Metal Meredith

My baby girl. She is the epitome of style, you know. And since she is such a little girly girl (insert outrageous laughter here), we went to Old Navy and bought her some tights yesterday so she can wear one of her two dresses to school without 1. freezing or 2. wearing pants under them.

I picked them out because she was so disinterested at the prospect of anything not having to do with a hat and mittens. We took them home and opened them this morning to put on.

“What are those?” she asked me when I took them out of the package. Phil, seeing my blank look at the need to explain tights said “They are like long socks.” I came back with “Really tight pants with socks attached!” She seemed to like both explanations and put them on without question. Then she told me they were really cool.

The one part of this I didn’t catch until we were downstairs eating breakfast was this, “Mom, I really love my new bagtights.”

Yep, Vivienne thinks her tights are called “bag tights”. We might have to take her to the Scottish Games this weekend and feed that girl some haggis!

This morning, Vivienne cried when Phil went to work. Big, sad tears rolled down her face as she quietly announced, “Daddy, I don’t want you to go to work. I want you to stay home and play with me.” Her eyes welled up and fat tears popped out of each eye and rolled down her cheek, one at a time. Oscar worthy, I tell you. Demi Moore has nothing on my child. Phil ended up leaving after we promised Vivienne we would take her to Panera for dinner when he got home. Vivienne loves her some Panera (which she calls “The Nera").

Every Saturday morning, Phil and Vivienne head up to Panera where she gets an “orange thing” (scone), dad gets a bear claw and mom gets a chocolate ‘sant (croissant). She gets a chocolate milk which she proudly clutches the entire ride home. About 15 minutes after they leave, she bounces into the house and says “Mom, we are back and I got you your ‘sant!” Then, she doesn’t shut up again until she falls asleep at night.

I love this relationship that Vivienne and Phil have, because it reminds me of my own Dad and the Saturday mornings that we would get up before everyone else, head out of Dunkin Donuts on Midlothian Tnpk and get a dozen donuts and on a good day, a box of munchkins. I would sit up front with Dad (in the days before child seats) holding the box of treats and watch his coffee cup perched right in the middle of the bench seat. How did that thing never spill? I would almost die waiting to get home to eat my donut, one I always got to choose myself.

On Sundays, I would wake up to the smell of bacon and hash browns. That was big breakfast day. Dad would be in the kitchen making some wonderfully disgusting greasy breakfast for the whole family. Since I became pregnant, Phil has found himself in charge of waffles or pancakes and sausage on Sunday mornings. I won’t go as far as saying that he likes to cook them, but I know he does enjoy eating them. Vivienne enjoys it too, as she is perched up on her stool stirring the pancake mix or watching Phil turn sausages on the griddle.

Hopefully, Phil enjoys all of his (albeit brief) rock star like attention. If patterns are to repeat, this phase will not last forever.

Another photo by Vivienne

For those of you that don’t know me well enough, I am a member of a message board of 60 women who all have kids born in June 2003. I have already made this confession to those 60 friends so I figured there was nothing to lose on here. I even asked Phil if it was ok to post this because I seem to lack that last hurdle of “should I or shouldn’t I?” when it comes to telling things that others wouldn’t dream of.

So, I have been battling this cough which has made it hard to keep on a dry pair of pants for 3 weeks now. Yes ladies and gentlemen, Pregnancy makes you wet yourself on a regular basis. Under much sadness, I bought Poise pads at Target and gave them a try this weekend. So far so good (even if I feel like an old woman in a diaper).

However......

I have been wearing thongs for about 10 years now. (Ahh yes, loving that visual, aren’t you??) The only time I have not is the two weeks after Vivienne was born. And that was really only out of necessity.

So, I found it impossible to keep the “pee pads” in place while wearing (even the fat girl version of) the thong. I cracked out those big ol’ underpants and have been wearing them for 3 days. They are ridiculously humorous and if I had no dignity and no sense of embarassment, I would take pictures. Thank goodness that I have a healthy dose of both, for all of our sakes.

The really sad part? Phil thinks that they are ‘cute’. 

....all rolled into one!

Ikea Product or Lord of the Rings Character?

BY CALEY FELDMAN

- - - -

1. Faramir
2. Freden
3. Grundtal
4. Boromir
5. Molger
6. Galdor
7. Freda
8. Agerum
9. Babord
10. Frodo
11. Grima
12. Akurum
13. Brunkrissla
14. Sultan Högbo
15. Deagol
16. Grimbold

Lord of the Rings characters: 1, 4, 6, 7, 10, 11, 15, 16.

Ikea products: 2, 3, 5, 8, 9, 12, 13, 14.