Grandma’s Quilt

Yes, Grandma celebrated her new birthday and the quilt is not finished. Yes, it’s bad. And yes, I am procrastinator.  I promise in 5 years I will definitely be finished.

But my fabric obsession has spawned the little one to also have a fabric obsession. Every time I go to JoAnn Fabrics (which is not often), O requests that I get her a fat square as well. Usually she picks like 6, but she is told to narrow down to 2.  She too is making a quilt for her dollies.  And when letter Q show and tell came up, she brought in her quilt  (aka fat square). Each weekend she asks me if she can cut her fabric. It pains me to randomly start cutting without rhyme or reason. So I explain to her, well, let’s come up with a project.

Let me tell you, it’s pretty hard to come up with a fabric project for a 4 year old who can’t use a needle.  But I have persevered. I checked online, and some of the stuff was pretty silly, but I guess the toddler limitations are many!!  And she is also practicing her scissors skills, which means that each square she cuts is pretty butchered up.  She tries.

A few weekends ago, and I was folding the 6 loads of laundry, O came down and I got her started on her first fabric project. I cut a piece of cardboard, and drew a ladybug on it. Then I gave her my fabric remnants (because I keep every tiny piece… you never know when you might need it…like now) and I traced the shape on the fabric with chalk, and she cut it and glued it on the cardboard.

What she glued so far

Cutting the chalked traced outline.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I forgot to take a picture of the final masterpiece. I will updated tonight after I photograph it!

Happy Easter!

This year my Easter to do list was pretty small. My heart was not into it.

The Easter Bunny did bring a few non candy things.  A game call Spot It Jr. Animal. It’s actually quite fun.  She has to pay attention and make the connections with each card. Also, a book called Anatole.

Saturday was Grandma’s birthday party. At which Papa played the guitar and O played the drums in serenading Grandma with They Say It’s Your Birthday. I had to unplug the drums. It was too much!

Then she did a very serious dance rendition of All The Single Ladies. She was really watching Beyonce and copying her moves. It was really cute!

But as a sidebar… today I saw the craziest thing.  I know the Super Mom thing is a thing. To do it all. To work, to make cookies, to do homework… to do everything. This really takes the cake. As a thing to do, because I don’t have enough to do, as a special treat for your guests, to make ruffled toilet paper.  Yes, you actually have to take out your sowing machine and ruffle the shit.  You have to say enough is enough. I overall like the blog, but this has really questioned the idea of it. If you don’t have anything to say, then don’t.

Not very inspiring post. Maybe I should have taken my own advice and just not written anything.

Dominican Getaway!

This year we put our money where our traveling dreams are, and went to Puerto Plata in the Dominican Republic.  We also brought our ray of sunshine…O.

This was my first All Inclusive vacation. I had never been to an all inclusive resort before.  And I am still not sure how I feel about it. I guess I had really really high expectations because it was not exactly what I pictured. I guess I never thought about the evenings. What do you do in the evenings on a compound??  Well, they have entertainment. Like the Michael Jackson night, which was pretty terrible. But then they had some fun things like a local live band (which I wish they had more of) and karaoke night (which was too short.)  I got up there and sang two songs. I signed up for a third, but they shut it down before I got to torture the vacationers with my musical stylings of ABBA’s Knowing Me, Knowing You. I did however have groupies. A group of 5 older ladies loved my Carly Simon’s You’re So Vain. A bunch of people liked Bon Jovi’s Livin’ on a Prayer (an anthem for all!).   The next day, several older couples came up to me and complimented me on my performance (I think it was the stage presence… not the singing…)

I do think we picked a good resort. It was family oriented, not a lot of partying. The evening events ended around 11:30.  There was no disco, so no drunk kids everywhere. There were some drunk grown ups, but hey, it’s vacation.  The pool was really nice. Not too big.  The staff was super nice.  (You can read the reviews on TripAdvisor.)  The food was just OK. The a la carte options were good. The only terrible one was the Ocean Grill.  The beach was not good. I am not sure what kind of beach other people were at, but it was really windy, the sand was not soft. But we spent all our time at the pool.

Anyway, but let’s get to the niddy griddy of traveling with toddler. Let me tell you that overall our ray of sunshine was indeed a ray of sunshine. She only showed her crankiness in the morning, before we met up with our friends. It was actually the teenagers, with whom we were traveling, that were the crankiest!  But the teenage girls were great!  They entertained O in the pool. I did have to put my foot down and buy O a hat, and fought her on it. I told her she can’t go in the pool without the hat. And she did.  She sat in the shade when told.

And she stayed up till 11 pm. Yes, you read correctly.  They had wi-fi in the lobby area, so I plopped her with my phone and Netflix and headphones, and she just watched movies, until she finally passed out!  We didn’t stay up every night until that time.  DH and I would take turns going to bed earlier with her.

I would hope she would take nappies during the day, but most of the time, like at home, she didn’t. And no, passing out by the poll was never an option. She was always doing something.

But the best part, if I do say so myself, and pat ourselves on the back, was the compliment our friends gave us.  They said we are good parents! I mean, I am still on a little high about it. You always hope you are, but it’s nice to hear.  They were impressed with how well O listens, and yes, she acts up, but she knows where the line is. And it is not to be crossed!  YEY!!

So from now on, I will be smug about this and give you all advice from my pedestal….

NOT!  Don’t worry, the second we landed in New York, the vacation glow ended, and the parenting high ended. It was a NIGHTMARE getting her up the next day or the rest of the week.

Vacation Glow

On vacation glow… still savoring it before the snow and rain really fill in my bones and soul.

For now, I’m reminiscing if BananaMamas by the pool and O splashing around in the water.  With the sun kissing my face.

So Grown Up

This weekend we went to a birthday party. And I have to say, because this blog is mostly about me, my age was shown.  In two ways. First, seeing all the kids grow bigger and bigger. When you see your own kid daily, with a few milestone exceptions, you don’t really notice the change. Maybe one day you wake and really look at your kid, and wonder, What the f… happened to the last 6 months???  But these are few and far and rare moments. My parents usually comment on how much she’s grown if they don’t see O very often. But when you go to a kids party that you have been attending for the last three years, you definitely feel old. First of all, the kid whose birthday we were celebrating wasn’t even around when I first met the parents. And seeing the kids grow up is crazy to see.  I mean, I remember Cheeky being a little chubby baby. Now, he’s running around and talking. Another very cute and super stylish little boy wasn’t even around. The last time I saw him he was a baby. Now he’s walking and getting into trouble.

Then the other thing that made me feel really old when I was talking to some of the parents with only one kid and we were talking about having more kids. And they were like, 40 is so old. And I was readily agreeing. I meaning being a parent at 40??? That is crazy!!!  Then I take another sip of wine, and sadly realize that I have a few more years, and I too will be 40.  So so so so sad.  But I drank even more wine, did my best impression of Beyonce (which was bad), sang a little Queen and made my exit with my daughter in tow (via cab in case you thought I was totally irresponsible).

The cutest thing was that the little boy Cheeky, who I specifically remember being a little pushy with O when he was younger, asked O to dance. I don’t remember exactly how the asking occurred. But he came up to her, took her hands and they started dancing together. It was really cute. And I have to say, although O has moves, her moves pale in comparison to her Puerto Rican friends at the party. It’s cute, it’s definitely along my style of Blur, Pulp, Erasure and Queen.  But hey, she is my daughter.

Something Funny Happened on the Way to the Forum

Because Facebook is now the place where I get most of my news. If not actual news, then at least gossip.  This morning I log onto Facebook, and I am greeted by a happy surprise. A family friend, who is my age, is pregnant, 20 weeks along, and posted her sonogram. I quickly made a comment congratulating her.

Not 5 minutes later, I am greeted by the same picture. DH’s aunt saw the sonogram, and was about to congratulate us on the happy occasion.  She said she was so excited! Alas, I had to break it to her, that no, it is not mine. But she posted it on my wall, which can confuse many.  Especially since our first names are the same (the girl who is pregnant and I), and our last names are super similar (her maiden and my married name). Not only that, our younger sisters have the same name.  High school was very confusing for many of our friends. At least, my maiden name was completely different than hers.

So far I have not received a lot of congratulations. Maybe this means I do not have a lot friends.

Or close family and friends realize that I would not have waited 20 weeks to reveal that we are pregnant.  And on Facebook!

I told DH the story. He was not as amused as I was.

What’s in a Name?

I recently realized that kids are very possessive of the letters in their name.  And if not all the letters, definitely the first letter in their name.  This came to light in a funny way not too long ago.  We were recently at a play date with my girlfriend and her two twin girls.  All three of them were downstairs in the play room doing their own thing, until the first one comes up in tears because O told her that she too has an M in her name and that M is her name.  And that’s not true or fair. Her mom explained that O is allowed to have an M in her name.  She agreed, but not whole heartedly.  A few minutes later the other girl comes up. Also in tears. (I think at this point in the story my girlfriend might not have us over for play dates if O brings both of girls to tears.) O says her name starts with O, but name starts with O.

This is very serious business, people!