Pbenjay's Blog

After a Sunday afternoon  parade of friends and family stopping by to see the new baby, life settled down a bit and Belle (Chiara’s nanny and household helper) and I made Eggplant Parmesan.  After dinner and baths (see photo) and thankfully bedtime for the girls, I sat myself down to watch all my favorite Sunday night TV shows;  Amazing Race, The Good Wife and The Mentalist.  I had to miss Masters of Sex and Homeland because they don’t have Showtime.  What does this have to do with the title of the blog? ABSOLUTELY NOTHING!

YES Daddy has a bathing suit on!

Day 1:  Up at 7am (ungodly hour) and the girls have to be dressed, fed and Finley starts school at 8am, Francesca at 8:15am.  Who’s driving them?  Me? What? I drive a Rav4 and a vintage Metropolitan (tiny) and they want me to drive a Tahoe!? Are you kidding me?  I am terrified of that car (and I use that term loosely since it is like a truck), not to mention I am now in Boynton Beach and uh, you want me to drive where?  Tom said he’ll ride shotgun and direct me and then we can get Starbucks.  A deal and I will learn how to use a GPS.

The rest of the day seems to just sail by, the nanny had the day off and the girls wouldn’t be back till 3pm. More friends dropped by and we heated up lots of leftovers for everyone for lunch.  What could possibly happen?  Well….when I was cleaning up I noticed a small square white ring on the dark wood table in the furnished rental house!   Nobody was around so I tried mayonnaise – didn’t work.  I tried furniture polish – didn’t work.  Google said mix ashes with water and rub gently BUT no one smokes here!  I tried vegetable oil-didn’t work.  I made a paste of salt and water and it darkened a bit. Google said  baking soda and water but I couldn’t find any in the house!  Who doesn’t have a box of baking soda in their house? or their  refrigerator??  The mark is darker but still there so I’m going to try to work on it again today.  Thankfully she doesn’t read my blog so she won’t know I did it and right now Fletcher is taking up all her time and energy, Whew!

I tried to master the Rainbow Loom;  You know the toy that 5 years olds can work – I couldn’t  get it right, perhaps you have to be 5 years old.  My first bracelet had a loop hanging, my second one didn’t quite come together so I gave up for a while anyway. Time to pick up ‘Cesca  and I was on my own – well that is me and Siri.

Dinner was later than usual and the girls were a bit on the wild side.  The many throw pillows from the couches seem to make their own version of a yellow brick road.  Foreshadowing!!  Tia called and Finley wanted to do FaceTime with her and I guess she had to pee too!  AND THEN, she came back into the living room and uttered seven words every parent dreads to hear; “I dropped your phone in the toilet”  OMG, OMG, OMG – the iPhone5!?!?  Horror!  I have to hand it to Chiara, she was calm, she did not scream and she did not faint.  QUICK to the computer, what does Google say to do?  The phone was patted dry and immersed in a bed of rice, sealed in a plastic bag in less than 2 minutes!  Time to make a novena to St. Jude because seriously I think this is one of those impossibles! 

St. Jude Patron Saint of Lost Causes and Things Despaired Of

Bedtime proved to be challenging; who wants another book read, who doesn’t want their water in a paper cup but rather must have a BIG glass, then the other also has to have a BIG glass, who needs to go downstairs to see Mommy – you’re getting the picture.  15 minutes later, Frankie is out of bed and coming down the stairs BECAUSE I made the mistake of telling her Mommy would come upstairs and then I never told Mommy.

I finally went to bed myself after trying once again to master the rubber band loom.  I did manage to produce what I thought was a pretty cool creation.  Sometime while it was still dark,  I heard Frankie calling out for Mommy.  Ay yi yi, I surely did not went get up, but I did.  I trekked up the stairs only to find Frankie with her father who was trying to convince her that now is really not the time to play.  I could not go back to sleep!  So I’m writing this under the influence of a very large Grande Americano – caffeine is a wonder drug!