Cars 2

Cars 2. Go.  You won’t be sorry.  We got to go to the preview last Saturday, thanks to Jessica, A Parent in Silver Spring, who gives away tickets to new movies, tells the community about free concerts at Strathmore, and generally keeps us all in the loop about fun activities for kids.  She writes about so many fun things to do — if  you’re local to D.C. or looking for what’s new and exciting in movies and activities, go check it out!

Cars 2 was AWESOME.  Yes, even for the parents. Trust me – if it’s your day to take the kids, take them to the movie when it opens this weekend (don’t worry, your kids know what date).  There’s an awesome James Bond-y feel to it, and it’s a lot of fun!

Caveat: There is a LOT more action in this sequel than the first, toddler-safe, Cars movie.  There are bad guys, and it may be a little intense at the beginning for kids under 4.  When in doubt, check the review on Common Sense Media, written by Sandie Chen.

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Ready for Summer!

Here at the WhyMommy house, we are totes ready for summer!  We have our flip flops, our summer t’s, and our rashguards all out and ready for action — and this weekend we get our first taste of the lazy hazy days of summer.

What’s a rashguard?  I was asked that twice this week, so I want to show you.  You can see the general look in the picture at the left, one of a very few that we took after my double mastectomy, when I was nervous about going to the beach with the beautiful people.  I had lumps and bumps everywhere after surgery — except in the places you’d expect.  But I wasn’t ready to give up on the beach or the pool forever.  In fact, we were headed to the beach to relax and recuperate!  After some conversation on twitter and the blogs, we came up with this solution — and now, I’d recommend it for anyone who’s tired of feeling overexposed at the pool.

A rashguard is like a t-shirt made of swimsuit material.  You can get them fitted to your body for serious swimming or looser (unisex style) for additional coverage of post-baby tummy or post-mastectomy scars.  I *adore* the rashguard look and the ease of which the kids and I can get ready for the pool – there’s no struggles with vast quantities of sunblock on their pale tummies and backs anymore, or worries about missing a spot, because except for their limbs, neck, and face, they’re covered!  We can be ready in a flash — everybody throws on board shorts (the boys) or bikini bottom (ok, that’s me) and their rashguard t, and we’re off to the pool!

Ah, summer.

This post inspired by Curvy Girl Guide’s Project Real – National Swimsuit Confidence Week!  Real women all over the internet are donning swimsuits and showing the world that it’s ok not to be perfect or to look just like the models in the catalogs.  The project is popping up on blogs all over and has even been covered by Marie Claire!  I’m not part of the campaign — I’m just a fan!  Let’s get back in the pool! 

NASA Open House

Looking for something to do in the LA or DC areas this weekend?  Check out the NASA Open Houses in at least two areas across the country!  For West Coasters, there’s the JPL Open House in Pasadena, CA.  East Coasters, how about the GSFC Open House in Greenbelt, MD.  Both are free and open to the public — and a fantastic opportunity to get a peek into the nation’s space program!  Live farther away (like Australia or New Zealand)?  You can still take a peek at the latest news about our solar system AND a page of fun for kids at NASA’s Solar System Exploration page (also on Facebook).

Have fun!

Museum Mornings: Meadowside Nature Center

This morning we went out with The Moms from our little group. Five of us and our kids met at Meadowside Nature Center for our weekly museum outing, and we had a blast. The kids owned that place, making themselves comfortable in the pioneer home, cuddling up with the quilts, crawling through the kid-sized cave, and paddling along in the hollowed-out canoe, just like the Native Americans used to do. We played in the front room there for nearly two hours, quietly but creatively, and with the spirit of adventure.

I didn’t have to run after them once. This was a very kid-friendly outing, with just the right tools for the kids to use to create house scenes, adventure scenes, pioneer scenes, explore the “wilderness” indoors, and to do it all without a speck of adult intervention. (Minus the one time we had to rescue the pioneer buckets and such from the wilderness cave. I still don’t see the problem, but we do aim to be good neighbors.) The Moms got to sit and talk while the preschoolers played and the two-year-olds explored closer to us. It’s an incredible time for us now — the kids are independent and secure enough to explore nearby, while the moms finally get to sit and share more than a sentence at a time! We even got to hang with friend UrbanMama today — a playdate long in the making!

My mom and dad met us there. I’ve been excited about this trip ever since I talked to them last night and we arranged it (aren’t they wonderful!). It’s so wonderful to see them, even for short periods, and it was special to me that they were willing to meet my friends and see the boys in their native habitat, as it were. After a quick lunch at one of the boys’ favorite places, we were back home for an afternoon of … napping, apparently, as I slept all afternoon for the third fourth fifth day in a row. Sigh. I thought I could make it today, but it was not to be. I was so embarrassed when I woke up at a quarter til five!

But the good thing about family is that they love you anyway. At least, I hope they do!

…

Radiation Status: Day 26 of 35. My oncologist has stopped my treatment due to severe burns and blistering under my armpit. I’m also under orders to not cover the area, which means sleeveless or cut-away shirts for the next week or two. She is allowing treatment to continue on my mastectomy scar only, a different treatment, using electrons at a significantly higher energy (a more intense treatment than what I described recently). So I’ll get more burned, but over a smaller area. I’m still using the biafine cream three times a day, plus a special healing ointment (like neosporin, but gentler) for the blisters and open wounds in my armpit. It stings, like any burn would, but isn’t at all unmanageable.  My radiation techs (Kim, Kerri, Janice, and Pam) say my skin elsewhere is holding up really, really well.  I’m glad.

This morning my  post at Mamapedia goes live; I’m talking over there about how cancer makes me angry. If you’re a regular reader here, you’ve heard the story before. But maybe talking about it over there will reach one mom who has never heard of inflammatory breast cancer, or inspire one more mom to fight.