A Mother's Intuition

Blog soundtrack (the art is kewl, but I love the song, which is from "Piglet's Big Movie"):



As usual, life always throws you curve balls. Fortunately, I know how to catch those, even if I don’t understand any of the rules of baseball; but that’s what I’ve got Tomas for!

Iz was to go off today, quite spur of the moment, to visit her grandparents in Pennsylvania. The last time such a trip was planned, she was not happy about the short notice, and I lobbied for her to stay home, which she did.

As she gets older, I think she’s becoming more like me in that she likes an adventure every now and then, but she’s basically a home body at heart. Also, she is prone to PW (Pet Withdrawal, specifically the feline strain of this malady); I checked, but alas, there is no vaccine!

Whenever I go somewhere and stay where there are no animals, I begin to go through PW. I open cabinet doors looking for cat crunchies, I begin to hear phantom meowing at the door, and when I sit down, I start to stroke the air. And, if and when I do see a neighborhood cat, I stalk it, grab it, and then love the stuffing out of it. Yes, even if said feline claws me indicating s/he has a headache and is not in the mood for such adoration. Yes, I am; therefore, I need cats! If, as my Mom said once, I had flour running through my veins, then I might also have the potential to curl up and nap in the sun occasionally.

Anyway, I told Iz’s Dad to travel onto CT [Connecticut for my Brit readers!
:-) ] for his business meeting, because I did not think the rapid fire “take her out of school and travel off in an instant with her” would go over well with her. I told him that I’d would like to spend some time with her and then I would convince her somehow that going to see Grandma and Grandpa was even better than seeing Hannah Montana in concert. While Grandma and Grandpa are 85 and 90 respectively and aren’t musical (well, if you discount Grandpa’s flatulence), in my opinion, I still think they’d be more entertaining that Miley Cyrus any day!

So, Operation Visiting Grandma and Grandpa is Cool was underway. And if successful, I would drive Iz to CT tomorrow (because I had nothing better to do anyway), so she could join her Dad in the pilgrimage to Pennsylvania. It was a bit of mother’s intuition that a visit to PA would be more agreeable if she spent some time with me first.

I called the school and arranged to fetch her from “parent pick-up.” She was supposed to go to her after-school program, but now that I’m home, she wants to come home every day. And, to be totally honest, I keep her going there two afternoons a week just to keep us from getting on each other’s nerves!

For some reason, she loves getting picked up at parent pick-up. Taking the bus home, which takes 15 minutes longer and, to me, seems like more fun is no comparison. Entering the cafeteria is like going into a buzzing hive full of parent and kid bees. It’s organized chaos, which is only organized by the A-G, H-M, and N-Z signs that you must go to in order to sign your child out. When Iz saw me, and you can’t pull one over on this one, she asked, “Mommy, why am I at parent pick-up?” Sharp as a tack, I responded with, “Um, because.”

As we walked to the car, she asked, “What are we going to do today?” I said, “Look at what I’m wearing on my feet,” as I pointed to my pink Teva flip-flops! She said, “Ooohhhhh!’ She understood that flip-flops didn’t mean “My Mom is crazy because she is wearing flip-flops when it’s 45 degrees outside.” Flip-flops are the universal sign (well, in our universe) for pedicure!

I told her we were going to get our toes done, go to the mall, eat at the pub (her favorite place), and then we could go rent a few DVDs. She squealed with delight and said, “Mommy, we’re going to be wild girls!” I so hoped that her current definition of “wild” remained in her personal dictionary until she was at least 26!

We went and got our toes done. Iz picked purple, and I chose red. As I sat there soaking my feet in the warm water (my favorite part), Iz picked up my notebook.



She began to write furiously. Hmmm. She penned a story in three minutes about Ben’s (a friend of Nate's) fluffy corgis. “Their names are Iam and Ollie.” She even illustrated it with two pictures. Of course, it was art imitating life, as she had drawn Ollie peeing, which he did on the lawn shortly after she first met him.

After we had perfectly polished toes, we headed to the mall. Why? Well, I needed a jar of my favorite body scrub from Bath & Body Works, and I wanted to pass in my application. Yes, really! I handed in the application I filled out in April; back in April, I thought, “Oh, I’ll get a job writing,” and now I thought “Oh, I’ll never get a job writing!” And, by the way, antibacterial soaps are currently on sale -- four for $10. Yes, they are, and I thought I should practice saying that just in case!

We then headed to our favorite pub for dinner. It’s the kind of place where everybody knows your name. Well, they know Iz at least, and she doesn’t even have order anymore. Usually, the waitress comes over and says, “Isabelle!!!!” not unlike how everyone used to say “Norm” when that character walked into the bar, “Cheers!” Then the waitress asks, “Pasta with the cheese and sauce on the side and a root beer?” Iz answers, “Yes, please.”

Over dinner, I mentioned the trip to Pennsylvania. As she munched on her ziti, she said, “Okay,” and then asked, “Did you pack my blankie? Can I bring your DVD player?” As I suspected, the trip was much more palatable over her favorite dinner at her favorite restaurant after a day of her favorite activities with Mom.

I guess it was not really intuition that told me to handle Iz’s visit to her grandparents like I did. I knew she’d be gone for a few days, and I wanted to spend as much time with her as I could, doing all our favorite things together before she left. Recently, I have been thinking more and more about Nathan going off to college in two years. God, where did the time go? Sometimes it’s been difficult having two children 10 years apart; I will miss Nathan horribly when he goes off to school, but then again, quite wonderfully, I get to do it all over with Iz. And, when Iz goes off to college, I get to retire, quite literally!

I have said this before, but it is great when your kids know you. They know me as Mom, but they also know me as their cycling, Hello Kitty crazed, vintage clothes wearin’, office-supply lovin’ and, most importantly, quirky (“weird” and “crazy” have both been mentioned) Mom. Intuition aside, I feel just as fortunate that I know my kids like they know me; and today, I knew Iz and myself well enough to make it a wonderful afternoon for us and to also send her on a happy voyage to Pennsylvania. ♥