A Glimpse

Things you will learn from an afternoon with Lolo:

1. You can make a game out of anything.
2. It’s all about where “the baby’s” mama is and if he/she is sad that the mama is at the store. But, we have all learned that mamas always come back. This exercise is played out everyday in our household as she still wraps her head around me dropping her off at the kid care center at the JCC and the fact that she is going to school in the fall.
3. Notice that she has added in “that mama has a surprise” for the baby which stems from the time we escaped to Montreal and came back bearing gifts.
4. The “red store” = Target. (The “green store” = Whole Foods, “The Store With The Little Carts” is Trader Joes, and for some reason CVS just equals CVS.)
5. Yes, I am using a Big Bird puppet to talk to her and help take care of the babies while the mama picks up “baby things” from the red store. She asked me to.
6. This went on for a lot longer than the 5 minute video.
7. Yes, I got caught on tape saying “blowed bubbles”. You can’t be around a toddler this much and not be affected by their hilarious sense of grammar.

(Sorry about the picture quality. With a video that long, I had to lower the file size significantly.)

High Tech

Life has been meandering along as we all wait for the CFA test day to arrive. Until we collectively become a chartered financial family, we have been enjoying the hilarious details of modern life.

1. She is obsessed with calling me “Mommy.” She hears all her friends calling their mamas by “Mommy” and thinks it is just so cool. She picked up a puzzle piece the other day and told me that “this puzzle piece is upset.” I asked why and she replied, “Because he wants his Mom and Dad to pick him up.” I said, “Oh, he wants his Mama and Papa?” She said, “No. Mom and Dad.” End of story.

It’s everywhere. In every storybook, it’s all about mommy and daddy and she knows it. Even though I insert “Mama” and “Papa” when I read her stories, none of her babysitters do on Saturday night. She’s got my number and the jig is up. All hope of being called mama can’t be lost though. I figure I have a tiny shot of being mama until kindergarten if I don’t let on to how much the sound of mommy irks me. If she figures that out, I’m sunk.

2. It’s a small feat but I just catapulted myself into the modern era by upgrading my cell phone from an old enV2 with a cracked screen to one that can access … (wait for it) … the Internet. It doesn’t mean that I have actually accessed the worldwide web though. I’m afraid. It’s too much, too soon. Such power and information at your fingertips feels so futuristic. I’m still infatuated with the touch screen. Plus, I know that once I start, I’ll fly right by my monthly megabyte limit so I’m saving it up for a Google emergency.

Who this really affects is my brother, he’s my poor man’s iPhone. I just call him when I’m lost in the car and ask him to use his iPhone in VA to look up directions for me up North.

3. Sit down. We bought a new TV. Yes, we upgraded from the $300 “flat screen” CRT which we bought the year we were married (2001) with an employee discount from Circuit City. (Figure that one out.) So really, it’s a $500 TV from 2001, a little less embarrassing, no?

The tube actually burned out while I was watching The Amazing Race and we couldn’t avoid replacing the dinosaur any longer. Hopefully this one will last another decade. I must say, it’s quite nice.

As he fell under the spell of the lit screen, Mr. Banks said, “It’s like we advanced 10 years in technology with one purchase.” I said, “It’s not like we did. We just did. That’s what happens when you keep a TV that long.”