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

Sophie’s Wingspan

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Our growing baby is getting bigger by the day.  And she knows it and she’s proud of it.  
The extended wingspan also means that it’s easier for her to hit her big sister.  Which Chloe doesn’t appreciate in the least.  But Chloe still hasn’t figured it out – she still strikes back, even after we’ve repeatedly berated her for succumbing to Sophie’s taunts. Perhaps she’ll get it by the time she ships off to college, but it’s not looking particularly promising.  I’m fairly confident, however, that by the time she has children of her own, she’ll understand perfectly.  And look back on her days as an 8-year old with a newfound admiration for her parents’ child rearing skills.  OK, that may be a pipe dream on my part, but something has to keep us going everyday!
  
Frazzled Working Mom's Fleeting Moments (2007-2013)

The Beginning of the End?

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I knew that turning 40 would mean a lot of things – mostly symbolic.  And I knew that turning 40 would mean the beginning of the slow decline towards old age.  Ever-worsening eyesight, increased lower back pain, chin hairs, more frequent brain farts…

But what happened earlier today takes the cake.  After lunch, we all went to Barnes & Noble to get some books.  We spent a leisurely 1/2 hour or so perusing the kids’ section and paid for our purchases.  Chloe even bought a book for Sophie, out of her own gift card money.  As we’re leaving the store, I started to sift through my bag to find the car keys.  Nowhere to be found.  
Uh oh.  Realized I must have left them in the car.  Double uh oh.  Would the car lock automatically after a certain period of time?  Hell, would the car still be there?  If we thought having our camera stolen at the museum a week ago sucked big time, imagine having a car stolen because of your own forgetfulness.  So, I ran.  Ran to the car.  It was still there.  Opened the door, which, of course, was still open.  And immediately realized that I not only had left the keys in the car, but the ignition on as well!   If there is a better advertisement for “this car is yours for the taking,” I don’t know what it is.  Unbelievable that I did that; perhaps more unbelievable that we still have our car.  
I am now sufficiently freaked out by my mental lapse that I’m starting to wonder if I have something nefarious going on in my brain.  Forgetting keys in the car – that’s one thing.  Leaving the car running in a busy parking lot for a 1/2 hour, that belongs in another category altogether.
Frazzled Working Mom's Fleeting Moments (2007-2013)

For the Love of Gloup!

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You know that a pet is really part of a family when it is allowed to crawl all over the papa’s head.  Gross, if you ask me – but the girls LOVED it.
I suppose this act of selflessness is more a testament to my husband’s love for his kids.  Not many would subject their bald heads to scratchy Gloup paws and the risk of excretion just to provoke guffaws from their children.
Needless to say, Alubus and Gloup have adjusted well to their new home.  And we have adjusted a little too well to them.
Frazzled Working Mom's Fleeting Moments (2007-2013)

Chloe the Wordsmith

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The other night, our neighbor introduced Chloe to Bananagrams, a game that’s a cross between Scrabble and a crossword puzzle.  Chloe was quite pleased with the word grid she created.  It seemed like a fun game (I was in the kitchen cooking an extremely complicated meal at the time – ok not complicated at all, but I’m not willing to totally concede the fact that the kitchen and I don’t quite mesh), so it’s now on her Amazon wishlist.

This weekend’s plans are still a bit fuzzy.  “Coraline” in 3D, perhaps.  Piano and art lessons for the girls tomorrow morning, as well as a hamster cage cleaning and a couple of hours of escape for me while I get my hair cut.
TGIF.
Frazzled Working Mom's Fleeting Moments (2007-2013)

In the Category, “What Was Chloe Thinking?”

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This photo, believe it or not, depicts Chloe’s spelling homework.  Out of sheer laziness, because her regular pencils needed to be sharpened, Chloe decided to use a yellow pencil instead.  I am old and over 40, but the words on that piece of paper were nothing less than illegible, even for a 28-year old 2nd grade teacher (I don’t know how old her teacher is, but that’s an educated guess.  She’s a lot younger than I am in any case).  

When we asked our dear daughter to demonstrate how the teacher would be able to decipher her prose, she had to hold the paper about 3 feet away from her face.  This is an eight-year old with perfect vision.

I told Chloe that she had a choice.  She certainly didn’t need to rewrite the homework, but if she didn’t and turned in the yellow blob, the teacher would likely have her redo it anyway.  That appeal to her common sense worked – to a certain degree.  Until she tearily confessed that she simply didn’t like recopying things.  Solution:  I squinted my eyes, held the paper up to the light at just the right angle (because if too much light fell on the paper, the yellow pencil disappeared entirely) and dictated her scribblings back to her.
I love my girls.  Why?  For all of the usual reasons, but also because on a night like this, when I’m tired, cranky and not particularly in the mood to write, one of them inevitably provides me with a laugh and an irresistible theme for a blog entry.
Frazzled Working Mom's Fleeting Moments (2007-2013)

Another Milestone

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Sophie is visibly very proud of her first homework assignment, especially the fact that she received a “great job” sticker from the teacher.  This is the assignment I wrote about here.  

I hope that her happiness about the end result will make the next assignments a bit easier for her to swallow.  She’s ever the rebel, our little Sophie, wanting to do things her way, and her way only.
I love that about her – but it can certainly be exasperating when she refuses to take direction.  Chloe is the opposite in many respects, and much more like I was as a child.  Always following the rules, wanting to impress the teachers.  I’m not convinced Sophie will follow that path.  But that’s ok, because she’s as cute as can be.  And as smart as a whip, in her own Sophie way.
Frazzled Working Mom's Fleeting Moments (2007-2013)

How Much Do I Love Thee, Camera?

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It is so very nice to have a camera again.  We took a bunch of photos today, between our twin cousins’ birthday party and dinner with our neighbor and her son, our fingers were very busy capturing lots of future memories.

Sophie called the police earlier today because Papa was being silly.  Not the real police, of course.  The imaginary police floating around in her head.  
Papa took Sophie jogging today.  It was the first day over 40 degrees that we’ve had in weeks.  Sophie and Chloe thought it was spring.  Anyway, he pulled out the jogging stroller and off they went.  I don’t think Sophie understood what she had gotten herself into, though.  I think she believed that she’d really run with her dad.  Instead, he ran and she sat.  Not particularly exciting.  He’s going to have to do better than that next time!  

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

New Camera

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It almost didn’t happen.  Best Buy almost let us down today.  We decided on the Canon model we wanted to purchase.  Amazon was offering it for $50 less than Best Buy, but I wanted to test it out before biting the bullet.  

Best Buy has great selection of cameras on display.  At least 30-40 models in different brands.  I went to test the two cameras that made our shortlist.  However, the models on display didn’t work because the circuit board controlling them was broken.  I also noticed that the batteries were dead for most of the other cameras in the store.  Why bother selling cameras if customers can’t try them out?  So I complained to both saleskids, who couldn’t give a flying f**k that the cameras weren’t working.  
At that point, I became cheeky – and commented that I was ready, willing and able to buy a camera today in their store but they were losing an easy sale because I couldn’t test any of them out.  I quickly saw that I was talking to two human walls, so Chloe and I decided to leave.  At the exit, however, I thought I’d lodge a formal complaint.  The security guard found me the supervisor of the camera department who offered to let me test the two cameras.  He apologized for the sorry state of the cameras on display and the sorry state of his saleskids, and proceeded to take new cameras from their respective boxes.  I got to do what I had come to do and test them, he agreed to meet me halfway on the price and made the sale.  I left the store happy that I had a new camera in hand and he was a couple hundred dollars closer to meeting whatever sales goals he needed to meet for the month.  
Stupid saleskids.  Don’t they realize they’re lucky to have jobs in this crummy economy?  That if they don’t provide good service people won’t buy the store’s goods, the store will close and they’ll be out of jobs?  I suppose that’s too much thinking for them.  The two teens spent more time talking about the candy they were eating than trying to help potential customers who wanted to put money into Best Buy’s coffers.  
Needless to say, I took the photo of Chloe with the new gadget.  So far, so good.  Now, if I can just prevent it from getting stolen or broken or lost…at least until 2011.
Frazzled Working Mom's Fleeting Moments (2007-2013)

Happy Birthday, Chloe!

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Chloe is eight today.  I can’t really believe it.  It seems like I was giving birth to her not so very long ago.  My mom and I spent the afternoon with her, and we went to the local bead store where she made herself a necklace (and I made a necklace for Sophie).  For dinner, she chose to take us to a local pizzeria and Coldstone for ice cream afterwards.  Not what I would have chosen, but it wasn’t my birthday, was it?

While at dinner, we were talking about the passage of time and I found myself projecting into the future again.  First, to her 18th birthday, and the milestone of being able to vote.  But what caught her attention – enough to make her set aside her new Nintendo DS – was what will happen when she turns 17.  “Driver’s license!  Cool!” she exclaimed.  When I told her that we’d save the minivan for her, she grinned and cried, “Cool!  Nice!  That’s great! Really, mom?  Will I get the minivan?”  Which made the three of us adults laugh.  And made me realize that, despite the feeling that she’s grown up so fast, we still have a very long way to go before she turns 17.  

A Mom's Ramblings About the Marvels & Mishaps of Parenting, the Joys of Family Travel & the Writing Life