Parenting is full of surprises. Certain things I knew I would definitely do... or not do. Some things I left to fate. Other things I have done complete about-faces on from what I thought I would do (lol the idea of making my own baby food). And then there are the things you can't plan for. 

I always thought I would be a "Mommy." It's what I called my mom. It's what I call myself. It's what my husband calls me when talking to our kiddo. I figured, because that's what we did, I would be "Mommy" until kiddo outgrew it... hopefully not until college.

I did not count on the influence of Daniel Tiger. This was the first TV show we freely let our kiddo watch and she was quickly a fan. On that show, Daniel's mom is Mom Tiger. Mom - not Mommy. Slowly but surely our kiddo stopped calling me Mommy and moved to Mom. I had no idea how sad I would be about that change. But, I let it happen because this was definitely not something that needed to be corrected.

Then, this week, out of nowhere, kiddo started calling me "Mommy" again. I don't know what prompted the change but those extra two letters coming out in our kiddo's cute voice makes my heart melt. 

​I don't think it will last, but I'm going to relish being "Mommy" again for as long as I can. 

This marks the 150th (!!!) edition of The Weekly Wrap. Thank you so much for subscribing and reading each week. I love to hear from you! Feel free to share any comments (or recommendations) in the comments or by replying to this message.

I just started reading Just Stab Me Now by Jill Bearup. If it’s even half as enjoyable as her TikTok series, I’ll be happy. So far, so good. Go watch those videos! They’re great.

*Books shared here are affiliate links for Bookshop.org

• Glorious looking global breads. [CNN]

• Hard to believe these are made from glass. [Colossal]

• Morbid but fascinating data about death. [WaPo - gift link]

• The smart way to use ChatGPT in research. [CHOICE]

• The rise of dopamine culture. [The Honest Broker - reader submission]

• Are we putting too many things into orbit? [CNN]

• How TV influences what we perceive jobs to be. [99% Invisible]

• Communicate better. [Life Kit]

• A beginners guide to investing. [Life Kit]

• How the US Navy ended up protecting the high seas. [Planet Money]

• As problematic as Jeremy Clarkson is, I still enjoy watching The Grand Tour. They recently released the new episode, "Sand Job."  This particular episode felt like it was reliving a lot of old bits from past specials. That made it kind of stale. The funniest moments were the clearly unplanned ones - like Hammond developing a weird relationship with his car. I genuinely laughed at those. [Amazon Prime]

• One show I was happy to see get a reboot was Leverage. The Redemption episodes are fantastic. We started season 2 this week and everything it still a fun and zany caper. Hardison is back for more cameo episodes. I miss him as a regular, but the changes they made with new cast members works well. This show is so campy and it's great. [Amazon Prime]

• It feels like it's been ages since we ate chicken. I tossed together chicken with spinach and mushrooms. To make this an easy weeknight meal, the husband sous vided the chicken so all I had to do was sear it off. I did that in the same pan as the veggies so it picked up the mushroom and wine flavor. Delicious! [Real Simple via My Evernote]

• When it comes to chips, we tend to only keep the Sun Chip variety around. During the last grocery run, I let the kiddo pick out the flavor. She selected the new Chili Lime variety... because the bag was purple - her favorite color. They weren't bad but all the flavors are subtler than I thought they should be. The garden salsa is better. [Sun Chips]

I made this graphic for “reasons” about a month ago. I got to reshare it in a presentation I gave this week and I’m still tickled that people get it.

With all of the moon landings happening (and an eclipse on the horizon), I thought this would be a good time to share NASA’s Daily Moon Guide. A delightfully interactive page on all things Moon! You can customize and play around to improve your backyard astronomy.

I need to start working on my faculty portfolio. Again. I know WHY we do this but UGH, so much mundane work.