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A Working Mom's Winter Olympics Addiction

Work Wednesday

After my ten-day-long involuntary snow-cation (thank you, Snowmaggedon), I couldn't wait to get back to work. Still, I was relieved that my daughter's school system and the federal government declared a two hour delay on the return day. Not just because of icy sidewalks, snow-clogged traffic lanes, and delayed metro trains. It's because I stayed up too late - until well after midnight - the night before watching the Chinese pair figure skaters clinch the gold and silver medals at the Vancouver Olympics.

I'm an Olympic junkie. With a fixed addiction for the Winter Olympics. (In fact, I'm sitting in front of the TV right now blogging while watching the women's luge final.) I'm absolutely riveted by the speed, strength, and grace of the skaters, skiers, ski jumpers, snowboarders, sledders, lugers, and other athletes. (Of course, the tragic death of a Georgian luger in a training run reveals the other side - danger - of these Winter Olympics sports.)

I love the spectacle of the Opening Ceremonies even if their reported $40 million price tag seems callous and vulgar in this worldwide recession. I stay glued to the TV despite the commercials every two minutes. (O.K., I'm exaggerating. Just a little.) I lap up all the behind the scenes drama - the syrupy love stories, the comebacks after life-threatening injuries and illnesses.

And this year, I'm following the six moms - six working moms - on the U.S Olympic team. That's six moms out of a total of 93 female competitors on the U.S. Olympic roster.  To put this in perspective, there are only 17 dads out of 123 male athletes competing for the United States.  This is not your preschool playdate crowd.

When the Weather Turns Hot...

Talent Tuesday

I know there will be a number of you that are starting to feel cold, or at least thinking about it coming soon. We on the other hand are starting to get hot; in fact very hot, with this week all temperatures to be above 30oC (approx 90oF). Now part of the reason we love living in Melbourne is because it is renowned for having “4 seasons in one day”, so the shock of back-to-back days of heat, coupled with it being only November is proving a little prickly to bear! But we live on!

Every time it’s hot like this, I reminisce about the time I had felt this hot, knowing that the place to cool off was only a sandy walk away… Lake Malawi. What a delightful spot it is. It was hot, very hot, and even the water a little tepid, but nonetheless a wonderful part of the world when you’ve got nothing else to think about but keeping cool and eating mangoes (when in season of course). Near where we camped was the biggest mango tree we had ever seen, and the fruit itself was just lolling on the ground, waiting to be scooped up and instantly consumed.  Exquisite.

The lake itself, what a setting it is. It’s definitely one of those postcard picture perfect beach settings. It’s so big you cannot see the other side. That’s us in the photo playing in the shallows; having a lot of fun. Quite exceptional really.

We had camped at the Lake for a dose of well deserved R&R. This had been the order for two days, especially as the batteries needed recharging. From memory, we were at about day 10 of 20-odd days erecting and dismantling the tent nightly. The thought of being able to not do it for one morning and night was almost blissful. Things you don’t think about when you say yes to a 4-week camping safari!

When we finally moved, it was off to the other side of the Lake, the Zambian side. Here the rain came down like nothing we’ve seen in these parts for a very long time, and it was so constant too’ if only it could have head Melbourne way. Parts of Africa may definitely lack, and may not have some things that we brag about but they have rain and green grass aplenty.

Given that we were on our way to Victoria Falls, we hoped that all this good rain would have the Falls flowing like never before! We actually had no idea if this rain headed that way but it’s worth wishing for...

We spent a few more days catching up on more resting and reading and eating and sleeping, oh and some mandatory playing... The Lake certainly reenergised us, more so than we may have first realised as it has turned out. This was further emphasised by the cricket game we managed to firstly explain to the locals, and then execute to everyone’s great delight just put the icing on the cake, so to speak. Wherever there is good fun to be had, and a little game or two to play, who worries about not being able to understand each other’s language! Many lessons were extrapolated from that one game of cricket alone, and that example has, interestingly enough, been used a number of times since...

Usually along the lines of; just because a person doesn’t look like you, or even speak your language, doesn’t mean you can’t learn from them, and vice versa; where there’s a bat and a ball, many variations of any game (and even life for that matter) can surface; when all parties are laughing out loud, there’s no room for the day-to-day stuff that can drag us all down; etc. traveling is of course a great educator.

Happy Travels
the entrepreneurial mother™

Managing Solo Travel With Kids

Travel Tuesday

In two days, I'll cross an airplane jetway with two preschoolers. We travel pretty often with our 2- and 5-year old daughters, so I've got the routine down. But that's not to say I expect solo travel with kids to be easy!

The first step in managing solo travel with kids -- especially little ones -- is to set realistic expectations. I bring no reading material for myself because I expect to be 100 percent occupied with the children. I get plenty of sleep the nights before the trip so that my tank of patience is on full.

And I say a prayer for understanding, friendly passengers to be seated around us.

Are Technology-Enabled Toys Over-the-Top?

Technology Thursday

We are fortunate to have extremely generous friends and have gotten loads of fabulous hand-me-downs for our son - clothes, toys, and other useful baby things. (That hasn't stopped me from buying too much stuff for him myself now and then, but I try to be a little bit restrained. Just a little.) One of the toys we received was a Leapfrog Learn and Groove musical toy. I haven't spent a lot of time with babies in recent years, but apparently these are all the rage.

This toy plays music and sings songs and has fun touch and grabby things for him to experiment with. He really enjoys it. I place it just out of reach to encourage him to work on crawling. When I dropped my son at daycare recently there was a mini-piano in the play area that he immediately started playing with after I showed him how to push on a key. His exersaucer has all sorts of noisemaking bits and pieces, too.

Technology and miniaturization have made these and all sorts of other gadgets possible relatively inexpensively.