Category Archives: Treasures from the Archives

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

Getting to Know Your Cousin

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Chloe and her cousin, Romain, are very compatible. It’s fantastic when they play together because there’s very little yelling. Why is that, you ask?

Language barriers can be a great thing. Chloe speaks fractured French, and Romain knows about two words of English. There’s only so much disagreement that can occur when you are unable to fluently express your discontentment. I’m loving it.
All kidding aside, however, Chloe, Sophie and Romain are having a terrific time together. Romain is gentle with Sophie (whose flirting talents increase every day), and the fact that Chloe is a bit of a tomboy and willing to wrestle with her cousin is definitely a big plus.
We really need to seriously consider sending Chloe to France next summer. When the French side of our family is here, she makes a good effort to speak in French. Imagine what a few weeks living among the frogs would do for her bi-culturalism!
Frazzled Working Mom's Fleeting Moments (2007-2013)

Bone-Bone and Sophie

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Bone-Bone has recently become Sophie’s favorite stuffed animal. It used to be Shirley the lamb, and although Sophie still loves her and Shirley and Bone-Bone are the best of friends, Bone-Bone is the ONE. She loves him so much, she dressed him in a pink tutu.

Sophie brings Bone-Bone almost everywhere with her. Unless we warn her that a particular excursion is not Bone-Bone friendly. And she’ll do her best to convince us otherwise, but we generally hold our ground. Because we know how absolutely devastating it would be if Bone-Bone were to disappear.
In a little while, Chloe, Sophie and Papa are going to the airport to pick up my sister-in-law and nephew who are visiting from France. Sophie is prepared. She’s bringing Bone-Bone with her. She’s also bringing Shirley so Bone-Bone doesn’t get lonely, and her towel (a burp cloth that’s as old as she is) for extra comfort. Lucky animals.
My Artists & Writers in Training

A Panoply of Poems by Chloe

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“Starry Night”

The burnt tree, the tree of skies.
The tree most rather despise.
The village of poor.
Never acknowledged before.
In the night the most wonderful sight.
***********
“Field of Poppies”
The poppies of light meant to be bright
The emptiness of the field
The stillness, like a shield
Made to be peace
Let the trapped silence cease.
************
Sleep, ahhhh
Dreams, good
Pillows, fluffy
Bed, made
Teeth, brushed
Lights, off
Zzzzzzzzz
************
Hiccups are annoying
They really are
I wish they’d stop
I do not like them
Not one bit
Stop, stop, stop!
Hiccup, hiccup, hiccup
UGH!
************
Bees. Buzz. Prick. Sting. Blood.
Bump. Hurts. Ouch.
Frazzled Working Mom's Fleeting Moments (2007-2013)

Stop Kissing!

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This is Sophie’s silly face. She’s quite good at making silly faces. One of my favorite Sophie faces is the one that involves her rolling her eyes when she thinks I’ve done or said something silly. I’ll have to try to get that mug on camera one day.

Sophie (and Chloe too, for that matter) generally doesn’t like it when her mommy and daddy kiss. “That’s gross!” she inevitably explains. And when we do it just to bug her, she rolls her eyes and turns away from us. If we do it again just to bug her, she yells, “STOP THAT, GUYS!”
The other day, however, Sophie requested that her parents kiss. And this time around, she thought it was the funniest thing ever. Don’t know what to make of her change in attitude. Maybe she doesn’t think boys are disgusting anymore. Maybe she’s seen too many princesses kissing princes. Maybe she likes a boy at school and thinks it would be fun to kiss him. Who knows?
What I do know is that Sophie’s newfound appreciation for her parents’ kissing won’t last. I’m sure she’ll be back to her old dismissive ways soon enough, especially when she hears Chloe continue to express her opinion that kissing is “GROSS.” She’ll succumb to the peer pressure to agree with her older sister, even if deep down inside, she thinks her kissing parents are cute.
Frazzled Working Mom's Fleeting Moments (2007-2013)

Sleepy Sophie

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Sophie didn’t have a particularly good night last night. At around midnight, she heard me puttering around and cried out. I went into her room and gave her a quick kiss and cuddle.

After settling back into my bed, I heard the the clicking of her lamp on and off. Not a good sign. I tried to ignore it, but after thinking that she had finally fallen back asleep, I heard the call. “Mommy, I need you!” So I returned to her lair. And this time, I crawled into bed next to her. And I started to fall asleep myself. But as she gets bigger and as she adds more and more stuffed animals to her bed, there’s less room for me. I remained with her until I thought she was sleeping again (the heavy breathing was a clue), and then I returned back to my room.
The calm lasted all of three minutes and the cries started again. I was starting to get grumpy – the night before I had only slept five hours and I was TIRED. So I returned to my little four-year old. And after a brief conversation with her, I decided to take action. I carried her into my bed and let her sleep with her Papa. I joined the stuffed animals in her bed and slept like a baby.
Frazzled Working Mom's Fleeting Moments (2007-2013)

Pensive Chloe

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I have no idea what was going through Chloe’s mind when I snapped this photo. But she was obviously thinking very hard about something.

Schoolwork? No. Alubus? No. Poor dwarf hamster doesn’t get much attention from her these days. Piano? No. She conveniently forgets about piano – she’d be a prodigy if she practiced, but she doesn’t practice, so she definitely wasn’t thinking about piano. A new story she’d like to write? Perhaps. How she was next going to bug Sophie? Unlikely, because she’d be smiling if she was thinking of something so nefarious.
But there’s something about this photo that I love. Maybe it’s the moment of calm reflection it depicts or the fact that she didn’t know I was taking it. Or maybe it’s because she starting to look less like a kid and more like a tween. When I look at Chloe in this picture, my mind projects a few years into the future. To a Chloe in high school, starting to think about college. The years will go by quickly, just like these first nine years have sped by at lightning speed.
My baby Chloe. Not so much a baby anymore.
Frazzled Working Mom's Fleeting Moments (2007-2013)

I Want to be Five

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Sophie’s best friend from pre-K turned 5 this week, and that makes my little girl a little sad. She wants to be five too. She’s afraid that her friend will start kindergarten before she does.

And as much as I try to explain to Sophie that she and her friend will start kindergarten together in the fall, she just doesn’t get it. When I tell her that they may even be in the same school and perhaps the same class (although the latter is highly unlikely), she still doesn’t get it. She exclaims to me, with great consternation, “Mom, you don’t understand. It’s complicated!” when I try to console her.
She’s simply pissed off that she’s not five. If only she knew that this is just the beginning of a long career as the youngest. She’ll be dealing with this until she finally gets her driver’s license – a year after everyone else. It’s a good thing she’s tall for her age, which might soften the blow. But it might not. Poor thing doesn’t know what she’s in for.
Frazzled Working Mom's Fleeting Moments (2007-2013)

Barbie!

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Shoot me now. This photo does not even begin to convey Sophie’s reaction at McDonald’s yesterday when she saw the display of kids’ meals toys. BARBIE! BARBIE! BARBIE!

When she realized what was going to accompany her chicken nuggets, she about collapsed from excitement. She screamed. “Oh my goodness! I can’t believe it! It’s a Barbie mermaid!” She danced. She squealed. She screamed and danced some more. When she got her Barbie mermaid into her hands, she looked at it with such admiration and love, I felt a twinge of jealousy. She hasn’t let it out of her sight since.
How I despise Barbies. This one may have to go mysteriously missing sometime in the near future. But I imagine I won’t have to make it disappear. She’ll eventually lose it on her own. The countdown begins.