This is an update of my previous post, “Banished.” It is now 12:08 am and after a couple of hours of blissful quiet while the gaggle was watching a silly movie called “She’s the Man,” all noisy hell has broken loose.
Banished, Part I
The fun has hardly begun, and with only half of the expected crowd in the house, I have already been banished from the kitchen and living room, where Chloe and two of her friends are hanging out. I am currently in the sunroom, which I will likely also be forced to leave once the other guests arrive.
Slumber Party Tomorrow, Oh My!
I thought that we had miraculously bypassed the mandatory tween slumber party thing with Chloe. But, alack and alas, this was not to be. Chloe decided that she wanted to host a sleepover for her and five friends for her 11th birthday. This big event is tomorrow. And I can’t wait until it’s over!
The Cell Phone Obsession
This was the mostly one-sided conversation that Chloe had with me yesterday morning about her future cell phone.
Happy 11th Birthday, Chloe
It’s hard to believe. She’s 11 years old. Can’t I just press ‘pause’ on time? We gave her a small handbag for her birthday and I’m happy to report that she loves it. I was concerned that she wouldn’t like what we chose, but she does. It looks very cute on her. It also makes her look even older. Ugh.
When the Mom’s Away…
… Sophie and Chloe convince the Papa to make crepes. They certainly seem to have had fun. When I arrived home, Chloe was jabbering away. Non-stop. Sophie started jabbering at the same time. I started to get a headache.
Girls’ Weekend
My best friend (my BFF according to Sophie), is getting remarried in March. She’s keeping it simple – in fact, she’s essentially eloping with her fiancé. But she still needs a dress. And because I her self-appointed best woman (I refuse to use the term “matron of honor,” which is just so stupid), she and I are spending the weekend in New York to find something she can wear in front of her soon-to-be husband and the justice of the peace.
Sophie is a Reader
The best thing about kids learning to read is that they can read themselves to sleep. Don’t get me wrong. I very much enjoy reading books to Sophie. But it sure is nice when (1) Sophie reads a book to me, like she did tonight – “I Broke My Trunk” by Mo Willems and (2) Sophie reads to herself when she can’t fall asleep.
After I tucked her in, Sophie came back downstairs to say she wasn’t tired. “What should I do?” she asked. I suggested she read a book. So she did. “Green Eggs and Ham” by Dr. Seuss. Thirty minutes later, she came bounding down the stairs to announce, “I did it! I read the WHOLE book. 62 pages!”
“Did you enjoy it?” I asked. “Oh, yes!” she replied, a face full of smiles.
The joys of reading. There’s nothing else like it, I tell you.
Football, Anyone?
I don’t know what’s happening to Chloe. I truly believe that she’s being taken over by aliens. Between an acquaintance in school mentioning to a friend that she thought Chloe was “fashionable” (WTF?) and her announcement last night at dinner, she’s just not as familiar to me as she once was.
So Much for a Winter Without Snow
We woke up to a few manageable inches of the white stuff yesterday morning. The snow was light and fluffy. Sophie is currently outside with her Papa throwing snowballs. If you look closely at the photo, you can see her rosy red cheeks, not unlike the portraits of Renaissance princesses. As I look out the window into the backyard, I can see her trying to climb up the playset to protect herself from the army of one Papa. She has good aim. Papa, not so much. She’s taunting him now with great glee. Life is so damn simple when you’re six.