The Weekend Escape Part 1

Last weekend, I hopped on a plane and jetted out to Napa Valley, California for a getaway weekend with 150 other moms...that I didn't know. I went to Manic Mommies Escape '09. The Manic Mommies are Erin and Kristen, a couple of ladies from Massachusetts who produce a podcast every week about raising their kids and the "joys" of parenting. Sometimes they have guests on their show, from pediatricians to authors of parenting books to other moms. Other times they just sit and chat. Either way, it is a great show and they always make me laugh.

I started listening to Manic Mommies when Jack was about 5 months old. He had decided that I was the only one who could hold him before bedtime and that he needed to be held until he fell asleep. This would seem to take for - ever. I would have to wait until he started twitching and relaxing and then I'd wait until that was all done and then I'd wait a little longer, just in case. (A few long months later we let him cry it out and after a couple tough nights, he became very easy to put to bed. A different story these days.)

After many nights of being frustrated with how long I had to hold Jack, Pat suggested that I listen to my iPod while I was holding him. My nice, new, expensive iPod that had barely been used in the year that I'd owned it. It turned out to be a great idea. I went to iTunes and searched for podcasts about moms and stumbled across Manic Mommies. I have been listening to them ever since.

They started holding a yearly Manic Mommies Escape for listeners to get away and meet other moms without their children. The first one was in 2007 in Newport, RI. I would have loved to have gone to that one, but we were just getting ready to move up there a month later. Last year it was a cruise in the Caribbean and we had to commit in June, before Pat showed up to his ship and had any idea of his schedule. Now that I think about it, I would have had a broken foot anyway and would have had to cancel.

This year, I decided I was going, no matter what I had to do to get there and where it was. It turned out to be in Napa Valley and I was very excited since I'd never been there.

To be continued...