Riding it out

April 15, 2012Leave a comment

This weekend felt long.

We had Maria’s friend Janira over on Friday night for a play date. Mario got himself all worked up wanting to be near Janira even going so far as to ask for her autograph on his arm. If she didn’t have any self-esteem prior to coming to our house, she sure has it now. Maria gets annoyed and begs Jon and I to keep him away from her. It works for a bit but then he sneaks upstairs to see them. Every once in a while, if he acts like a pet dog or a new-born baby, the girls will allow him to play with them. If he refuses to engage in the act, he is not wanted.

Saturday brought a hectic morning getting Maria ready to go over to Janira’s house for a play date and a movie and getting Mario packed up to spend a few nights with Grandma Ionno. I hit the road at noon to head to Hamilton, Ohio for my cousin’s baby shower. I was praying for sheet cake – I will take on a two-hour drive in the pouring rain with no issue if I know there is sheet cake waiting for me. Alas, no sheet cake but there were cute, yummy cupcakes. And there was good conversation with Meg’s sisters and nieces. There is always a lot to talk about with them since I don’t get to see them much during the year. They are down-to-earth and make me laugh. We have two weddings this Spring for two of the cousins so Maria is in seventh heaven – she loves seeing the gowns and the ceremony and rockin’ it out at the reception.

I got back to the house with only my hubby sitting in it. Strange, yet peaceful. No kids screaming. No pulling at my shirt. No begging to play a game. I actually got quite a few hours to just veg yesterday. I thought a little about work and a little about tasks in the coming week but I spent a lot of time just listening to music and the scenery. Just being. Nice. In the evening, Maria traveled to the horse show with Grandma Meg and Peepaw. She didn’t get home until 11 pm – Jon and I only stayed awake by watching Indiana Jones. When she got home, she had an attack of the giggles. She ignored our demand to sleep in her own bed (we allowed her in our bed because her neck hurt and we both were freaking out she had some strange disease). She laughed at everything Jon said or did. He sneezed, she laughed. He said “goodnight”, she laughed. Finally, Jon stopped talking and we all fell asleep.

We woke up on Sunday morning at 7 am (can our kids ever sleep past 7 especially when they go to bed so late?!). Jon headed to Marietta for a few hours. Ri and I spent the first hour or so of the morning cleaning up her room. We (actually just me!) gathered a lot of clothes for Baby Grace and a lot of toys for Goodwill. After a bit, we both realized we were hungry and jumped in the stroller to head to Bob Evans. It was packed – we got there just a bit late and all of the drunk college kids were strolling in with their hangovers. We turned around and went to McDonald’s for sausage burritos and hash browns. Not quite the same but it filled our bellies.

On the stroller ride home, Maria seemed a little sad. I asked her what was wrong, and she kept telling me nothing. Finally, she admitted that she just wanted a play date with someone. I told her we’d need to clean up a bit before someone came over, and she went into whine mode crying “Mom, what do we need to do?” It got under my skin. I thought what do I need to do to make her more appreciative of what she has and what more do I need to do to make her more willing to do chores. How could I raise a daughter that thought she could just play all the time and not do any work? How did I raise a daughter that was so moody at times?

We stopped at the park before we headed home. As I pushed Maria on the swing for the tenth time, it hit me. I promote this behavior – I just stopped at the park after I told her we needed to go home and clean! I help them clean their rooms after I tell them to clean their rooms themselves! I go everywhere with them and take care of their every concern! Ugh, no wonder she is acting this way. What a dumba–!!!

I sat her down after the swings and talked with her about my irritation. I explained to her my epiphany and how I wanted her to be independent and respectful and driven, and how I had fostered a dependence on me by doing a lot for her instead of having her do it. I explained that I did that out of love for her but that sometimes you need to push someone out on their own in order to show your love. I told her that I was going to do that more and I needed her to work with me. I looked down at her and she looked up at me. Her reply: “Ok.” I am quite sure she was thinking “what a whack job” but she has too big of a heart to say that to me.

We went home and cleaned up some. I also realized how ADD I am when it comes to housework. I clean one thing and start on another but then I get side-tracked on something else. Maria only follows in my footsteps. So, we have another day, another week, another year, to work on it all. We threw down the dirty laundry and biked to pick up Janira and to Orange Leaf for a big ol’ yogurt with cookies and M&M’s sprinkled on top. Much more fun than housework. Then we went home, and the girls created a spa for me. They filled bowls of water with flower petals and “mint” (green leaves from the plants outside) and scented lotions. They got kitchen scrubbers and gels and a brush.

I must admit that they did a half-way decent job. Janira gave a mad foot rub and Maria rubbed my head with hair gel (I looked like a peacock afterwards but who cares when you get your hair pulled!). They were just getting started when big ol’ bumblebees came swarming towards us surely smelling the scented lotions. We made a mad dash inside and closed up the spa. Barbies came next, and when I asked Maria to clean up before we took Janira home, she promptly abided. My girl.

A splinter takes down Macho

April 14, 2012Leave a comment

Our macho little Mario who consistently taunts us by saying “Bring It On” and wrestling us was taken down by a one inch splinter.

He brushed his hand against the wood bannister outside and got a tiny splinter in the palm of his hand. He came in to show me, and I told him it should be easy to get out. He remembered back to the first splinter he got months ago – Jon had to literally hold his feet and arms down while I worked it out with a pair of tweezers. Meanwhile he cried and fidgeted the entire time. We were forced to take that route with him after begging him to voluntarily allow us to get it out. He absolutely refused months ago and continued to absolutely refuse this time around. When I approached him with the tweezers, he freaked out. He ran away; he cried huge tears; he begged and pleaded to keep the splinter in his hand.

I finally calmed him down after ten minutes and got him to agree to allow me to just look at it. It took me another 10 minutes to get him to agree to allow me to use the tweezers on him, and that was only because I scared him half to death by telling him that his hand would have to be cut off if he didn’t get the splinter out. But he would only allow me one pick with the tweezers so I could not get deep enough to get it out. After the one pick, he grabbed his hand and rolled on his back crying “I can’t take it anymore!” He then would plead that we must stop because the pain was too much. Finally, he cried “I just want to die!”

I couldn’t help but laugh. Even Maria chuckled. I finally got almost all of it out but there was just a small little piece that would have come out if I could have used the sharp end of a pair of scissors. But as soon as I picked those up, he ran away yelling “Those are too sharp, mom! Too sharp!” After throwing the scissors fifty feet away from me to convince him I would not use them, he made his was back to me to get the final piece out. And we did. He got a band-aid and a big ol’ hug and within ten minutes he was begging me to wrestle him.

Dandelion wishes

April 12, 20121 Comment

Dandelion fur

Brushing your face

as you continue to blow

with all of your might

Careful thought before the wish

We believe, mom

Magical moments

watching your babies

dream.

A+ Confident

April 11, 2012Leave a comment

Mario has been hearing us get on Maria about having to do her homework for the last eight months. He usually sits in the other room playing his Ben Ten game or watching a show or jumping off the couch onto the chair and vice versa. I have tried on numerous occasions to try to get him to read a book or draw while Maria is working on her homework. He has always had no desire.

He sees Maria get frustrated at times. She is now at the stage of reading chapter books. Some of the books are so incredibly boring that she brings home that I can totally understand why she detests having to read them. Mix that with the fact that they have harder words in them so she can’t just fly through them like she used to do, and it is even more frustrating. The other night I was making dinner and she was reading one of the chapter books. She had to read eight pages and she had cried about that fact for an entire ten minutes before she finally plunged into it. She wanted to read to herself so I let her. Within a minute, I looked behind her and saw that she had flipped through to the sixth page already. Each page was filled with words. There was no way she had read all of them in a minute. I looked at her. She looked at me. I crinkled my face at her. She crinkled hers back at me. I asked her if she read all six pages. She said yes. I asked her if she read every word in those six pages. She said yes but a little softer this time. She glanced up at me after saying “yes” and then said “Ok, I didn’t read them all.” At least she told the truth. Mario watched the entire exchange, and threw in his comments at the end.

“Maria, you have to do all of your homework.”

Maria rightfully flicked his arm.

I think Mario used to enjoy watching Maria get flustered and enjoy the fact that he did not have to engage in this nightly exercise of homework. But last night, he embraced the idea of homework. Maria was taking a shower and something hit me to tell him that his school sent homework home for him to do just like Maria’s school does for her. He totally bought into it. I brought over one of Maria’s old kindergarten workbooks. We started with an area that he is really good at – sequencing. He looked at three pictures of a boy and he had to determine which action went first, second and third. He got them all right. I gave him a high-five and wrote “A+” on the top of the page. From there, it was all over. His head was the size of Jupiter. I flipped over another page and had him work on the next exercise. He got it right. He wrote his own “A+” on the top of the page. When he got to a page where you had to circle the objects that had a certain vowel in them (e.g., find the “a” words in ball, cow, and ape), he had no clue. But when I tried to explain it to him, and point him in the right direction, he got so angry.

“I know how to do it, Mom!”

When he circled all of them, I let it go and moved onto the next page. However, Maria was not so generous. She had to take the opportunity to point out to Mario that he did not get the answers right.

“Mario, you circled them all and that is not right. You have to try again.”

Mario’s response: flick her in the ear.

He ended up finishing the entire workbook because he refused to stop until all of the pages were completed – right or wrong. Maria left the room after the flicking, and cuddled with her dad on the couch. I remained at the table with Mario watching him proudly circle the answers he believed correct and then watching him mark an “A+” a top every page of the book. He certainly does not lack confidence.

Reminder to Self: Take Vacation

April 7, 2012Leave a comment

Mission accomplished.

We took Naples for a ride this week, specifically the Ritz Carlton in Naples. Yeah, Maria and Mario in the Ritz Carlton. Very scary. We figured we’d be kicked out within 24 hours but surprisingly, I think management was ready to bring us back. Maria and Mario definitely added some life to the place with their unabashed commentary and their hilarious antics. Jon and I had our trepidation about the flights, the hotel, the itinerary day after day. But in the end, the trip could not have been more fantastic. The flights were a piece of cake. Maria is an executive in the making pulling her roller bag behind her with no problem at all. Mario is a hiker in the making throwing his roller bag/backpack onto his shoulders and carrying it through the airport. Jon and I could not stop watching them on the plane. They were so excited to look out the window and watch the plane ascend into the sky. And the amazement of being in the clouds! Jon and I found ourselves laughing every other minute at all of the little comments they made as we flew.

The hotel was decadent. We were on the 12th floor and our balcony provided a good view of the beach (the kids loved going out on the balcony but it freaked me out!). They also loved the bathroom because it had a tv in it. They realized that before Jon and I, and they locked themselves in the room one afternoon and watched Tom and Jerry. We didn’t realize it until we needed to go to the bathroom and after knocking and knocking, Maria opened the door and Mario was on the counter top hunched over with eyes glued on the tv. But other than those few episodes, the kids barely watched any tv on the trip.

The breakfast buffet reminded us of heaven. Pecan rolls, waffles with chocolate chips and whipped cream, omelettes, bacon, fruit loops, eggs benedict. Every morning, the kids would sit back in their chairs and say “this is the life.” Jon and I could not disagree.

We lived at the pool and the beach. Overall, the kids liked the pool better because it was not salty, you could see under the water, and it was less rough. Jon and I would have liked to be on the beach more, but they were pretty good about heading down to the ocean after an hour or so in the pool. Maria enjoyed the ocean more than Mario because she could go out farther in it. She also liked riding the waves. Mario would try to karate chop them as they broke; Maria would just move her body with them bobbing up and down. Our first morning, we went out into the ocean and as we stood in the water, a dolphin swam 50 feet in front of us and then another. We stood in awe – what a way to begin the trip. The pool provided much fun, especially for Mario. He dove to the bottom and swam all over. Jon and I could not believe that he was not fast asleep by 7 pm every night the way that he did cannonballs off the side and swam five feet under the water to touch the bottom. Maria enjoyed resting on the noodles, drifting around the pool. We came up with a game where we named an activity and then we all went under water to act it out. We picked apples from an apple tree, had a tea party, played baseball….

We broke up the morning and afternoon with lunch on the beach or in the pool area. Maria loved the beach restaurant because they served chicken strips, french fries, and a cookie! Jon fell in love with the grouper sandwich and I loved the chicken wrap. All for only $90! Yeah, that is right. Luckily, our package had a credit of $100 a day so the lunch was paid for in the end. If not, I would have had a coronary. It was a treat to have everything right at our fingertips – the pool, the towels, the food, the beach, the sand, the shells. In the evenings, we would head out for dinner to avoid paying $1000 for dinner at the hotel. We hit Buca De Beppo one night, and Mario choked on a piece of mozzarella cheese. Scared us half to death. Jon threw him my way after he hit his back a couple of times and Mario continued to choke. I stuck my finger down his throat and got the cheese out but I was a shaky mess afterwards. Maria did that to me when she was about a year old – we were in Krogers and she choked on a grape. Such a scary few seconds. Ugh! We hit Ruby Tuesday another night with all of the 70+ year olds. That was a trip. We had not been in one of those restaurants for quite some time, and remembered why afterwards.

On Tuesday, we traveled to the Everglades. We saw a slew of alligators off one of the roads recommended by the hotel for alligator sightseeing. The kids rolled down there windows to see them, and Maria kept yelling at Jon not to fall into the water. Mario dared Jon to get out of the car. Quite a difference in the reactions of these two! We took an air boat through mangroves hoping to find some alligators but didn’t see any on that trip. We caught an osprey on our return to the dock, though. After the air boat, we went to the Wooten’s, which we were told was a kids’ museum. It was really an alligator farm. In addition, it housed a turkey, bobcat, tiger, river otter, and turtles. It was a bit disturbing. The kids held a baby alligator, and Maria even kissed it. Mario lifted it up over his head and the caretaker grew concerned when the alligator began squirming (as did I!).

On the way to the farm, Maria had asked whether alligators crossed the road after we saw a sign for jaguar crossing. Jon and I laughed and told her that alligators probably don’t cross the roads. As we pulled out of the farm and traveled up 41, a five foot alligator waddled across the road in front of our car. Jon and I looked at each other and pointed him out to Ri. She proceeded to yell “I told you so! In your face!” Our sweet little 6 year old talking like a 14 year old. While she was yelling that at us, Mario was singing “I’m sexy and I know it” out the window. When we hit a more pedestrian area, he kept repeating “Where is a hot woman? Come to daddy!” Jon and I almost fell out of our seats. Where does he get these crazy sayings? I have never heard Jon talk this way and I don’t think he is bottling it up and going down Grandview Ave. shouting it out so I have no clue where it is from. All we can think is that it is innate in his little brain. God help us. We laughed so hard together in the car that day – it was wonderful.

We played putt-putt on Wednesday in the burning heat. We just had to break up the day at the pool because we were starting to get burnt even though we were lathering up on 50 sunscreen. Of course, it probably wasn’t the smartest move to head to outdoor putt-putt to get away but at least we could cover our shoulders with shirts. That is where we were all getting burnt. I remain the putt-putt queen but Jon gave me a run for my money. Maria and Mario both got two hole-in-ones, thank god. They would switched back and forth getting mad about not getting one when one of them got one.

In the evenings, we would head down to the beach for the sunset. It was cloudy all of the nights except one. That night was amazing. Maria and Jon stood in the water watching the bright red sun descending on the horizon, and Mario and I watched from the beach. It is those moments that rejuvenate me like a shock to the heart. Ahh, so this is what matters to me. Now I remember again. My family, laughter, time away. We all walked back up to the hotel room and as I stared at Maria and Mario ahead of us and Jon by my side I felt such joy and contentment. This is why vacations are needed. Re-start those engines.

We packed it all up on Thursday afternoon and hit the trinket shop to buy souvenirs. The flights home were uneventful. The kids fell straight to sleep on the second flight from Atlanta to Columbus. We arrived at 11:30 pm, and poor Maria had to wake up and walk the entire airport with us since Jon had to carry luggage and I had to carry Mario. She cried during most of the walk but she persevered and walked all the way to the car while sobbing “I just want my bed!” She is a trooper.

Mario woke up in our bed on Friday morning and asked whether it was a dream that he was in an airplane the night before. We chuckled and told him that he had fallen asleep and we carried home to the car and put him in his bed. As I unpacked our clothes, I caught myself wondering the same thing – was it all a dream now that we are back in our “routine?” No way – the sunsets, the pool-time, the beach, the dolphins, the car trips, the time together was all too real and too refreshing to ever be a dream.

Simple pleasures

March 31, 2012Leave a comment

I took the kids to the Gateway Theatre across from my office because they had a morning movie fest. We missed the activities before the movies last time we went so we made sure to get there earlier this time. Maria was quite disappointed due to the overwhelming “baby” activities that they had set up. I couldn’t argue with her. But, they did have a baby alligator and a lizard for kids to see. Mario stared at them both and pounded questions at the caretaker. They also had a tarantula that Mario almost rubbed faces with when the caretaker took it out. All I could picture was that spider’s fangs digging into Mario and I finally grabbed him away. My smart Maria kept her distance.

We got our popcorn and cookie and took our seats at the very top of the theatre. They play a movie short and then a fun local band, Shazbott’s, plays music before the next movie. Mario loves to go to the front of the theatre and dance. Maria is starting to get self-conscious about it all and stayed in her seat the first round. She only came down the next time because I begged her. She stood by me and watched Mario dance. Mario stood by a blond girl who I believe was part of the band. Later he asked for my phone and I saw him taking a ton of pictures of her. Freaky little guy.

While Maria and I watched Mario dance with the other little kids, I noticed a bald guy holding a little black-haired girl dancing around to the music. He looked like someone I knew – I couldn’t think of who so I found myself glancing over at him off and on to try to remember. He continued to dance with the little girl and then a woman came up from behind him and started to use sign language. He spoke back to her in sign. Another lady approached them and the two women began talking. After a few seconds, they started to sign for the guy. They all laughed.

I began to tear up. How ridiculous I kept thinking to myself. Hold it together. You are breaking down over seeing a manspeak in sign with his wife and friend?

Well, that little talk to myself did not work. I continued to be emotional. But there was something so raw about the sight. The beauty of this man unable to hear the music like we hear it but still dancing with his daughter. Laughing with his family.

The audacity of love. The joy of life. It hit me like a truck rolling right over me; embrace this time. Enjoy Mario’s dancing. Appreciate Maria’s laugh. Treasure their kinship.

I am grateful for these moments in life where some gesture or some person wakes you up and allows you to take a deeper look at where you are and what you have and all that is good in life. We walked out of the theatre and over to my work so Maria and Mario could push the elevator buttons and grab a couple of chocolate bars out of my colleague’s candy dish. Simple pleasures.

Pretty Nails and Full Tummies

March 27, 20121 Comment

Maria and I engaged in a total girls-fest tonight while Mario got pampered by Grandma and Grandpa Ionno in Marion.

We strolled to the park for a some double sliding action on the twisty, plastic slide. We went to the nail salon for a manicure and pedicure in order to prepare for our Florida trip. Maria got killer purple fingernails and yellow sparkly toe nail polish. I stuck with “boring” white on my nails and orange toes (one of them is so bruised from running that even a bright orange would not cover the purple bruise – lovely!).

After our salon experience, we hit Orange Leaf for some frozen yogurt with lots of yummy toppings (chocolate espresso topping, thin mints, lucky charms).

We ended the night with a stroll home underneath the foggy moon. I sang “I see the moon and the moon sees me…” as Maria laid her head down and fell asleep within five minutes from home.

Sleeping in

March 26, 2012March 26, 2012Leave a comment

This past weekend, Jon and I re-lived our sleep-deprived nights when the kids were babies. The nights weren’t quite as awful as years ago when we lived on two hours of sleep a night, but bad enough that we were awakened several times in the night by moaning kids with coughs and fevers and runny noses. We were exhausted when the sun arose. But, that being said, over the last month, the weekends have gotten increasingly better for us because of Maria’s ability to work the tv remote. Yes, she has mastered the great art, and we are quite happy about it (at least until she becomes interested in shows she should not be watching). She is able to locate Ben Ten or Batman for Mario to watch, fix them bowls of cereal, and play mother hen. A win-win for everyone in the family, especially Jon and me because we can finally “sleep in” until 8 am.

I remember years ago waking up with Maria or Mario through the night and dreaming about the day that they would sleep for more than 2 hours at a time. Some of Jon and I’s worst spats were at 3 am when we were both sawing logs and Maria or Mario would wake us up with their wails from the crib.

“It’s your turn.”

“Are you crazy? I was just up.”

“No way! I just climbed back to bed!”

The expletives were scattered throughout our words. One of us would stomp out of the room and back into the room after having rocked Maria or Mario for a half of an hour in the rocking chair. The next morning, we would apologize and laugh at how crazy we were becoming from the massive sleep deprivation, and we would swear that we were going to let the bugger cry it out that night. But that night came, and there was one of us always rockin’ the babe to sleep (they better be taking good care of us when we are old and grey).

Eventually, they made it up to three hours, then four, then five until finally at 18 months, yes, 18 months old, each of them decided to sleep through the night. However, as soon as they started sleeping through the night, they began waking up at the crack of dawn (Maria at 5:30 am; Mario at 6 am) ready to rock-n-roll. Jon always teases them that when they become teenagers and want to sleep in until noon, he will be at their bedside with the blowhorn waking them up at 7 am.

I can’t wait.

Grateful you were first

March 22, 2012Leave a comment

Maria ran her first lemonade stand with three friends today. She loved it. She sat at the table with bags of popcorn for 25 cents and solo cups of lemonade for 10 cents. The two boys ran out to the curb when they saw a car coming down the street and yelled “Lemonade for sale!” Maria and the other girl at the stand, Nora, sat back and watched the boys. All of the kids are in first grade but none of them are in Maria’s class. I had asked one of the boys’ mom, Tess, to pick up Maria from school for me because I was stuck in Obama traffic at the university (Obama spoke at OSU today!). Tess and I used to live three doors away from each other. She is always there in times of need, which are not often but absolutely a godsend when they do occur.

Mario idolized Tess’ son, Blake because Blake loves to play any sport. Mario would see him in his front yard playing soccer and beg to go play with him. Maria and Blake got along well when they were younger but as they have grown older, they have very little in common. They weren’t in kindergarten or first grade together so there was even less interaction. Maria did not know the other boy at the stand at all except seeing him in the cafeteria at school. Maria is in girl scouts with Nora but they don’t interact much, either. So when Tess texted me to tell me they were heading over to this lemonade stand, I wondered how Maria would do.

When I showed up, she was beaming with the other kids. She begged not to leave. She ran around with all of them even though it was obvious that the three of them hung out a lot, and Maria was a “fourth wheel.” But she didn’t care a bit. At one point, they all got popsicles and forgot about her. She didn’t freak out, cry, throw a fit. She just let Tess ask one of the boys if he could get her a popsicle and a few minutes later, he did. She accepted it and ate with all of them, not holding any grudge. I am amazed at how much she just goes with the flow in those situations. Maybe it’s just a function of being young – you have less judgments about yourself, less hold-ups. But I have noticed other kids her age who would not have been as comfortable as Maria around this crew so I do appreciate her ability to roll with it and have a good time doing it.

And while I appreciate that trait in her, I do not appreciate her sarcastic mouth that seems to creep up more and more. The other night I was talking to neighbors and she stood next to me. Every time I told her to do something, she gave me some smart as- response back. I pulled her aside when I finished with the neighbor and told her how much I disliked that talk. Part of it is that she tries to be funny because that is how Jon and I can be funny so I can’t totally be appalled at her behavior but she has to know when she is going overboard and stop. We don’t need Mario following in her footsteps since that seems to be his mojo lately. Maria was on a kick where she would cry “I am a bad daughter!” every time we scolded her for a poor choice and Mario now does the same every time he gets scolded (at least he is smart enough to say “son”).

All in all, however, I really couldn’t ask for a better role model for Mario. I still have an email that my dad wrote me when I was starting out in the practice of law. In it, he wrote how proud he was of me for how much I had accomplished and how much I cared for my brother and sister. He ended the note by telling me how glad he was that I was the first child. I think I may be writing something very similar to Maria someday in the future.

Beauty Queens

March 21, 20121 Comment

Maria has a favorite little girlfriend at school named Janira. She had been begging all weekend to have a play date with her on Sunday but time slipped away from us so I decided to surprise her and pick her and Janira up from Kids Club on Monday afternoon.

Poor Mario. He went with me to pick the girls up and he asked while we opened the doors to the school “Why can’t I have a play date with Blakey?” Blake used to live three houses down from us at our old house and Mario loved him because he was always outside playing sports. But Blake is 7 years old and is interested in boys his age much more than he is interested in a four-year old. I explain to him that Blake may be busy with boys his age, and he just looks at me like I am speaking a foreign language (who wouldn’t want to play with me, mom?!). I ask him if he wants to invite over boys from his preschool, like Ben or Grant. His response is “Ben smells funny and Grant is too small.” The most picky four-year old (or any year-old for that matter) I have met. However, he quickly replaced his frown with a smile as soon as I told him he could play on my computer a while since Maria wanted alone time with Janira.

Janira’s mom is a make-up consultant. She always looks impeccable. Janira shares her mom’s love for make-up and fashion. And Maria loves that about her. Maria is enamored with Janira’s mom’s fashion sense – her tight jeans, her high heels, her jewelry (she begged me to wear high heels when I came to her school to read a book last week). When Janira and Maria get together, it is all beauty, all the time. They are either playing barbies or painting nails or applying way too heavy of make-up. One of their favorite activities when they are at our house is to do my make-up and paint my nails and dress me. Janira’s mom would never let them touch her so I am the fall-back. Maria knows I will do it if she just begs for 2.5 seconds. When she gets older, she better remember this torture I went through for her. Ok, so maybe it’s not that bad but I can think of a few other activities I would enjoy a bit better….

The girls came to get me for my appointment, and I headed upstairs with them to the Janira and Maria Beauty Store. They described to me the different lotions they make themselves out of peppermint and vanilla and strawberry. They detail the color of the lipstick they will apply and the numerous shades of eyeshadow that match my eyes. Maria informs me that “Mary Kay” loves their products. They are simply pros. Even Katy Perry can’t stay away. They put on three applications of lipstick, four shades of eyeshadow, blush, concealor, lotions, perfume. They love spraying hair spray all over my hair using at least half of a bottle on my mane. But I abide with the hope that I am nurturing their creative spirits (and Janira hooks me up with really good make-up when I get old and she owns her make-up studio (Maria will visit her when she is on the road between corporate engagements). ALl in all, I must love Ri completely to let her do this to me:

"MOM!"

Adventures in the Life of a Working Mama

Category: Parenting