Category Archives: Treasures from the Archives

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

Sophie’s Last Day…

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…As an only child. This is it – Chloe comes home tomorrow. And aside from a stray night at Grammy’s here and there, Sophie will have to put up with her big sister for at least another few months straight.

I’m excited for Chloe to arrive tomorrow. I miss her. She’s become quite the reader since she left our home almost a week ago – finishing her latest Nancy Drew and a couple of other books she found at my aunt’s house. She’s reading “The BFG” by Roald Dahl now.

We’re almost done (or should I say my husband is almost done) purging the sunroom of all the detritus. It’s still a mess, but at least there’s less of it. I wonder how long it will take Chloe to realize that it’s been emptied of all the junk. An hour? A day? A week? You can place your bets here. The lucky winner will be entitled to the garbage we’ve decided to toss.

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

Baby Belly

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If you look closely at this photo, you’ll notice that Sophie is pregnant. With a balloon. She was very proud of her fecundity, and exclaimed, “Look at my baby belly!” at least five times. I tried to get a profile shot of her, but when I asked her to pose again, she suddenly became modest and ran off to the other room.

And just as quickly as she was with balloon, she wasn’t anymore. I’m telling you, Sophie is very much enjoying all the attention that’s being lavished on her this week. Between her parents and her babysitter, it’s been non-stop Sophie.

I just read her one of Chloe’s and my favorite books, “When Sophie Gets Angry.” Obviously, our Sophie could relate. She’s almost three, and angry is one of her preferred states of being these days. In fact, she had me read the book to her three times in a row. I think she was a little perturbed by the fact that her fictional alter ego runs away and climbs a tree that overlooks the ocean. I hope she doesn’t get any ideas – either about the running away or climbing a tree.

Sophie’s been sleeping fitfully since Chloe’s been gone. I wonder if there’s a correlation. When Chloe went to Florida, I recall the same thing happening. That’s not to say she doesn’t sleep fitfully when Chloe is around, but it seems to occur more regularly when her big sister is away. You’d think it would be the opposite – but who knows? Maybe that’s Sophie’s way of missing Chloe…

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

Irresistible

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When I see photos like this one, I’m happy. Simply happy. And full of love. The corkscrew curls are just too much to bear. Boing, boing.

Sophie is enjoying her status as the only child this week. She misses Chloe, and asks for her on a daily basis. But having those few extra minutes with her every morning and every evening – where all of our attention is focused on her…not a bad deal.

At the same time, I think she’s also a little bored. She seems to be searching for ways to keep herself entertained – because she’s used to having Chloe around to occupy her time. It’s nice to have a companion and a partner in crime, and as much as I’d like to think otherwise, I simply don’t cut it as a playmate. Neither does her Papa.

Chloe apparently went fishing for the first time today. She’d been looking forward to it since last summer, and we never got around to it, on purpose. She managed to master the art of casting the line, but then got frustrated because the line got tangled. And then she realized, rather quickly according to my mother, that catching fish was not a two-minute proposition. Not surprisingly, she quickly lost patience. So much for fishing. But really, is that surprising? Chloe is about as far from fishing as anyone I know. The upside is that she won’t be asking me to take her fishing now. Thanks, Mom.

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

The Upside Down Show

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More gymnastic feats from little Sophie. She’s a daredevil, our little one. She must love the rush of blood to her head. She was dying to do it more than once – but we refused. We probably shouldn’t have even let her do it once, but it’s very hard to say no to her cute curly self.

I’m telling you, Sophie’s going to be our rebel child. I can see it now. Playing hooky to skydive out of airplanes. Or to go parachuting. Or to practice platform diving. Or to go spelunking.

She’s a thrill-seeker. Where she gets that from, I have no idea. I mean, I used to love crazy rollercoasters. But now that I’m hitting 40, merry-go-rounds make me nauseous. My husband is even worse than I am. He can’t watch IMAX films without feeling as though he’s going to puke. And Chloe is simply not a risk-taker.

But Sophie is different. She’s not from this world. It’s the hair. It’s got to be that hair. Somewhere hiding in those curls is an alter-ego, a mini-Sophie gently coaxing her to the dark side.

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

Purge!

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My husband wasted no time yesterday. Barely minutes after Chloe left with my mom on their week-long adventure, he was in the sunroom (aka the daughters’ junkyard) with a large moving carton. And he started going through every last piece of junk in that room, tossing old stuff, putting questionable stuff aside for Chloe to sift through, and organizing the rest.

I, of course, had no patience for the project. It seems that whenever I enter that room, I have an overwhelming need to scream, kick and stomp (and vomit) on everything in sight. So while Sophie and her papa were working on the room, I visited a friend who just moved to the neighboring town. By the time I returned, the space was almost (but not quite) transformed.

A few more hours of work while our biggest threat is away in the country and the room might actually qualify for a photo on this blog. To be continued…

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

Quiet

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I love these photos of Sophie jumping. As you can imagine, they’re extremely hard to come by, considering she’s almost impossible to decently capture on film.

Chloe and my mom left for their annual trip to Upstate New York today, to visit my aunt and uncle for the next week. The relative calm is remarkable, and it’s only been about four hours since they left.

That’s not to say I don’t miss my big Chloe – actually, I don’t really miss her yet (I’m giving it at least a couple of days) – but it’s nice to be in a house where Sophie is taking a nap and we can relax, too. Chloe never takes naps – and so one of us always has to be available to entertain her, as much as we might like to sleep as well.

Chloe took enough activities with her to last a month – between her books (“Bunnicula” (about a vampire bunny) and “The Black Stallion”), her Game Boy, her word search books, her card games…she’s going to keep her companions extremely busy.

We don’t call Chloe “Little Miss Chatterbox” for nothing. She really doesn’t shut up. I’m realizing it even more now that she’s gone. It gives me great joy to know that Chloe’s going to have an entire week to talk our relatives’ ears off, while we bask in the sounds of silence.

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

Like Mother, Like Daughter

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This is a photo of Chloe transcribing the lyrics to a few of her favorite songs, including “The One Thing” by INXS. She has no idea what the words mean, but they rival the song lyrics I transcribed when I was just a little older than she is now.

In my case, that song was “Do Ya Think I’m Sexy” by Rod Stewart. I was probably about 10 years old when it was released, and I remember writing the words down behind closed doors, afraid that if my parents knew what I was doing they’d confiscate my notebook, or worse, ship me off to an Outward Bound program.

What makes me laugh is that Chloe is so much like me. She’s obsessive about getting every single word right. And believe me, she has it a lot easier than I did. In order to help her, all I needed to do was Google the song titles, and lo and behold, the lyrics magically appeared. It would have been even easier for her had our printer been working, but it wasn’t, so she chose to handwrite the words. It took her all of about 15 minutes. When I was a kid, there was no Google. Hell, there were no computers. It took me days, literally days, to figure out the words to Stewart’s hit song.

And then she started to sing. And her singing is just as off-key as mine. Like mother, like daughter – very heart-warming, indeed.

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

Chloe the Photographer

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Artist, pianist, photographer, swimmer…a girl of many talents. She did admit to me today, however, that running fast is not one of her talents. That’s where she and I are very much alike.

She had relay races at camp today and not only did she run slowly, she fell. On her butt. And was embarrassed. When I was a kid, I hated running. You know, the presidential fitness crap where kids need to run 100 meters (or whatever the distance is) in under a certain time, and do push-ups and sit-ups – all for a silly piece of paper that everyone received anyway. How I despised that. It was traumatic.

When I was a little older – a teenager perhaps – I actually jogged. For about a month. Hated that, too. It hurt my knees. I don’t understand running for pleasure. It’s way too painful – not just the breathlessness, but the pounding of feet on the pavement. I then turned to Jane Fonda aerobics videos. The ones where she’s wearing a lavender/purple-striped bodysuit and matching legwarmers. I did that for about a month, too.

Chloe definitely shows signs of having my sports genes. Which is why I’d be thrilled if she sticks with swimming for a bit longer. I stuck with tennis for a few years, and even played for my high school tennis team. Second doubles. The coaches were just being nice to me. I pretty much sucked at that, too.

By the way, the odds are really stacked against Chloe. I’m not entirely to blame, however. Her Papa is just as bad as me. So it would be all the more remarkable if she remains the little fish that could.. if not, there’s always photography.

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

Another Sophie Silly Face

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As promised, one more silly face for the record. This one was supposed to be a scary face. But she was too amused to make a serious go of it.
The result is a photo that is actually kind of cute. The ringlets get me every time. Especially when you see them in a picture framing her whole face.
On a totally different subject, Chloe had her last day of school yesterday. She was very nonchalant about the whole thing. I would like everyone to know, however, that I was very faithful to my darling big girl over the past year. I packed a note in her lunch bag everyday, without fail (except for once or twice). It was something my mom did for me, and I remember that gesture with great love and fondness. I just had to continue the tradition with Chloe. Which gets me thinking that in a couple of years, when Sophie starts kindergarten, I’ll have to do it for two kids. That’s a lot of notes, and I might need to start writing them sooner rather than later.