Guess what we’re doing this weekend.  I’ll give you a hint.  It involves little no sleep, a lot of bug repellent and a Disney Princess fishing pole. 

That’s right!  It’s trailer time again!  We’re heading to the Great Ontario North (well…the Great Ontario Central) for our first trip of the year.  And also our last trip as a threesome (sorry, Bosco, foursome).

So wish us luck that we get at least a little bit of sleep (Eirinn will be sleeping in our bed for the first time ever), that the mosquitoes aren’t too hungry, that Eirinn doesn’t fall over the edge of the boat while fishing, that the rain stays away, and that this baby doesn’t fall out.

Have a good weekend!

Eirinn is now The Face of The Arkansas Agritourism Initiative.  I’m pretty sure that’s a title no one else on the planet can boast about having.

A few days ago I received an email from a professor at the University of Arkansas in the Dale Bumpers College of Agriculture, Food, and Life Sciences (I’m so not making that up).  He told me about a poster he was creating for a series of information sessions he was speaking at regarding agritourism in Arkansas.  He told me he had seen Eirinn’s image on my old blog and he wanted to use it for the poster.

 This one.  Isn’t she the cutest little punkin ever? 

I promptly emailed him back explaining that I was uncomfortable with the idea.  I don’t have a problem with strangers viewing images of her within the context of my writings, but the thought of one of those images being used elsewhere got me a little anxious.  But I thanked him for being so considerate.

I asked for opinions from Anonymous Husband, Carly, my coworkers, and my mom and found that I was pretty much the only one who shared that view.  Given the fact that he was a legitimate professor at a legitimate college (thank you Google) asking permission (he very easily could have just used it without asking - images on the internet not copyrighted are public domain), I had a change of heart.  I emailed him back, stating that out of good faith I would consider giving my permission to use her image, as long as I could see a draft of the poster first.  All this happened in a span of 3.6 minutes.  I may be indecisive, but I change my mind quickly.

The professor sent me a pdf draft this morning and I see that my worries were for nothing.  Her image spans the entire page, at an increased transparency with the text overlapping everything but her cute little face.  And a big splash of “The Arkansas Agritourism Initiative” across the top.  Nothing to be afraid of.  And I’m positive that the people scheduled to see this poster (fellow professors in the field) are far more harmless than the legions hundreds dozens of people that see her face everyday at the top of this blog.

And now she can add “The Face of The Arkansas Agritourism Initiative” to her ever-expanding resume and portfolio.  Not.  Too.   Shabby.

My Mother’s Day was like a very low key Mother’s Weekend.  Eirinn and AH took me for dinner on Saturday.  We went to Wimpy’s Diner because with Eirinn we are limited to restaurants that a) won’t kick us out for the unusually high decibel coming from our table (more specifically, from Eirinn’s mouth), b) won’t kick us out for standing on the seats (again, her, not the grown ups)(usually), and c) sell chicken nuggets or fingers (even if she only eats daddy’s toast anyway).

I didn’t need cut flowers and I don’t do indoor plants (no matter how bug-free and clean the plant is, I have this weird feeling that they are infested with aphids or ants or something that’s going to take over my house and even though I’m not afraid of bugs that thought makes me itchy with the heebee jeebees) and we don’t have any gardens yet and we still have a plethora of chocolate from Easter.  So I bought my own Happy Mother’s Day shoes while Eirinn was at home napping.

Sunday is my regular sleep-in day, so when I woke up, I was greeted with cards, a magazine and big hugs.  No breakfast in bed.  I only eat cereal and balancing a bowl of liquids on a spherical stomach containing a human whose sole purpose in life at the moment is to see if she can kick her way out didn’t really sound like something I was capable of doing first thing in the morning.  Plus, if they woke me up even 10 minutes before I was ready to wake up that would not have been good for any of the parties involved.

All weekend, including today, Eirinn has been greeting me grandly with “Happy Mudder Day!”, arms upraised, big smile on.  Then she gives me great hugs and big, sloppy kisses.  It is literally the cutest and sweetest thing ever.  And she’s been behaving herself like a little angel, with the guise that she should listen to mommy because it’s Mother’s Day.  Hey, if she thinks it’s fun to have Mother’s Day all weekend long, I do too.

We have also been giving her lessons in familial ties.  It started with some confusion over why we had to buy a present for Granny when it was Mudder Day.  We explained to her that Granny is Daddy’s mommy.  And Babba is Mommy’s mommy.  And so on and so forth.  This also meant that Granny is not Daddy’s granny and Babba is not  Mommy’s babba.  This is all very confusing to a two year old, but we worked on it and worked on it, at her request, and I think she kind of got it. 

What did everyone else do for Mudder Day?  All day pampering and spoiling?  Nice quiet day at home with the family?  Running around visiting the first generation of mothers?  Whatever you did, I hope it was wonderful.  Or at least didn’t suck.