Among mothers, I've noticed that it is a form of unpardonable insult for a dad to say that he's "babysitting". I suppose babysitting only applies when you are watching someone else's kids. I just always thought that was funny--they seem hyper-vigilant to become ticked off about the term.
For the past couple of weeks, Fran has gone back to work at a temporary job. This is part of the "Year of Fran", as I jokingly started calling it early on. Circumstances just seem to be falling into place nicely for her (knocking wood). Aside from her temporary job, which is working in a beautiful showroom talking to people buying things for fancy boutique stores, she also got an audition to sing in a chorus.
For weeks, she nervously tried out different audition songs on all of us, settling on Voi, che sapete che cosa é amor , which she then worked on and sang wonderfully in the audition. When she came home and told me that the director, who turned to the pianist and raised his eyebrows when she hit the first note strongly, offered her a position on the spot, which is relatively rare. I smiled and shrugged and said "Of course, it's the Year of Fran!"
It was also funny to hear Kaitlyn requesting that Fran sing her aria around the house--no makeup, non-matching socks, in jeans and a t-shirt. Mozart would be proud. Actually, it's my preferred way to hear it. It was further funny to hear my 3-year-old singing in Italian once she had learned the aria.
I think that it's great for all of us that she is doing more activities outside the home. It's given me some time around the house. Naturally, my first instinct was total destruction, so I ripped up the flooring in the master bathroom and stripped the cabinets so they can be repainted. I plan to lay down some tile, buoyed by my previous success upstairs in the kids bathroom. But I feel like this is "for keeps", since it is such a critical part of the house--if I screw it up, everyone will know. But I have faith,.
In fact, this time around the house with the kids has made me eager to launch all kinds of reorganizing and reconstructive projects. My goal was for Fran to come home from work each day and be wow'd by something I had accomplished, and I think I accomplished my goal. And I got to laugh a lot, too, at the domestic mayhem I was able to produce.
One of the funniest incidents occurred when I had Ryan ready to head out to a birthday party last Saturday morning, and Kaitlyn's slippers had become damaged--there was a large stuffed "Dora" head that had come unsewn. How hard could that be to fix? So I grabbed Fran's sewing box, threaded a needle on the 10th try, and stitched the head back on the slippers while Kaitlyn watched intently, delighted. I was tying it off when the telephone rang--Ryan ran to answer it. Just then, Kaitlyn, having seen me stash the needle and thread into the chair's upholstery, pulled it out and, in one stroke, planted it in my leg above the left knee. I was howling loudly when Ryan brought the phone to me with his friend's dad on the other end of the line.
Now, the temp job is over and things are getting back to normal. I think it gave Fran a big self-confidence boost--of course she's really smart, and was very successful in the corporate world before we had Ryan and she decided to stay home (she always says it was her "promotion"), but it sounds like she was helping everyone with their computers, which were a little tricky, was called on to translate, and was given a bunch of nice gifts to take home from the showroom. In fact, her boss gave her a little bonus above what he agreed to pay her since she stayed late and helped (my theory is that she stayed so it would give me time to finish folding all the laundry). She was proud, and is looking forward to going back to working there in a few months when they need her.
We also produced a lovely Pink Princess Birthday Party for Kaitlyn--I think when you turn three you can be indulged a little. The ladies in attendance were invited to wear pink, and it was fun that they did. We grilled out and had about 30 people over at our house (we didn't let them into the still-ripped-up master bathroom, but I did get compliments on my redone bathroom from last year). Kaitlyn was beaming, and all of a sudden looks a little more grown up.
For the past couple of weeks, Fran has gone back to work at a temporary job. This is part of the "Year of Fran", as I jokingly started calling it early on. Circumstances just seem to be falling into place nicely for her (knocking wood). Aside from her temporary job, which is working in a beautiful showroom talking to people buying things for fancy boutique stores, she also got an audition to sing in a chorus.
For weeks, she nervously tried out different audition songs on all of us, settling on Voi, che sapete che cosa é amor , which she then worked on and sang wonderfully in the audition. When she came home and told me that the director, who turned to the pianist and raised his eyebrows when she hit the first note strongly, offered her a position on the spot, which is relatively rare. I smiled and shrugged and said "Of course, it's the Year of Fran!"
It was also funny to hear Kaitlyn requesting that Fran sing her aria around the house--no makeup, non-matching socks, in jeans and a t-shirt. Mozart would be proud. Actually, it's my preferred way to hear it. It was further funny to hear my 3-year-old singing in Italian once she had learned the aria.
I think that it's great for all of us that she is doing more activities outside the home. It's given me some time around the house. Naturally, my first instinct was total destruction, so I ripped up the flooring in the master bathroom and stripped the cabinets so they can be repainted. I plan to lay down some tile, buoyed by my previous success upstairs in the kids bathroom. But I feel like this is "for keeps", since it is such a critical part of the house--if I screw it up, everyone will know. But I have faith,.
In fact, this time around the house with the kids has made me eager to launch all kinds of reorganizing and reconstructive projects. My goal was for Fran to come home from work each day and be wow'd by something I had accomplished, and I think I accomplished my goal. And I got to laugh a lot, too, at the domestic mayhem I was able to produce.
One of the funniest incidents occurred when I had Ryan ready to head out to a birthday party last Saturday morning, and Kaitlyn's slippers had become damaged--there was a large stuffed "Dora" head that had come unsewn. How hard could that be to fix? So I grabbed Fran's sewing box, threaded a needle on the 10th try, and stitched the head back on the slippers while Kaitlyn watched intently, delighted. I was tying it off when the telephone rang--Ryan ran to answer it. Just then, Kaitlyn, having seen me stash the needle and thread into the chair's upholstery, pulled it out and, in one stroke, planted it in my leg above the left knee. I was howling loudly when Ryan brought the phone to me with his friend's dad on the other end of the line.
Now, the temp job is over and things are getting back to normal. I think it gave Fran a big self-confidence boost--of course she's really smart, and was very successful in the corporate world before we had Ryan and she decided to stay home (she always says it was her "promotion"), but it sounds like she was helping everyone with their computers, which were a little tricky, was called on to translate, and was given a bunch of nice gifts to take home from the showroom. In fact, her boss gave her a little bonus above what he agreed to pay her since she stayed late and helped (my theory is that she stayed so it would give me time to finish folding all the laundry). She was proud, and is looking forward to going back to working there in a few months when they need her. 
We also produced a lovely Pink Princess Birthday Party for Kaitlyn--I think when you turn three you can be indulged a little. The ladies in attendance were invited to wear pink, and it was fun that they did. We grilled out and had about 30 people over at our house (we didn't let them into the still-ripped-up master bathroom, but I did get compliments on my redone bathroom from last year). Kaitlyn was beaming, and all of a sudden looks a little more grown up.
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