Pbenjay's Blog

AND I thought the stroller was a nightmare!  And by the way, it still is and more about that later…  To my DELIGHT, Finley Ray was dropped off with me on Monday afternoon to spend the night!  Chiara had an afternoon appointment with a nursery school counselor – YES! She is paying someone to advise her as to what Pre-K schools Finny should apply to next year!!! And to edit  the essays necessary to accompany the applications and to prep her prior to the interviews! Oh Lordy, welcome to the Manhattan Olympics of nursery school registration, where only the fittest, richest and cleverest survive – and I’m talking about the parents, not the kids.   With handbook literally in hand, notebook filled with locations,  tuition costs and possible number of applicants accepted, my daughter is armed, ready and determined to do battle with the system.  Like any combat-ready soldier, she has studied the terrain, interrogated former warriors, negotiated and lined up support and allies for each front (nursery school).

There’s no one as fierce as an  elephant when it comes to defending, nurturing and fighting to protect her young.  In the animal world that is!!  Meet the Manhattan Mommy who is trying to get her angel into the best nursery school.  There are hundreds of private nursery schools in Manhattan and yet as in any competitive event, there are ranked players, in this case, the very best of the best schools – ones where amongst a list of qualifications, costs and curriculum, there’s  a list of all the renowned and sought-after private elementary schools their alumni have gone on to be accepted.   A case of the cream rising to the top.

To participate in extreme sports, one must begin training early on and so NOW, when Finley is a year away from eligibility and NOW when Chiara still lives in Boston and NOW when she doesn’t even know what neighborhood she will be living in…she has girded herself for battle, jumped into the foray early on and is pursuing a tactically proven course, hopefully to success!!!

Mesmerized by Cinderella

And then there’s the portable crib!  Chiara arrived with what seemed to me to be the third incarnation of a portable crib.  The last one was a pack ‘n play;- although it took up more room in our already-crowded den, at least it didn’t require the Army Corps of Engineers to put it together!  I actually did it myself.   Well not so with this compact, lightweight everything is in the bag crib. To be fair, Chiara did offer to put it together, BUT I said no, because really how hard could it be? Very!!

Monday afternoon had several challenges, not the least of which was that I was hosting Mah Jongg that night.  Soooo I prepared some hors d’oeuvres, set up the table and tried to do some work on the computer too.   I have to admit that at about 5pm  I still had more to do and to make Fin some dinner, – so I resorted to a favorite Grandparent ploy; Cinderella!  The movie afforded me enough time to get ready for the Mavens but not enough to put together the crib and give Finley a bath.  Okay so we’ll fore-go the bath but I gotta get the crib up.  I could not believe the number of pieces that came out of that bag; so many metal rods!!! I was sweating and fumbling and then the door bell rang!  Shit, the ladies were arriving.

Finley is supposed to go to bed some time between 7:30 and 8:00pm and I thought we were going to be 5 players that night and I would be able to read Finny a book and put her to bed when I was the bettor.  That did NOT happen; there were only four of us, and as I said the ladies had already arrived and here I was still struggling with the crib. Thank God, Paulette came to my rescue.  She could see how frustrated I was – trying to set up the Mah Jongg Mavens with wine and the game and get the crib together.  Finally Paulette figured it out and we pushed and pulled and forced the bars in place.   By this time, it was already 7:30 and we hadn’t played the first hand yet.  I took Finley into the dining room with me where she flashed a beautiful smile to everyone and sat on my lap watching the game.   About the time I thought she should go to bed, the game was under way and we had so many  delays with my trying to change her and get her in the mood for bed, that I should have known this wasn’t going to be easy.  BUT much to my surprise she did lay down in her crib and she had her Baa, but didn’t  want to get into the sleep sack.  Well ok, I’ll turn the air conditioning off in that room.  Ten minutes later, I’m back at the Mah Jongg table and we’re  actually going to play the second-hand.  I am sooooo happy she went down without a fuss and no book either.

Spoke too soon… the monitor was blaring the sounds of a woeful soul in the other room.  I thought about letting her cry a little but the ladies would have none of it!  “Let her sit with us”  and “don’t let her cry”.  So out she came with real tears rolling down her cheeks and that settled it – she would sit on my lap for a while more.   Soon we were teaching her craks, bams and dots.  She recognized the Green Dragon in no time and as I sat with a pair of flowers in my rack, Finley noticed that there was a little house on one of them and announced to all that I had a “castle”.  That little precious!!!  She finally went to bed at 9:00 but only after  I read Curious George.  I did convince her to get into the sack which although she doesn’t love it, it is part of her nightly ritual and as we all know rituals work.  Some more hugs and kisses and squeezes and I laid her down to sleep.  We won’t tell Mommy she didn’t have a bath and she didn’t brush her teeth.  But she did go to sleep and I did get to play Mah Jongg.  Unfortunately winning is another thing.

The Mah Jongg Dragons