a common theme for this momma (as of late) has been a theme of growing up and moving on. it makes me sad. i am entering a new era of motherhood. i'm standing in the gap between toddlers and adolescents. some days they act more like teenagers and other days they act like very overgrown babies (you should have seen the melt down at the pool the other day... mortifying).
anyways.
it is officially summer and this momma is in heaven. i love summer. i treasure days of no schedules. i delight in the ability to be impulsive and jump in the car and do something unexpected. i savor lazy days at the pool (minus the recent epic melt down). i crave impromptu play dates.
while this does get old after a bit (i also love a well planned schedule), the first few weeks always feel like a "get out of jail" free card from the structure of the school year. and as of this moment, i am still in the honeymoon phase of that.
i am getting away from my story, though. usually, the first few days of summer evoke a nesting instinct in me. i often find myself wanting to clean out the closets and sort through the school papers (it is part of the anomaly of me that craves impromptu while really also loving structure). it is confusing from the outside, but in my mind it makes perfect sense. it is preparing for the ability to be impulsive. if life is in order than you can jump out of that order more easily to do something on the fly.
again... getting off topic. i have a story to tell.
the "beginning of summer nesting" has settled in around here and i have been in a frenzy to get the girl's rooms in order. i was cleaning out bins last week and stumbled upon the item that triggered the telling of this story.
and now the story.
when e was about the ripe old age of one, scott went to some sort of work conference. he came home with this squishy rubbery frog that was half white and half purple. it was about the size of the palm of your hand. inside of the belly of the frog was a glow light. if you squished it, the light would activate and the frog would glow. ellie was fascinated with it. she carried it around with her for weeks and weeks and weeks. over time, it became an attachment object that brought her comfort (sort of like sophie the giraffe... a few years before he burst on the baby gear scene). the frog was with her always. she even took it to bed with her.
one day she brought it to our playgroup. my friend sara found it to be disgusting (and might possibly have thought that i was the oddest mom ever, giving my daughter such a strange thing to play with and allowing her to toddle around with it as an attachment device). ellie accidentally left the frog at their house. sara called me immediately- she was laughing her head off that this nasty frog had been left in her possession. there was one small problem though. they were on the way to the airport headed out of town for a week long vacation. she lived in a gated complex, so there was no way for her to leave it on the porch for pick-up. she felt bad knowing that we would have to go for the next week or so without it. as a mom of a one year old, she knew this was going to be tragic for e. secretly, i think she was pleased at peach that the universe had intervened in my bad parenting in such a perfect way.
and so there we were, frogless. e eventually went in search of her glow frog and momma had to tell her the sad news.
as usually, she turned to her other frog friend for comfort. the original froggy was the real tear wiper at our house. e adjusted and went on with her little toddler self, but not without frequent asks for the frog.
a few days later she and i visited the local boarders in uptown. we read oodles and oodles of books, perused the sale section, played in the kids section and hung for a bit. she had been so good that i offered her a treat at the checkout. she went up to the wooden rack by the register and carefully examined the chocolates and mini-treasures that she was to choose from. she came back with the small box of jelly belly beans and a bag filled with....
wait for it...
miniature rubber frogs!
they lacked the uber cool glow element in the belly and were way smaller, but e didn't care. she was ecstatic! i was so happy with the find that i agreed to let her get both items instead of making her choose between the two.
and so off we went with our box of beans and bag of frogs. we held hands and walked to the car with smiles on our faces. all was right in the world (of one toddler) once again. hooray.
i could end the story here. but i won't. i'll tell you the rest. it is too funny not to share.
after buckling her into her seat i opened her box of beans for her and the bag of frogs. in one hand she had beans and in the other a myriad of colorful rubber frogs. on her face was the grin of all grins. on the short ride home she munched beans. i kept noticing these funny looks on her face in the rear view mirror. it was odd. she didn't say anything, but after each bean an odd expression would show up on her face. and then she would look at the frogs and a smile would reappear.
i love jelly belly beans.
they are my favorite candy.
i asked her to pass me one.
and then i understood the reason for the expression on my girlies face. they were the grossest beans i had ever tasted! so gross that i couldn't swallow mine. they were nasty!
when we arrived home i checked out the box. it was not the typical white and red box, but i had just assumed that it was some sort of new packaging.
yup. it was.
it was the bertie botts pack- from the newly released harry potter movies- with flavors like earthworm, earwax, soap and black pepper.
yum.
i laughed at loud and asked e how she could stand to keep eating them. she just shrugged and toddled off with her fist full of frogs.
without remembering the story of the bertie bott beans, e named her new frog friends salt and pepper. could it possibly be a subconscious recollection of the black pepper bean? i guess we'll never know for sure, but i'm banking on "yes".
anyways.
it is officially summer and this momma is in heaven. i love summer. i treasure days of no schedules. i delight in the ability to be impulsive and jump in the car and do something unexpected. i savor lazy days at the pool (minus the recent epic melt down). i crave impromptu play dates.
while this does get old after a bit (i also love a well planned schedule), the first few weeks always feel like a "get out of jail" free card from the structure of the school year. and as of this moment, i am still in the honeymoon phase of that.
i am getting away from my story, though. usually, the first few days of summer evoke a nesting instinct in me. i often find myself wanting to clean out the closets and sort through the school papers (it is part of the anomaly of me that craves impromptu while really also loving structure). it is confusing from the outside, but in my mind it makes perfect sense. it is preparing for the ability to be impulsive. if life is in order than you can jump out of that order more easily to do something on the fly.
again... getting off topic. i have a story to tell.
the "beginning of summer nesting" has settled in around here and i have been in a frenzy to get the girl's rooms in order. i was cleaning out bins last week and stumbled upon the item that triggered the telling of this story.
and now the story.
when e was about the ripe old age of one, scott went to some sort of work conference. he came home with this squishy rubbery frog that was half white and half purple. it was about the size of the palm of your hand. inside of the belly of the frog was a glow light. if you squished it, the light would activate and the frog would glow. ellie was fascinated with it. she carried it around with her for weeks and weeks and weeks. over time, it became an attachment object that brought her comfort (sort of like sophie the giraffe... a few years before he burst on the baby gear scene). the frog was with her always. she even took it to bed with her.
one day she brought it to our playgroup. my friend sara found it to be disgusting (and might possibly have thought that i was the oddest mom ever, giving my daughter such a strange thing to play with and allowing her to toddle around with it as an attachment device). ellie accidentally left the frog at their house. sara called me immediately- she was laughing her head off that this nasty frog had been left in her possession. there was one small problem though. they were on the way to the airport headed out of town for a week long vacation. she lived in a gated complex, so there was no way for her to leave it on the porch for pick-up. she felt bad knowing that we would have to go for the next week or so without it. as a mom of a one year old, she knew this was going to be tragic for e. secretly, i think she was pleased at peach that the universe had intervened in my bad parenting in such a perfect way.
and so there we were, frogless. e eventually went in search of her glow frog and momma had to tell her the sad news.
as usually, she turned to her other frog friend for comfort. the original froggy was the real tear wiper at our house. e adjusted and went on with her little toddler self, but not without frequent asks for the frog.
a few days later she and i visited the local boarders in uptown. we read oodles and oodles of books, perused the sale section, played in the kids section and hung for a bit. she had been so good that i offered her a treat at the checkout. she went up to the wooden rack by the register and carefully examined the chocolates and mini-treasures that she was to choose from. she came back with the small box of jelly belly beans and a bag filled with....
wait for it...
miniature rubber frogs!
they lacked the uber cool glow element in the belly and were way smaller, but e didn't care. she was ecstatic! i was so happy with the find that i agreed to let her get both items instead of making her choose between the two.
and so off we went with our box of beans and bag of frogs. we held hands and walked to the car with smiles on our faces. all was right in the world (of one toddler) once again. hooray.
i could end the story here. but i won't. i'll tell you the rest. it is too funny not to share.
after buckling her into her seat i opened her box of beans for her and the bag of frogs. in one hand she had beans and in the other a myriad of colorful rubber frogs. on her face was the grin of all grins. on the short ride home she munched beans. i kept noticing these funny looks on her face in the rear view mirror. it was odd. she didn't say anything, but after each bean an odd expression would show up on her face. and then she would look at the frogs and a smile would reappear.
i love jelly belly beans.
they are my favorite candy.
i asked her to pass me one.
and then i understood the reason for the expression on my girlies face. they were the grossest beans i had ever tasted! so gross that i couldn't swallow mine. they were nasty!
when we arrived home i checked out the box. it was not the typical white and red box, but i had just assumed that it was some sort of new packaging.
yup. it was.
it was the bertie botts pack- from the newly released harry potter movies- with flavors like earthworm, earwax, soap and black pepper.
yum.
i laughed at loud and asked e how she could stand to keep eating them. she just shrugged and toddled off with her fist full of frogs.
a few weeks ago, 8 year old e begged me to take her to the fish store to replace her 999th dead fish. i might be exaggerating here. it is possible. but it doesn't feel like it. i swear, it feels like e looses a fish a week around here. anyways, i obliged. once in the fish store, e declared she did not want a fish this time.
"could she, would i, pretty please.... with sugar on top... i'll be good forever and ever.... will you get me...
frogs?"
without remembering the story of the bertie bott beans, e named her new frog friends salt and pepper. could it possibly be a subconscious recollection of the black pepper bean? i guess we'll never know for sure, but i'm banking on "yes".
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