Oh, we have special guest today: a brand new baby!!! My dear Cool Mom producer is taking some time off to care for her new, second baby, Paz. She dropped by and I had to ask her how things were going and to meet the lovely baby. He was inside her while she helped me create the last several months of Cool Mom vids. Rex missed Michelle so he was happy to see her.
Why do we forget when our own babies were that tiny?
The subject here is a mere backdrop or metaphor to my kids. ”Why My Daughter is Such a Great Big Sister” probably would have been a more apt title. Or “Our Mother is So Self Involved as She Muses Over Pop Culture”.
Maybe just an acronym? OMISSIASMOPC. That’s never going to catch on.
I don’t usually lounge around the house in a cocktail dress, but dang, I think I should! Looks better than some of the cotton smock tops I trundle around in. I had just finished taping Real Mom Red Carpet when I said, “Hey, camera man, get me talking with the kids in the background.” I had been wanting to talk about this subject and then they were showing it all happening.
I love them so much…and I love my Trina Turk dress, not equally, but you know.
Really, this is suppose to be a video driven site, but gosh, still having some technical issues. They are coming…I hope. In the meantime, let’s talk about my fiesty gal.
Vivien is a nice girl, but like all kids she can have her moments. She is very sweet to her little brother, most of the time. But, when her beloved older cousin Charlie comes over she doesn’t want to share him with Rex. At 12 Charlie is a sport about playing a 4 and half year old. They had started a game of pirate ship using her pop up princess castle when Rex crawled in. He loves being where Vivien is and loves climbing in and out of the castle. But, shiver me timbers, Vivien ejected Rex from the castle like he was a drunk hanging out after last call.
For her friends’ party this weekend for the time EVER she asked to have her hair put in pony tails. I was so excited and she looked so cute. I had visions of cute little girl dos.
But, as we were getting the two of them ready for bed last night Vivien was left alone in her bathroom for a few minutes. I saw a chunk of her hair on the floor.
“Vivien, what have you done?”
“nothing” she looked scared.
“Where are the scissors?”
“no where.”
I opened the drawer to the vanity. Little did I know she had smuggled in a small pair of scissors. I ran my fingers through her hair and more chunks came out.
“oh, Vivien”. I didn’t handle it with good humor. More like, “oh,no, your pretty hair!”
She started to cry and Mark ran in and kept saying, “it’s fine, it’s fine” as I commanded him to put all scissors to higher ground.
He admonished me later that I made to much of it.
This morning I see that she kind of has a shag….sort of. Maybe if I leave the scissors out she can finish it off and have a full Suzi Quatro look.
Yes, the one who looks just like Nick Jonas of the Jonas Brothers, and Sunday he came back for 24 hours. This is the month where he is taking many groovy trips, so Sunday was our only day with him. He had been gone a week before I realized I missed him. A friend’s mom said, “You miss a 14-year-old?” Well, yeah, he may not always be Chatty Cathy, but he is no drama and we feel like more of a family when he is here. I do love him, even if I can’t be as demonstrative with him as I would my daughter.
When he walked through the front door, I wished I had had my camera ready. Vivien gave his legs a big bear hug, her head barely rising above his knees. My husband mentioned that Oliver hadn’t seen her new play equipment, so Vivien and Oliver walked out toward the back hand-in-hand and it was a microcosm of male/ female relationships.
Vivien: “Oliver, do you like my new dress?”
Oliver: “Huh, what?”
Vivien: “Oliver, do you like my new dress?”
Oliver: “Oh, yeah.”
He is always more interactive and involved with her if I back off. Funny how me rushing in the room saying, “Please love each other!!!” doesn’t seem to foster closeness the way hiding in the kitchen does. I keep one ear or eye out to take in the charm of their teasing and cuddling. I want to join in, but I know if I do, I clamp him down. I think she is so lucky to have a big brother, so I stay back. Maybe that’s what all parents have to do, not just step parents.
[Image: Kevin Winter, Getty Images]