In the Closet

Quick, someone call our social worker. Juliette is in the closet.

Evie was there Sunday.

Are they being punished?

Is something amiss?

Does anyone recall a closet scene in Mommie Dearest??

It isn't punishment. Rather, it is prime real estate for napping. Sunday, Evie requested to take her nap in Mommy's newly cleaned, vacuumed closet.

I immediately sniffed the whiff of opportunity. "I don't know.... you can't have stories or songs if you nap in the closet, because there isn't room for Momma AND Evie in the closet."

"OK."

(Not having to read stories and sing songs is like a get out of jail free card.) I immediately agreed to the request.

Juliette overheard. "but I wanted to nap in the closet."

Nope, if I would even allow for two people, books and songs would be back on the bargaining table and there would be no win for me.

Juliette, in tears, "I never get to sleep in the closet".

Me-"Evie asked first, you can sleep in the closet another day."

Juliette- "Evie always gets to go first" - a bigger untruth has yet to be spoken in the town that inspired such famous lines as "I did not have sex with that woman" and "I am not a crook".

Me - "you will have to wait your turn, today is Evie's turn because she asked first."

Consequently, two days later, Juliette is in the closet. (Well on her way to being asleep.) There is something about the odor of leather and dry cleaning that puts them out quicker than benadryl. If we could bottle the sleep intoxication of the closet, Bruce and could easily quit our jobs and devote ourselves to the millions paid by parents desperate to have have their little angels drift off to sleep more easily.

Or, maybe, rather than bedrooms, we should give Juliette and Evie and the rest of the cherubs those little pod dorms to sleep in like the Picadilly hotel in London or the Hotel Akasaka in Tokyo. We could have some cubbies at the end for a couple of momma's shoes to simulate the closet environment more completely....

Until the construction begins, during nap the girls will be taking turns sleeping on the floor in my closet.

It is true, I am tying my own shoes.

Career Day

Career day is coming up in Evie's class. I don't have to ask her what she wants to be, because she told me on the way to school today.

Momma, I want to ride a motorcycle inside the circle.

Does anyone know where I can find a crash helmet and motorcycle gear for a two year old in time for career day?

The stock market did WHAT today???

OT - Charlie Rose

Tonight, Charlie Rose is hosting President George Bush.

As you know from previous posts, I really like Charlie Rose's show. It is intelligent, thought-provoking and always an intelligent conversation about interesting topics.

Imagine my curiosity over this evening's program.

Many guests over the past year talk about the complications of the war in Iraq, this administration, and the troubled state of political discourse in the U.S.

What is tonight going to be like? What will Bush say? Will Charlie be nice (he's a Southerner, so yes) but will he hold back on hardball questions? Whatever made Bush decide to do Rose's show? What did Charlie have to agree to? Will it be completely done by script?

Last night they featured a whole hour on the Frost/Nixon play that just opened on Broadway. By the end of the hour, I was trying to figure out what basis I could lay for us to travel to NY and see the production.

Will I feel differently about Bush at the end of tonight's show? Will I see him more sympathetically?

With regard to television programming, I thought I was most looking forward to the return of the Sopranos, but it turns out I was wrong.

What isn't weird

It was a beautiful day in northern VA, temperatures were going to hit 72, there wasn't a cloud in the sky. Tulips and Kwanzaan Cherrys are in full bloom - yard sale and garden show signs were posted in anticipation for the weekend. Burl Ives was on the CD player as we ran errands.

Me - "Evie, what music do you want to listen to?"

Evie - "Christmas music."

Me - " Parumpumpum pum?"

Evie - "No. Holly Jolly"

Consequently Burl Ives.

And this isn't weird. Because my children love Christmas music all year long. A complete paradigm shift for seasonality. I'm not sure how it will impact me this holiday season. Will I even notice Christmas music? Unsure.

There are many shifts of thinking that are similar.

Eating at 5:30 isn't weird anymore. In fact, it ensures a pleasant meal from the finest restaurant like Ray's the Steaks (where we ate as a family tonight yum times four!) to Hong Kong Palace where we suck down the fantistic food. The children have a lower level of crazy at 5:30 and they are more likely to focus on food and not be running all over the place.

A temperature of 100 Degrees isn't much to fuss about. (103 is a different story!)

Having large plastic toys isn't that weird. (I can't believe I am even saying that one out loud!!!)

The list goes on.

Central

One of the biggest adjustments for me as a stay at home parent is the lack of fine dining in my life.

Many of you know I love a good meal, more than just a good meal, I especially love food that doesn't cost me a ton of money. I love expensive good food too, but I really love a "find" -- food that is rewarding without exacting usury. When Bruce and I went to Paris, we didn't do Michelen three stars, instead I dragged him to stand in line to go to Joel Robuchon's L'Atelier restaurant that had the atmosphere of a sushi bar (but he is a genius and inspiration to chefs around the world!)

When we went to L.A., it was In-N-Out burger. San Diego, Taco Surf. New York was a series of pizza places and an occasional upscale Italian adventure. NY always included bagels and hot dogs, natch.

While it doesn't happen all of the time in the land of stay at home mom, I am occasionally rewarded with a delicious repast with friends or Bruce worth noting. One of those meals was this evening.

Friends and I went to Michel Richard's new venue, Central. Michel Richard is famous for his restaurants around the world. He was trained as a pastry chef and definitely has a sense of humor. It is loud, my water wasn't refilled without request, and my knife mysteriously disappeared never to be replaced about a third of the way through the meal, but the food was great. It was a pleasure to be eating food so well thought through - onion tart, salad, and yes a hamburger were all way above average. And the dessert, well, it was truly a pleasure.

For those of you who live in D.C., Central is worth a visit. There are other restaurants downtown I frequent more regularly, but Central was truly a treat. Way more classy than Taco Surf, but not beyond an average budget.

Cherry Blossoms

We went to see the Cherry Blossoms Tuesday. Juliette took some pictures.

You can visit them at her blog, http://juliettegoesclick.blogspot.com

To check them out, visit Juliette goes click!

The Easter Hangover

A portrait of post-holiday sugar overload disorder.

Hope you had a Happy Easter!

Life isn't always a beach

We are at the beach in NC. Last night, we had a huge thunder and lightning storm. Crashing claps of thunder with brilliant light display. The cacaphony was really bad between 3 and 4 am. At 4, I gave up trying to sleep and decided to get some work done.

So, I come out of our bedroom only to discover the front door is wide open and it is raining in. Did the wind blow it open?

I immediately check on the girls in the room they are sharing. They are both sleeping on air mattresses on the floor to avoid falling out of the high bed in that room. Juliette is sleeping like an angel.

There is no sign of Evie.

She isn't in her bed.

She isn't on the floor next to her bed.

She isn't in the pile of pillows near her bed.

Panic wells. Where could she be? She wouldn't ever go out in such awful weather - only two houses away from the ocean, would she?

I wondered what I should do first - wake Bruce?

Check again?

She isn't in Juliette's bed with her, but I hear snoring.

I creep into the room and see a fragment of her fuzzy blue blanket.

She crawled under the big bed to escape the thunder and fell asleep.

Sigh.

Mom, don't bug me. I'm working.

OT - Random Thoughts

I've Bolded Key Elements so you can skip what BORES you!

Pop culture - saw Wordplay and Casino Royale while Bruce was away this weekend. Recommend them both.

Note - Bruce was AWAY THIS WEEKEND!!!!

I am not meant to be a single parent. In fact, I am quite sure that my little lovelies pray hard for their father's health every night for fear they would be left with only their mother.

Everything worth watching on network television is on hiatus. Hello, HBO and the Sopranos! You are coming back in the nick of time.

Owning your own business. Pearls definitely takes a back seat when consulting kicks in. No one should fear I will ever be the cover story on Entreprenuer magazine. However, knowing how many small businesses fail, I firmly believe self-discipline has to be the most critical element between success and failure rates of people owning their own business. The second most critical element has to be flexibility.

Speaking of the small business and consulting -- Doing your taxes when you are dealing with both is somewhere on par with getting your wisdom teeth pulled. Having turned it into a game with a spreadsheet, I cannot imagine how boring life would be without my Excel. Is there anything I can't quantify in those little boxes??? Ah, who remembers the naming process for Genevieve? You don't think we did that without several spreadsheets do you?

Frank Rich compared Alberto Gonzales to Fredo Corleone in today's New York Times! Politics aside - How hilarious is that??

Cherry blossoms are on their way! The precursor blossoms at the Pentagon were out late last week, any day now we'll be taking the girls down to the Tidal Basin for our annual pilgrimage.

Last Thursday, Juliette made her bed, made Evie's bed with Evie, made my bed. And when we got to the play area at Chik-fil-A, she told the big kids who were playing rough to be kind to Evie, because she was just a little kid.

Evie has mastered pedaling - thus she will soon be getting a bike of her own.

Bruce came back this afternoon. Hurray! I can honestly say I can't recall the last time I was so happy to see him!

This is twinkle twinkle little star...

I am a bumble bee (who is really concentrating)

scarves

You remember the freeze dance selection in swan lake, don't you?

The tune sounds sort of Irish...

Ballet Warm Ups

Getting ready for our ballet performance today

Yep, it is the last ballet class for Evie and Juliette today. We will post pictures later today or tomorrow.

Baaaaddd Mommy

Much of parenting occurs within the confine of your home. The private mommy. This mommy is only marginally referred to in group settings - "Mommy is grumpy" or "Mommy made popovers for breakfast."

Then, there is the semi-public mommy that can be found at the park, at the grocery store, the museum. People observing this mommy only see her once. People make flash judgements on this mommy all of the time. "She is such a good/bad mommy.....she does x, y, or z right or wrong"

Then, there is public mommy. You run into her every other day at school drop off or you play together publically. There is a fair amount of angst in my life over public mommy. This is where the real "good mommy/bad mommy" perception comes into play.

Why do I care what people think? I know, I know, I shouldn't but I do.

Minor bad mommy example - I went to a party and remembered flowers and my appetizer, but had no photographs of my children. A group of men wouldn't have cared, but this was a group of women.

Bad mommy.

Major bad mommy example -- sending a child to school with pink eye. In my defense, she had been on tobramycin for a day. The teachers let her into class, then she started clinging to me like it was the first day of school all over again. You could see it written all over their faces "Why is she insisting this poor ill child stay here?"

In my further defense, this child had sucked more one-on-one time with mommy in the past four days than since last year before school let out. We did art projects, stickers, played outside, ate treats, together ALL WEEKEND LONG. ALL WITHOUT HER SISTER!!!! We had already dropped her sister off in her class and she saw the golden opportunity to have MORE ALONE TIME WITH MOMMY. She felt fine, and was fine after I left. But up until I snuck away, you could see it in the teacher's eyes...

BAAAADDD Mommy!!!!!!

An Ode to Babysitters

There is nothing better than having your child wake up the morning after a parent night out and demand to know where the babysitter is.

Where is Miss Sarah?

Where is Auntie Beth?

Last night as Bruce and I were getting ready to leave, Evie was literally pushing me with all of her might, "Go away, Mama." Other parents might be disturbed by this, I say "Ok, see you later baby, " and give her a kiss.

"I am not a baby, I am a big girl, Mama."

Was the last thing I heard as I walked out the front door.

Last night was a big event for the girl's school, and it was interesting to see other parents sneak away to get home to put their kids to bed so the babysitter wouldn't have to. I contemplated a late night run to a movie, a bookstore, anything to not have to go home.

Alas, it was daylight savings time and considering my sleep track lately, we went home and crashed. Only to be woken to "Where is Miss Christine?????"

Juliette, Evie, and the Snow Bear

We made a snow bear to celebrate last week's storm. There is only a 3 inch snowball of the snowbear left as of today.

Sorry, Ju Ju!

Evie is becoming quite a prolific talker. Juliette is the best at translating the Evie dialect, but Bruce and I probably catch 60-80% of what she is telling us.

She loves to make up songs about school and her life when we are taking turns singing in the car. This is some of her most incomprehensible speech. Every once in a while I'll catch a line about Mrs. Huggins or Eli or Tyler (she never sings about Helen, Juliana, or MacKenzie) but whatever she is singing, it is hilarious to her. She'll laugh hysterically halfway through a line of a song that even Juliette can't interpret.

This morning I caught her with her second favorite toy - bat - over her shoulder, approaching her sister from behind. Muttering "Sorry Ju Ju!"