On Good Behavior

You seasoned parents already know this, but I’m just now getting tuned into the fact that my toddler terrors are suddenly nice and well-behaved when outsiders are in the mix. This morning, for instance, was shaping up to be yet another day of Beenie refusing to sit in her high chair, only standing, and Mimi for some reason was just crying and crying. Out of the ether Lynn called and asked if her and baby-ish Elana could stop by for a visit. YES!!! Thank God. It is as if they must push every possible boundary when it is just me or me and hubby, but they’re all smiley and share-y when there are a few new people around. Which is why I’m always trying to entice potential visitors to come over. Want some coffee? We have gates on the stairs and kitchen… The new Sears catalog just arrived… Seriously, who could resist those incentives?

Me in non-mommy land, the few hours a day I get to visit this strange and magical place, is chugging along, I guess. There is a Maryland state arts grant I’m trying to figure out CameraMorte images to submit to. I have never won one red cent worth of grant money. But you know what? I could really use it. I would do good things with an arts grant. Rent some studio space, find a trustworthy babysitter to watch the girls, maybe pay someone to clean the bathroom and kitchen weekly. Glamorous use of money, no? The biggest award they make is for 6K, six large, six boxes of ziti, which actually doesn’t seem like that much money to me, considering all the shite I’d like to do with a grant. Maybe I’d even have some CM photos blown up super huge. That would suck up the whole chunk, for sure. There are over 600 CM photos, so it is proving difficult to weed through the possibilities. Mmmmmm…. weed…..

I have a teenie piece of art in a show at Artscape this year. Artscape is a huge arts festival hosted by Charm City herself every year. Music, art, food, and all kinds of crazy stuff is exhibited. My drawing is a shark. The show is called “Penned” and has a bunch of images from people made with pen/ink, plus photos of the pens used to make the images. I will attempt to bring the girls to the opening and meet up with B there so he can chase after one of them while I chase after the other.