At a 7-11 near you:
Is that your son?
Um, no. This is my brother.
Now I realize that among a certain ethnic population here in the Central Valley it is not uncommon at all for a girl like my 16 year old daughter to very likely be a mother of one, perhaps even two children…very young children. I know this because I am in the business of catching and caring for babies here in the Central Valley. But come on…let’s think about this real hard.
Silly, silly people!
Jodie and Daniel, May 2002
That feathery blink of the eyelash before puberty right around age 11, for the last time I am going through it. Any parent of teens and young adults knows EXACTLY what I am speaking of. I semi-lovingly refer to it as the scummy stage.
Apologies to my four beautiful, teen-aged and young adult daughters, but it is because of you I have named this phase thusly…with love, of course with love.
The hair…oh the hair…that ratty ponytail…”YES, I brushed my hair…cutting hair…YES, I WASHED MY HAIR!!
Certain fashion choices…a certain green sweatshirt…those stinky shoes…NO! You can not wear THAT!
The heavy, dramatic sighs…eye rolls…way too many eye rolls…gestures…stomping of feet and slamming of doors…
Oh sweet pre-pubescent hormonal surges! How I almost constantly remind myself that you are so temporary and this is still my sweet, beautiful child who is vexing me so…and perhaps grossing me out with questionable hygiene.
Yes, my beautiful child whom I love more than life itself, you MUST take a shower more than twice a week and you do have to use soap and shampoo and conditioner…and today, because it is picture day at school, you must let your Mom try to blow dry and style your hair. Sure you’ll roll your eyes and run your fingers through your hair when Mom is done but humor me, please.
And please, oh please take off THAT sweatshirt when you get your picture taken!
Watching Juno together here under the Big Top. A favorite movie here for so many reasons…the music, the humor, the family, the story and so much more. So yeah, we watched Juno here under the Big Top for the umpteenth time tonight. Then comes that scene…
that scene where Vanessa holds her baby boy for the very first time.
:::sniff:::
I KNOW!
Daniel looks over at me. I look back at him and smile trying to blink back tears and quickly look back at the television.
Daniel: Was that what it was like, Mom? You know, when you held me when I was a baby?
:::sniff-sniff:::
Mom: That is exactly how it was, son. It was just like that.
I KNOW!!
I can’t believe how blessed I am to say that I am this boy’s mom.
Moms and Hot Wheels go together like?
Um…
According to Matt Petersen, a vice president at Mattel, they don’t go together because moms just don’t get Hot Wheels. He says that moms never played with them. Moms don’t get why cars, engines, and all the shapes and crashing and smashing are so cool.
I bet he believes that moms don’t think flames painted on the sides makes the Hot Wheels cars even more awesome.
Or how moms could possibly enjoy setting up Hot Wheels’ tracks to race the Hot Wheels cars on…even with a missing piece of the track. Moms could not possibly appreciate just how freaking cool it is to race the cars anyway only to race uncontrollably off the track plummeting to an imagined, but acted out loud, crashing fiery end complete with awesome sound effects…screams of terror are optional.
Moms could not possibly get how important it is to have a place for the cars…like the older sisters’ cast off pink Barbie’s Dream House…or every shelf of a book case or more…and the top of the dresser in their son’s room…and their night stand…and every spare square inch of their closet floor…and stacked in over-flowing in plastic toy bins.
Hot Wheels cars sales are significantly down because moms just don’t get Hot Wheels.
Not.
At.
All.
To address its “mom” problem, Mattel is making an effort to reach out to moms, who are known to do most of the toy shopping in the house these days. They’re hosting events for mom bloggers and expanding their website to include content explaining the benefits of playing with toy cars (they’re great for hand-eye coordination) and tips on how to play with them (you can use them to play math games). Mattel thinks moms won’t buy a toy unless they understand how it works and see its benefits.
Thank goodness!
Whatever.
Daniel and I are going back to playing with his Hot Wheels cars…the cars that his MOM bought for him.
Passing the time in the dance studio while waiting on Jodie to finish teaching her class and Daniel to finish his hip hop class I did what I usually do.
Hello Twitter!
And while reading through my peoples tweets I came across this:
Good ol’ cousin Joe. No, we aren’t really related. Then again…perhaps…maybe…
But I digress…like I often do…Bill complains often how exhausting conversation with me can be because I go off on crazy tangents all the time.
Whatever!
Wait! What was I talking about?
Oh.
Yeah.
Cousin Joe wants to know what was the best thing that happened to me today.
I start to scroll through the answers other people share with him…
…holding new babies for the first time
…good news from the doctor, no cancer!
…hugs
…safe travels home
…band concerts
…praise from a student’s parents
…birthdays
…breakfast dates
…dinner dates
…ice cream dates
…song writing success
And then I try to think again what was the best thing that happened to me today…
I’m stumped.
No, it wasn’t a bad day or a horrible day or a dark day. It was just a day. A day where I took Jodie to school then took Daniel to school. It was a day where I sipped my coffee while watching the Cardinals take their oaths before they were to begin the papal selection process. Then I did the dishes and scrubbed the baseboards upstairs. I tried to explain to Abby why popes always seem to be really old guys; followed by a discussion of what I learned from Anatomy & Physiology. I wanted to ask her if perhaps she was reconsidering her plan to be the next E! reporter and on air personality and maybe following her mom into nursing but she had to go tanning.
Yeah.
Soon enough it was time to go pick up Jodie from school then pick up Daniel. Then there was homework and dinner prep and more homework followed by taking Daniel to hip hop class. On the way home from dance, I debated with Daniel the merits of taking a shower and washing every part of his body, including his hair.
Eleven year olds and hygiene is just too challenging…and no, it is not just a “boy thing”…trust me.
I help Daniel blow dry his hair then kiss him good night and here I am…trying to figure out what was the best thing that happened to me today.
…?…
Um…
Well my hair looked good.
There is that.
It is very important to look good when one is scrubbing baseboards, chauffering kids and working on 4th grade homework.
Too shallow?
Sorry, Cousin Joe. Today my life was boring. Perhaps THAT is the best thing about today.
