"what am I supposed to do with him?" and other questions mothers ask

Henry has recently dropped his morning nap. Some of you are either cheering because you remember the freedom that came with being able to be away from your house for longer than an hour and a half at a time. Some of you are crying because the loss of a nap is a sad thing. I agree with both, though I probably fall more in the camp of the latter.

I love naps and at different times have felt stumped with what exactly to do with him while he's awake. I had this image of other {super} moms out there who were doing crafts or baking. In my mind these moms had also showered for the day, brushed their teeth and had make-up on, maybe even jewelry. I used to give Henry baths in the morning because I couldn't think of anything else to do.

With the recent shift in our routine I find myself asking other questions:
:: when am I supposed to bathe now?
:: when do I exercise?
:: how do I make other mommy friends?
:: what am I supposed to do with him from 8am until 1pm?

I recently posed that last question to my friend, Carrie, who answered two words that have changed my life.....Grandma Snazzy.

Grandma Snazzy is a woman in her 70's who has been doing story time for kiddos for 15 years. She plays the same cassette tape with songs that automatically play twice in a row - kids do the motions, moms do the motions. She reads a story, there's coloring and then a snack. People don't even really call it "story time," it's just "Grandma Snazzy." "We're going to Grandma Snazzy," one might say. She remembers every child's name. We met Snazzy as we were arriving and as we left, she called Henry by name.

So far I have two favorite things about it all : 1) it's free and 2) it happens in the Kroger. That's right, Kroger. Three days a week, the community room at the Kroger in Crabapple transforms from a room that on other days of the week is probably used for staff meetings into sheer corny and old-fashioned magic.