Not Me Monday! Again!

This blog is intended to be more than a collection of posts about what I have not been doing, but since MckMama's Not Me! Monday blog carnivals tend to involve two important motivators (namely, a deadline and a prize), they seem to be the only ones I've gotten done lately.

OH WELL. At least this post should give you an inkling (more to come, I promise!) of what we have and have not been doing instead of blogging!

First off, DKG and I did not take our 19-month-old Kumquat on her gazillionth trip and add state #13 - CALIFORNIA - to her list of states she's visited (or #18 if you also count places we visited while I was preggo).

On this trip, I did not sacrifice my favorite pair of comfy shoes when we took our Kumquat to the beach just after our arrival in CA. We certainly did not head straight for the beach completely unprepared in spite of the fact that we had perfectly appropriate beach clothing & footwear in our luggage. We were not so excited about taking Little K to see the ocean for the first time that we didn't really care all that much about the shoes we'd miss later.

I did not completely fall in love with these two all over again.

We also did NOT take our crazy monkey toddler to a professional golf event, where everyone knows the audience should be quiet & respectful. And certainly not a major championship, where the stakes are high. Nope, not me!

And I did not have my heart warmed to watch these dads have the greatest Father's Day weekend! (And birthday week for DKG!)

And I did not very seriously consider never returning to the land of Kumquat Stands and instead move on to Colorful Artichoke fields. I mean, come on... Look at this place! Who'd want to live here forever? Certainly not me!

I did not have an awesome Mama KG-Little Kumquat date day while everyone else was at the golf tournament...

and no Kumquat Divas were sighted on this day, either.

And, finally, we did absolutely nothing whatsoever to encourage any diva-ish-ness by taking our 19-month-old (did I mention that already??) to Las Vegas for the third time in her life. I mean, really? Who takes a baby to Vegas?! Certainly not us!

I also did not begin to wonder if maybe she's been there a few times too many... ;)

So, that's a bit of what we have not been up to lately! I promise another post with more information on what we actually DID will be coming soon!

Not Me! Monday - Summer Style

Happy Monday to you! So, once again, I'm hopping on MckMama's bandwagon and writing a Not Me! Monday post about things I most certainly did not do this week yesterday. And it has absolutely nothing to do with me making a bit of a disaster out of a fun event because that's just what I do. Because I don't.

So, first off, I did not on my own decide that the summer picnic my awesome moms' group was having would start at 6:00, in spite of the fact that 6 is really kinda late for a dinner picnic with lots of little kids. Or the fact that the calendar clearly says 5. Nope, not me!

I did not also decide all on my own that the picnic would be held at a park about 2 minutes away from my house, rather than at one about 10 miles away. Especially not when the correct name (and address) of the park was listed on the calendar and its name was really not at all similar to the one I'd imagined.

And I certainly did not discover all of this once we were in the car - 20 minutes late - because I hadn't gotten around to looking at the details until then.

I also did not decide our navigation system didn't know what it was talking about and that we should ignore its directions. Especially since we already were soooo late... and that choice didn't take us about 10 extra miles out of our way. Not at all!!

AND, once we discovered all of my mistakes, I absolutely did NOT cry a little bit about it and really, really consider not going at all.

Thank goodness we didn't do that, because then we would have missed all this...

And that would really have been a shame.

Not Me! Monday

It's been a hard couple of weeks as I vaguely mentioned in my previous post. My dear ones could still use all of the prayers you can send their way... guidance, healing, hope and peace would all be great blessings for them. I've been finding that in the midst of broken hearts, taking time to be frivolous is good for the soul. And so, it's time for MckMama's "Not Me" Monday blog carnival again!

Beyond the heavy stuff, what have we not been up to this week in the Kumquat Garden?

For one, I most certainly did not participate in any sort of man-cave-making Babyland 3.0 designing (a Kumquat needs a ginormous TV and surround sound, no?) activities for hours on end... with a hungry, tired, cranky baby trapped in her stroller. I also did not attempt to bribe appease soothe her by stuffing her full of snacks and playing numerous episodes of The Backyardigans for her on my iPhone. And while I was in the midst of our hours at Ultimate Electronics, I also did not completely forget about a meeting I was supposed to attend that evening. And once I did remember, I certainly did not engage in any sort of passive-aggressive, laying-the-blame-solely-on-my-husband-and-telling-him-I'd-be-kicked-out-of-my-moms' group-behavior. That would just be childish. And unhealthy. And, well... It doesn't matter because I certainly did not do any such thing.

I, a mama who truly considers herself not to be a big TV watcher, did NOT have to institute a "No TV During Dinner" policy... for my 11-month-old baby. (I also did not just feel a little bit sick when I wrote that. Good thing I didn't do it.) I also did not feel like the Worst Parent Ever when said baby had a complete and utter meltdown when DKG turned off the TV. Thank heaven I'd never be that kind of parent!

I also did not take my firstborn child to her very first Halloween party ever and bring the camera, but not the memory card.

And today, I did not drag my husband and child to a playground I love that just happens to be in... well, not the best part of town. I also did not continually reassure DKG that the park was perfectly safe during the entire drive there... even after we saw a homeless-looking man hanging around near the park entrance. I also did not continue with our plan to let the Baby Kumquat play at the park even after we pulled into the parking lot, saw 1 car, but no other people, & then realized there was a guy sleeping in the car. I did not say to DKG, "Well, at least we'll have the playground all to ourselves & Baby K won't have to worry about getting run over by bigger kids." I also did not suggest that we post a video of K swinging in the park on Facebook so that, should anything happen, the lovely folks investigating our abduction would be able to look at the video and have an idea of where we were at that precise time. (Did I mention that I really don't watch much TV? Just checking.) I also did not hightail it out of the park when we were startled by a homeless-looking man sleeping at the top of the slide!

Just Another Manic Monday

It's been a while since I've participated in MckMama's "Not Me" Monday blog carnival. As I found myself aimlessly doing laps around the kitchen island tonight, I thought it might be a good time to snuggle up in the bed with my laptop and reflect on all the other things I - ahem - certainly have not been doing this week.

On second thought, let's just hit up the things I have not been doing today.

I did not try really, really hard to take our monthly Kumquat photos with Phil the Elephant (yep - 3 days late) and fail miserably at corralling this very busy girl enough to get a remotely usable picture out of it. See?

I also did not stand aside and continue to take pictures as our little photo shoot devolved into something a bit like this...
... and finally give up once she started to try to climb the bookcase. I also did not curse the fact that DKG and I still have not anchored those darn bookcases to the wall. Nope, not me! I would never put off something that important.

This afternoon, I was not thrilled that the lovely gift I'd purchased for my niece's birthday arrived. I also did not think of how happy I was to have found a sweet baby doll who looked so much like my niece... not an easy feat with these half-Asian babies!
I also did not freak out when I opened the package and discovered that the wrong doll had been sent!
Umm, yeah. Not so Asian. I also did not spend the rest of my quality time for the day baby's naptime on the phone with the vendor trying to figure out how to rectify the situation in time for the big birthday.

Since the day was going so well, I did not decide it was the perfect time to let my baby-who-really-wants-to-be-a-big-girl feed herself a lunch of (organic, whole grain) cheese ravioli and blueberries.
I also did not proceed to spend the next 2 hours cleaning up from that decision.
Oh, and I also did not wait until 10 pm to do my "Not Me" Monday post!

Hope you all had a lovely Monday.