizzard and wondering why your sidewalk isn't cleared.

When i was a kid, my mom was obsessed with Ethan Allen furniture. (For all I know, she still is.) Anyway, she had a whole room of furniture Upon Which We Were Not Allowed To Sit. It was for company. The funny thing was, she was so into her color scheme that she bought a white wing chair, and an orange floral couch, without remembering she had two black cats. Yup. The amount of energy she expended trying to keep those cats off that damn furniture. One cat weighed 15 pounds and especially liked to sleep on top of the back of the couch, thereby squashing it down for eternity. It was funny. Finally she just draped towels over the furniture and gave up. The towels came off when we had company. And there was still black fur everywhere.

Bottom line is, furniture is to be used, I guess. I'd see seven years as a darn good run. I had two couches that lasted about five years, and I was impressed by that.

[Swistle]

We have a La-Z-Boy recliner I bought half-way through my pregnancy with the twins. I sat in that sucker pretty much all day every day for the rest of the pregnancy, and at 30 weeks started sleeping in it every night. After the twins were born I kept sleeping in the chair for awhile, and I also nursed in that chair and dozed in it. I still sit in it a LOT. So part of me is like, "I can't believe this chair is already so worn out!!" and part of me is like "I'll bet I've given it a full lifetime of use already."

[Dorie]

We took our first child free vacation about a year ago and left the kids with the grandparents that they see several times a week and love and adore. I missed them terribly - to the point of crying my eyes out. I was so worried that they wondered where the heck mommy & daddy went to.

And it was all for nothing. They were completely fine. When we got back they didn't even want to go home. I spent all that time not enjoying my vacation while they were having the best time ever.

My oldest (who was 4 at the time) still asks when she can go to grandma's house again and stay for seven nights. And about two hours after we got home I was ready for another vacation.

[Life of a Doctor's Wife]

Yay for more hair experimentation! I'll be keeping an eye on the Pantene ads for you.

We too have assigned seating in our living room. And believe you me - if someone sits in the wrong spot there will be a SCUFFLE.

As we've never actually bought a couch - just had hand-me-downs from parental types - I am at a loss about the duct tape. Maybe Craig's List would be a good resource?

[Amy]

Another vote for Ikea. We have a 2.5 year old and a dog and our couch is WHITE. And it's fine because of the ease of laundering. Also I will never own a nonwashable couch now because omg, the junk I find when I take off the cover to wash it is revolting. And they're cheap!