Category Archives: Zoë

a cautionary tale

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Parents, isn’t it fun to dress up your little darling children? It is. It is indeed.Oh the oh-so cute little dresses and sailor suits and t-shirts and shoes and hair styles and…if you have more than one darling child…the match-y, match-y siblings look.

A total win! People can totally tell that they are all sisters. And the first born isn’t resentful at all over the fact that she is dressed just like her barely-potty trained sisters because she is a mature, confident third grader and totally trusts her Mom’s fashion choices…like dressing her kids exactly alike.

Heh!

But it gets better. At least Mom imagines that it gets better.

No, we are not match-y, match-y but we are awesomely Gap coordinated. Weren’t the 90s just too stylish?I think so. Hollie, on the other hand, believes that this is just photographic evidence that her mother dressed her funny on purpose.

Whatever!

Oh, and in case you are wondering, Bill is smiling in this picture. He is smiling on the inside. Don’t believe me? Ask him. He’ll tell you.

But I digress…

Parents, while it is truly, truly fun to dress up our children not unlike the way we used to dress our Barbies…or our GI Joes.

Did boys dress up their GI Joes? I don’t know. Maybe they did, maybe they didn’t.

Whatever…

Parents, be careful how you dress your babies because it will come back to haunt you with all of your babies’ judgement and angst and bitterness when they are all grown up.

This.

This is evidence enough.

 

overheard under the Big Top #419

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Daniel: I think I will FaceTime with Zoë.

And so he did. As you can see, she is looking (and feeling) so much better after her I’m-going-to-stress-and-worry-the-shit-out-of-my-mom-and-try-to-kill-my-guardian-angel-in-the-process mishap. She is so lucky she lives down in LA where I can’t my hands on her. Just saying.

But it was good to see her smiling face and hear both Daniel and her laugh. Happy, happy music that makes my heart smile, especially after the messed up, exhausting week of nothing but crazy messed up-ness we all have endured. It was good to listen to the laughter of your children.

“Want me to show you my butt?”

Wait!

What?

No!

“You may NOT show your sister your butt on FaceTime!“

Add that to the things-my-mother-never-told-me-I-would-have-to-say-as-a-mother-someday. Then again, she never really told me much of anything about being a mother.

Oh well.

Thankfully, no butts were exposed on FaceTime. But there was more laughter and secrets shared and the discovery that it is the same time in Los Angeles as it is in Manteca.

Who knew?

“You press ‘End’.”

No, you press ‘End’.”

“No! You!”

More laughter and finally they said goodbye and ended their FaceTime.

I’m not sure who pressed “End” first.

and in a flash I am back in 2001

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Oh to be 12 years younger! The things I would (and most definitely would not) do. But one can not go back in time…can they?

My darling husband early this morning ran in Dell Osso’s 2nd Annual Mud Run on the Farm. Yes, the same mud run I ran last year. He trained a little with his Krav Maga class that he takes twice a week but I won’t lie to you, I was genuinely concerned about how he would do…considering how heavily he STILL smokes (even when he often finds himself gasping for air after a coughing fit) and considering how high his cholesterol is and that study released this past week linking male patterned baldness to a higher risk of heart disease.I had a dream/nightmare last night that he collapsed while running and then I woke up…HATE when that happens! So this morning, as he headed off to run in the mud and Jodie and I headed off to another dance competition I couldn’t help but be worried.

What can I say, I sometimes often worry for nothing. It’s my nature, it’s who I am, it is a result of decades of bad things happening and my worst fears realized. But, thankfully, Bill did great completing the run and obstacles in the mud in just under an hour.

Way to go, honey!!!

So now I could exhale, relax and enjoy watching Jodie and Hazel dance. Then the phone rings…

Actually it was FaceTime…

Up pops my daughter Zoë. She’s crying. Her face is bruised and bleeding and she is crying. It seems that she was in an accident on her way to work. She crashed her skateboard.

WHAT?!

Yeah, she likes to get from point A to point B on a skateboard and yeah, without a helmet…

Mom, please…

But yes, she crashed her skateboard and hit her head, scraped up her face, chipped a tooth and broke her nose…broke her nose for now the 4th time.

OH dear glob! And people think I’m joking when I declare that she has an exhausted guardian angel who probably cringes every single time she leaves the house.

Every.

Single.

Time.

She is so lucky.

So damn lucky.

And I am perhaps another 20 years older thanks to her latest misadventure.

I might have aged greatly but this picture she sent to me while in the ER in LA took me back 12 years…and not in a good way.

I swear hours later I am just starting to breathe a little bit easier. Thank goodness for a late night run and some wine. My darling husband rocked the mud run today. My dancing daughter, Jodie and my tiny dancing grand daughter, Hazel, both are off to a great start with this weekend’s dance competition earning high awards and my daughter Zoë is home safe in LA under the watchful eye of her boyfriend…and a guardian angel who likely could use a good stiff drink right about now.

it’s all fun and games until someone farts and throws up

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Oh photo shoots with families…large families! They can always be fun.

Right?

I try to imagine that. I mean if I close my eyes real tight and think on it real hard it will be so.

Right?

Yeah, but no.

But they can be fun.

They can definitely be fun when your friend is taking the pictures…and what is this with the shot of my ass? My friend has a wicked sense of humor.

We agreed to help my friend, Marie, out with a special project she is doing for the March of Dimes WalkAmerica and NICU Reunion featuring NICU graduates. Actually I agreed. You know how it is. Mom says so and so it is. But this project of Marie’s is a good thing and we manage to get some pictures of most of the family circus. I gave her some pictures that I have of Zoë with her favorite little brother, Daniel which will be included in the poster. We would much rather have Zoë here but life, job, school and bills happen when you are a grown up living on your own more than 330 miles away from home.

We miss you like crazy Zo-zo!!!

Act natural she said.

Relax she said.

Just be yourself she said.

And so we did. Perhaps we did just a little bit too much because yes, someone farted and we all reacted as expected…which Marie documented in several frames. Of course she would because she is the kind of friend who will take a picture of her taking a picture of my ass.

Love that girl!

Thankfully she didn’t document the throwing up.

Oh family photo shoots!

I can’t wait to see what she does with all of this.

wait! what?!

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It’s Spring Break here under the Big Top. At least for Daniel and Jodie it’s Spring Break here under the Big Top. So with her own money Jodie decided (and asked) if she could spend the break visiting her sister Zoë down in LA and touring the campus of AMDA.

My baby girl is growing up!

No, Amtrak! She is not THAT grownup.

Don’t you go and get any ideas in your little head, Missy! I don’t care if you are as tall as me and Amtrak lists you as an adult passenger, you are still my baby girl. Don’t believe me. Just ask your sister.

Have fun my baby girls!