Always a favorite holiday around our house, St. Patrick's Day. We had some green treats, some green drinks, and green clothes. I'm not sure if Owen's Irish luck was changed by wearing his green jersey backward. He said he wanted to be able to see the #8.
I will go ahead and pat myself on the back for painting those microscopic nails of Natalie's with shamrocks (and does anyone else think her toe looks like a finger?). I am by no means an expert nail painter. I think I probably didn't paint my own nails until after college. Well, maybe I wasn't quite that old, but I don't do it very often. I think Natalie was happy with my holiday painting job though, and if she's happy then I'm happy (more to come on that later).
And yes, if you are wondering, I DID jinx the Natalie/Owen relationship by posting how well they were getting along. They did great during Spring Break, but this week has been another story. It is always harder when Jim travels - they both move immediately into attention-grabbing mode with me. I think they panic with the knowledge that there is only one parent and three children and they pull out all the stops to make sure I notice them. And oh, I've noticed them. They have been bugging one another mercilessly. At one point today, as they were screaming at each other over something silly, I stopped them and tried to cut through the silliness. I tried to get them to acknowledge that even though they bug each other sometimes, the important thing is that they are family and they love each other. I asked Owen to tell Natalie he loves her, which he did. But when I asked Natalie to tell Owen she loves him, she looked me right in the eye with an icy stare and said, "I don't know what to tell you. I can't say it." Ouch. Girlfriend knows how to get the most bang for her buck with cruelty. (And let me go ahead and put a digital Post-It on this, because I know in about 6 or 7 years, if not sooner, I will be the one reeling from a comment like that directed toward me). I really don't believe that she even believes it for a minute. I think she just wants to get a reaction. sigh...
Apparently Natalie does not remember the other day in the car when Owen was recalling that someone in preschool was "not being nice." As Owen tells it, he and his friend, one of his best friends actually, were arguing over who was "the goodest." Owen lamented that his friend "told me that HE was the goodest, and I was the baddest. But I'm not the baddest, I'm the GOODEST!" I'm not entirely sure what that even means. But Natalie jumped right in without a moment of hesitation, saying, "Owen, listen to me. If anyone at school tells you something mean like that again, you tell them that I'M going to come to school with you. And I'm going to whack them in the face." Yes, I'm raising a sweet, sugar and spice girl. Or a rattlesnake in disguise. Sometimes I'm not sure which. Owen was quite impressed by her declaration (of love? or bravado?), and said, "Yeah! Punch 'em in the face!" Can I just skip merrily back to the days when I thought nothing but rainbows and butterflies flew around my children in a dazzling band of light and innocence? Please? Still...I was secretly happy to hear her sticking up for him, even if only hypothetically and in a bloodlust kind of way.
Now pass me one of those green beers, and I'll rename our clan the Fighting Irish!
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