We had a lot going on this weekend. To begin with, Lauren lost her first tooth Thursday night and her second tooth Friday morning. It was a very big deal for her. She had been looking forward to losing that first tooth forever and enjoyed waking up to find "real money" under her pillow. It was just a dollar, but it was genuine paper money and she couldn't have been more thrilled. As for me, I discovered that teeth totally gross me out when they're not firmly attached to anyone's mouth.
I'm really glad Lauren's teeth held on for as long as they did because I was worried losing them during her kindergarten year would interfere with her speech therapy. As things stand, I don't know if she'll even need to resume speech therapy when school starts next week (The week after? I should check on that.) because she's made crazy progress with her j's, g's, and ch's. If only she would slow down a little bit when she speaks, she'd be all set.
In other big girl news, we took Lauren to her first Pilot Pen on Saturday. It was actually kind of hard to get out the door because the first thing Mr Blyleaf said to me that morning was Are you wearing that? And I know the proper response is something like Fuck off, but that doesn't mean I still don't get rattled and need to spend some time in my closet reassuring myself that I've made a good choice. So I took some time to do that, which threw off our scheduled departure time by a little bit and, frankly, set a not so great tone for the trip.
Anyway, we thought we'd use the qualifying round to see how well Lauren could sit quietly and watch. Turns out, not so well. I know, she's six and I should be able to tell her she has to sit quietly whether she wants to or not, but I've never really mastered that trick. She's mostly pretty well behaved, but that's just dumb luck. Anyway, she liked being in the big stadium where you can move around and talk because the players were only practicing, but didn't care at all for the real matches on the outside courts.
During the Vesnina/Gullickson match Lauren caught the eye of a guy who was doing play by play for radiotennis.com. He tried to get her to talk to him on air, but she turned all shy. If you were listening though, and I'm sure you and millions of others totally were, Lauren was the cute six year old who wouldn't talk to him because it wasn't in her contract. I really enjoyed sitting near that guy because I knew nothing about Vesnina or Gullickson and, anyway, he had a very soothing voice. Plus he called my kid cute. Which she is.
See?
We go to the Pilot Pen every year. I'm just crazy about that tournament. The tennis is great, the facilities are fantastic, the tournament is really well run, and New Haven is an easy trip. Plus, it was at the Pilot Pen that I first became a Yale football fan. Curious? It's not a very interesting story, but I'll share it with you now.
OK, so there I was at the Pilot Pen walking along the wide corridor lined by sponsored booths that leads from the entrance into the heart of the tennis action. I usually just stop real quick to pick up a draw sheet, but on this magical day something else caught my eye. Yale Athletics had a booth. Staffed by Yale athletes. Beautiful, beautiful Yale athletes. I mean, the kind of beautiful that makes you lose your train of thought and wander over and stand there like a dummy which, compared to them, you totally are. Because they went to Yale so they're not just pretty, they're smart. Ivy League smart. In fact, I believe it's a genuine science fact that approximately 67.879% of all Yale student athletes go on to become President of the United States. And approximately 23.4231% go on to bring middle aged women with no hope for the future to orgasm by explaining the identification and characterization of proton-neutron mixed-symmetric states along isotopic chains while simultaneously reaching for something that causes their polo shirt to ride up a little bit offering a glimpse of their tanned, rock hard abs.
Oh, come on. It was fine. They're accustomed to being admired. And it's not like I flipped my hair or anything. I mean, I probably didn't. So I picked up a football schedule and that was it. Go Bulldogs! If I had reached out to the left instead of the right we'd be soccer supporters or cross country or whatever the heck else they have. I don't even know.
So, after all the tennis, we went out to my favorite restaurant. We ordered the cheese plate (which W recommended and she was totally right about) a California Roll, and a Spicy Tuna Roll. I don't remember much after that because one day tends to blend into the next, but odds are good that, after we got home and settled in, I spent the rest of the night lying on the couch watching West Wing repeats.
Today Lauren spent the day with Mr. Blyleaf's parents. He and I had hoped to go back to the tournament, but it was a rain out. Instead we spent some time at the bookstore and ran errands. Well, we ran a couple of errands. I had to save some so I'd have a reason to leave the house when Mr. Blyleaf's parents arrived with the return of our progeny.
I was mostly pretty exhausted today and didn't have a lot to give. For the past few nights Lauren's been waking up screaming for me and making her way into my bed. You'd think it wouldn't be a problem to share a queen size bed with a little 45lb munchkin, but you'd be wrong. Children tend to like to sleep in a warm, rude heap like a litter of puppies, with no regard for where their sharp elbows and knees land. You can spend the whole night wriggling away from them, but you just end up balanced precariously on the edge of your mattress with your head on the nightstand and hot first grader breath in your face. Only you can't leave and risk waking them and having them up all night because then you'll both be exhausted and ill tempered in the morning. As opposed to just you being exhausted and ill tempered in the morning.
That's just a quick FYI for those of you in the market for kids.
I did manage to make a delicious dinner of roasted vegetables (cauliflower, red peppers, brussel sprouts) with a balsamic reduction and mashed baby red potatoes. It was a delightful change after the chicken/ham week. I missed you, gorgeous veggies.
And that was the weekend. I hope like crazy the weather takes a sudden turn and I can get some tennis spectating in this week. Other than that, I guess I'm just prepping for my interview and trying not to lose my mind during this last week of summer vacation.
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