I found a cool new site…mamasource.com. It combines the social networking of Maya’s Mom with the usefulness of Angie’s List. Free to join, and then you can read reviews of everything under the sun in your area (according to your zip code.) You can also list your business, so it’s a good networking opp for multi-level marketing moms (Mary Kay, Arbonne, etc.)

The best part is the request and response section - where mom’s ask questions and other mom’s respond. This can be good and bad - some mom’s are sooo judgemental! - but it’s mostly good. Plus, it has the added benefit of being basically anonymous, so you can just ignore the judgey moms, and read the helpful responses to your problems.

I often join these free sites and never return, but I think I’ll come back to this one. As it grows, I think it will become more and more useful. Plus, I like to read and write reviews of local businesses, so I’m excited about that aspect.

Our son is almost two. I have a jogger (given to me for free!), an umbrella stroller (given to me for free!), and our travel stroller - a giant monstrosity that holds an infant carrier and came with a base for the car. This thing was handy, but it’s so huge! Add to that my feeling that I’m always in other people’s way, and it’s a bad combination. I tried to be one of those mom’s that assume because they have the big aisle-hogging stroller, they get the right-of-way, but I didn’t have the heart for it. I always give in and scoot us out of the way.

Anyway, I always see these cool minimalist strollers, and I finally stopped a mom and asked her what it was. It’s called a Mutsy. Who knew they made such cool, convenient strollers?

So I went to their website, and found out that they’re totally convertible. You can use the frame to hold a bassinet (which can be removed so the baby can sleep in it), an infant carrier/car seat, a regular reclining seat, and something cool called a fun seat that my son would love. It’s like bike handlebars for the baby to play with while you’re strolling. They even have an adapter so you can fit a Graco car seat into the frame.

Mutsy also sells something called a “sitter” that you can put the seat from the stroller into, and it becomes a baby rocker.

I really love this stroller - I especially like the 4Rider model, but the spider looks really handy for small-aisled shops and small trunks.

I don’t know the actual logistics involved in the switching out of all the seats, but I think it’s worth going to a store and messing around with them to see how easy or hard it all really is. I really recommend that any stroller purchase be premeditated by actual manhandling of the merchandise. “Easy to fold” is easy to say, not always easy to do. I’m also curious if they can be steered with one hand, which I find is a priority for getting through doorways.

I’d love to hear from someone else that has a Mutsy stroller.

It looks like they retail from $250 for the Spider to $679 - $699 for the Urban Rider and 4Rider. (Little rich for my blood, but if you do a lot of strolling and have the budget - it could be worth the investment.)

I just got home from JoAnns fabric, where I had somewhat of a run in with this mean woman. I was at the register, trying to get the cashier to honor my 50% off coupon, while she was explaining that if I wanted to use it for cut fabric, I needed the fabric cutting ladies way in the back of the store to put it on my fabric slip. Blah blah blah, so while I’m discussing the fairness of this with her, my son is (for the most part) staying right next to me. He takes two steps into the aisle and almost gets mowed down by a woman pushing a shopping cart. I give a loud, sharp intake of breath as I grab my son’s arm and yank him towards me and safety. He starts to cry because I scared him.

I tell the cashier I’ll use the coupon another day and to just wrap things up. She apologizes and launches into a story about the JoAnns she worked at in Montana or whatever and meanwhile, my son is acting a little inconsolable. While I’m talking to him, trying to calm him down, I say how nice that lady was for stopping and what good reflexes she had and then I say how thankful we are to her. She’s within earshot. I then hear her say, “if you restrained him, that wouldn’t happen.”

What?

So I tell her, “wow, what a judgmental thing to say. You must be perfect in every way to make a pronouncement like that. Thank you so much for the helpful advice.”

Perhaps they should hand out trophies to all those helpful people at the JoAnns.

Sheesh.

We went to our favorite park today. There seemed to be more kids than usual. My first thought was that it was a little chaotic - what with at least ten kids between ages 2 and 4 running, climbing, screaming and laughing all over the toddler play structure. Their mothers seemed to be divided into two camps. The fit, attractive, cool moms wearing sunglasses and military style caps sitting around the edge of the play area, talking with each other. The less fit, less fashionable moms walking around keeping their kids within eyesight. I’m not sure why it was divided so, but I’m just the observer of the story.

So a little boy (aged 2.5 years, I heard his mom say later) barrelled around the twisty slide, chasing a little girl of probably 3.5 years. The little girl kept saying, “no! no!” as the little boy pushed her from behind. She was clearly trying to get away. She ran up the big stairs of the structure, and he was right on her heels. She turned around once more to say, “no!” and this time he slapped her across the face. Hard.

I was sitting with my son in the sand, filling and dumping the dump truck for the 50th time, watching the whole scene unfold. At the slap, and because I was the only adult in the immediate area, I offered, “no, no, we don’t hit,” as the little girl’s mother rounded the corner looking for her loudly crying daughter. Meanwhile, the violent little boy had scampered up the steps and was happily headed towards the twisty slide.

When the little girl’s mother asked the distraught girl what happened, I pointed a finger at the boy and said, “that boy pushed her and slapped her.” The park got a little silent. The cool moms glared at me, aiming their stylish sunglasses my way with obvious disdain. I went on. “She was trying to get away from him.”

The mean little boy’s mother finally came over to see what happened. “Andrew did this? The one in the red shirt.” I offered a decided (if a little accusatory) “yep,” and returned to scooping and dumping with my good boy.

I continued to watch one mom carry her crying daughter away from the scene, while the other mother half-heartedly followed after her son. “Andrew. Andrew. Andrew, come here please.” After walking over to where he was, she looked down at him and said, “Andrew, we don’t hit.” Meanwhile, Andrew had plopped down in the middle of a circle of three kids and their sand toys and proceeded to pick up buckets and shovels, throwing sand and toys in every direction.

That was the extent of his reprimand.

Future criminal?

Should I have tattled? Who knows, but I don’t want that kid hitting my son, and clearly, his mom isn’t aware that she needs to monitor his behavior. But you can bet the other mothers - glaring or not - kept a little closer eye on their own kid when Andrew was around.

This isn’t the first time that I’m noticing that staying close to your small child seems to be the uncool way to parent. Oh, well. I never was very cool anyway. I was always better at being responsible.

It’s that time again. 12 to 18 months is too small, but 24 months is too big. Which baby clothes are going into a bin in the closet? Which clothes will stay in the dresser. Should I put the wintery clothes that are still a little big in the dresser to save myself trouble in a month or two? I tell you, maintaining baby clothes requires immense organization.

Then, once I pull out all the too-small stuff, I have to remember which ones came from friends and need to be returned, and which ones are ours. It’s really a lot to keep up with.

Anyone have some good tips? Right now, my system is clothes arranged by size into big plastic bins that stay stacked in his closet. I’ve been holding onto everything in case we have another boy. I mean EVERYTHING. Ugh. So much stuff!

Tonight is the results show where the final four will be announced. My prediction is that Pasha and Sabra get voted off. I wouldn’t mind seeing Danny go, though. I hope he doesn’t win the whole thing.

During the 15 or so performances they did during the ensemble taping, as we were nearing the end, the Stage Director said something along the lines of, “See audience? This is why these are your final six - only the strong survive.” and Danny said, “only the strong and popular!” It was so arrogant and uncalled for. If someone from the audience had said it, it would have been fine, but coming from his mouth, he sounded like an ass. I guess it’s not untrue…but still.

One thing I meant to mention in my Hollywood Experience post was that there was this wierd stage dad and his two daughters next to me at both tapings. The daughters were probably 10 and 12 or so, and they were wearing these tight black dresses with black leggings that ended at their calves. They had faces full of makeup - pretty, but very pageanty, and WAY too old for them. The worst part was their 4-inch black patent leather stripper heels. Both girls. The smaller girl could barely walk. We spent at least four hours standing during the first taping and two hours standing during the second taping. Those girls feet must have been killing them. The dad was dressed in a black suit with a black mock turtleneck and sunglasses. He looked like a mix between a bouncer, a secret service guy and a mob boss. As we were leaving the studio, I happened to be walking behind them, and I heard him going over the girls’ schedules for the next day. Auditions, dance classes, photo shoot, etc. That guy was no better than a pimp. I felt like it was so sad that he would allow them to dress that way - letting them believe that that was attractive, or appropriate.

Haircuts and almost two-year-olds don’t go great together. Even when the barber has a cool chair that looks like a horse. But, here are before and after pictures for my faithful reader. Hi reader!