Monday, May 26, 2008

Ignorance is Bliss

We are getting ready for our summer vacation 'back' east. Our oldest daughter, H., was thinking of the airplane trip and remembering the last one she took with RW a few months ago. She said he had bought her a bottle of 7-up just before they had to go through security. She had only taken one sip when the security workers took the bottle and threw it in the trash. Then they asked her if she had any other bottles.

She asked, "Why do they have to do that, Mom? I mean, why can't they just make sure the caps are screwed on really, really tight?"

Thursday, May 15, 2008

Moving to Sesame Street

Ok, today A. had the chance to become a star and probably won't because of me. Let me explain. The teacher at A.'s preschool has a reality show about her family on cable. The camera crew practically lives at her house and films the day-to-day life she leads with her husband and 4 kids on their farm. We don't have cable, so that's about all I know about it, but she's fairly well-known as the show has been on for about 4 years now.

So last week, she gave all of the parents a waiver to sign about having our child on t.v., since the camera crew wanted to film her at her day job as a preschool teacher. I signed the waiver, excited that A. might be on t.v.(!) yet also unaffected since I knew we would probably never see her since we don't have cable.

The day of the filming came (today), and I called a friend who is in the morning class to tell me what happened, since we are in the afternoon class. She said that they were not going to be filming during preschool after all because all the waivers weren't signed, but that they would film on the end-of-year party at the teacher's house.

Frankly, I was relieved because A. always gets herself dressed, combs her own hair, and keeps her face clean. And she does it HER way.
You can imagine that what this results in: a 5yo girl who rarely (if ever??) matches, has wild hair (to her defense, it's so thick that it's wild even when it is combed), and usually has some sort of remnants of the latest meal or snack on her face and/or shirt. And I'm the kind of mom who picks my battles and as long the kids have bathed relatively recently and don't have a wad of gum stuck in their hair, I'm feeling pretty good. I guess that's what having 4 kids can do to you.

OK, so when I found out they weren't filming, I was happy to check out A.'s outfit but not have to go there. Not really matching, but not totally clashing. Only a few remnants of lunch on her shirt...face clean. No gum in the hair. Good to go!

Yes, you know where I'm going with this. We arrive at preschool to CAMERAS, CAMERA MEN, and children dressed to the nines. Fancy dresses, fancy shoes, fancy hairdos (even the boys), and along comes A. (didn't you know we were filming today??) Luckily I seemed to care way more than A.-she didn't even realize the situation and I wasn't going to tell her. I was too consumed with trying to remember the last time I saw a kid on Sesame Street with Cheetos stains on her shirt. Oh yeah....never.

Don't worry A., you just wait til the end-of-year party. We will make it on that show...in fact, you will steal the show with your perfect hair, beautifully coordinated outfit, and clean cheeks. And then you will be discovered. You still have a chance of fulfilling my childhood dream of being on Romper Room.....