Our little monster is eight years old today. To celebrate her birthday, she’s bringing Munchkins to school and having a small slumber party. We plan to tire the girls out by taking them to dinner and a movie (“Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2”) before they wreak havoc in their pajamas.
Category Archives: Chief Mom Officer Musings
Chloe the Motivator
Chloe knows that I want to make a go of writing. We’ve talked at length about the concept for the kids’ book that’s been percolating for several months in my ever-distracted brain. She also knows that I’ve been working on all manner of projects while procrastinating on the one that matters most to her (or at least the one that she finds most compelling).
Routine? What the Hell is That?
The good news is that the girls are settling into their new routines. Busy at school, busy with homework, busy with activities and busy with friends. The bad news is that, despite my best efforts, my intended routine evades me. I have lots of time blocked off in my calendar to write, but the kind of writing I plan to do during those hours remains stubbornly trapped in my brain. I’ll get it out eventually.
School’s in Session and My Girls Remind Me of Certain Shakespeare Characters
It’s back to reality for Chloe and Sophie. The lazy days of summer are over, there are no vacations planned any time soon and worst of all (for them, not me), they’re back in school.
For Chloe, 7th grade doesn’t represent much of a change. She’s lucky enough to have the same core subject teachers as she did last year. So far, she only has two big gripes (not bad for her). One, she’s in an elective class that she regrets choosing. Mind you, she’s only had the class one time so far, but Chloe is not one to take her time forming opinions. Two, she was placed into a gym class that she can’t stand. And why can’t she stand it, you ask? Because it’s “Team Sports” and Chloe and team sports are like oil and water. They just don’t mix. I am girding myself for a torrent of verbal diarrhea about her plight this afternoon.
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Apples Today and School Tomorrow
Chloe and Sophie return to school tomorrow as 7th and 3rd graders. I have friends and family – parents who are more or less my age, mind you – whose children are already in college or high school. And I both envy them and pity them. But when I think about my girls and the fact that one of them is going to be 13 in a few short months and the other is going to turn eight in a couple of weeks, I feel like I’m in a car without brakes.
The summer flew by. It was indeed a great summer, one that lived up to the impossibly high expectations I set for it last winter. The girls are a bit taller, a bit more tan, a wee bit more cultured and as intolerant of each other as they’ve always been. Some things truly never change.
We woke up this morning to a beautiful day that cried for us to enjoy the warm weather and clear blue sky. A last hurrah, so to speak, before Chloe and Sophie hop onto their respective buses tomorrow morning and we dive right back into the frenetic routine of school, homework and activities that we eagerly left behind in June.
We decided that apple picking would be the appropriate way to mark the end of the summer and the beginning of school. It had been a few years since our last apple picking adventure and this time we decided to try an orchard we’ve never visited before, Maskers Orchards in New York.
The place is huge, with more than a dozen varieties on offer (although only a few were ready this early in the season). The owners encourage picnics on site and plenty of people set up tables and blankets amidst the trees to eat elaborate lunches that were, of course, capped off by apples. Chloe immediately decided that this was the orchard to beat because visitors are free to gorge themselves on as many apples as they’d like while picking the fruit off the tree. As we strolled through the rows of green accented by red spheres, it felt like I had walked into the first pages of Shel Silverstein’s “The Giving Tree,” except multiplied by thousands.
I’ve been saying for years that red delicious apples are a misnomer because they have absolutely no taste. My brood finally had a chance to agree with me when they sampled one in an attempt to prove me wrong. Instead, we filled our bags with incredibly succulent macintosh and prime reds.
While neither Chloe nor Sophie would ever be caught dead giving apples to their teachers, we now have 25 pounds of the fruit for school lunches, tart-making and snacking. By the time we’re done eating all of them, we probably won’t want to see any more apples again until the girls prepare to begin 8th and 4th grade. Stop the clock, please!
On Writing and Tweeting – It’s Time to Get Down to Business
I’ve been wearing the Chief Mom Officer hat for five whirlwind months. It’s been an amazing five months on three continents. I wake up every morning thinking about my experience so far and I feel lucky. So very lucky.
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September Already?
The girls return to school in another week as 3rd and 7th graders. Every year I ask myself the same question: where in the hell has the time gone?
Friends
I’ve been thinking a bit about friends lately – what it means to have them, what it means to keep them and how important they are, especially for young girls.
Sibling Rivalry
The results are in. The truce reached between Chloe and Sophie lasted about one day. I’m not surprised. Disappointed, yes. But not surprised.
After the girls managed to studiously ignore one another a little bit, we all went to the Great New York State Fair in Syracuse on Thursday. The experience has taught me that state fairs bring out the worst in kids – and adults, too. For the first two hours they went on rickety carnival rides together and seemingly enjoyed one another’s company. They even split the cost of buying a huge package of candy buttons. Not much bickering, teasing or arguing took place because they were too busy to realize they were actually getting along.
Laying Down the Law
Sophie has been going through one of those dreaded kid stages again. She’s around the corner from her 8th birthday and pushing all of our buttons. Adorable and kind one minute, angry and manipulative the next.