The Physical (and Emotional) Pain of Parenthood – Ep. 371

Shanna

Hi, welcome to Big Fat Positive with Shanna and Laura. On this week's episode, we have our weekly check-ins. We have our special segment, Never Have I Ever Parenting Edition, where meow, meow, meow, meow, meow, meow, meow, meow, meow, meow, meow, meow, meow, meow. Don't worry, it'll make sense later. And we wrap it up with our weekly BFPs and BFNs. Let's get started.

Laura

So this week's check-in is going to be about doing things my kids would love without them.

Shanna

You've been going to Disneyland on the down low.

Laura

I have not, but kind of close, kind of close call there. So at the end of last week, I got a text from my friends, Abby and Martha, who are two moms of kids who my kids have actually like gone through all of preschool with. So like I've known them for four years at this point. Their older son was in Augie's class and their younger son has been in Sebastian's class. So, uh, you know, I really like them. We've hung out a bunch. Like we've actually hung out outside of school events without kids so like we've gotten to the point of being friends friends and they sent me a text message that was just like hey what are you doing on Tuesday would you like to go to the WB lot and watch a really screening of Superman.

Shanna

No, me neither. That's in Burbank, right?

Laura

Mm-hmm is in Burbank right across my old dentist actually Yeah, it's the one with the water tower, you know the Animaniacs water tower if you are a certain age you would know So I was like, yeah, fuck yeah, let's do it like why not I will take the morning off which ended up being the whole day which I'll get to um to do this And they're like, great, because I guess what happens is on the WB lot for all their employees, they have these friends and family days, which are kind of similar to what I think you had mentioned, like a take your kids to work day type thing. But it's a little bit more like opened up to friends or family that you have and is on a lottery system. Like not everyone can bring their people in on the same day. And they have it centered around these premieres, these screenings, right?

Shanna

I take it one of your friends works at WB or what was the connection there?

Laura

We snuck on. No, yeah. So Martha works there. Martha works at HBO, I guess. So like HBO is part of Warner Brothers, and that's the whole connection. I had to ask her, I was like, what exactly do you do? And she explained to me it was something about sales between theatrical and streaming release like the pre streaming window or something.

Shanna

Ah, yes, the windowing rights.

Laura

The windowing. Yeah, you know, people, people always say Hollywood is glamorous, and that is such a great example. The pre-wendoing rights department.

Shanna

Yes, your kids. It's like if I somehow went to a LaBoubou museum right now without my kids. It would make no sense for me, but boy would they be jealous.

Laura

All you have to do is walk around the Americana mall. That's like a LaBoubou museum right now, I feel like. But yeah, and then there was a Harry Potter section and you could like stand in Harry Potter's house with all the letters flying around from the first movie and Augie loves that scene. And so I tried to take a ton of pictures so that I'd be able to show them when I got home, but I definitely feel like it's one of those experiences that you don't realize is going to happen until you become a parent where you go and have cool things happen to you. And the very first thing you think of is like, oh, I wish my kids were here. You know what I mean?

Shanna

Yes, yes, I do indeed. I laugh this way because I feel like we always tend to line up with themes in a very serendipitous way because like one of my things I'm going to talk about in the special segment kind of is on this theme. Interesting.

Laura

Ooh, interesting little, little teaser there. But yeah, that's about it. I had a really fun little jaunt away to Hollywood land with my two mom friends from preschool. And we all felt a little weird that our kids weren't there. They, by the way, to not make them seem like bad parents, they couldn't bring their kids. The minimum age was six and their oldest is five. So they were like, you know, our older son is too young to bring. And also, I don't think he liked the movie. It's a little too Intense for him as far as I can tell and it was it was definitely a little intense and apparently he doesn't even like any conflict in movies So this one would not be the one for him.

Shanna

I was gonna say isn't that more an adult themed movie?

Laura

Yeah, I honestly, you know, my kids watch things that are probably way more advanced than they should and that's on a brag or an admission. It just is like the thing that's happened in our house is that they don't seem to be sensitive about things. Like, for instance, they've been begging us to watch Thriller for years, the Michael Jackson music video. And I keep saying no, because it's like, God, scary ghouls. And, you know, I remember it being spooky and scary. And then finally, Corey gave in and they watched it. And now all they can talk about is how not scary it was, you know?

Shanna

They're like, mom, you don't know anything.

Laura

Basically. That was nothing. Yeah, Sebastian, he can like barely say he's like, he's not scary, mama. It's not scary. It's not spooky. It's just all pretend. I'm like, okay, I'm glad you're not traumatized by it, but also, you know. But even for them who've watched, I mean, they've watched like Guardians of the Galaxy. Oh my gosh, I'm going to get so many letters from people being like your four year old has watched Guardians of the Galaxy. Saying it out loud sounds wrong. But I still think this there's a lot of fighting. There's a lot of punching. There's a lot of like blood, not a lot. But anyway, there's enough that I'm like, OK, no, not for them.

Shanna

But it was for me. Good. Well, it sounds like a super fun day, and I'm glad you got to take that tour and see all the cool stuff you haven't seen before. It's amazing how much stuff there is in this city that we haven't done, even though we've lived here forever.

Laura

Oh, I know. I've heard on the Happier in Hollywood podcast over and over that they tell people, like, go to the WB tour. It's the best studio lot tour. It's better than Universal, blah, blah, blah. Never done it. I've lived here 20 years, you know?

Shanna

Mm-hmm. Yeah. never even crossed my mind.

Laura

And then Corey was like, how have you never been on the lot? He worked on stalker. He worked on that lot. And I was like, I guess I just never showed up. I don't know. Or you never invited me. I don't know. Yeah.

Shanna

Yeah. I think you never invited me, sir. I think you never invited me.

Laura

But yeah, that's my check in for this week. Shada, what have you been up to?

Shanna

Well, if you listened to our show a couple episodes ago, you know I've got a little grumpy and a little merida on my hands. Those are their roles in their new musical theater production of Descendants. Roles that make no sense for that particular show, but it is what it is. But this weekend was that big debut. And I went to the shows. Yeah, they put those on so quickly. It is shocking. They pull together A full musical theater production was singing, dancing, acting in three weeks with children from ages five to like, I don't know, sixteen or something like that. It always blows me away. But look, it's not Broadway, right? It's the production value is not top notch. But it's your kids up there performing, doing what they learned. And it is so charming. It just always leaves me with the biggest smile on my face.

Laura

How could it not? That sounds so fun.

Shanna

It was so cute. Here, I'm going to send you a video of the girls doing a duet. They got a duet in one of the songs. They got a duet. All right, let's see.

Laura

Wow, this is so intense. It's snarky.

Shanna

Oh, it's very snarky. The characters in The Descendants are basically like evil villains, like Maleficent's daughter, Snow White, evil queen daughter, right? And so they're just very edgy characters. And they've been banished to this island alone and whatever. So yes, there's a lot of like snark and sass and like edgy characters in this. So of course my kids loved it, loved it.

Laura

Of course they did. It's so much more fun to play a villain truly truly.

Shanna

Yeah, it's fun to be sassy and evil and of course CECE rocked it is grumpy. She did her line crossed her arms made a stink face and stomped her foot and said her line. Yeah, it was just really fun. But as you can see on that video that the production value is pretty basic. They have really cute costumes and everything and the kids are really doing their best and the director does an amazing job wrangling these children. But it really cracks me up how no matter what I keep encountering parents who take literally everything so seriously. This time I'm in line waiting to go in and there are two parents behind me strategizing about how their kids can get the best parts possible in these productions. The dad, he acts like he knows it all, he's like, what they gotta do?

Laura

Oh man, that nine-year-old needs to work on her breath control. Let me tell you.

Shanna

Yes. The wildest thing, though, is that I'm sitting there going, oh, this is good. Maybe I should pass this information along to my kids next time they do the show.

Laura

Let it go. You know, I'm starting to really embrace wanting to be in the ensemble. You know what I mean? Like, not wanting the lead role. Like, there's something really nice about not having to have all that pressure. Yes. It's a lot of work. You get to have all the fun and none of the pressure by being in the ensemble.

Shanna

For sure.

Laura

Maybe I say this because I was relegated to the ensemble most of the time.

Shanna

Well, you didn't show up early, fast and hard. Raise your hand and belt tunes for the director, Laura. That would have gotten you the lead part, apparently.

Laura

Clearly. The only musical I ever auditioned for was in college. I'm, you know, I can sing okay. I have no real musical theater training and I never expected to be in a musical, but someone was putting on a musical they wrote for their thesis and they had asked me specifically to audition. And I was like, okay, fine. So I like practiced, practiced, practiced, showed up, belted my heart out, and then they just cast the person who was doing the musical direction for the play in that part. So that was fun. I think it was the person who asked me to audition took the role. So I'm like, message received.

Shanna

She's like, oh, I have no choice but to do it myself. My options are so bad.

Laura

There's no one else. She was a little pitchy.

Shanna

Yes, it's going to be a no from me dog.

Laura

It just reminds me of Randy Jackson in our days of watching American Idol. Oh, everything reminds me of watching American Idol. I do feel very validated for my obsession with early American Idol because right now Kelly Clarkson, everyone's like, there's like a Kelly Clarkson renaissance. I feel like everyone's suddenly appreciating her even more, probably because like the Kelly Yokey thing is going viral on TikTok all the time. And then Adam Lambert is apparently going to play Judas in the Jesus Christ Superstar at the Hollywood Bowl. And everyone's like, what? And I'm just like, uh-huh, that's because Early American Idol was peak television and you're welcome.

Shanna

Exactly. Stars were born. Stars were born.

Laura

So we're stars born during this production. Anything stand out or are we just happy being grumpy and Merida?

Shanna

Oh, they're always stars to me, Laura. And they elevated that star power even more by being brave, getting on stage and doing what they do. So. Yeah, that's pretty much all I have to say about that. Shall we move on to our special segment?

Laura

Yes, we should.

Shanna

Oh, I do. I do. Never have I ever done a scavenger hunt alone.

Laura

What's going on? I'm imagining you doing this at like, I'm gonna say like 6.30 a.m. just for funsies, just like literally broad daylight scavenger hunting.

Shanna

No, no. So your story about going and doing things without your kids reminded me of this because this is something I ended up doing without any kids. And I'm just like, what am I doing? Why am I doing this? So a few months back, you might remember I talked about how the girls and I had run into a world market, picked up some stuff, then walked next door and saw those dogs for adoption at Petco, right?

Laura

Yeah, the dog that almost was your second dog. You really got close there. I know.

Shanna

Rocko. Anyway, so when we went to World Market at first, there was an event going on because Easter was coming up. There were four hidden eggs around the store. And if you found one, you would get a gift card. And like four of them had already been found, right? They have this sign up front. And as people find them, they X off the one that's missing. And Elle saw this and was like, oh my gosh, we gotta find this egg. And Cici was like, we gotta find this egg. And so we looked everywhere around the store. And they were so excited about finding this egg, just running off in different directions. And there was this verve to it, right? I love a challenge. I love a scavenger hunt. And we did not find the egg before the last one got xed off. Someone else found it cut to the next day. One thing I bought at World Market broke and I needed to return it.

Laura

It's almost like this is a really good marketing plan for a world market. It's almost like they thought this through.

Shanna

That's why I felt like such a sucker, Laura. I felt like such a sucker, especially just being like this grown woman alone, being all competitive about this damn scavenger hunt because I also saw other people, mostly lone adult women, looking around, trying to match Lonely, find hidden eggs. And it was like we were all putting on this ruse, but trying to play it cool. And it was just the worst.

Laura

But you're all like side eyeing each other trying to go to different areas. 100%. Oh, yeah. I definitely need to look at these pillows. I just need to look under and inside every pillowcase. Just in case. I need to pat everything down just a little bit.

Shanna

I've never inspected the products at World Market better in my life.

Laura

Side note, I freaking love that store. Obsessed. Love it. Every time I walk in, I'm just like, oh, this is so nice. This place is, I don't buy almost anything. It's maybe like an international food item every once in a while. I just, we have one right around the corner, so. Oh, dangerous. Yeah, I know, I know, but.

Shanna

Such cute stuff.

Laura

It just smells good in there.

Shanna

Yeah, smells good, great furniture.

Laura

By the way, I have heard of this. I didn't know the details, but I do remember seeing on TikTok, someone posted a video was like, why are there a hundred women lined up outside of this world market, like 10 minutes before they open? And someone in the comments was like, oh, it's for some giveaway thing they do. Yeah, and so obviously, you're not the only person who's interested in this. So I wouldn't feel too weird about it.

Shanna

Okay, that makes me feel better. The word was not out about this one. There were no crowds. There was just a few creepers looking around for eggs. It was real low-key. And I was like, oh, Shanna, whatever. You know, no one's looking at you. Finally, I was like, I gotta call it quits. There's one egg left. I'm not gonna find it. It killed me to not be able to find it. So I'm like, I guess I'll go buy my bracelet and my tee and I go up to the cashier. And these irrational concerns I had, like, oh, people are watching me. People are thinking I'm a sucker or whatever. Well, that was confirmed because I swear to God, this cashier looked at me, looked at what I plopped down. He's like, mm. A bracelet and tea, huh? That's it. I'm like, what? After my hour of wandering around your store, he onto me, bruh. I was like, yep, that's it.

Laura

Plus, he would have had two extra lookers. Although I have to say it would stress me out should try to do that in a store with kids because I feel like my kids would drop everything on the ground. They'd be like digging through everything and just making a mess. So I don't think I could trust my kids with that kind of a scavenger hut. Yeah. It does sound fun though. I want to do it now.

Shanna

Yes. Well, let's get on their mailing list and see when the next one is and maybe we could go together. Combine efforts. What do you win?

Laura

What's the prize?

Shanna

There were various gift card amounts. You know, I think I was trying to get one that was like a hundred bucks or 50 or something. Well, that's fun. That's worth it. OK. All right. Yeah. Yeah. But no, no, Laura, I came out a loser. I didn't get anything and I lost an hour of my life. I think that's some tea. But you get a cute bracelet, though.

Shanna

It's some tea. You love tea. I do. Alrighty. That is my first never have I ever. Oh, what do you got for us?

Laura

Well, never have I ever punched myself in the nose while destroying a very expensive car seat.

Shanna

Oh, no. So many questions. How did you punch yourself in the nose? Why were you destroying an expensive car seat? What is happening?

Laura

None of it was intentional. It all really pissed me off because I did not want any of this to happen. Okay. So I was picking up some new patio furniture from someone in one of my mom's groups who was moving out of town. And I was like, is it all going to fit in my car? And she was like, well, you might need to take two trips. And I was like, well, what if I take the captain's seats out of my mini van. It's like a flatbed truck.

Shanna

Yeah.

Laura

I'm like, that should work. She's like, that should work. Yeah. But that's where the car seats are. So Sebastian's car seat was a Nuna Rava, which as you may know, those are expensive. I think it was like $550 when we bought it. Mm hmm.

Shanna

Oh, boy. Oh, boy. I feel like this is in Hong Kong real well.

Laura

There was subtle foreshadowing at the beginning when I told you I punched myself in the nose and destroyed a car seat so you can kind of see where this is going. So I'm holding this car seat over my head kind of by like the armrest area, you know, like the kind of curves around towards the foot area and squeezing, scooching by, scooching by as it starts to slip. And so it starts to slip. I try to catch it. I'm in this kind of narrow spot and it ends up in such a position that it's like slipping out of my fingertips at like a 45 degree angle towards the sky like from my face, right? Yeah. And as I'm like, no, no, no, no, no, holding trying to hold on to it. I can't like get a better grip because I'm kind of wedged between the car and the wall. It slips and the recoil. makes my hand punch back and I punched myself in the nose so hard.

Shanna

The most popular Google search in history. Yeah.

Laura

And as best I can tell, like no. It's one of those things where it's essentially like it was in an accident. You can't know if the plastic got weakened in the fall or something and like we're not taking risk. Like the point is I'm not taking a risk with my kid's life. And the good news is that Sebastian was, you know, maybe months away from outgrowing the Rava. So it's not that big of a deal, right? Like he was on the top end of it anyway. And I was going to have to buy him a new car seat, but I was just like, God, I'd be kidding. I'm like, really, I thought my nose would be bloody. That's how hard I punched myself, but thankfully it didn't. I didn't get a bloody nose. I'm like looking at this $500 car seat that I love. You know what I mean? Like it's not just like, oh, cause we got a good use out of it. It's not like you've prorated over the amount of car rides it took.

Shanna

Yeah, true, true. But I was just like, man.

Laura

So yeah, never have I ever punched myself in the nose while destroying a over $500 car seat. That was fun. That was a fun day.

Shanna

Yeah, I bet it was. Did your doctor say anything about your nose?

Laura

No, I don't think it was that noticeable, thankfully. I think maybe I am just a wimp. I've never been punched in the face for real, so maybe it's not what getting punched in the face feels like. I've only ever punched myself in the face or been punched by like a toddler, you know what I mean? Yeah, yeah, true. So I don't know, maybe it's not, maybe I'm overreacting. But I did get the patio furniture and it's very nice, so.

Shanna

Ooh, that's good. I mean, at least there's a happy ending.

Laura

Exactly. It wasn't all for naught, so. Anyway, Shanna, do you have another Never Have I Ever?

Shanna

Oh, I do. Never Have I Ever listened to entire songs that were completely meowed.

Laura

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. I have. I have done that too.

Shanna

Take a drink. Take a drink.

Laura

Okay, ready?

Shanna

Yes. I didn't realize at first why my children were meowing the lyrics to popular songs, like entire songs of meows, like Taylor Swift's Bad Blood. Oh, meows. Meow, meow, meow, meow, meow, meow. The entire song. I'm like, what is happening here? And then I realized it's because they have this game on their iPads called duet cats. And I don't know, it's a timing thing. They have to like hit the cats while notes or I don't even know cat food is falling down. And it's, you know, to the rhythm of these songs and the entire song in this app. They're all meows. So now my kids want to just meow to all these popular songs.

Laura

Oh, so they, it's humans meowing as though they were cats, but it's still humans doing it.

Shanna

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Laura

My humans, my children. You're humans. My version is that there are albums like this, Shanna.

Shanna

Oh, I'm going to make sure it stays buried.

Laura

I mean, save it for a real emergency when you just have to make them laugh, because it does work. We listen to them all through the Christmas season this year, and it really does make them laugh.

Shanna

You're like, take this Frank Sinatra. Jingle cats are here.

Laura

Oh yeah, for sure. They have, I mean, to be fair, I'm looking at the track list, Silent Night, then they have a combo, what child is this, Havana Gila?

Shanna

Yeah, I suppose so. I'm not sure how many people in the world can tolerate that kind of thing. You know, it's catchy because they're popular songs. Here, let's play a game, Laura. I'm going to meow a tune and you see if you can guess what it is.

Laura

Okay, meow that tune on it.

Shanna

I love that title for this segment.

Speaker 1

Meow, meow. I can't do it. Oh, God, okay.

Shanna

Every time I try to sing on this podcast, it's a disaster. Okay, here we go. Shanna, you're doing it in meows, okay? This is not opera. It's all good. Okay. Okay.

Speaker 1

Meow, meow, meow, meow, meow, meow, meow, meow, meow, meow, meow, meow, meow, meow, meow, meow, meow, meow, meow, meow, meow.

Laura

Meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow

Shanna

It says Sabrina Carpenter. Now I'm thinking of Pink Pony Club. But it's Sabrina Carpenter, right?

Laura

You are right. You are right. It's espresso. Espresso.

Shanna

Yes. Yes. Oh, I think that's definitely one that my kids meow the entire thing to for sure.

Laura

May our meowing paths never cross. May my kids never introduce jingle cats to your kids and may your kids never introduce just generally meowing songs to my kids.

Shanna

Oh yeah, that's gonna work out well. We have a real good track record of my kids not teaching your kids about bullshit music.

Laura

Oh my gosh. All right, Lord, do you have one more for us? I do, but do you think we should do it after the meow? I think we should.

Shanna

We are back and Laura has one more and never have I ever for us. Laura, what you got?

Laura

Never have I ever taken a Lego bath. Oh, what? What? Actually, to be fair, I have never taken a Lego bath. I have given a Lego bath recently. And here's why. Ah, okay. So recently, while my kids were playing in their massive Lego bin, which is like a soft sided pouch thing, like this gigantic drawstring pouch that in theory could close up and like contain the Legos in except for it's always such a mess in our playroom, it never ever gets closed up. That just sits in the corner and this giant pile of Legos. And we were playing and they called me over and I was playing with them and I smelled something and I was like, Is that cat pee? Does that smell like cat pee? And it wasn't super strong. And it was way in the corner. But I was just like, you know what, guys? I think it's high time to wash these Legos. Like, I don't know if Magnus and his like final days wandered over there.

Shanna

Oh, there is someone taking a bath in the water with the Legos. That is a lot of Legos. Holy cow.

Laura

Wow. It's so many Legos. We got a huge amount of Legos hand me down like Legos from another mom when I think Augie turned four or something. Just an enormous amount. So most of these are the ones we got from there. And then we've added, you know, from different sets. But yeah, we don't have a shortage of Legos.

Shanna

Oh, oh, and you added a video. Let me see. Oh my gosh. You are scooping Legos out of a huge cardboard box with a good size bin. This is a lot of Legos. Let's see what you do with this bin here.

Laura

Doopie do right in the water. I did warn Augie that he had to pee before he got in the bath. I was like, this is not a bath you can pee in. You really shouldn't be peeing in your other baths, but I know you do. And he was like, oh, OK.

Shanna

Thank God. So funny.

Laura

But anyway, now all these Legos are drying on towels in my office. It's just insanity.

Shanna

That is so wild. I feel like I'm having an inkling of a memory of did I Say some kind of hack at one time about washing small toys in the tub. Like it's, I honestly don't know, but it's like reminding me and I needed to mention it in case our listeners are like, oh, Sean, I mentioned that before.

Laura

Yeah, I have a vague memory of you saying something like that. Yeah, of like using a lingerie bag maybe. I don't know, but I had obviously way too many to use any kind of lingerie bag.

Shanna

Yeah. Oh my gosh, that's wild. Well, I'm glad they got nice and clean. Do they smell better?

Laura

I mean, I don't smell any pee anymore. And I will say the first wash was kind of gross. Like I was like, OK, this could use it. Like it's the cloudy, dirty water was proof that it was time to wash the Legos.

Shanna

Well, a second rinse is a good idea. You weren't like taking a little straw brush and scrubbing each individual one. Were you like sticking it inside the single Lego hole underneath?

Laura

If you find me doing that one day, Shonda, gently move me away, okay? Maybe call Cory and be like, hey, Cory, someone needs to check on Laura.

Shanna

Fair enough, fair enough, fair enough. Not necessary is what you're saying. That's not a necessary task in life. Okay, got it.

Laura

Not necessary. But do you know what I'm actively resisting is sorting them now. Like I really want to sort them either by color or size or something. And I just have to be like, no, Laura, you have other shit to do. But I'm looking at them all spread out in my office being like, oh, but now's my chance. And I know that it would last two seconds. Yeah. Like they wouldn't actually keep it that way, but I'm just like, but we could actually build stuff finally. No, I need to step away from the Legos.

Shanna

Step away, step away. You've done a good thing already by cleaning them.

Laura

Yes. I mean, truly never have I ever thought I would be a person who would wash Legos. Like I did not think I would care, but here we are.

Shanna

Yeah, yeah. Oh, the things parenting does to you.

Laura

Yep, indeed. But that is it for my Never Have I Ever's, and I think that might be it for our segment. Shall we move on? Yes, we shall.

Shanna

We wrap up every episode with our big fat positives or big fat negatives of the week. Laura, you're up first. I want to know what you got.

Laura

I have a BFP. All right. Okay. Mine is very silly, but it's a little thing that's brightening all of our days. And that is that we live in downtown Glendale, as I've mentioned, which is a very It's a pretty densely populated area. There's a lot of condos and apartments and stuff. And we live a couple blocks from Brand Boulevard, which is full of restaurants and shops and stuff. And as a result, we seem to have attracted a new piece of technology, which is the food delivery robot. What?

Shanna

Oh my gosh, I bet the kids love that.

Laura

They've started popping up over the past few months and we would see them just here and there as we'd be like driving somewhere. I'd be like, oh my gosh, delivery robot. And the first couple of times the kids didn't see it. And I felt like such an idiot for pointing them out. You know, I was like, oh no. But now they're all over the place and we see them all the time. And they love them. They just get such a kick out of seeing them. They're all anthropomorphized. So they have these like blinking eyes. I don't know if you've seen any around.

Shanna

I feel like maybe I saw one in San Francisco, or maybe I'm just thinking of the food delivery robot at the sushi restaurant we ate at in San Francisco. But this is one that leaves the restaurant and delivers it to other locations.

Laura

Yeah, they just roll around on the sidewalk. Now we'll go on walks and be like, oh, hey, delivery robot. They all have names on them, so you're like, hey, Claude. It just rolls by you. It's so funny to watch them trying to figure out how to cross the street. I keep waiting for one to get run over like it's inevitable. Yeah.

Shanna

I mean, it seems like a bad idea to me, but you know, I don't know.

Laura

I'll send you a picture in a second, but. They're around a lot right and so we've seen them a lot and I keep thinking oh I should order food and just try to like keep ordering food and hoping it comes by robot because my friend Amy has been doing that our friend Amy. She lives like right down the street right. She's been doing that just to get the robot just for kicks like to have a little Little joy in her life and so she's message me being like oh the robots coming if your kids want to see. I never been able to intercept her robots but the other day we had a play date with one of August friends and as they were leaving up rolled Magnolia who is on delivery Magnolia very fancy name. Very fancy. And so here I put one picture in our shared folder. The kids took a whole series of photos with this robot.

Shanna

Oh my gosh. Okay. So that was not a robot for you.

Laura

It was a robot for someone else. But it was like stopped. It wasn't going anywhere. I don't know. But I don't know if we were the ones keeping it there. I don't know.

Shanna

Well, yeah, because it's in the parkway. It's not even on the sidewalk. So yeah, maybe it ran off the road. OK, I could see why they would like this. Very, very.

Laura

Yeah, they do that on purpose. They're kind of cute.

Shanna

Mm hmm. Wow, it's like a cooler on wheels with blinking eyes.

Laura

Exactly. And I guess when it arrives, you scan your phone and it opens up for you. I still don't think it could be faster than a person, but I don't know. Watching them try to navigate the intersections, I'm like, there's no way this is faster. Oh my gosh, recently we had that car night on Brand Boulevard where they shut down the whole street. I talked about it last week.

Shanna

Yeah, yeah, I'm into that. I'm into whimsy.

Laura

Next time you guys come over, we should just try, like put it in the budget to try to get a delivery robot. And because how your kids would lose their minds.

Shanna

Oh, absolutely. There's got to be like some kind of like download knowledge of which restaurants are using them, right?

Laura

Oh, Amy's got all the info. Nice. Like she's been researching this. She's sent me a whole thing. She's like, they seem to be hanging out on this intersection and you need to order from, you know, postnates, not grub hub or whatever.

Shanna

Yeah. Oh, right. Love Amy. Awesome. Awesome.

Laura

So yeah, that is my BFP.

Shanna

That's so great.

Laura

What do you have, a BFP or a BFN?

Shanna

I also have a BFP. Woohoo. This weekend, we went to a pool party of someone in the neighborhood, actually a new mom that I met at a previous party and she was like, you should come to our pool party. And I was like, okay, stranger, we'll be there. And we did show up and it was very fun. There were a lot of kids in the same school as my girls and stuff. So it was great. But the big BF is that CeCe was like, I don't wanna wear my floaty vest, mama. I was like, you gotta wear the floaty vest. And she's like, I don't really want to. And there was a lifeguard and she has been taking a lot of swimming lessons lately. There was a lifeguard, you know, and she was very independent at the last pool party we went to wearing this vest and everything. So I was hemming and hawing. And as CeCe is want to do, she bullies her way into what she wants because she's so determined. She didn't bully, right?

Laura

I feel the same way about my kids. Like, I don't want to admit it, but it's just like the things I do because I'm scared of the melting down. I'm just like, sure.

Shanna

Yeah, for sure. Yeah, like another child, a parent might say no. And that kid's like, OK, not CECE, right? Um, so I was like, okay, let me see how you do. So she hopped in, started swimming around, and I was like, what the fuck? She can swim. Like, I don't know when I missed this. Or I don't know. Like, I don't watch the swimming lessons because they don't let parents in there. I sit in the lobby or exercise. Oh, interesting. Yeah. Yeah. So I didn't really know that she like, learned how to swim. And she's like, see mama? And she's like swimming all over. She's like, She knows how to like pop up and down and get breaths and everything. And I was like, wow, okay. I'm like, well, you know what? There is a lifeguard and I'll keep an eye on you. Why don't you just stay in the shallow end? And you can swim without your floaty. She's like, but I want to go on the deep end.

Laura

Oh, great. You're like fully clothed ready to jump in. I guess the lifeguard was there for that.

Shanna

Yeah, so I'm like, all right, fine. I'll just see how you do in the deep end. She runs over, goes down, they had like this inflatable slide, the end of the pool, super fun. Slides down, shoo shoo shoo, swims like the full length of the pool all the way back to this shallow end. She's like, see mama? I'm like, wow, you can swim. Okay. And she spent the next three hours swimming at a pool party without a floatie.

Laura

Nice. Yeah. That's a huge milestone.

Shanna

Uh-huh. Huge milestone. And it was scary for me. I was like, I, you know, I'm just terrified of water and making sure that they're strong swimmers. And I don't know, just the right combination of events just made me be like, okay, let me see. And then I was surprised.

Laura

Like, she's- Meanwhile, she's been able to swim like this for like six months, but you had no idea.

Shanna

That's hilarious. Yeah, that's probably the case. Finally, she was like, that's it, mom.

Laura

I play Carnegie with them. It reminds me of these stories you hear of people who go traveling with their little kids and all of a sudden, they'll just start speaking another language because their nanny speaks it or they hear it in school and they had no idea. The things our kids learn without us knowing, be like, oh, okay.

Shanna

Right? Yeah, that's exactly like, yeah. Like what? Oh, okay. Sweetie learned to do that thing and mommy had nothing to do with it.

Laura

That's not true. You put her in all those swim classes and took her all the time and you had lots to do with it.

Shanna

That's true. That's true. That's true.

Laura

Yeah. That's great.

Shanna

Yeah. Growing up, getting independent. And yeah, pretty wild.

Laura

That's awesome. I feel like Augie's on the cusp. Like when we've gone to hotel pools and stuff like that, he's spent some time without his life vest on and he's he's getting there. You know what I mean? Like, I think it's just a matter of a couple visits and we're going to we're going to be there. So maybe it's time to get him in proper swim lessons again.

Shanna

Yeah. Yeah. Maybe even just like a month. You know, just to solidify it and stuff.

Laura

Yeah. Yeah.

Shanna

Well, that's awesome.

Laura

Yay.

Shanna

Good job, CeCe. But yeah, that's it for me and I believe that's it for our show. Unless Laura, do you have a new five star review to read? I do.

Laura

We got a new five star review from someone who goes by science is cool, which I agree science is very cool 100% the title of the review is listener since 2019 five stars I love this podcast. It gives a real look at parenting while being positive They approach life and challenges with humor. On top of that, I learned a lot of random facts and fun things about parenting, mothering and kids. Thank you so much. That is like, I feel like that is such a clear summary of what we do.

Shanna

Yes. I was just going to say that is exactly what we set out to do more or less than when we started the show. We had a very clear vision of what we wanted to do and communicate and how we wanted to communicate it. And I love that we're achieving that and listeners appreciate it. That's amazing.

Laura

And thanks for being here since 2019. That's like almost OG. Yep, yep, yep, yep. Well, thank you, Science is Cool. I think you count. I think 2019 counts as OG.

Shanna

I think so. Yep, yep. We'll give it to you. Bring it to the club, the OG club. Listeners, if you haven't had a chance yet, can you please do us a favor and head on over to Apple Podcasts, Spotify, wherever you listen. Leave us five stars, say a few things you love about the show, and we might read your review on an upcoming episode. And if you have any thoughts, questions, feedback, or anything else that you would like to share with us, please reach out. We love hearing from you. Laura, where can everyone find us?

Laura

We're on all the social medias at VFB Podcast. We have a website, BigBatPositivePodcast.com. And if you want to send us an email, send it to contact at BigBatPositivePodcast.com. Finally, you know you want to do it. You know you want to join the coolest group of people on the internet. To do so, you got to go to Facebook. search BFP community, and it's a private group. So you got a request to join and answer those two membership questions so we know you're not a robot. But once you do that, you'll be sent straight through to all the wonderful, amazing, supportive conversations we're having in there.

Shanna

Our show is produced by Laura Birek, Shanna Micko, and Steve Yager. Thanks for listening, everyone. Have a big, fat, positive week. Bye. Bye.