Category Archives: Frazzled Working Mom’s Fleeting Moments (2007-2013)

Frazzled Working Mom's Fleeting Moments (2007-2013)

Let the Piercings Begin

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As promised, we allowed Chloe to get her ears pierced today.  We went to a local pharmacy known for tag teaming so that the ears go under the gun simultaneously.
When we got there, however, we learned that one of the women was home sick.  I asked Chloe if she’d be willing to have one ear pierced at a time, and she gamely accepted.  Like mother, like daughter.  There was no way in hell she’d postpone this momentous occasion.
The selection of the earrings went surprisingly fast, given that there were approximately 100 pairs from which to choose.  Then came the hard part.  
The woman prepped the ears, and the first earring went in.  Chloe was clearly not expecting it to hurt as much as it did.  She went from eager anticipation to excruciating pain in a millisecond.  The tears welled up, but they soon overflowed and started streaming down her cheeks.  She was suffering in silence, and she grabbed my hand for the second round.  In it went.  And more tears fell.  
The nice woman gave her a lollypop and the tears slowly subsided, especially once she grabbed hold of the mirror and saw the earrings, happily lodged in her lobes.
Once we arrived home, she went straight up to her room to her own mirror, admired herself for a few minutes and put on some lip gloss.  
Frazzled Working Mom's Fleeting Moments (2007-2013)

Parallel Universe

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The economy is tanking, the idea of Sarah Palin becoming Vice President of the United States is terrifying and we’re still mired in a war we never should have been fighting in the first place.

It’s a crazy world we live in these days, and my girls are blissfully ignorant of the turmoil. Chloe is aware of the upcoming election and knows I’m happily voting for Obama, and thinks John McCain is old. She also heard that Obama was going to raise taxes (probably from some misleading McCain commercial). Chloe doesn’t yet understand what taxes are.

With everything that’s going on, every day is like a rollercoaster. The news is filled with bad stuff. Recently, I’ve been waking up every morning, probably like lots of people, wondering what the day’s news cycle is going to bring. But Chloe and Sophie are my constants. They’re adorable and smiling, most of the time anyway, and make me laugh when I feel like hiding under the covers.

Sophie’s been down and out with a bad cold this week, but even that has an upside. She’s not particularly cuddly in good times, but when she’s under the weather we get to hug her and smooch her all we want. And get all her germs, too.

Frazzled Working Mom's Fleeting Moments (2007-2013)

Game Time!

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Chloe had a playdate today with one of her best friends.  Apparently, it was very productive, because they created a game.  
OK – it’s a Monopoly knock-off, with kid movies as the theme – but they created the game board, the money and the cards.  And the two girls even thought to include some new twists, including shortcuts.
It must have taken them a good amount of time to put this together – and Chloe was extremely excited to share it with us when we came home from work.  What industriousness!  It’s nice to know that the girls find ways to amuse themselves without the aid of TV or video games or cell phones (not that they’re at all ready for cell phones, but you get my gist).  
Frazzled Working Mom's Fleeting Moments (2007-2013)

She Doesn’t Shut Up!

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I don’t mean this in a particularly nasty way, although it’s true:  Chloe talks and talks and talks.  She talks when no one is listening.  She talks when others are talking.  On and on and on.  I love her to death, but one day I’m going to record her chattering so that she can appreciate what she puts us through.
This was never so apparent as it was tonight.  We had our little Rosh Hashana meal with my mom (thanks, mom!), and in addition to wanting to know every little detail about every little thing (including how much we pay our babysitter), she recited poetry by Shel Silverstein.  She did a great job – had the rythym, the intonation and the enunciation down pat – and her verbosity during the recitation was more than welcome.  
But after dinner, a short while before bed, Chloe was rifling through my jewelry box looking for earrings she’ll be able to borrow once her ears are pierced next week.  I had to ask her multiple times to close the box, because the last thing we needed was to have Sophie – who wants to do whatever Chloe’s doing – go on a treasure hunt inside the box as well.  But Chloe was too busy yammering to listen – asking about this pair of earrings, and that pair – basically talking to the air because her Papa was in the other room and I was suffocating myself with a pillow to drown out the sound.  
I don’t remember if I was always this insistent when I was kid.  Mom – if Chloe takes after me, I am so, so sorry!  That would have been hellish – please forgive me!  And now, I am off to inhale some aspirin.  
Frazzled Working Mom's Fleeting Moments (2007-2013)

We Missed You, Chloe

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After a week of Sophie-centric blog entries, it’s finally time to turn our attention to Chloe, whose nose has been in the books almost non-stop for the last couple of weeks.  
Because she’s obsessed with reading the Nancy Drew books in order, even though there’s no need to, she’s currently stuck at number 10.  In order to continue her quest to read the whole series, she needs volume 11, which we don’t have.  But because she’s addicted to reading, she needed to find another tome to occupy her imagination.
She finally turned to Harry Potter about two weeks ago, and quicker than you can say “Voldemort,” she finished the first two books in the series.  She started the third volume the other day, but has temporarily set it aside to read “The Borrowers” instead.  
While it’s absolutely terrific that she’s reading so much, I wonder how much of these books she understands.  It’s not like she sits with a dictionary at her side while she’s turning the pages.  And during the week, we’re rarely around to assist her with vocabulary.
That said, I’m fairly confident she understands the larger themes.  For example, we were having a conversation at dinner the other night about prejudice.  There was an incident at school – a child in her class was using an extremely derogatory word to describe another child, and Chloe sensed that the word was bad, even though she had never heard it before.  She told the teacher that the word was spreading around the classroom.  Over dinner, I explained why the word was so pejorative and intolerant, and Chloe compared it to the way Draco in the Harry Potter books talks insultingly and hatefully about “mudbloods.”  Her analogy was right on point.  It’s always nice to know that the right books can teach kids the right lessons about life.
Frazzled Working Mom's Fleeting Moments (2007-2013)

Happy Birthday, Sophie!

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It’s official.  Sophie is now three years old.  We celebrated in style today – with a bunch of little tykes who were all incredibly well-behaved, considering that they were confined in our house for two hours because of the rain – and a lovely clown who enthralled the kiddies with silly magic and balloon-making.  
We improvised the picnic we were supposed to have outside by setting out blankets and towels on the dining room floor.  Sophie was very generous sharing her toys (neither a scream was heard nor a tear shed), and the children seemed to have a great time.
Chloe, in training for her future as a babysitter in six years, lovingly ensured that all the little ones were happy – playing with them, making important announcements (“The clown is here! The clown is here!”  “Time for pizza!”  “Time for cake!”), distributing the yummy cake and the all-important giveaways.
Sophie had a grand time – and so did we.  The only negative – she didn’t like the Corolle doll I bought for her.  She liked it when she first saw it, but when she discovered that she couldn’t undo the ponytail in the doll’s hair, she cast her aside like yesterday’s garbage.  I’m hoping Sophie will soon realize the folly of her actions, and realize that her inability to change the doll’s hairstyle is not a fatal flaw.  Tolerance, Sophie, it’s all about tolerance.
Frazzled Working Mom's Fleeting Moments (2007-2013)

Sophie’s Last Day…

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…as a two-year old.  As of tomorrow, we’re off to the thrilling three’s. 

Sophie is very excited about her party – it’s her first party with little friends, not just boring family.
I hope she likes the clown who is coming for a visit.  I have visions of screaming, terrified 3-year olds.  But who doesn’t love balloons and magic?  And the “Hokey-Pokey?”
And because the weather won’t be cooperating, we’ve rearranged the furniture in our house to accommodate the chaos.  Instead of doing our pizza picnic outside, we’ll be having it on the floor of the dining room.  Because unlike many parents who are organized and methodical when they plan their dear kids’ parties, we didn’t think to rent a kids’ table and chairs. Oh well.  
We’re giving her a doll (most of her dolls are Chloe’s hand-me-downs) and a make-believe cooking set.  Chloe (with our monetary assistance) is giving her sister her very own wallet with a smiley frog on it.  
Birthday party round-up to follow tomorrow.  
Frazzled Working Mom's Fleeting Moments (2007-2013)

Some Final Thoughts on Florida

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Although this was one of the most bittersweet visits I’ve had to Florida, it was also easily one of the best.  This wasn’t because our days were filled with fun activities. Let’s face it, going to malls down there is not exactly exciting, the food is mediocre at best and Nanny, who was never Speedy Gonzalez even at her healthiest, now moves at a snail’s pace.  
The days pass in slow-motion in Florida – especially when it’s stifling hot and humid, as it was this past weekend.   Nanny keeps the apartment at a sticky and stuffy 82 degrees, because she’s all skin and bones and often chilled.  I honestly felt as though I was suffering from early-onset menopause – I was sweating so much.
The reason this trip was so special was two-fold.  First, I had a chance to spend some wonderful one-on-one time with my little girl, who is so often in the shadows of Chloe.  Creating imaginary sea creature friends in the pool was the highlight (Pinky the pink fish, Slowy the snail and the mean shark, among others).  Second, I had a chance to enjoy, for the first time, my little girl’s big heart.  Who, without even realizing it, showed an empathy for her great-grandmother that was touching and beautiful in its simplicity.