Sophie the starlet has discovered the joys of pink sunglasses. Pink of course – just to torment me, the creator of the “Pink Me Not” blog.
Everything about her is pink and neat, and prim and proper. Her older sister, on the other hand, has been wearing the same stained blue winter jacket (pictured) for the past several months, indifferent to the
fact that everyone has noticed how filthy it is. By the way, it’s not for lacking of washing the putrid thing. It’s just that it’s been worn every single winter day for the past two years. She’s dyed it chocolate many times – quite successfully, considering she wasn’t aiming for an intentional color change.
I’m tempted to throw it out tonight while she’s sleeping. But that’s a risky idea. Not sure how she’d react if she couldn’t find it tomorrow. And I really don’t want to deal with her wrath in the morning – my least favorite time of the day. I may propose a symbolic burial ceremony to her instead…
Chloe was taking a bath upstairs. I was in the kitchen, helping to prepare dinner. Suddenly, I heard a drip, drip sound. It didn’t register right away. A couple of minutes later, the drip, drip sound was more like a torrent of water. I look up towards the corner of the kitchen, thinking to myself, “it’s not raining. What the hell?”
Then I remembered. Chloe was taking a bath upstairs. Sure enough, Papa bounds up the stairs and beholds the bathroom floor – saturated with water. I heard some yells. “What were you doing, Chloe? What were you thinking?” Chloe tells us that she was just splashing “a little.” Then she demonstrated with a little more accuracy and enthusiasm.
Needless to say, our ceiling isn’t waterproof. And if our big girl ever pulls that shit again, she’ll learn what a tidal wave is really like.
You know spring is approaching when Sophie pulls out the sunglasses and walks around the park along the river like a starlet. Believe me, it was cold out there. My ears were freezing. But the girls didn’t mind. They ran around the playground and explored the shores of the river, collecting sea glass. Lots and lots of sea glass.
And they were happy scampering and frolicking. And I was happy watching them. I love my girls. And I love their smiles.
Chloe went to a friend’s house last night for a sleepover. They went to bed at 11pm and Chloe woke up at 5:30 in the morning. And promptly woke up her friend (even though she claims her friend woke up “on her own.”). Needless to say, by the end of the evening she was wiped. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen her so tired – she was passed out at my mom’s by 7:45 pm.
…or how to demonstrate to your parents the orthodontia that will be required to fix your child’s teeth.
Granted, Chloe is still a little young. But every time she opens her mouth, my heart skips a beat. At about the time we will have finished paying off our cars, we’ll probably have to start shelling out heaps of cash to deal with Chloe’s years of thumbsucking.
I get agita whenever I think about it. I can only hope that Sophie will be spared future mouth torture. The problem with Sophie is that she’s a scaredy cat. When we took her to the dentist a couple of months ago, she wouldn’t let him come near her mouth. She threw a fit like I rarely see her throw. Which leads me to the realization that if she continues on the path of dentist as mortal enemy, she won’t need orthodontia, because she won’t have any teeth left to fix. Depending on how you look at it, that wouldn’t necessarily be such a bad thing. I mean, if we want to save money, great. If we don’t want our little girl to look like a 90-year old woman who forgot to put in her false teeth, not so great. But life is all about compromises, right?
And I’m so glad. These days, it seems like I’m constantly counting the hours until the weekend. And the countdown generally starts as soon as I go to bed on Sunday night. At least the stock market is on a roll. Three days of gains in a row. I’d forgotten what that was like.
And Tiger Woods is playing golf again. I hope he’ll still be around this weekend so I can enjoy watching him on our new TV! Which should be delivered tomorrow. “Yippee yay!” as little Sophie would say.
The Ides of March are approaching, which means that the year is almost a quarter of the way over. And tomorrow is our second Friday the 13th in a row. That’s a pretty rare occurrence. I’m not particularly superstitious, but when you think about it, it’s not bad timing, considering the crappy year we’ve had so far.
Sophie had her Cyclops moment yesterday. Now it’s Chloe’s turn for her silly face, which makes me wonder how she might look when she’s 80. Actually, this photo makes me think of Benjamin Button. Old person in 8-year old’s body.
The girls would be in heaven if I allowed them to take these crazy pictures everyday. I have rarely seen them laugh as much as with this Photo Booth program. They crack themselves up every time I take a picture.
Chloe was initially excited about one effect that turned her chin into what looked like a miniature butt – (with a crack, too). Until she thought about it for an extra minute and realized that if she went ahead and took it, the photo would likely end up on this blog. Oh well. I was all about the chin butt. Next time, perhaps. Because you know that there will definitely be a next time…
This is what Sophie would look like if she were a Cyclops. I’ve always wondered what she’d look like as a Cyclops. Hair is still as curly, but she doesn’t have a mouth or a nose in this photo either.
Now that their Papa is back home, the girls are back to their bad pre-bedtime habits. Fooling around, not listening. I tell you – when I’m the boss, my daughters listen. When he’s in charge, they just walk all over him. Welcome home, Pops!
Well, after five not-as-long-as-I-expected days, Papa is home. Safe and sound. The greeting he received when he walked in the door made the return extra sweet. Chloe and Sophie assaulted him with hugs.
All in all, the three of us girls had a really nice time together. It was a treat to spend some quality time with them, and it helped enormously that we had great springtime weather for the weekend. I only lost my patience once – this morning when I was trying to get pants onto Sophie, who as usual, was intent on wearing a dress and didn’t like her legging choices.
But because I was still relatively relaxed, I decided to walk away and ignore her for a little while. Wise choice. She calmed down eventually, I got the pants on her little legs and a crisis was averted. I love my girls and they gave me lots of pleasure over the last few days. I’m very lucky indeed.
People in parking lots drive me crazy. Earlier today I had to retrieve Chloe and a friend from a party. The parking lot isn’t that large and all of the spots were taken.
But one was on its way to becoming available. A couple was getting into their car with their daughter. They saw that I was waiting. The guy installed his daughter into the car seat. The woman, however, was a character in a slow-motion movie. Daughter’s in her car seat. Dad sits in the passenger seat. Mom dawdles outside. Eating. Pacing. Going to the backpack in the trunk, still eating. Several minutes passed. And then she decided she didn’t want to drive. So she snailpaced back to the passenger side to switch places with her husband. People who are so oblivious to others drive me crazy.
Under normal circumstances I’d be simmering behind the wheel. But I was in a good mood, feeling relaxed (fairly exceptional considering I’m completely exhausted by my temporary single parenthood), thinking about all of the dinner plans I had just made for our trip to Disney World next month. And before I knew it, the spot was mine.
It’s just the three of us girls – since Wednesday night. The man of the house returns from France on Sunday after a brief visit to deal with some family matters.
I’m enjoying my time with Chloe and Sophie so far. That might be at least partially due to the fact that until now, I’d been working during the day, affording me the pleasure of looking forward to seeing them upon my return home. Tomorrow and Sunday are a different story. The two clowns will require entertainment from dawn until dusk. Tomorrow is basically spoken for – the day is essentially planned. Sunday is another matter. I’m going to have to get creative.
Chloe is going to spend at least part of the weekend working on her latest assignment. The kids had to choose a woman to profile for Women’s History Month. Chloe insisted on finding a woman spy. Mata Hari immediately came to mind, but her career as a stripper/courtesan disqualified her from the running (imagine explaining what an ‘exotic’ dancer is to a group of 8-year olds). Instead we settled on Virginia Hall, a one-legged American spy during WWII. She must have been good at her job – the Gestapo considered her “the most dangerous of all allied spies.” Needless to say, Chloe has found her calling. CIA, get ready!
A Mom's Ramblings About the Marvels & Mishaps of Parenting, the Joys of Family Travel & the Writing Life
