Category Archives: Treasures from the Archives

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

A Present for Me?

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Sophie gave me her first present. A little earlier this evening, she approached me with her hands behind her back and said, “Mommy, present?” And she then revealed her hands, which contained a crumpled up piece of paper wrapped around something.

I inquired, “A present for me, Sophie?” To which my little one responded, “Yes, Mommy,” with a big grin. She ran over to me and placed the gift in my hand. I uncrumpled the paper, and inside were two shiny quarters that I had given to her a few minutes earlier.

She was very proud of herself – of her generosity. I then “rewrapped” the present, and asked her if she’d like one. To which she replied, “Yes!” And proceeded to grab the present from me.

What struck me the most about the episode wasn’t so much that she wanted to give me a present. But the fact that she took the time to crumple up some paper and wrap up the quarters…if that’s not love, I don’t know what is.

P.S. Rumor has it that Sophie climbed out of her crib a few minutes ago. This, according to my husband and Chloe who supposedly witnessed the miracle. I immediately ran upstairs, dumped Sophie back into her crib and asked her to replicate the act. She wasn’t having any of it. So, as far as I’m concerned, if I haven’t witnessed this feat personally, it hasn’t happened. When she does finally show up in our bed one morning without our assistance, then I’ll devote an entire blog entry to it. But until I see it happen with my own two eyes, I shall remain a doubting Thomas.

Work Life Imbalance

Home Sweet Home

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I was really happy to get home this evening, after an afternoon at work that involved two minor crises – the kind of crises that bother me because because I’m still new to the job, and I want to make a favorable impression, and I don’t need people thinking I don’t do my work well. The kind of crises that stupidly cause me to apologize to people, even when there’s nothing for me to apologize about.

Continue reading Home Sweet Home →

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

I’m Watching the Clock

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On Sunday, I abandoned my husband for the afternoon to go to the theater with my mom. We saw “August: Osage County,” which was excellent. But it was a veeerrrry looonnng play. So I didn’t get home until almost 7:30 pm.

During one of the intermissions (yes, there were two of them), I called home to make sure that he bought the girls the right kind of shoes – their activity in my absence was shoe shopping. Chloe picked up the phone and she informed me that Sophie was taking her nap. I asked to speak to Papa, and she informed me that Papa was taking his nap.

Okay, I thought – not quite the Papa/daughters day I had in mind. I asked her, “What are doing?” She cheerfully replied, “I’m watching the clock.” As if this was some kind of legitimate activity, like coloring or drawing pictures or reading. I had to stifle a laugh. It turns out my dear girl was under orders from her father to wake him up in “10 minutes.”

As I continued to imagine the scene – Chloe sitting on the couch in the sunroom watching the clock on the Verizon FIOS TV box – as if it were the most normal thing in the world, I couldn’t stifle my laugh anymore. This girl can’t sit still for one minute without clamoring for someone to do something with her, yet she sounded perfectly content waiting on for time to advance when I spoke to her. Watching the clock…for crying out loud!

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

I’m Watching the Clock

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On Sunday, I abandoned my husband for the afternoon to go to the theater with my mom. We saw “August: Osage County,” which was excellent. But it was a veeerrrry looonnng play. So I didn’t get home until almost 7:30 pm.

During one of the intermissions (yes, there were two of them), I called home to make sure that he bought the girls the right kind of shoes – their activity in my absence was shoe shopping. Chloe picked up the phone and she informed me that Sophie was taking her nap. I asked to speak to Papa, and she informed me that Papa was taking his nap.

Okay, I thought – not quite the Papa/daughters day I had in mind. I asked her, “What are doing?” She cheerfully replied, “I’m watching the clock.” As if this was some kind of legitimate activity, like coloring or drawing pictures or reading. I had to stifle a laugh. It turns out my dear girl was under orders from her father to wake him up in “10 minutes.”

As I continued to imagine the scene – Chloe sitting on the couch in the sunroom watching the clock on the Verizon FIOS TV box – as if it were the most normal thing in the world, I couldn’t stifle my laugh anymore. This girl can’t sit still for one minute without clamoring for someone to do something with her, yet she sounded perfectly content waiting on for time to advance when I spoke to her. Watching the clock…for crying out loud!

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

The Girls Are Back!

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Chloe and Sophie evidently missed hamming it up for the camera. Needless to say, they made up for lost time today. Here are two of the sillier shots, taken this morning after my husband opened his birthday presents, which also included a seltzer maker called the “Fountain Jet” donated with love by my mom. The girls loved that. Because it makes funny noises when the CO2 gets added to the water.

We had an activity-filled day. Went bowling this morning. Sophie enjoyed it, Chloe didn’t. That’s because we needed to help Sophie roll the ball down the lane. As a result, her score was better than Chloe’s. Chloe was upset about that. So we only played one game.

Earlier this evening, all of us went to the YMCA for family swim. The girls really enjoyed it. And we did too, until we realized how cold it was outside the water. Then we had to wait, dripping wet, for one of the two family changing rooms to become available. Why they only have two such rooms is beyond me. Oh well. We survived.

This photo to the left is Sophie pretending to be one of her stuffed animals. Isn’t it nice to have a camera again?

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

The New Camera Has Arrived!

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Here it is. My new favorite toy. The box arrived today – a brand new Canon PowerShot 570IS. The broken camera was very similar to this one, except an older model.

Maxime hasn’t yet opened the box, but we will start using it tomorrow. Can’t wait. I missed a lot of “moments” this week, no thanks to my dear husband – who will officially be only one year away from 40 when the clock strikes midnight.

I love this camera already. And my loyal readers should be happy too. Because starting tomorrow, I should have a host of new photos of the girls. And even though this is technically his birthday gift, I consider this gadget to be 80% mine. All the more so since I never did get a birthday gift from him. That’s actually not entirely true. He got me jewelry, and I didn’t like it, so we returned it. He hasn’t replaced it. Probably because he’s still simmering about the fact that I didn’t like his gift. Oh well. Life is tough.

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

More Oldies But Goodies

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No new camera yet. It’s Murphy’s Law. Whenever you order from Amazon.com and don’t need it quickly, it comes the next day. When you need something urgently, it takes forever.

I ordered the camera on February 20. That’s eight days ago. They’re estimating arrival on March 4. I mean, really. It’s not as if Canon had to produce a special order for my dear husband. The camera was in stock.

So, this is a photo of Sophie when she turned one. She’s changed a lot since then. Especially her hair. Went from baby-wavy to crazy-curly almost overnight.

This is Chloe about one year ago. Showing off the two front teeth she had just lost. She looks so much younger here. More innocent. She still behaves like a toddler sometimes, but she no longer looks like one.

Today, she impressed us with knowing what the prefix “pre” means. In the context of Pre-K, she said that it meant before kindergarten. When we told her that it came from Latin, I wasn’t sure she knew what Latin was. But she confidently responded that it was a language. When I replied that it was indeed a language, but that it was a language no one spoke anymore, she said, “That’s not true. I speak Latin – pre-K is Latin!”

Long live Latin!

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

A Trip Down Memory Lane

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As my faithful readers know, I don’t have anymore current photos of my girls to post to this blog.

These pictures, as the observant among you may have already noticed, are old. In fact, they date from Christmas 2006, when we spent the holiday with my husband’s family in Paris.

Chloe was a lot shorter back then. And Sophie didn’t yet have curly hair, and had just started to walk.

Sophie discovered potato chips in Paris. Of the thousands of culinary delights to be discovered in France, potato chips in Paris. It’s shameful, really.


It was a wonderful trip, though – not easy traveling with little ones, but fun nonetheless. I’m not sure when we’re going to make it back. Certainly not this year, but maybe next. And when we do return, I want to take the girls to Talloires, a small town on Lake Annecy in the French Alps. That’s where my husband and I first met almost 19 years ago.

I think they’d like it there. It’s beautiful. Nestled in a valley, surrounded by mountains and pristine water. It would be the perfect place to go to celebrate our 15th wedding anniversary (!) in 2009 , not to mention our 40th (!!) birthdays.

On the other hand, why in the hell would we bring the girls with us to celebrate those milestones? We’ve never had a real vacation, just the two of us, since the girls were born. That’s seven years!

Mom – mark your calendar now. We’re dumping them with you for a week next year.

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

Sorry, No Photos

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Yes, my friends. No photo of the girls tonight. The camera finally shipped today. But it’s not scheduled to arrive until March 4. Too bad for you and too bad for me. A little bad for my husband, since his birthday is on March 1. I don’t have much sympathy for him, however.

In today’s news, Chloe and Sophie were monkeying around under the attic bed. When Chloe tried to crawl out, her cheek touched what looked like a dead bee. She freaked out, screamed that it hurt. She actually had a little mark. But unless the bee had only been dead a few minutes, she couldn’t have been stung. She’s fine. We put some ice on her cheek, and there’s no swelling. If nothing else, she has a good story to tell her classmates tomorrow.

On another note, we received official notification that we’ve been accepted into a swim club for the summer. It feels a bit like we’ve won a popularity contest. They like us, they really, really like us.

On yet another note, how can it be that our cable company (Verizon FIOS, which I’m generally very happy with) doesn’t offer MSNBC – a news channel, for crying out loud? I wanted to watch the Democratic debate tonight (which might be Hillary Clinton’s last hurrah) and can’t. I am mighty pissed. I hope she does well tonight, but I’m afraid that even if she does, it will be too little too late…