British period drama - It's not just moving matchsticks

I cannot hide my love of British period dramas.  I believe it first came upon me when I saw Pride and Prejudice (all 6 hours of it) on PBS when I was in high school.  I also think that's when I fell in love with Colin Firth.  But I digress.

PBS also brought me a Jane Austen Masterpiece marathon a couple years ago, where they showed the made-for-British-tv versions of Sense and Sensibility, Northanger Abbey, Emma, Persuasion, and of course they showed Pride and Prejudice (but I already had that one on DVD, so I didn't have to wait three weeks to see the whole thing!).  My joy knew no bounds!  Then last year they showed Cranford, which I also immediately got on DVD.  I was frantic when I couldn't find my copy of Gosford Park, only to find my mother had borrowed it.  I loved Young Victoria.  And while it's not a period drama, we now own the entire series of Jeeves and Wooster.  We watched it before the tv series House came on the air - let me tell you how shocked I was to see Wooster (Hugh Laurie) as an American doctor!

The greatest thing about all of this is that Seth loves it all, too.  The first time I made him watch Pride and Prejudice, and he liked the first episode and couldn't wait to see the next, I knew he was my true love.  Do you know why our daughter Elizabeth's nickname is Lizzie, not Liz or Beth?  Because Seth pointed out that Lizzie was Elizabeth Bennett's nickname to her family and close friends.

So in the beginning of January I read a review of Downton Abbey on NPR's website, and discovered it was written by Julian Fellowes, who wrote Gosford Park, and immediately knew we had to watch it.  As a bonus, Maggie Smith plays the Dowager Countess. 



So we watched it.  And it's awesome.  We were so excited to see the last episode tonight (Sunday), wondering how it all would end.  Would Mary say yes to Matthew's proposal?  Would Matthew lose his inheritance to Lord Grantham's unborn child, should it be a boy?  What truths would Anna find out about Mr. Bates?  At a certain point I hit pause, and realized there were only 13 minutes left, and there didn't seem to be any way it could all be resolved in 13 minutes.  And then it ended, and so many things weren't resolved, and then a note flashed on the screen stating that a second season is in production.  Excuse me, what?  Second season?  Seth will bear witness that I actually threw my hands in the air and yelled at the tv, while he, great husband that he is, had already pulled out his laptop to find out when the next season will air.  Only to see me throw myself dramatically across the sofa when I discovered they don't film the next installment until March 2011.

I'm going to write a nasty little note to the NPR reviewer - he or she should have mentioned that it was a series, and that next season is not yet in production!  How dare they get me excited about a British tv show like this, only to have the expected ending ripped from me!  I have no idea how I'm going to manage for the next year, because that's how long it's going to take before it comes on the air in the US.  Seth and I have already discussed that we're going to have to buy it on DVD, then watch it again to prepare for the second installment.  I suppose I will need to re-watch all of my Jane Austen DVDs and Cranford to quell my desire for British drama until then.  Sigh.

(And for those of you who don't get the title of this post, please refer to Eddie Izzard's "Dressed to Kill" comedy special.  Oh yeah, he's a British transvestite comedian.  And he's freaking hilarious.  Come up to me and Seth and say "Do you have a flag?" and we will fall over ourselves laughing.  Seriously.)

Crazy Schedule vs. Lazy Schedule

On Monday afternoons Anna has dance class.  I usually feel like the odd one out during it.  Most of the moms already know each other because their daughters have older siblings that go to school together, or swim together, or play soccer together, or they live in the same neighborhood, and so on and so forth, giving them plenty of topics of conversation that I don't really feel like jumping in on.  I also happen to like watching my daughter try out new ballet and tap moves, or I'm chasing after Lizzie, so even if I can jump into the conversation I'm usually a bit distracted by my kids.

But today's "mom conversation" amazed me because I discovered that people with kids Anna's age apparently like to plug them into as many activities as possible.  Two of the girls in Anna's class are also participating in swimming and soccer.  One of the moms was talking about putting her preschool daughter in a swimming clinic because it would "take her out of her comfort zone and push her to the next level."  What?

For a split second, I wondered if I was a lazy mom.  Obviously these moms are willing to spend the time, money, and energy to put their preschool daughters into all of these different activities and push them to be successful.  Am I doing my child any favors by not doing the same?  Shouldn't I be getting her involved in all sorts of different sports to determine where she has talent and can improve or excel?

This feeling only lasted for that split second.  Anna turns 5 in March.  She goes to Kindergarten this fall.  One of the reasons I quit my 9-5 job was so that I could spend more quality time with my children and have more of a direct impact on their day-to-day lives.  I can't really imagine, at this point in Anna's life, dragging her around to all of those different activities.  She asked for dance class, and it is only one hour, but with getting ready, getting there, and getting home, it takes 2 hours out of our Monday, at least, in addition to having to make lunch earlier and change nap time.  And adding more classes or practices would seriously cut back on the things Anna seems to love most - making up songs, coloring, dancing around the living room, coming up with crazy, outlandish stories involving her princesses and other toys, and generally being herself.

Maybe when she's in middle or high school and has a better idea of what she really wants to be involved in, then we'll have the crazy schedule I hear a lot of the other dance moms talking about.  But until then, I'm really only interested in my preschooler being a preschooler.  For other families, the packed schedule may be right around age 5, but I don't think it's right for us.  Hopefully this parenting decision won't scar my girls too much in the long run!

The awful, horrible, no good, very bad quiet time

Quiet time/nap time in our house is my sanity hour.  I can take a breather, waste some time with e-mail and surfing the internet, or make some important phone calls where I don't have "Mommy Mommy Mommy!" or incessant screaming going on in the background.  The house is peaceful.  Usually.  Then there are those days, like this past Monday, where it just doesn't happen.

I went with Anna to her room to begin quiet time.  She no longer naps, but she can play quietly and must stay in her room.  I point out to her on her clock what time she is allowed to leave the room.  On Monday, Anna had been begging to have her nails painted.  I told her that if she was good for quiet time then we would paint her nails afterwards.  Then I went to lay Lizzie down.  Lizzie is fighting a cold, so she was congested and couldn't fall asleep.  That's happened before, and I let her play quietly in her room as well, and shut her door.

I started tackling dishes (the ones I don't want the kids to "help" with), but a few minutes later I heard the pitter patter of two pairs of little feet in the hall upstairs.  I should note that Lizzie still hasn't figured out how to open her door, so the fact I could hear both of them either meant she had just now figured it out, or it meant that Anna had left her room and opened Lizzie's door.  So I went upstairs, found them both in the hallway, and Anna confessed that she had opened Lizzie's door.  I put Anna back in her room, pointed out to her that she would not get her nails painted now because she was supposed to stay in her room, and then put Lizzie back in her room. Of course, Anna was not a happy camper, and "quiet time" was no longer quiet as she fussed loudly about her punishment.  I decided to just ignore her alternating grumbling and crying about it, but she kept it up for a good 15 minutes.

It was nearing the end of quiet time when I heard a very loud thunk that sounded like it came from Lizzie's room.  I went upstairs and into her room, where I was confronted with disaster.  A piece of the curtain was ripped and hanging by just a thread, clothes were on the floor, a dresser drawer was also on the floor (hence the thunk), and pieces of black string and hundreds of blue beads were strewn across her room.  It didn't take me long to figure out that while out of her room earlier, Lizzie had gone into Anna's room and grabbed a beaded bracelet I let Anna play with, then pulled it apart.  I must have missed that she had it when I put her back in her room.

The way I spoke to both girls about the situation was probably not one of my finer parenting moments.  To say I was upset is definitely an understatement.  However, whatever I said, or the tone of my voice, something had an impact, because they were both perfect angels playing quietly and doing as they were told for the rest of the afternoon... at least until their daddy got home.  But I had sent him an e-mail immediately after cleaning up the destruction to tell him they were all his that evening, so I let him deal with that :)