Category Archives: Treasures from the Archives

31 Hours

31 hours until we leave for the airport for our vacation. Can’t wait. Am counting down. The girls are packed and ready to go tomorrow morning with their Grammy.

We’re not packed yet, but I bought three, yes three, adorable dresses today at a local shop. Dresses I would have never considered had I just seen them on a rack. But in my less-than-two-days-to-go desperation, I tried on everything the owner of the store suggested. And couldn’t decide which one to buy. So I bought all of them. I am now officially ready to go to dinner on the ship.
Can’t forget to make sure Sophie has her towel and her Shirley tomorrow morning. Because to forget them would mean certain disaster for my mom. Other than that, we’re ready to ship Chloe and Sophie out the door. With an encouraging little hug and shove, if need be. Caribbean, here we come!

Sophie Tells Her First Jokes


Knock, knock. Who’s there? Banana. Banana Who? Banana window.

Knock, knock. Who’s there? Couch. Couch who? Couch toesies.
Knock, knock. Who’s there? Legos. Legos who? Legos Chloe.
Knock, knock. Who’s there? Window. Window who? Window garbage.
OK – I don’t get them either. But she had herself in stitches. So they must have been funny. I guess they’re too sophisticated for my 40-year old brain.

Five Days and Counting

Until our first vacation without the girls since we became parents. Cruise, here we come. Beach on an island off the Honduran coast (ok – our timing is a little off with the military coup and all, but the ship is still planning to go there), Snuba in the Cayman Islands, Mayan ruins in Mexico and ziplining in Belize, here we come!

I can’t believe we’re actually doing this. Abandoning the kids with my mom for a whole week. One whole week. We’ll be able to do whatever we want, when we want, for one whole week.

If I want to go to the gym, I can. If I want to sit in the hot tub for an hour, I can. If I want to take a long nap, I can. If I want to have ice cream or cake and not worry about sharing, I can. If I want to sit at the blackjack table at noon, I can. No worrying about forgetting Sophie’s towels or her Shirley, or Chloe refusing to do something when asked. Like brush her teeth or take a bath.
The last vacation we took as a couple was to Jamaica in March 2000. Around the time I became pregnant with Chloe (although I don’t think it happened there). In any case, that was more than nine years ago. I was 31 years old then. Clinton was still President. Wow. I think we’ve waited long enough for this.

She’s BAAAAACK!

Chloe came home from her long weekend at her friend’s grandparent’s house dirty and exhausted. She had a fantastic time. Her first request in the door, at 7 pm, was to watch a movie. Our answer, of course, was no – and we knew that our darling Chloe was back. She was not happy. And when we told her she absolutely needed to bathe before bed, she was furious. Never mind that she hadn’t bathed in days (whoever said that girls are more concerned about their hygiene than boys is not living on the same planet I inhabit).

She let out the scream heard around the world. And didn’t let up. Not even when her Papa picked her up, fully clothed, and stood her in the bathtub (which didn’t yet have any water) to make the point that no matter how many policemen came in response to 911 calls, she would take her bath tonight. I finally got her undressed and started the water flowing. And she finally realized that the bath was inevitable.
In the blink of an eye, she went from outraged 8-year old to chatterbox 8-year old. Telling me about all the fun she had the last few days. And during those few minutes, I managed to sanitize her. And by 8:05 pm, without even glancing at her latest book, she was fast asleep.

Pink Nail Polish!

Yes, this is the Pink Me Not blog. And I have a 3-year old daughter who’s obsessed with the color pink. Pink clothes, pink underwear, pink stuffed animals, pink flowers, pink, pink, pink. Puke me pink.

Grammy bought Sophie pink nail polish this evening so that our dear cousin can paint not just her fingernails but her toenails tomorrow morning. Miraculously enough, she was willing to wait until the morning to have her mani/pedi. “My nails won’t dry in time,” she reasonably noted, if she were to have her 15 minutes of beauty just before bedtime.
Needless to say, Sophie just went to bed a very happy person. And she’s going to have very pink dreams tonight.

It’s a Sophie Weekend

It’s quiet around here. Not as quiet as I would have thought, but quiet nonetheless. Chloe is away for the weekend at her friend’s grandparents’ house. Until Sunday. Woo-hoo!
Do I miss Chloe? Of course. But am I glad to have some special time with little Sophie? You bet. Sophie had her little tantrum bouts this evening, but at least there was no fighting. No baiting. No teasing. No stealing toys. No child-on-child torture.
I think Sophie is going to enjoy the attention over the next few days. I know I’m going to enjoy giving it to her.

Could Summer Finally Be Here?

It was Chloe’s last day of school today. That didn’t prevent the rain from pouring down. But dare I hope that we might finally have a weekend with sunshine and warm temperatures? I’m probably jinxing it by even writing about it, but I am sooooo sick of the rain. I don’t recall experiencing so many days of rain in one month. If I didn’t have a sense of direction, I’d wake up thinking we were living in Seattle.

But we don’t live in Seattle. And there’s sun at the end of the tunnel. I just know it. And if we can make it to the swim club this weekend, we’ll be very, very happy. At this point, I don’t even care how cold the water is. The summer is 1/3 of the way over. It’s about time we had the weather to enjoy it.

Chloe’s Moving Up

Chloe had her moving up ceremony today. At 10:30 AM. They couldn’t possibly have a picked a worse time for working parents (the number of moms and dads on their BlackBerries during the show – and I was guilty as well – was pretty astounding. And also pretty depressing, but that’s another blog entry for another time). Anyway, it was a cute ceremony. Each class sang a song or recited a poem. It was very informal, which was nice, because in no way did the circumstances call for caps and gowns.

Next year, she’ll be in a grade 3-5 school, which is why her current K-2 school had a celebration to mark the occasion. I’m sure glad there are no more school-related events this year, however. Juggling schedules had become a little complicated of late.
I can’t believe that Chloe is going to be a 3rd grader. Nine years old in a few months. Argh! I hope she likes her new school – they certainly seem to offer a lot of terrific enrichment activities. I also hope she makes some new friends. In the meantime, summer is here. Chloe’s last day of school is tomorrow. And our weekends are more or less booked until mid-August.
I feel like the summer is almost over, and yet it’s barely started. I need to stop projecting so much into the future, and just live life in the present. Maybe time will seem to go more slowly if I succeed.

Home Alone

We had some time alone with Chloe today (Sophie was lucky enough to go home with my mom for a sleepover), and watched “Home Alone” with her.

We were looking for a good movie, and when I saw this, I knew it would be perfect. I hadn’t thought about this film in a very long time, but had no doubt that Chloe would love it. The three of us watched it together, and all of us were in stitches. I haven’t laughed so hard in a very long time. And it was the first time I saw Chloe laugh so hard she was literally bent in two.
During her brief hours as an only child this afternoon, Chloe also managed to talk her dad into playing two games with her. Good one-on-one bonding time, which doesn’t happen all that often. I think Chloe really appreciated it, and my husband seemed to enjoy it, too. In fact, I think and hope he had a nice Dad’s Day. It was relaxing and fun. Despite the crappy weather.

Will the Rain Ever End?

It’s been raining, almost non-stop, since the beginning of June. With every passing week, I think of the swim club, and all the money down the drain because we haven’t yet been able to go this season. Unless it’s nice next weekend, we’re looking at the third week in July before we even have the possibility of going. In which case, it will end up being an outrageously expensive summer. I hope that our babysitter will at least have some warm, sunny days during the week so that Sophie can enjoy the pool.

This weather is crazy. And depressing. We went to the mall today, which is always busy on Saturdays. We got there late morning and it wasn’t too busy. But because it’s Father’s Day tomorrow and the weather was so horrendous it was more crowded than usual. It took us longer to get out of there than it did to drive home; the parking lot was jammed.
The people who have beachgoer-dependent businesses must be quaking in their Crocs. One-third of their summer has been lost to this crappy weather on top of what was probably turning out to be a crappy season simply because of the economy. Bummer for them.
And it’s so depressing outside. Everything is gray and wet. So very wet. The girls are starting to go stir crazy, I think. While at the mall they were running all over the place. Including into each other. All of this pent up energy. Sophie was running sprints in the hallway of the movie theater. Back and forth, back and forth. I was getting dizzy just watching her.
Chloe’s barely been able to ride her bike. And I’d love to ride mine with her. I’m crossing my fingers that it might start drying out tomorrow, but when I looked this morning the long range forecast for the week didn’t look too promising. Do you hear my big, resigned sigh?