Category: Elena

The Girls

.Reading time 3 minutes.

This is the first outfit she pieced together herself. She wears it weekly.  I know, you’re thinking, what a wild cat you got there, with the long skirt and white cardi. But it is so her. She plays it safe. She’s predictable.  She’s not gonna be the flashiest girl in town, but she might be the most dependable.
She gets herself up in the mornings and then comes and makes sure I’m awake too.
“Get up, it’s time to pack my lunch mom,“ She says.
She is just. So. Responsible.  I don’t know how we managed to produce offspring such as her. I’m proud of her, and her simplistic style.  It reminds me that she’s still a little girl. Cautious and tentatively putting her stuff together.  I am so thankful for her.

Especially… Because I have this little hooligan following her.

It’s about the flash! It’s about the twirl factor. It’s about pink and glitter and princess and puppies.
I bought her this lovely dress at Target. It was on clearance. (There were probably 10 in each size on clearance and you can probable find them now, moved on to the Goodwill next door) The colors on this beauty don’t filter into your eyeball properly; they sort of assault the senses.  I knew in an instant this would be SCORE! for her.
She calls it her beautiful dress. She wears it a lot. She loves it.

She is so lovable.  And so so naughty.

She also says this a couple times a week. “I am so fat!” Naturally the first time I heard this I was quite concerned, and all this horrible skinny obsessed culture has corrupted my precious child, and she is already concerned about being overweight.
So I cautiously asked her, “What do you think about being fat?”
And she erased all my fears by saying:
“I love it! I want to be fat, like a superhero!”  You go girl, I was not expecting a goal of “being fat like a super-hero” on her wish list, but it has landed there, and she repeats that phrase at least one time a week.

Then we have this little charmer.

She is such a happy baby.  A lot of people ask me how she’s doing, and if there are any after-effects of the drugs in her system.  The short answer is probably not.  She meets all her grow-chart stuff. We don’t see anything alarming at this point.  The most obvious health issue she has is that she has literally had a cold since the day she was born.
There is lots and lots of snot.  She smiles and giggles.  She sort of sits, and it looks like she will start crawling any day now.

There you have it..those are my girls.

Super Tuesday

.Reading time 2 minutes.

“You are so mean!” She yells, and then adds “So so MEAN”.   She stomps upstairs crying.  I sigh and roll my eyes.

My day had been busy.  It had ended with
a call to Gene reminding him that we forgot we had PTF that evening, and the
decision that I would be the one to go.

Quesadillas were fried, and flopped on the table.  I started eating without telling anyone, because
that’s how badly I wanted silence (plus I was running late).

I had sneaked into the gym late, and casted my votes for the fundraising
committees. (It’s simple, if you don’t know the candidates, always vote for the
person who’s name has a nice ring to it)

I had come home and thought my days duties were done.  It turns out that my duties are never done,
and I keep forgetting that lesson.

I had been short with her, I admit.  I
gave her attitude that said, “My stuff is so much more important than your
stuff, and I don’t have time for your stuff anyway”.  When a mom gives a little attitude, it is
returned to her in three-fold, another lesson I keep forgetting.

So while she was taking a bath, I went in and made my things right with
her.  With red swollen eyes she forgave
me, and understands that moms get grouchy too sometimes.

This morning it is all forgotten.  While
I was combing her hair she was telling me about the boy who is always hugging
her.  “Every time I walk by him he hugs
me, everybody knows that he likes me mom.”

Giggle.

So life keeps unfolding, and I know someday I will look back on these times
with such nostalgia, and wish I had been more patient, more loving, and not
been so overthinking about
everything.  I know that in our family we would be lost without forgiveness,
it makes everything go around.

That was my Super Tuesday, How was yours?