Category Archives: movie

January 28, 2012 · 5:57 pm

Most Bestest

Grandma Irene stayed with us for ten amazing days.  Here are some of the reasons her visit was so special:

There was never a sink full of dirty dishes.  Grandma loaded and unloaded the dishwasher. Every. Single. Day.  Sometimes more than once.

I never ran over the newspaper with my car when I backed out of the driveway to bring the kids to school because Grandma actually put on her shoes and fetched the newspaper every morning.  (She read it, too.)

Since Grandma was there to entertain the boys, I went to the bathroom by myself…with the door closed…several times.

As long as we’re talking about the bathroom… Grandma Irene inspired Riley to pee in the potty!  Unfortunately, she gave him an entire bag of Skittles from our Halloween stash as a reward.  The next morning, when he tinkled in the potty again, I cheered, clapped and gave him three Skittles in a bowl.  Do you know what he did?  He threw the bowl of Skittles at me because my attempt at portion control was an insult.  He wanted the whole bag of candy or nothing at all.  (FYI: He got nothing.)

Grandma chilled wine on a daily basis.  On one particularly stressful afternoon, I returned home at about 4:45pm after a long series of errands and activities with the kids and two wine glasses were lined up on the kitchen counter ready to be filled with cold and refreshing Pinot Grigio.  Ahh…

We went shopping!  (The shopaholic apple didn’t fall far from the tree.  Where my weakness is Anthropologie, Grandma’s is bags. Expensive ones.)  One day, we shopped at Nordstrom and had lunch at Café Bistro @ Nordstrom, and on another day, we shopped at Bloomies and had lunch at their 59th& Lex Café.  We were ladies who lunch!

We saw “The Descendants,” an award winning, Oscar nominated film. (Regrettably, the last movie I saw in the theater was “Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked,” and the only award that movie has a chance of winning is a Razzie.) Our matinee adventure was awesome.  There was no animation and no child sitting in my lap in the theater.  In fact, there were no children insight!  It was the ultimate daytime Mama-escape, and it included popcorn! 

Of course, the most bestest part about Grandma Irene’s visit was the time she spent with Dylan and Riley.  The day before she left, Dylan came home from school and said, “Grandma, I’m going to miss you so much,” and the morning she left, he asked me what day of the week she was coming back.  Riley had few words, but his (adorable) lower lip pout told the story of a little boy who would miss his Grandma with all his heart. 

Speaking of hearts, I often tell the boys that even if I’m not with them, I’m always in their hearts.  Right now, Grandma Irene is in all of our hearts (and the Skittles incident has been forgiven).

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Filed under grandparents, Mama-escape, movie, potty training, shopaholism, wine

January 24, 2012 · 9:34 pm

Story Teller

Social networks have been abuzz recently with an essay written by Glennon Melton called “Don’t Carpe Diem.”  (I love her name, by the way.  I had a Great Aunt Glenna and she was a firecracker of a woman.  This Glennon is firecracker of a writer. I like her as much as my new best friend, Crappy Pictures Mama.)  In the essay, Melton writes about how frustrating it is to be told to enjoy every moment of motherhood when most of the time you’re contemplating dropping off your kids at the nearest firestation or donating them to the government for scientific research.

I’ve been told to savor every moment of motherhood plenty of times, and I’ve felt the aggravation she describes, but I’ve also experienced the “Kairos” time she writes about – moments when time stands still and you realize how very fortunate you are to be in the parenting mess you’ve created for yourself. 

When I tell my mom about a really tough day I’ve had with the boys, she doesn’t pull the carpe diem crap on me (thank you, Mom).  Instead, she says, “Jenny, when you and your sister were little, I would stand by the front window in the afternoons and wait for your father’s car to pull into the driveway.”

When I’m an older Mama and my boys have grown into men (gasp!), I imagine I’ll have the opportunity to talk to a young woman about motherhood. I won’t do the carpe diem thing either.  Instead, I’ll tell her the story of the day I took Dylan to the dentist soon after his fifth birthday. 

It started with two simple questions: “Which toothbrush would you like?” and, “Which flavor of toothpaste would you like?”  He picked a toothbrush without much trouble. (A Justin Bieber one, in case you’re wondering.  I thought it was funny, too.)  When faced with the toothpaste decision, however, his response, to my surprise and horror, was to run.  Fast.  Out of the toothbrush room, through the (crowded) waiting room, out the front door and straight into the parking lot.  When I finally caught my little Runaway, I thought to myself, This was supposed to be the easy part.

The rest of the visit involved alot of crying and screaming and an excessive amount of brute strength on my part to physically restrain Dylan while the dental hygienist named Paradise (how fitting) counted, scraped, polished and flossed Dylan’s teeth.  When it was all over, Dylan, as if he woke from a coma with amnesia, hopped up, asked for stickers and toys, promised to share them with his brother (who was thankfully at home with Grandma), and jumped at the chance to take a picture with the dentist with a huge smile onhis face. 

I talked to the dentist about how Dylan’s sensory issues (strong gag reflex, texture and noise sensitivity,anxiety, etc.) contributed to his, ahem, regretful behavior, and she told me it might be a good idea to bring him in for cleanings every three months to help desensitize him.  I wanted to askher if they scheduled happy hour cleanings, or even better, drop-off cleanings, but I thought better of it.  Then she told me how healthy his teeth were, and I told her, “If he ever gets a cavity, I’ll pay for sedation.” 

When we finally got back in the car, I looked at the clock and realized it wasn’t even nine o’clock in the morning.  Thankfully, my mom and I had plans to see a movie after dropping off the boys at school.  A matinee, including popcorn, was just what the doctor dentist ordered to keep me from obsessing about Dylan’s next dentist appointment scheduled for mid-July.

 

We saw “The Descendants” with George Clooney.  I wasn’t sure what I thought about the movie when it initially ended, but I couldn’t stop thinking about it for the rest of the day, and by the time I went to sleep, I realized Ithought it was, in fact, an excellent movie.  (I also realized how badly I’d like to go to Hawaii.)

Look who my mom and I saw at themovie theater! 

 

I couldn’t wait to show Dylan this picture after school.  Just as I expected, the precious look on his face when he saw the photo of his new favorite friends, Alvin, Simon and Theodore, was a Kairos moment.

At the end of my story, if the young mother’s eyes haven’t glazed over, I’ll tell her I think motherhood is like a good movie.  It might require some time and distance to process the experience (and in my case, a lot of wine and waiting by the front window), but eventually you’ll discover the cost of the ticket and the stomach ache you get from the popcorn are worth it.

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Filed under dentist, motherhood, movie