A Picture

This picture was taken just two months ago. In two months a number of things have happened: one, Jonah has sprouted up a foot and a half (okay, perhaps not literally, but he is growing like a weed); And two, he has become a little boy. No longer a toddler, but a full-fledged preschooler.

Le Tour

Today the Tour de France wrapped up. So to celebrate this momentous occasion (you know, of getting both Dave AND the television back) I am going to share some pictures of fireworks—and of us watching said fireworks. Why? Because it somehow feels like a fireworks kind of moment. After all, what is a celebration of happiness (not that I don't completely love the Tour, it's just a LONG month of watching that and nothing else) if there aren't the proverbial fireworks present?

So here are some much belated pictures from the 4th of July. You'll notice the kids and I watched from the trunk of the car. Oh and let me say—completely randomly I might add— that the kids have been talking about sitting in the back of the car ever since. Apparently, sitting in the trunk of the car was a lifetime best. Kids—they love the little things, don't they?

Sir Lance-a-Little

Wednesday? Already?!

Well it seems as if another week has flown right by me. And this makes me rather sad. I am not looking forward to the end of summer because with it Ellie ventures off to full-day kindergarten. Sigh.

I have some exciting things percolating, and yet, I can't fully enjoy them because I'm a little weepy every day thinking about her going away. All day. Missing lunch with Jonah and me almost every day. Out from under my watchful eye.

Honestly, I don't remember being as broken up about her being in daycare that first year (almost two) as I am now at the thought of her going to school ALL DAY LONG. Maybe it's all the time that we've spent together (24-7) over the last four years. Maybe it's that I feel I know her personality inside and out and worry that the teachers and kids won't appreciate her for the special, creative person I know her to be. Maybe it's that I have my own issues I need to work through from childhood. Maybe I'm just selfish and will miss having one of my two constant companions around.

School is good. It will be good for her and I know she will do just fine. We all made it through and most of us are functioning without need of intense psychiatric intervention. It's silly and abnormal to feel this level of sadness when your little one goes off to ALL DAY KINDERGARTEN. It's only Kindergarten. I'm completely over thinking it, right?

But I can help feeling that I'm not ready just yet to close that chapter on the preschool era. That era where they're with you for every meal, every day. Where you are just as, or perhaps even more important, than their friends in shaping them. Where they don't slip away.

So that all brings me to my mommies-night-out this past Monday. This month, we had dinner and then went to see Mama Mia! And while it was great fun (as this is a great group of friends) I couldn't help but have a melancholy moment when Meryl sang Slipping Through My Fingers (and I mean like, had to stop myself from going into that snot-running-out-my-nose, puffy-eyed, full-fledge wail sort of melancholy moment).

Schoolbag in hand, she leaves home in the early morning
Waving goodbye with an absent-minded smile
I watch her go with a surge of that well-known sadness
And I have to sit down for a while
The feeling that I'm losing her forever
And without really entering her world
I'm glad whenever I can share her laughter
That funny little girl

Slipping through my fingers all the time
I try to capture every minute
The feeling in it
Slipping through my fingers all the time
Do I really see what's in her mind
Each time I think I'm close to knowing
She keeps on growing
Slipping through my fingers all the time

Sleep in our eyes, her and me at the breakfast table
Barely awake, I let precious time go by
Then when she's gone there's that odd melancholy feeling
And a sense of guilt I can't deny
What happened to the wonderful adventures
The places I had planned for us to go
(Slipping through my fingers all the time)
Well, some of that we did but most we didn't
And why I just don't know

Slipping through my fingers all the time
I try to capture every minute
The feeling in it
Slipping through my fingers all the time
Do I really see what's in her mind
Each time I think I'm close to knowing
She keeps on growing
Slipping through my fingers all the time

Sometimes I wish that I could freeze the picture
And save it from the funny tricks of time
Slipping through my fingers

Slipping through my fingers all the time

Schoolbag in hand she leaves home in the early morning
Waving goodbye with an absent-minded smile

Now please excuse me while I go grab a box of tissues.

The Film Critics

In hour two of Love in the Time of Cholera

Jen: Oh my lord, you have to be kidding me. Another scene?
Dave: When will they both get Cholera and die already?

This concludes our commentary on Love in the Time of Cholera.

Marriage V: CoDependency

I'm nothing if not bored at the moment.

See my muse is away at some thingy where he's talking about something. I don't know. Sometimes I glaze over when he tells me things. He hates when I do that. What do you expect though after 16 years together? We're bound to each be guilty of some glazing over from time to time.

So without my buddy, I am left here at 8:00 pm with the kids in bed and nobody to dance with. He would profess that he doesn't dance, but let me tell you—that boy can bust a move. When he's not dancing himself he's usually pretending he doesn't notice me dancing. He actually loves my dancing. He can deny it but we both know the truth.

Anyway, I hope he's having fun at his thing talking about stuff. For me, I've got the evening planned. I get to watch that i love the 80s episode he stopped recording. Luckily it played again. And this time I was in control of the Tivo. Finally, I get to find out what happened in 1981.

True Love

Watching a recorded episode of I Love the 80s. Half-way through the TiVo delete now? menu comes on.

Her: What? What happened?
Him: Oh sorry. I stopped recording it because I had to catch the last couple minutes of the Tour.
Her: WHAT?! But I love that show. It reminds me of childhood.
Him: Sorry.
Her: But, but, but. How will I know what happens.
Him: How will you know what happens? In 1981?! A ha ha ha ha!
Her: Folds arms. Breathes angrily.
Him: Listen, they have these things now called encyclopedias. I'll get you one.
Her: (mumbles) It's not the same.

The Train Museum

I love the museums in Baltimore. And no other museum in the area is higher on our kids' list of faves than the B & O Railroad Museum. As you know, Jonah is going through a bit of a, er, TRAIN PHASE—all trains, all the time. In fact last night as we watched the fireworks go off, the conversation went a little something like this:

Ellie: Ooooh, they look like stars.
Jonah: I see a track. And look, there are all the passengers.
Me: That one looked like a smiley face.
Jonah: Look at ALLLL those passengers.
Ellie: Ah Jonah, maybe it just looks like fireworks.
Jonah: Yeah, it just looks like fireworks. (pause) Hey, that one's an octopus!

Okay so he has a fascination with trains and octopuses right now. Anyway, you get my point with the trains.

And we are nothing if not indulgent of our children's obsessions. There was the time I turned our yard into an entire episode of Dora because a certain someone just adored the girl explorer.

So without further introduction (or back story to explain why we are now card-carrying members of the train museum), I get to the reason for my post today: I give you a trip to the train museum pictorial. Enjoy.

Another Fine Moment

So I've had many a moment where I've wondered why I'm allowed out in public. There was the time I accidentally mooned the parents at the preschool graduation (in a church no less). Let's just say it involved an elastic-waist skirt, a tantruming toddler and a thong (cause of course it would have been embarrassing to have a panty line...little did I know what was in store that day).

Then there was the time where I was the only mom who showed up to a school function WAAAY under dressed. All the moms had on these gorgeously flowing dresses and some even were wearing hats! LIKE IT WAS THE KENTUCKY DERBY. Naturally, I showed up in my jeans and tee-shirt. Yeah, that was a good time too.

So given this history, I now tell you about my latest guffaw. Ellie got invited to a birthday party. These moms all dress very classically (think Lilly Pulitzer) and ALWAYS have their hair done in some pleasant manner and yes, make-uped. They are just pulled-together and looking good. They are also part of a group in my town that is rather well-to-do. The party is at like 9:00 am (it was a last minute thing at a venue that books up months and months in advance) and I actually make it on time. Which in and of itself is a huge achievement for me. I'm also feeling rather smug in that I've dress as smartly as I can given my limited wardrobe. And as I'm standing there having a conversation with one of the moms I look down and notice that I AM WEARING MY SHIRT INSIDE OUT.

Ah universe. You know how to get me every time.

The Toothless

To date, Ellie has lost 4 teeth. She is about to loose number five. Tonight, as she wobbled the latest tooth, she exclaimed, "My tooth is like a little diving board."

Indeed it is.