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Thursday’s Child Has Far To Go…

Posted in Amuse-bouche du jour, BY THE WAY, Finley Ray, Frankie, Friends, Smooth or Crunchy on January 13, 2013| Leave a Comment »

THURSDAY – A new day dawns and around here it has been dawning at about 6:30am when Francesca calls out “Mom may” “Mom may”. There are 3 sound machines going and I can hear her clear as a bell. And I’m not the only one; Finley heard her, Mommy heard her, Daddy heard her, even Pasha heard her. You can try to ignore the sound of pleading baby for only so long, you can try to will yourself back to sleep but it doesn’t work and besides within minutes the sound of pattering feet in the hallway is evident.

Chiara has to go to an auxiliary meeting this morning at Finley’s school which means Francesca and I are on our own. Breakfast went ok, waffles and some fruit. Then we went upstairs so I could make beds, and get her dressed. Well while I’m picking up and mopping up (we still can’t seem to get these floors clean) (still too many boxes around I guess), I left Frankie in the toy room. It wasn’t long before I heard voices! The high-pitched sound of TV kid character voices so I raced back across the hallway to see what she was doing. And there she sat…Little Francesca in the middle of Mommy and Daddy’s king size bed and there she sat with one of their iPads and SHE had turned it on and was watching some downloaded show!!!! She’s only 27 months old!!! Needless to say, Gigi is persona non grata because I have to take the iPad away and insist she play with her own toys.

Sometimes the attention span of a two-year old works in your favor. She quickly dispatched herself to the toy room and began the routine of removing 80% of the toys either off the shelves or from the bins. Oh well, at least I know where she is.

All week Chiara and I have been planning an “outing”-an adult one that is. We are supposed to meet Elaine, their real estate broker, for a glass of wine in the late afternoon today. Chiara has arranged to have a baby sitter come over about 3pm. She will interview her and see how she interacts with the girls and if all goes well we will go out for our drink. What do you think happened?

Things started out sort of okay because both Finley and Francesca were out on the driveway with me, driving their various vehicles. This is always a good way to expend some energy. Mimi came out and I went in and for awhile there was relative peace while Frankie and Mimi explored the yard. One can never be sure what the hair trigger is but soon there was the usual “no, that’s mine”, “I want that”. Mimi was very calm and didn’t get ruffled as the meltdown began. When it a fever pitch, Chiara and I stepped outside and Finley was dispatched to a Time Out. She would not calm down and was sent to sit on the lawn. The histrionics increased several decibels when Finley determined their were bugs and they were going to get her! They may be sisters but they are surely different. Francesca likes to go with me looking for lizards and Finley won’t go into the pool if there is a bug in it or even a flower petal. Having somewhat the same aversion to several kinds of bugs, I interceded for her with Mommy and she was allowed to have a time out inside. Things were not looking good for the drink….

Playtime moved upstairs and as Chiara and I continued to put things away and clean up. Not long after, there was a lot of crying and screaming coming from Frankie’s room where both girls were in her crib and having a territorial dispute over a pink blanket. These things are hard to resolve. I mentioned to Chiara that it was doubtful Mimi would return. Dusk set in, Mimi made the girls supper and the idea of going out with Elaine was officially put to death.

FRIDAY – Finley left for school especially happy today since on Fridays the girls at her school can wear their jumpers. She left for school and Frankie and i hustled to get dressed and ready to go shopping. Today we were going to find a Bed, Bath and Beyond Or as Chiara likes to refer to it, Bed, Bath and Bend Over. At any rate we are headed there because she needs an ironing board and believe it or not, Target and Walmart did not have any! Two carts and one kid going in. We found the ironing board and checked out rugs, containers and other assorted necessities. Frankie, although almost completely toilet-trained, wears a diaper when we go on long excursions. Chiara noticed she was leaking and took her to the ladies room. That worked out well except upon return she had no underwear on! Then it’s on to Home Goods. Both Chiara and I LOVE this store! Chiara made a very funny remark, however, it was one you don’t necessarily want your two-year old to repeat. She said as soon as we walked in and stopped at the first beautiful display of dinnerware, “This store is like crack to me”. Don’t you know for the next 5 minutes, Francesca kept repeating like crack, like crack. It was hysterical and hopefully none of the other shoppers heard her!

Friday is supposed to be reward day for Finley Ray. For every good morning she has (there are several factors) she gets a star and 5 stars gets you to Barnes and Noble to pick out a new book. Unfortunately this morning was not terrific. Once she was home from school, Chiara decided they could at least go to the MacDonald’s in town because they had both seen it from the car several times and growing up in the city, there were no MacDonald’s with a super playground!

As soon as we entered we knew something was amiss because the playground was empty and the door to it was locked. Turns out it needs some repair. OK, Chiara will find another playground and we can go through the drive-thru and get ice cream. She orders 2 cups of vanilla and 1 cone. When a day starts out badly, it often just keeps on compounding itself. First Finley threw a crying, whining scene because she ONLY wanted to to this playground, Then when she saw the cone, she wanted that instead of a cup. Being told she wasn’t old enough for a cone didn’t help either so more whining and whimpering. I know she can handle a cone and she knows she can because when she’s with Gigi, we always get ice cream cones! So on this point, Chiara conceded and gave her the cone. Not a word from Francesca as she shoveled in big spoonfuls of ice cream 🙂

Finally we are at a playground which is by the shore and even though Finley’s first comment was, “There’s not very much stuff here” , the girls ran around, climbed, rocked, swung and slid for quite sometime. Fearless Frankie swung from the top of the huge slide before she slid down and almost gave me a heart attack! Then she got onto one of those big coil rocking things, this one was a sea horse. She was rocking like she was on a bucking bronco and soon she was tossing her head back and forth – I think she was trying to keep the hair off her face BUT by doing so I knew she was going to eventually bang her face on the sea horse’s head. Warning her fell on deaf ears and soon she was really crying-at least she didn’t end up with fat lip!

English: Bed Bath & Beyond (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Friday was Tom’s birthday, so we needed to get home and make cupcakes. This was going to be a joint project with Mommy and the way the day had been going, I opted out and had some wonderful alone time with my computer. Tomorrow my friends are coming to visit me and we are going out to lunch, I can’t wait.

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It’s Wednesday And We’re On Target

Posted in Amuse-bouche du jour, BY THE WAY, Finley Ray, Frankie, Friends, tagged Chiara, Florida, Francesca, Frankie, Lowes, Madison Avenue, New York City, Starbucks, Target Corporation on January 12, 2013| Leave a Comment »

English: Logo of Target, US-based retail chain (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The store that is! There’s just something about the allure of big box stores. Give a woman with a new house to set up and a car to get around and sure enough the GPS has found Target, Walmart, Home Goods, Pet Supermarket and Lowes.

By midweek, the house is really shaping up and the only problem is each room that we tackle ends up needing something she doesn’t have or needs to be replaced. So we set off for Target pronounced Tar-zhay when you want to pretend you’re shopping on Madison Avenue in Manhattan instead of a strip mall in Florida! And this was no ordinary run-of-the-mill Target store. NO, this was a SUPER TARGET. Really it was like a Mall unto itself. And one of the best things about it was that there was a Starhucks cafe inside it. Nothing like that extra shot to get you moving down those aisles. Fortified finally with a Grande Americano I’m ready to roll. I say finally because unlike my home in New York City where I can walk across the street and get my morning fix, here you have to really be dressed and get in the car and drive into the commercial district of Delray Beach to get to a Starbucks. AH, but who knew that
Target was on target when it came to keeping the shoppers in the store and fueled to buy nonetheless.

Of course we have two carts because one of them is for bouncy bouncy child and one for the loot. This store is SO BIG that Chiara gives me some of the items to locate and she goes off in another direction. She needs an ironing board, they don’t have any! Really! She needs a small dish drying rack, like my sleek stainless steel one. They don’t have any. She needs a few good knives, they only carry one line and they weren’t very good. I have to continually return to her and report in what I have found that might replace what she really wanted, which of course she doesn’t so I have to return it to its appropriate aisle. Mind you the store is ginormous and I’m not saying Francesca was crying…but let’s just say I dnn’t have any problem locating them – I have a good ear!!

Frankie always starts out in the carriage, even buckled in, but sometime between the “I hold it” and “I’m cold” she is out of the buckled seat and into the basket itself. This neccessitates cargo transference as 4 boxes of padded hangers and a toaster oven go into my basket which heretofore held only a small bottle of eye makeup remover and tinted moisturizer. Now I’m hauling Vitamin water, Pampers Pull-Ups, and other assorted sundries.

The sun was extremely intense that day and believe it or not, with all the things I did pack to go to Florida, I forgot my sunglasses. I knew I had to buy a pair today because I could hardly keep my eyes open in the car. I ask a store clerk where they are and by the time she finished giving me directions, I knew the last sentence was going to be “….Turn right at the second star and straight on till morning”. The sun glasses were truly at the opposite end of the store and it so happens that children’s shoes were there too. As I met up with Chiara I note that Frankie is no longer is the basket, she is now on the loose. Francesca is a climber, a runner and a mischief with a mind of her own. In other words she is TWO. Chiara wants to go get something so couldn’t I just keep an eye on her for a minute? Well I could if I could spin my neck around 360 degrees! She is moving at the speed of sound between the aisles and trying to keep her in one place while maneuvering my cargo barge on wheels and carrying a handbag is not an easy feat. For a while I had her amusing herself with the brightly-colored wristwatches but she was able to grasp them and soon she was trying to buckle a lime green Swatch-like watch to her arm all the while repeating, “Frankie’s watch”.

After the watches we moved on to Jewelry and the rows of dangling beaded necklaces were soon the source of a color-identifying lesson. Some she would lightly touch and say the color, otherls like silver and gold she looked to me for an answer. She is so funny because of course she wants (and often does) touch everything but when you say to her, “Don’t touch”, she looks at you and holds both hands up in front of her with palms facing outward and says, “Just see”. It is so cute, I can’t stand it.

By this time I am really wishing Chiara would return. Frankie ran off so fast and into a main aisle, that in order to catch her, I had to abandon the cart with my handbag in it, so I could catch her and bring her back. Just as Chiara returned, Francesca removed her shoes and proceeded to walk around barefoot. She was cruising down the center aisle with no shoes and Chiara and I were following her. I turned to my daughter and said something to the effect that I found it rather interesting that she yelled at Tom and me for walking into the playroom with our shoes and here her daughter was walking barefoot in a public store, for God’s sake and let’s not forget that while the other one is in nursery school eating an organic lunch, Frankie wolfed down a box of 4 chocolate truffles and wouldn’t even give me a bite. Oh how much easier life is for child number

two. I reminded her that it was I who bought the lollipops about an hour ago but regardless she wasn’t sharing.

Sticky fingers and all we headed for the check out counter. We still had time to hit Walmart before Finley got home from school!

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Tuesday’s Child Is Full Of Grace…

Posted in Amuse-bouche du jour, BY THE WAY, Finley Ray, Frankie, Friends, Smooth or Crunchy on January 11, 2013| Leave a Comment »

Tuesday – Or in this case waffles as that seems to be Francesca’s breakfast favorite. Well as you know, Pedro did not show up today so the only TV working is the one leaning up against the bookcases in the family room. Of course the kids don’t mind because Bubble Guppies (Seriously?) is in full view for them. Tuesday was a day filled with empty boxes which we broke down out of deference to the recycle rules and the sun was out and it was hot! Chiara wants Francesca to play outside but wants me to watch her. Watching her meant actually pushing her around in her pink taxi, that’s how she refers to the bubble- top plastic ride-around car that is powered by her feet. No battery-operated vehicle for her. But don’t feel sorry for Frankie because she also seems to own or have access to a pedal car in the shape of a pink vintage convertible as well as another ride around toy with her name emblazoned across the back and then there’s the Radio Flyer red wagon and Finley’s scooter! The ONLY one of these that she really operates on her own is the ride-around toy. Everything else was, “Push me Gigi”. The highlight of our outside playtime was finding lizards which scoot across the sidewalk regularly and up the bushes.

Then Peter called me and asked me if I had a moment to talk; If ever there was a sentence full of foreboding, this is it for me. On Monday morning Peter had to move the car at 7:30am and when he got to the car he noticed a dent in the front passenger side fender. How the hell did that happen? The passenger side in on the sidewalk side! He got into the car to move it when the street cleaner came through and it wouldn’t start. Oy! So he called Triple A and they came out and tried to start it with jumpers and even a new battery but no good. So up on a flatbed truck it was hauled away to a garage to have a new alternator installed to the tune of $800. With the $250 deductible for the fender, Monday turned out to be a pretty pricey day! All I can say is thank God I’m here and not there because I would be making my husband’s life a living hell at this point, screaming we should sell the car. I’m not a New Yorker at heart when it comes to cars. I hate what happens to the car while parked on the street.

Finley arrived home, the AT+T guy finally left and since there was still no food in this house, we made off to the grocery store. with 2 kids in tow (one of which has NOT had a nap in 4 days) and oh what a treat it was!!!! Two kids, two carts – who wants to hold this, no, who wants to hold that? Mommy has to buy two cellophane packages of brightly colored straws and two aisles later there is a downpour of straws as Frankie has managed to rip open her package. Like a rainbow waterfall the straws drop through the slots in the carriage and bounce around the floor. If that wasn’t enough the little napless-one threw a fit as we sailed through the candy aisle1 “Down, down, down” she wailed , only to be placated with Monkey Smoothies, Dora the Explorer yogurt and a humungous box of rainbow-colored gold fish, I’m beginning to see a pattern here. Do you think Francesca is working the cause?

Check-out was as much fun as only another mother of two kids two years apart knows! There was a minor skirmish over who is helping to put the food on the counter but before it could escalate, Mommy yelled loud enough to put the fear of God in them for a couple of minutes.

Pretty NOT Practical

I was to give the girls a bath and Chiara would put them to bed. Sounds simple right? Sounds not too difficult, right? WRONG! Finley is crying because she doesn’t want her hair washed, Francesca wants to control the water flow and I’m trying to figure out how to keep the water in the tub. The drain has some weird mechanism that I’ve never seen before, as its stopper. BUT that’s minor compared to actually trying to bathe them because the bathtub has been designed with one of those fixed glass panels that shield one half of the tub area, the area where the faucets and shower head are located. It was NOT a pretty sight of me trying to lean around the glass and grab onto a soapy slippery wiggle-worm of a kid. On top of which I was in a fairly smallish bathroom with two entrances, two step-stoos and well two of just about everything, Finally they are out of the tub and while trying to drape Finley in a towel, Frankie takes off wet and naked running down the hallway. You see this is really why my generation knew you should have all your kids before you’re thirty!

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UH OH! LOOK What I Found!!!!

Posted in Finley Ray, Frankie, Friends, Smooth or Crunchy on January 10, 2013| Leave a Comment »

Champagne Went MIA

Monday – I don’t remember my kids getting up so early, so I’m either too old to remember or as my daughter would like to say, “My brother made my breakfast”. You have no idea what a horrible mother I was! OMG! Well, little Finny was up before 7am and getting dressed in her new school uniform, which is navy blue shorts, a white polo shirt with the school logo, white sneakers and a school bag bigger than her! First day of school and she is saying, “But I don’t want to wear shorts, I want to wear a dress”. If you’ve ever read the blog before and seen photos of Finley Ray, you note that she is always beautifully dressed in the most gorgeous outfits and she LOVES to dress up.

Once we have established that a dress (really a jumper) can only be worn on Fridays, we’re headed downstairs for breakfast, which I tell her she has to eat because lunch time is long time from now and you’re not home where you can snack at will. And here’s another first for me; Chiara has pre-ordered Finley’s lunches to be delivered to school every day! Naturally organic, of course. I guess the school has contracted with some service to provide these nutritious balanced lunches – I didn’t ask what it cost!! Poor Chiara and Joel suffered with PB&J sandwiches (at least not on white bread), a piece of fruit, some cookies or better yet, one of Debbie’s Little Cakes or a Devil Dog! Can you imagine the horror of sucha lunch?

Once Finley was off to school and Francesca was literally tearing apart the toy room, Chiara was hell-bent on stuffing her enormous wardrobe, a carload of shoes and we won’t mention how many designer handbags into her closet. It was an amazing feat but she did it. AND as she is unpacking boxes and her suitcases, oh my look what was inside – Yup you guessed it, THE MISSING MAYBE STOLEN EXPENSIVE CHAMPAGNE BOTTLE! Chiara is holding up the beautiful bottle of Tattinger’s Comtes du Champagne. Now who is going to call The Breakers and apologize? Not Me! Tom tells Chiara to do it and by Tuesday we both tell Tom he better do it since he was the one who went to the Security Station and made the fuss. And one does wonder exactly what champagne bottle was Rachel referring to!

By the end of the day, the living room floor had been washed, at least 5 loads of laundry washed and folded, Francesca tried to ride her car down the stairs – it’s a good thing Chiara heard it moving. I shrieked when I found a lizard under a suitcase in the front hall and it ran into Tom’s office and hid between some stacked paintings – I never told him about it!

The day has vanished, the electronics guy, Pedro never showed so we never got to the grocery store! No TV, No internet, No food! Delivery Dudes to the rescue again! This time Chiara ordered so there was chicken and salmon and veggies. It wasn’t too long into the meal before one of Frankie’s favorite phrases came out, “I don’t like it”. “Isn’t it time for them to go to bed”?

The dueling toothbrushes is a scene not to be missed. Different toothpastes, individual stools to stand on and yet there must be something here to whine about. Ah hah, Frankie’s stool has more decoration on the name than Finley’s.

Twenty-five pages into Eloise, I call it quits. Silly me never checked the number of pages in the book before giving it to my own little Eloise, Finley. Good Night!

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Check Out is 11am ……

Posted in Finley Ray, Frankie, Friends, Smooth or Crunchy, tagged Breakers, Chiara, Closet, Finley, Florida, Francesca, iPhone, Tom on January 10, 2013| Leave a Comment »

Sunday – But I asked for a late checkout till 1pm so I could be at the house and the last big push was on to get the girls rooms done. Finley and Francesca were still at The Breakers (ordering up room service no doubt) with Martini (yes that is her name) , one of the hotel’s Nannies. Moving is upsetting to everyone and Chiara wanted them to come to their new house and be able to see their rooms all set up. I think I was still working on the kitchen trying to figure out what dishes to put in what cabinet. I have this organization thing about kitchens and I’m trying to lay it out the way I probably learned in Home Economics class lol.

This IS a Martha Stewart closet!

Tom was setting up his office and playing music way too loud! So loud that we had to scream his name to turn it down a couple of times because we couldn’t communicate at all on the second floor. At this point I decided to re-do the linen closet. This is where OCD comes into play and usually someone benefits. On Saturday Tom hired his assistant from work and her daughter to help us unpack boxes and put stuff away. At one point in the afternoon I saw both the mother and daughter sitting on the floor folding sheets and towels and putting them in the linen closet. I looked at the closet on Sunday morning and knew that I wouldn’t be able to sleep IF I didn’t re-fold the towels and sheets and blankets. Luckily for me (and for her), Chiara agreed that the closet didn’t look good. Tom came by and saw me pulling stuff out and refolding and remarked that the daughter had done the closet and then the mother said it was wrong and they re-did it. NOW I was doing it again-so many man hours, it’s a good thing this isn’t a Union job! Martha, on the other hand would be perfectly pleased as the closet was now a work of art if I do say so myself!

And speaking of communication…Tom took me back to my hotel to get the cat and check out. On the way he wondered out loud if Chiara had packed the champagne they had gotten as a gift at the Policeman’s Ball. I texted her and the instant reply was “Shit no you better call The Breakers right away”. Not having both feet firmly planted in the 21st Century nor having the money to spend on one, I don’t have an iPhone but at least I had my Droid and internet access. So I look up The Breakers on Google or rather I try to look it up. Have you ever tried to see your screen in the bright Florida sunshine? I swear I scrolled all over what came up on mobile and THERE WAS NO CONTACT US link to be found. OK so I called the reservation desk and spoke to someone who after I explained the situation, said she would connect me to the front desk. FIVE full minutes later I hung up the phone and spent another five squinting and twisting myself every which way in the seat to find a spot where I actually could see the screen. I called another number also connected to a site proclaiming, of course, reservations. After I went through my spiel that the Clarks had checked out but had forgotten a very expensive bottle of champagne in the room, I was informed I would need to call the actual hotel they were just for reservations and were off-site. Geez!

On the phone again to the original reservation clerk, I tell her that she left me on hold so I hung up. She explained she was trying to get someone at the front desk. Rachel (her name) said the room had been cleaned and no one reported finding anything. I told her someone had to have seen the bottle there. She then mentions things left behind like a bottle could be considered trash by the cleaning staff. I’m hot, tired and sitting in a car in the sunshine while my son-in-law buys some lunch so I very loudly say to Rachel, “NO ONE would see this bottle and throw it out! If they don’t have it someone does”. Ok, ok, she is going to get a hold of the front desk. Tom returns and since this is his thing, I give him my phone, put on speaker and tell him what she has said so far. Apparently, the Clarks did not actually check out but since check out is 12 noon and the hotel has the card number, they WERE checked out. And we are being told that there was an open bottle of champagne but that was trashed”. Well, this one was not opened and it cost $1000! Visibly or rather audibly Rachel is struggling to make some sense of something that is not her problem because she is just a reservation clerk but trying hard to help. She comes back on the line and says, “Good News, they have the bottle and they are holding it at the security desk for you”. Ah great all is well……..

Fast forward to about 4pm and I tell Tom he better go get the girls because it will be dark soon and they have yet to see their new house and they have to eat and bathe because Finley starts school tomorrow at 8am! Off he goes BUT he stops at Lowes first and I have no idea where it was or how far it was BUT both Clarks use their GPS to find their way to the Post Office, Starbucks or Sears Roebuck! THEN he went to the hotel and called me to say that now he was being told that they did not have the bottle. Ridiculous! Fortunately I remembered who we had spoken to-Rachel who of course by now was nowhere to be found. It is 6:45pm and the girls are still at the hotel as is Tom but not the champagne. “COME HOME”! he is loudly directed by his wife. For God’s sake those kids have to eat.

EAT? There’s no food in the house, Chiara didn’t go to the grocery store because she wanted to be home when the girls arrived and take their pictures. Delivery Dudes again! Needless to say it was pitch black when they arrived, best laid plans blah blah blah,

Did I mention that we have been cleaning the house every day since Saturday? Well the very expensive Dyson vacuum cleaner wasn’t working (didn’t she know that before she had it packed?), the Swifter box was rapidly depleting as I discarded one black cloth after another and then one black wet Swifter pad after another. Tom returned not with the champagne but with a new Dyson but by that time we were too exhausted to open the box! We were all Blackfoot Indians and everyone knew they had to wash their feet before getting into bed or collapsing on the bed, whichever came first!

Sweet dreams Finley, BIG day tomorrow at your new school. What kind of nursery school starts at 8am and ends at 2:20pm? The private kind, the uniform kind.

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I’m BACK and Let Me Tell You…..

Posted in BY THE WAY, Finley Ray, Frankie, Smooth or Crunchy, tagged Breakers, Finley, New York City, Palm Beach, Palm Beach Florida on January 8, 2013| 3 Comments »

PB FL Breakers Hotel01 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

YIKES! It’s been crazy around here! I’m glad to finally be online again, the ATT guy showed up at 1pm and left at about 6pm! We have one TV hooked up and it’s a 60″ flat screen sitting on the floor leaning up against a bookcase. Pedro (yes that is his real name) was supposed to come on Friday to hang the flat screens but he cancelled which was sort of okay because Friday was a day in hell. I don’t really care about the TV and am glad the wireless is installed, however it IS TUESDAY and still no Pedro.

Friday – Not only was it as hot as hell (I’m not kidding) but that was also the delayed move-in date. Two trucks, 5 movers speaking Spanish and about 900 pieces were moved in. Every box and piece of furniture had a number on it and a color sticker and guess whose job it was to check off the boxes as they came off the truck to see if the number correlated to the master list? Uh huh, that’s right. Once the box was in the house I had to direct the movers to the appropriate place which meant that by noon I must have climbed those 15 stairs 15 times!!! Door wide open so no A/C on – I told you it was hell.

Certainly we couldn’t sleep in the house that night so it was back to the hotels on Friday night. If you read the previous blog you know I was the designated cat carrier and since The Breakers in Palm Beach doesn’t allow cats, I was relegated to The Residence Inn in Delray! REALLY???

Saturday – It rained. Thank the Lord, the stuff was in the house, now the movers were back to unpack. There were boxes piled from floor to ceiling in both of the girl’s rooms when they set up the beds, anything that didn’t have a clear cut home ended up in the dining room or the guest room (and you know who ultimately would be int the guest room)! We worked and worked and worked some more to get as much done as possible before Chiara and Tom had to leave to go back to Palm Beach to attend the Policeman’s Ball. I was finally going to get to The Breakers because I was babysitting that night.

Saturday Night – Finley and Francesca had now spent the entire day with a Breakers’ nanny. When I got there, they were wired for light and sound and stuffing goldfish in their mouths. We took a walk to see the turtles who were not to be seen because they were in their house, and with Finley spinning like a top around the basketball court and shrieking at the top of her lungs, we made our way to the Italian Restaurant in the hotel. “Do you have a reservation”? I look around the restaurant, there is ONE table seated, “Do I need one”? I ask. “YES”. “The entire restaurant is empty”, retorts the smartass from NYC. And then I was informed that all tables were reserved at staggered times. Hummpphhh. I was told we could eat outside. Midway thru the meal which has up to this point not gone entirely smoothly, Francesca announces she is done and wants down. I try to explain to her that we can’t get down because we’re not done and we have to wait for the lady to come back with the bill. Thwarted only for a moment, Frankie announces she has to pee. She is in the early stages of potty training so I jump up and grab her out of the chair and tell Finley to stay seated and DON’T MOVE! Well that’s not happening; She decides she has to go also so I grab my handbag, Francesca and head to the ladie’s room with Finley leading the way. 15 minutes later, Francesca did NOT have to pee, Finley did and then some and locked me out of the stall AND kept up a running dialogue on what was and was not happening in the stall AND there were other women and girls in the room!! I was sure the waitress figured we skipped out on the check, so I went directly to the hostess and explained my hurried exit and asked for the check. “Dessert”? Finley wants to know. ARE YOU KIDDING ME? “You two are going to the room and to bed”. The crowning glory of the dinner escapade was watching Finley race down the beautiful lobby of The Breakers and sort of plow right into Francesca who went down face first on the marble floor and screamed her head off all the way up to the 5th floor in an elevator with other guests and out the door past other guests who looked shocked as the doors opened to reveal a wailing child, a harried grandmother and a 4 year-old protesting, “It was an accident”!

Residence Inn Logo (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

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Little Orphan Annie Turns Four!

Posted in Finley Ray, Friends, tagged birthday, Diana Delucia, Hamptons, Minnie, Minnie Mouse, Orphan Annie, Parties, Pinkalicious, Shopping, Snow White, Tomorrow on September 26, 2012| 2 Comments »

When you’re born in the middle of August and your mother (and your Gigi) have a penchant for throwing elaborate theme parties, it’s often necessary to postpone the major celebration of your birthday till September. That way, all your friends are back from camp and vacation and in town. So this year Finley Ray’s fourth birthday party was on September 23rd even though her birthday is August 13th. Can you imagine the patience of such a young one waiting with great anticipation for the big day to arrive? Luckily she was quite distracted by the endless summer days in the Hamptons, a weekend with Gigi in early September, starting school and of course the fact that I don’t think she can really quite grasp the whole calendar concept!

Last Sunday we attended her fourth birthday party and it was as usual a gala affair. If you’ve been a faithful blog follower then you know that each year of this precious little girl’s life has been marked with an all out balls to the wall party! There was the Ladybug party at age one. By the time she was two, she already had a voice and opinion as to the theme of her annual celebration and that year it was Snow White. There are some great photos in the blog of that party; see link; https://pbenjay.wordpress.com/2010/09/18/its-p-day-in-boston

Then Francesca came along and her birthday is in October, so between August and October, once again September seemed the perfect month to celebrate both their birthdays at once! It was a great idea until the time came to get the presents back home – I swear they needed a separate cab to get just the gifts home! Anyway, that year to honor the pretty Clark girls, the theme was the ever-popular Pinkalicious! OMG not one but two little cuties all decked in pink fluffy dresses AND every guest wore pink as well. I have a friend, Louise who would have JUST LOVED it! Everyone was in the pink, both in clothes and wine! The tables were laden with various bowls and containers of pink candy and Pinkalicious and friends made an appearance.

Finley and the Floppy Magic Wand

Dancing Girl

See what I mean?

So that brings us to this year; Finley originally wanted a Minnie Mouse party which she would announce every few weeks throughout the year but in the end, Minnie was hard to pin down so Little Orphan Annie to the rescue! See for yourself what a lovely time it was.

I’m Annie!

photo courtesy of Diana Delucia

Annie and Pooch

Photo courtesy of Diana Delucia

Tomorrow! The sun will come out tomorrow!

Photo courtesy of Diana Delucia

” I wish, I wish…”

photo courtesy of Diana Delucia

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POPSICLE DAYS!

Posted in BY THE WAY, Finley Ray, Frankie, tagged August, Dog Days, History, July, List of brightest stars, Popsicle, Rome, Sirius on August 26, 2012| Leave a Comment »

Some people refer to the hot humid days of July and August as dog days. Did you ever wonder why? The phrase has a celestial origin; In the days of ancient Rome, the brightest star, Sirius often rose in the sky either slightly before or at the same time as sunsrise. This is no longer true, due to the precession of equinoxes. Since the star was so close to the sun, it was thought that this star, Sirius, was responsible for the sultry days.

Finley and Francesca, smart as they are, have no concept of Roman history or for that matter, astronomy or astrology. So for them, these hot days of summer can eeasily be summed up as Popsicle Days. And why not? What better way is there to wile away an afternoon after a couple of hours in the pool, than to just suck down a fruit-flavored ice pop. And sharing it with your sister – PRICELESS!!!!