The video rental guy made me sad today... and Being a Boy Mom

I went to our local video rental store, Video To-Nite, this evening trying to find season 2 of the tv show Modern Family. Unfortunately I got a little hooked on it on the flight from the US to NZ -- I was laughing uncontrollably on the flight trying not to wake up Liam. That being said, NZ is not a good place to get hooked on a tv show. For starters, we don't have a tv here. This wasn't a problem in the US because we could stream the occasional episode of The Office or Saturday afternoon Florida Gators football game. The NZ gov't blocks almost all streaming video from the US. No nbc.com, no CBS sports.com, and no Hulu. As a result, the neighborhood video rental store (a relic of the past in the US) is still thriving in NZ.

When I went to the video rental store tonight, I asked about Modern Family season 2 (originally aired Sep 2010) and he said it should be in later this week. I explained that in the US we stream most of our tv shows, and he got a semi-horrified look on his face and crossed his fingers and said hopefully it doesn't catch on in NZ. I want to say to the video rental guy, "Sir, I coming back from the future to tell you that video rental stores won't exist in the near future in your country... it is time to start looking for a new profession, or consider opening a new type of store store, or a new something..." It kind of made me sad... I felt very nostalgic in the store as he advised me on different kiwi films -- it was nice, and not really possible when streaming entertainment from home...

On another note, I like being a boy mom. I'm sure it is super sweet being a girl mom and perhaps not that much different, but I really, really like being a boy mom.  Wow - I never dreamed it would be this much fun to have boys. Charlie got a Hot Wheels loopy track thing from a friend at his birthday party (pics from party later - I promise!) and I was a little mystified at how to put it together... I've seen them before, but with four daughters, I don't think we ever had one in our home. Jason (coming from a family with three sons) kept saying: "this is so cool, this is so cool." He was thrown back to his childhood and had so much fun playing with Charlie. I am thankful for these new experiences with my little men. I'm just having a lot of fun.

Charlie is BIG into imaginative play lately (of course, usually involving trains) - our whole home is a train, divided into dining, sleeping, toilet and sitting cars.  He also takes these buckets and makes them into train seats for all of us to ride. 

This Boy Mom did splurge today and got her haircut (the first one in over a year - YIKES!). It was so, so nice... I left Liam with a really great babysitter and Charlie was at creche. As I left our home, I felt naked without kids, diaper bags or strollers... it was a really foreign feeling. After getting super cute, I met Jason for lunch at work and got a few hours in at work.

This is our friend Minnie (Minneline) from church who is helping us to watch Liam.   She went to beauty school and works part time at a salon in the city.   She reminds me of my sisters!  (combination of Emily, Maria, Juliet and Ashley!)

The video below shows Charlie passed out after a dinner run.  We bought one of those coupon Entertainment books for Wellington.  On Monday or Tuesday evenings (slow times at restaurants - so we don't feel too obnoxious with our double BOB stroller) our tradition has been to run a 5k and end up at a restaurant from the coupon book.

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