Just a few wrinkles

This morning I woke up startled- I felt someone’s presence-I felt something on me, next to me…

I opened my eyes and aghhh, there was a pair of enormous eyes in my face.  

I woke up to an inquisitive little girl, holding a magnifying glass over my face and peering intently.

“What are you doing Gia!” I exclaimed.

“Oh, I’m just checking for red marks on your face,” she nonchalantly said.

“What! why?” I was laughing now.

“Oh because if you have red dots on your face, you need to buy this P stuff ( Proactiv), I was watching this on TV and I was seeing if you looked liked this lady with all of these red things on her face,” she stated.

 “Hmmmm, let me see, Mom, can you turn your face a little?” she asked.

“Ok, sure Gia, let me know what you see,” I said.

 “Oh Mom, no dots, but I do see some lines.”

Well, there you have it- the update on Mom’s skin, just a few wrinkles.

Then I am coming out of the shower and A makes a beeline for my boobs- grabbing at them, saying, “Boobies, boobies, Mommy’s boobies,” and then starts saying, “What’s that Mommy?, Mommy’s but, Mommy’s but, and starts pointing out various freckles, What’s that Mommy? What’s that Mommy? (A tends to repeat everything she says at least three times… “Are you sad mommy, are you sad mommy, are you sad mommy?”

Before you start thinking, oh my – What is going over there, Is this mom ok? We have this series of little books called What are you feeling? It’s pretty cute actually because G likes to read A these books.

Four year old reading genius I tell ya! Nah, she just looks at the pictures and makes up the words- kind of a no brainer, really. Look at this page, it really says, I feel hungry and G reads it, “I feel like I see a floating piece of cheese in my head.” Image

But A has been really taken with the I feel sad book.

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In fact, she asks everybody, including random people at the grocery store, “Are you sad?” I think she and I are going to set up a booth in the mall…

No insurance, low income, not a problem! Discounted therapy here…My child will look deep into people’s eyes and ask “Are you sad?”

We’ll let people get the weight off their shoulder and tells us their woes…   

The truth is I think she’s just so excited to be talking these days that she likes to hear herself say words and phrases multiple times.

Later that day, I heard my own voice coming from underneath a blanket on the couch, accompanied with lots of giggling.

What on Earth? Oh right, she’s been recording me again! I don’t know what G finds interesting about watching me do nothing, the videos of me are pretty mundane- it’s just shots of me with my face looking very worried- I always seem to have this forehead wrinkled, tense look going on- in fact, I can’t tell you the number of staff members at various stores like the grocery store, CVS, and Target…coming up to me and saying, “Everything OK, Can I help you find something?” or “You look lost, can I help you?” and probably the most embarrassing of all is “Well, if you and your kids aren’t pure birth control for me than I don’t what is!” 

Nonetheless, G will watch recordings of me for hours, cracking up, and then hit play again, laughing even louder –  this is getting ridiculous! Between this morning’s face inspection, naked accosting right out of the shower, and being recorded all day, I feel like I am just one life size doll for these girls to play with.     

Damn, why can’t I be the Hulk, and scare them away!

Snickerdoodles

cookie baked

Today we made Snickerdoodles.

Snicker ( no pun intended) and snort all you want about me…I’m baking again – don’t bash me folks- didn’t you read my previous post about Letting Go- No more no’s in my life!  Nothing is off limits at this point, the sky is the limit, ready to try anything…

Ok you sickos, get your minds out of the pornos – I am not doing that or that  –  And to hubs, don’t get any crazy ideas.

I never made snickerdoodles before but Gia loves them so I figured I would try them. There was a time when I had never even heard of a snickerdoodle before- sounded like something with chocolate and nuts, until this annoying roommate I had years ago in Hoboken made them.  Boy was she irritating- she would talk nonstop during funny sitcoms and eat her cereal really loud like crunching and munching and slurping away. It was enough to make you never want to pour a bowl of frosted flakes again- oh wait -did I say frosted flakes? I don’t know what made me say that- I spent my twenties choking down Fiber One and Kashi Good Friends in attempts to get things moving down below.

kashi

Did you ever see these cereal boxes for Good Friends, pretty hysterical with those smilng faces- Why is this cereal called Good Friends? Is it because you’re going to be a good friend once you get the poop out? Or perhaps the smelly presents you leave in the toilet are your good friends?  A former male boss of mine who was also gay, once came back from a trip to the little boys room ( I hate that expression but if the shoe fits…) and said that he “took a shit and it felt great and that releasing your bowels felt just as good as an orgasm.” I think I must have turned as red as a tomato and was rendered speechless…

These days I don’t bother with the fiber- these kids have me running on fumes and I really don’t have time to visit the loo so that’s that.

Back to the snickerdoodles, yikes all that potty talk, and now back to scrumptious sweets baked with delicate hands. This seems like the perfect time to show you that my muffin did indeed wash her hands today…

wash
You can lick off these hands, they’re so clean!

When we were baking last week, Big D (remember him, my contractor) happened to sneak up on us while G was licking her fingers and going to town on the pink frosting we made…aww, snap – caught in the act!

Snickerdoodles are like the only thing that G wants in Target.  Well, that and the Pizza Hut pizza they serve there- this is my mistake or wait- I think I’ll blame my Mom for this one- yup, grandma bought her this once in Target and you know what they say about addictions, it just takes one time.  The thing is G doesn’t actually eat pizza, she takes all the cheese off and just eats the bread so the Pizza Hut personal pizza is a Godsend for little miss cheese-less.  The small brown box contains a mushy, doughy, greasy, sink your teeth into some old school deliciousness and she’s in heaven.

Not going to be stealing the secrets of Pizza Hut and recreating pizza in my kitchen so I decided to make cookies.  I always see foodie blogs where people show all the steps they took to make their delights so I figured I would be all professional and do the same.

Here’s the recipe I found on http://www.howsweeteats.com/

makes 16-20 cookies

1/2 cup butter, at room temperature

1 cup sugar

1 egg

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon

2 tablespoons milk

1/4 cup sugar + 1 tablespoon cinnamon for dipping

Preheat oven to 375.

Cream butter and sugar with an electric mixer until smooth. Add egg and vanilla, mixing well until combine, about 2 minutes. Stir in flour, baking powder, salt, and 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon. Mix until dough comes together. Add in milk. If dough is still crumbly, add milk 1 tablespoon at a time until it comes together. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.

In a bowl combine remaining sugar and cinnamon. Remove dough from fridge and roll into big 1 1/2 inch balls. Dip in cinnamon sugar mixture and place on baking sheet. Lightly pressdown on dough to flatten it. Bake at 375 for 10-12 minutes.

dough dough
Delicious dough that almost didn’t make it.

The little one saw this, dragged her chair over, climbed up, and turned the bowl over so she could use as a drum- her music class is really inspiring her to make music in all the wrong places…

balls
Thank goodness she washed her hands!
cookiedough
ready to heat up
cookie baked
The entire house smelled of sugar and cinnamon!

Poor Daddy never gets any treats by the time he comes home.  We have either eaten them, given them away, or had children gobble them up during a playdate. We made a plate just for him.

dadcookie
That’s you daddy

Making Strides Mondays

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Powerful Shirt

I was pulling one of the new shirts off Gia’s hanger this morning and I noticed that the label inside said self esteem… hmm self esteem in a shirt, what a packaged deal, how convenient, I’ll just buy seven more of these shirts with this label in various colors – gosh, this parenting thing is going to be a piece of cake … “Can’t buy me looove, love, oh, money can’t buy me love…” but it will buy me self-esteem infused in a pastel pink baby doll frock…awesome-  that certainly saves me a lifetime of girly issues… envisioning Gia slipping on this shirt and transforming herself into a petite powerhouse…

An image of Gia standing tall in her preschool class- “What, friend X, you don’t want to be my friend, well, that’s ok” …as she thinks to herself  “Who cares, I am sweet and cute and you smell like smooshed cheerios and I know you’ll be my friend tomorrow!”

If only it was that easy, right? Unfortunately, high self esteem and great confidence cannot be bought but I do think that it is one of the most important things for a child to have so they can be happy, make wise choices, and be free of anxieties so they can study hard or pursue their dreams… I am certainly going to try my best to nurture a strong sense of self-esteem and confidence with my girls.

Today I am starting Making Strides Mondays…making strides towards raising confident girls- will post stories and thoughts geared towards feeling good and becoming strong.  I’ll throw in some stuff for us mommas too, I know that I can use a little boost of inspiration.

It’s really hard for me to write about good things or even talk about the amazing.  I seem to have the need to tell all the negative things I feel because somewhere deep inside, I have always felt that other people like me better when I am struggling – misery loves company right?- if you are pigging out, one often feels better doing it with a friend…I’ve certainly been there and I’m not saying this isn’t fun and sometimes needed – the vegging out and snacking with a good friend. We all need to let go from time to time…

My issue is the constant need to make someone feel better by joining in their misery or withholding my feelings.  Part of the reason I do this is because I have watched women gossip and exhibit jealous like behaviors towards attractive, wealthy, lucky women…and I must admit, I am guilty of this too, I have beautiful people in my life who are strong and happy and seem to be able to exhibit much self-control in diet world, or have the perfectly pressed outfit complete with accessories, and sometimes, I would rather not be in their company…much easier to hang with piggy in my sweats and munch on some fries… ( this is about no one in particular my fabulous friends!- just an example).

So I digress but back to the holding back my happiness thing-  It’s like I made it my life’s mission to never have someone be jealous of me or think that “I think who I am” kind of a thing  (an impossible goal, I know, it’s not like I have any control of what people think or what they’re going to say but I certainly tried!) It’s like I have been a chameleon, changing my colors to make others feel comfortable or making sure no one knows the truth about me.

This has been a wordy, perhaps confusing post but the point is I usually talk or write about the bumps in life and don’t share the happy blips so here’s one for today.

Today I feel amazingly loved.

In the past two days since I posted a heartfelt post called Let it Go,   https://thegirlyreports.wordpress.com/2014/03/01/let-it-go/

I have had such an outpouring of love and take my breath away words that I feel shocked and loved at the same time.

Gosh darn it, people love me. A little Stuart Smalley (SNL) anyone?