It’s already August and I can’t believe it. It seems as though Chloe’s last day of first grade was yesterday. But now we’re just a short time away from second grade.
One of Those Evenings
I got home a bit late tonight and my head is spinning. I have no particular stories to tell – except that Sophie lost her two new favorite barrettes – pink and purple butterfly clips that she received as a gift the other day from the kids’ hair salon.
Yep, after months and months of neglect, we finally got her hair cut. Except it doesn’t look that much different than it did before she sat down in the Barbie car. I love her curly hair. But it’s out of control. The locks are a little bit shorter than they used to be, and there are fewer stray corkscrews hanging at her neck. Otherwise, her hair is pretty much the same.
When I called the house earlier to let everyone know I was going to be late, Chloe answered the phone. This is how our conversation went:
“Hi, Chloe.”
“Hi, Mommy. Guess what, Mommy?” Chloe asks, sounding like she might have something bad to tell me.
“What?” I inquire, thinking to myself that she’s getting ready to confess a minor crime.
“Your warranty is expiring.”
“What are you talking about, sweetheart?”
“Some man called and said that your warranty is expiring. What’s a warranty, Mom?”
I wish she would stop answering the phone!
A Day at the Beach
It was the perfect ending to our too short vacation. A beautiful, sunny day at the beach – collecting shells, riding waves and burying legs in the sand.
The best part of the day, however, was the reason for our trip to the beach. A few weeks ago, I reconnected with a friend of mine from about 28 years ago. Someone I had lost touch with in my pre-teen years and found through LinkedIn last month. We went to meet her and her family, as well as another childhood friend I hadn’t seen since I moved out of town in 6th grade.
We spent much of our time reminiscing about the old days, and names from the distant past that I hadn’t thought about in decades came back to life again. We also caught each other up on our lives since elementary school – we’ve all taken very different paths, endured our share of challenges, and yet for all of our differences, we’ll always share this very special bond of childhood.
Never in a million years would I have guessed that I’d see these two friends again – and here we were – enjoying an afternoon together almost 30 years after the last time we enjoyed an afternoon together. Life is certainly full of pretty incredible surprises…
Dragons in Flight
Chloe drew this picture of dragons the other day. No doubt inspired by her successful go at slaying the dragon during the MagiQuest game at Great Wolf Lodge, she spent a good amount of time creating this tableau of a family of fire-breathing, flying dragons.
Her drawing skills have improved magically over time – it’s pretty cool to see the evolution in her compositions. At the eye doctor today, she drew a family of pirates for the nurse to hang on one of the walls.
The family theme that permeates her artwork is definitely a good thing. They aren’t dysfunctional, psychotic families – just happy families of four. Whether dragons, pirates, bears or other creatures. When I see these images, I’m reassured. We must be doing something right.
Of course, these feelings of child-reading success are often undermined when one of the two little angels starts screaming at us for some perceived slight. At which point I start wondering, with increasing alarm, “what kind of monsters are we raising?”
But this usually doesn’t last too long, and then we’re all back to being lovey-dovey and happy until the next outburst.
On another note, I’m turning 40 in a few months. And every time I remember that I’m turning 40, I realize that Sophie will be starting college when I’m about 55. That’s crazy. When my mom was 55, I was already 31 years old – and pregnant with Chloe. Jeez.
Will my husband and I ever be able to retire? Probably not. Playing the lottery is looking more and more tempting every day.
Pretty Bed
It turns out that Sophie is more adaptable than I thought she’d be – her first night in bed went smoothly. And although she’s loathe to admit it (she still claims to want her crib back), she spent more time playing in her bedroom in the last 24 hours than she’s spent in there the whole year. And most of that time was in her “pretty bed.”
We’ll see how she does tonight. I am not naive enough to think that just because she made it through one night there won’t be some backlash, in the form of middle-of-the-night screams, to her new sleeping arrangements.
The cool thing about not having the crib anymore is that we can read and cuddle together in bed. Just like with Chloe. And she has lots more room for her horse, penguin, big bear, rainbow bear, purple bear, Shirley the lamb, security blanket towels and the various trinkets she likes to hold in her tiny fingers while she sleeps.
The End of an Era
Sophie’s bedroom at 9 AM on July 31, 2008.
Sophie’s room five hours later.
Super Sophie!
As promised, here are a few photos from our trip to Great Wolf Lodge. The first is an image of Super Sophie – whose muscles rival those of Popeye’s as she lifts an inner tube over her head.
The second (taken by our nascent photographer, Chloe) gives you a good idea of the craziness of the 
slides. The blue one was everyone’s favorite, hands-down.
We arrived just at opening this morning, and for about two minutes, Sophie had the “beach” all to herself.
Chloe spent a good deal of time practicing for her future as Tarzan’s Jane.
Finally, there was also a fort. The fort provided hours of fun to kids who thought it a hoot to dump buckets of water on passersby down below. And there are a lot of buckets to dump.
MagiQuest Mania
OK – before arriving at this hotel, I sincerely thought that the water park would drive me mad. In practice, however, this was not to be the case. The water park is actually a lot more fun than I anticipated.
Great Wolf Adventure
We made it to the hotel just before lunch and miracle of miracles, our room was ready for us (based on what I had been told, we were expecting to wait until 5pm or so to gain access). The mini-getaway got off to a great start.
The Portable Piano
Yes, the two girls are fighting over the “piano.” And, no it’s not that Chloe is demonstrating supergirl strength. For now, our piano is still the miniature keyboard with 30 or so keys. And both girls carry it around the house like books.
Sophie and Chloe were having a bit of a scuffle over use of the toy. It goes without saying that whenever Chloe sits down to practice, Sophie is suddenly interested in banging on the keys as well. This inevitably leads to screaming and crying.
Today, however, the screaming led to playing, when Chloe started to hold the keyboard out of Sophie’s reach. Sophie loved this new game, and came up with all sorts of ruses to grab the piano – jumping, a chair lift, stretching…you name it, she tried it. And instead of tears, there were lots of laughs.