Cleaned house...

In the broadest sense of the word that is. First and foremost we have spent roughly $200 on this really low-key party that I planned... but when it come to my principessa... I am just weak. Ok, so Isabella's party is not actually being held in our house, but just in case visitors should come around, I also felt the need to reorganize my closet in the wee hours of dawn. Ok. It had to be done, and after that I sent Isabella to clean her room. She did a spectacular job, although I caught her several times perusing books that had accumulated in piles around her bookshelves instead of actually cleaning. She comes by it well, I suppose.

I tried to take a picture this morning of the temporary tatoos that she made on my feet and her feet last night while I was "vaporized" for the first time in several months. Temporary release and I had all these fabulous ideas but instead of writing the stories that were coming to me (it seems almost silly to keep writing stories anyway) I ended up rereading myself for the last month. My production has slipped for obvious reasons.


We liked the doctor, despite his being a man (I say we, but the despite is really only referring to my own personal reservations). Isabella was funny, she acted shy and tried to bury her head in my chest, she was embarassed at having her privacy invaded by a man... but after was really quite brave. The nurse and the doctor were trying to talk around the fact that she needed vaccinations, referring euphemistically to the shots... cryptic communication is only useful if the interlocutor can decipher the code... but I just blurted out, 4 or 5 what? Shots? I am of the school that we should never lie to our children about pain. That is, never tell them something will not hurt when we know for a fact that it will. It is amoral and undermines their trust in us as parents and, I believe, in humanity itself. I won't be a party to that. I tell her that it will hurt but I explain the reason that the shots are necessary and that I will hold her and that the pain will pass. Our bodies forget pain quickly, it is our minds that let it fester. I don't want to fill her with fear, on the contrary, I feel that if I give her all the information she needs (within reason) she will be more able to make choices for herself as she grows, and after all, isn't that what our job as parents is?

I remember Pinna, my mother in law loving this phrase that popped out spontaneously when I was speaking to a three-year-old Isabella: "Baby your mine... No, I have you on loan until you are able to be your own" and that really is my philosophy in a nutshell. I am trying so hard to do right by this amazing little person, this gift that has found its way into my life, and who can always, always make me smile and make my heart explode with love.

Today we ordered a princess cake, far over-priced, but from a real bakery, not just the industrialized crap from the supermarkets. I made a makeshift vegetable lasagna for lunch, because we have been eating out far too much (yes we went out for Indian food again yesterday, but when you are starving from a two-hour doctor's visit, and your small person wants a treat for her bravery, how can you really say "no"?

So the real question of course is... have I gotten any work done? Well I have looked at the test... graded a few compositions, but mainly I have been organizing... I hate doing these birthday party things but it is just a rite of passage... once a year. Of course this is the first year that Caleb and Noah won't be here and that it won't be at my mom's house. Though while she and my father are in the Dominican Republic, I am indeed happy to not be on shovelling duty in miserable cold but rather letting my hand washing dry in the sun.

So, back to work would be a lie, just... to work, the noblest of endeavors.