March 29th, 2009
Written by: Julie Cole
Yes, Chachi loves Mabel (indeed, we like to think he ditched Joannie for Mabel).
If you don’t know this already, I’m hopeless with pop culture. Here is my list of admissions/confessions:
- I don’t own an i-POD, MP3, and don’t really know what a PVR does. And is Blu-ray just a fancy DVD?
- Despite my older children being ages nine, eight, and six, I have never seen an episode of Hannah Montana, heard a Jonas Brothers song or seen a High School Musical movie;
- I wouldn’t know Adam Lambert if he sang a tribute to me;
- I know there was some sort of drama on The Bachelor about a last minute switcheroo. I think both girls had names that started with the letter “M” – that’s all I know;
- I’ve never heard the Donald say “you’re fired” or seen Chef Ramsey throw someone out of a kitchen;
- I have never seen a single episode of any reality TV show, including any and all Survivors.
The only celebrities I know are the mamas. I don’t know much about their movies or TV shows, but could probably tell you what their favourite Mabels products are. We’ve managed to collect a handful of celeb customers including Elisabeth Hasselbeck, Lisa Rinna, Brooke Sheilds, Jennifer Garner and Reese Witherspoon – to name but a few. Some others try to order under an alias, but we clever Mabel mamas can’t be fooled (uh, real names appear on credit cards).
Sure, it was cool to be in Tori Spelling’s loot bags last week and what business doesn’t like a bit of buzz and press over such an event? But, if you ever find yourself wandering the halls and offices at Mabel’s headquarters, most Mabel staffers will tell you the same thing – what we love most about what we do is having a customer base of mamas who are JUST LIKE US!
We’re all just trying to get through the day without losing our patience with our kiddos. We hope to get a healthy meal into their gobs occasionally. We struggle with guilt over things that are generally out of our control. We share in the frustration of completing Gr. 3 math homework and science projects. We too get bored of packing up school lunches.
Everyday at our office we get comments, e-mails and phone calls from you that remind us that we are all in this together. So to our real life Mabel mama customers (who don’t have a team of nannies and do not have to dodge the paparazzi), thanks for keeping us going – you’re the ones who make it all worth while.
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March 23rd, 2009
Written by: Julie Cole
to share this link! Tori Spelling loves Mabel’s Labels and used them in her son’s 2nd birthday loot bags!
http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20267217,00.html
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March 22nd, 2009
Written by: Julie Cole
I’m currently writing an article for Mother’s Day about mamas who don’t have their own mothers around. It’s fascinating to me that people can raise children when their own moms are not retired, living locally, emotionally involved or alive. So, you have that happy read to look forward to. In the meantime it got me thinking about another valuable player in the extended family – the childless aunt.
I had a childless aunt who we tragically lost to breast cancer a dozen years ago when she was only 46-years-old. For the time that we did have her, she was a committed babysitter, sleepover participator, baseball and hockey game attendee, dance recital enthusiast and crazy eights player. She set out to make each and every one of her 16 nieces and nephews feel tremendously special and did a decent job of it.
My children are fortunate to have a collection of seriously invested and interested aunts and uncles. But there is a unique relationship they have with my childless sister, affectionately known to all as “Mare”.
A couple of weeks ago, my Number One Son announced that Monday was his favourite day of the week. It made no sense to me – Monday is the first day back at school and on Monday evenings he attends a two-hour reading group. Not exactly a nine-year-old boy’s idea of fun since reading group is a far cry from hockey games or Pokemon battles. He reminded me that on Mondays my sister, Mare, picks him up from reading group and takes him for a burger before returning him home.
During their time together, my boy gets to tap into Mare’s knowledge and experience, which is wide and varied. I’m not sure why or how, but Mare is fluent in the language of “nine-year-old boy” and can speak in length and detail about Star Wars, sharks, retro comic books, cartoons, etc. Clearly, it just doesn’t get much better than that!
When we are all at the cottage, I’m fairly occupied keeping the place tidy, fixing lunch and settling babies for naps. While I’m doing those little tasks, Mare is swimming with the kids, setting up treasure hunts or collecting bugs with them. My kiddos think that my older sister is a teenager.
When we become mamas, we suddenly recognize and value our relationships in different ways. In preparing the Mother’s Day article it became quite clear to me that those of you who are doing this mama gig without a mother OR a childless sister are pretty impressive. Kudos to you – I don’t know how you do it.
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March 15th, 2009
Written by: Julie Cole
I felt young when I had my first baby. I was in my late-twenties but had always imagined I wouldn’t get started until I was in my thirties. You see, I just had too much to do and didn’t need a baby slowing me down. Turns out, sometimes they don’t slow you down but speed you up. Regardless, as time passed and the number of babies increased, so did the number of candles on my birthday cake. Last week I blew out 38 of the damn things.
Generally I’m not bothered by aging. We all know that 40 is the new 30 and having babies a little later in life is getting more and more common. I went into this pregnancy feeling well and up for the task.
But the issue of maternal age has always been a discussion point. In days gone by, the older mother was frowned upon. My grandmother gave birth for the last time at the ripe old age of 46 and was subjected to some pretty rude comments. While in hospital delivering her last baby, a nurse scolded grandma telling her that she should be “ashamed” of herself. In addition, she had to cop the grief of some of her embarrassed teenage/adult children.
While those social stigmas may no longer apply, maternal age is still relevant. Somewhere between my fourth and fifth pregnancy, I reached the magical age of 35-years-old. Apparently from there on in, it all goes down hill for pregnant women and their fetuses. I began being treated as though I was elderly – amnio offered around every corner and suggestions of a tubal ligation during the c-section to avoid another pregnancy at this late stage in life. It seemed odd to me since I had been pregnant with my fourth child only a few months earlier. Apparently my 35 candles put me into a whole new statistical category intended to scare off the faint-hearted mamas.
It’s one thing not to be bothered by becoming a mother in your late thirties, but another entirely when you have to surround yourself with young mothers. For those who have followed this blog, you may recall that there have been three recent weddings my children have been involved in. Well, my three bride cousins have now either just given birth or are just about to. Did I mention that these bride cousins were born in the 1980s?
So if you happen to be at a park this summer and see three energetic new mamas looking like teenagers with their noticeably absent crows feet, those are my cousins. You’ll easily recognize me with them – I’ll be the old hag with the bags under my eyes.
Yes, those Brides who look more like Jr. Bridesmaids are going to be mamas!
March 8th, 2009
Written by: Julie Cole
A week of battling illness has provided the opportunity to make some observations:
1) Very strange and seemingly unconnected symptoms occur as the result of pregnancy. In my case, a simple head cold morphed into a serious sinus infection. Apparently pregnancy and sinuses are connected. This is strange to me because last I checked my sinuses are really far away from my uterus. My sinus infection made me feel like someone took me out back and beat the living daylights out of me. I was shocked when the mirror didn’t reflect how I was feeling – I fully expected to see two black eyes, bruised cheeks, missing teeth and bleeding ears. And I don’t know who let the little guy with the knife into my head, but I didn’t appreciate him stabbing my brain every time I moved or coughed. So, pregnancy means you get sinus infections which makes about as much sense as pregnancy causing carpal tunnel syndrome and skin tags. It’s just plain weird.
2) Drugs for pregnant women just don’t cut it. We need those big pharmaceutical companies to hire a bunch of pregnant mamas. My Doc did prescribe some meds but they were crappy and slow acting. Pregnant women are not allowed all the good drugs. When I felt even worse the next day, I left my Doc a voicemail requesting an immediate house call for a head amputation. My Doc opted for an alternative plan and had the pharmacy deliver more crappy and slow acting drugs.
3) My sick bed transforms into a social hub of action. Why when daddy-o is sick he can disappear to bed, shut the door and have two days of uninterrupted rest? I look around my sick bed and there is a sea of small bodies surrounding me at all times. At one feverish moment I thought it was the 1960s and I was trapped in John and Yoko’s love bed. I expected the kids to break out into rounds of “Give Peace A Chance”.
4) I hear so much about Thursday night TV and from my sick bed this week I experienced it for the first time. For all you Greys fans out there, I have news for you – there is something worth turning the channel for. I felt sick enough without having to watch Meredith moping around. There’s a show called “30 Rock” that is so funny I didn’t mind that my brain felt like it was going to explode with every chuckle.
During sinus hell week, I also had my birthday. All I really wanted for my birthday was a beautifully wrapped bottle of pain killers to be washed down with a lovely glass of wine. Is that too much to ask? Ah well, there’s always next year!
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