Separation Anxiety

Maybe it was because of the three day weekend, but neither of my kids separated easily from me this morning. Becca was absolutely fine when I put her down on the play mat at her day care, put her bottles in the fridge, diapers in her cubby, signed her in, etc. Then I bent down and gave her a hug and a kiss goodbye, and her reaction was instantaneous - she started bawling so hard she had to pause mid-scream to catch her breath.

She was the easy one. Ben was in for a special treat today - skipping camp to go downtown to see the play Aladdin with his grandparents. But was he looking forward to it? Nuh-uh. As soon as the doorbell rang I heard the scamper of little feet as Ben high-tailed it for the hills. I found him in the hall bathroom, with his arms wrapped around the toilet and clinging for dear life as though he were going down with the Titanic. I had to pry him off and bodily march him out the door to the car, trying to reason with him over his sobs-- "You're going to have fun today! More fun than going to camp! Nanny and Papa are taking you out for a special day!" (Now get in the car and go have fun damnit!) I waved cheerfully as they drove away, Ben's little face still looking forlornly at me out the window. Good grief!

Night Out

Last night Joel's parents babysat and we met some friends here for dinner. I knew we were in for an expensive evening when between the four of us we racked up a $100 tab at the bar before we even sat down to eat dinner... But after a few drinks everything, including our $400 dinner, seemed pretty amusing. So much for keeping the Amex bill under budget this month. Oh well - there's always next month.

Positively Unpatriotic

I was downright unpatriotic today. I did not dress either of the kids in red, white and blue, nor did I attend any 4th of July festivities. Joel took Ben to the JCC's 4th of July pool party, but it coincided exactly with Becca's naptime, and since Becca was beginning to show the subtle signs of illness that would go unnoticed by all but a trained professional (ok, she was running a fever) I decided that skipping naptime and spreading her germs around the public pool would be a bad idea all around. So I stayed home and read The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao (halfway through now) while Becca took a nap and then played with a Rubik's cube for an inordinately long time. (She did not solve it but I think she came close).

Later we ordered Chinese food (it's as American as apple pie, right?) and after the kids went to bed we watched another few episodes of Weeds (midway through season 2 now). When the fireworks started, my first thought was not to go to a window or go outside to see if I could see anything, it was "That better not wake the kids up!"

Independence Day? Bah, humbug!

Photo Essay #4: Bad Hair Day

Not So Subtle

It's time to start dropping birthday hints. That is, if Joel would ever read my blog...

Lofty Aspirations

I thought most 4 year old boys were supposed to want to be a policeman or a fireman or something when they grow up. Mine seems to want to be a waiter. Most nights at dinner - and especially if we have company over - he rushes eagerly back and forth from the kitchen, bringing drinks, taking "orders", setting the table. "I'm the waiter! I'm the waiter!" he yells if anyone makes a move to get up from the table to get anything.

The other night I casually mentioned, "You know, Daddy used to be a waiter." He looked at Joel with a look of total amazement. It was as though I'd just told him Daddy was Superman. "He was?" The fact that Daddy is a doctor now doesn't impress him in the least. But a waiter? That's cool.

Addicted

No, not to blogging... well okay that too... Over the weekend Joel and I started watching the first season of Weeds on DVD* What a great show! Why didn't you guys tell me to watch it sooner? Ha ha, just kidding (several of you did tell me to watch it. One of you even sent me the first season and a half and it sat in a drawer collecting dust for like a year I think before I finally dug it out).

*Despite the fact that I pay DirecTV some ridiculous amount of money a month for some ungodly number of channels, most of them including Showtime never actually get watched. I'm sure I couldn't find Showtime if I tried, and I have no idea when the new episodes of Weeds or any other show are on (except perhaps for Jon and Kate Plus 8). I know the answer to my troubles is TiVo - you don't have to convince me, convince Joel! Until then I pay an absurd amount of money for channels I don't watch and then on top of that I pay Blockbuster to rent episodes of shows on channels I could, but can't manage, to watch. Go figure.