I don’t love it because it is a cheap or forced excuse to celebrate love; I just don’t understand not liking it. If you love someone, then tell them every day. Including on Valentine’s Day. It can be any old day. It can be a day of special treats. It can be celebrated in June. In a year when I am embracing the holidays, it was nice to wake up yesterday morning and linger in bed with both of my kids.

Yesterday I did so many lovely things, most of which I did not capture on film; I got to hug and kiss many people who mean a lot to me; I gave my daughter a “big girl” present of an assortment of free perfume samples and I watched her beam; I celebrated the birthday of a friend who has become family; I heard secrets and smiled; I watched as my husband won not one but two toys from the Claw Machine at the bowling alley; I dipped macadamia nut brownies into chocolate fondue and then drew a chocolate mustache on my face in a fancy restaurant; I squeezed into a photo booth with people I love and took silly pics; I danced at a concert where people were half my age, wearing a Kate Moss t-shirt and expensive shoes; I caught snowflakes on my tongue; I loved.

We dance partied to Grease;

We got mommy daughter manicures; her nails were sparkly pink and mine looked like metallic conversation hearts;

           We came home to a Valentine’s Day surprise for my daughter from a beau;

Peeps sent me some love;

I watched as my daughter was made to feel special;

We ate candy;

My Mommom gave me a pack of Hanky Panky underwear;

More Peeps from more of my peeps!!;

I won a contest from Rochelle at Rodan + Fields and I wore bright red lipstick, something that I never do;

I got to be silly with friends;

I ran down the streets of the city in the cold and wind and snow, but I felt warm;

I had a wonderful day.

I hope that you did too.

And if you haven’t been wished it yet, Happy Valentine’s Day. Not because I have to say it, or not because someone invented a holiday to commercialize love, but because you deserve to be told.

So paint some chocolate on your face or eat a piece of candy or catch a snowflake on your tongue

and let yourself feel

just a little bit

warm

and a lotta bit

loved.

The post Valentine’s Day my way. appeared first on Mommy Ever After.

My husband’s early morning Facebook status update.

This was when she crawled into our bed around 7am. Usually, one of us gets up and takes both kids downstairs, but this morning, for a change, we both woke up and brought the baby into bed and she followed.

“Daddy, I had a dream and you and [K’s best friend] took me to this party at a haunted house and I made a new friend. And there were ghosts, and skeletons. I was just walking along and suddenly there were dancing ghosts. And skeletons. And ZOMBIES.”

 Then the discussion turned to her birthday party. Her birthday is in April.

“We could have a clown come.  [beat]  The problem is, I don’t. like. clowns.”

It was then probably 7:02.

“We can have a Scooby Doo party. I already told J that she is Shaggy. Or, actually, let’s do a Grease party. Or we can do the Scooby Doo party and daddy can dress up like a ghost and we can make your car into the Mystery Machine.”

The thing about my daughter is, she does not stop talking. Apparently she comes by this honestly; I have been told that I was the same way as a child, but I cannot imagine that it was to this extent. She actually never, ever stops talking.

There was a Saturday, two summers ago, when we decided to do a “new” “fun” family activity and visit an organic orchard somewhere west of our suburb. The drive from our house to the highway is probably 4 minutes long. She was so chatty in those four minutes that when we got to the place where we would get on I76 I told my husband to keep driving straight, so that we cross the bridge into Philadelphia and have lunch right there, one minute away. It was even too much talking for me.  I was already so exhausted by her that I could not imagine another 45 minutes in the car. And this sounds so terrible, as I adore my child and love how verbal she is. It is one of her most fabulous defining features. But sometimes, when she won’t stop talking and we are expected to engage in every part of the conversation…

it gets to be a lot.

This morning, my husband took the kids down for breakfast while I lingered a bit longer in bed and I came down to find her eating,

wait for it–

Rice Krispies and a chocolate donut. Good intuition, that kid.

She then asked if we could sing the finale song from “Into the Woods” with the Baker’s Wife (me) and Baker Baby (her). I was in the middle of singing, “Hold him to the light now,” when she stopped me and said “No, really hold me to the light.”

Next, she wanted to hear this song, which is awesome.

It is actually something we are working on next door, as my bandmate and I like to try to find interesting harmonies or songs with counterpoint melodies. We have gotten into a good groove that way and music means so much to me.

In any case, this morning my daughter wanted to sing the girl’s part of the song so I sang the boy’s part.

And then she wanted to be the girl. Not Taylor Swift; nor Taylor Swift specifically from the “Blank Space” video; she wanted to be Louisa from the YouTube video.

I put lipstick on her, tied her half into a half up bun and dressed her in the closest thing I could find to a blazer, which was a jean jacket with leather arms.

She then performed her part, alone (refusing help when I tried to teach her the actual lyrics) and asked for me to video tape her.

I did and put it on my private Instagram. My friends pointed out something very funny. Truth be told, I actually just laughed out loud while typing this.

Instead of singing

“Got a long list of ex-lovers
They’ll tell you I’m insane”

she actually sings,

“Come along with stomach lovers…”

And then it was time to get ready for school.

So there you have it. My kid is funny. She makes me laugh every day, and even though she doesn’t stop talking, I am lucky that I get to have so much entertainment in my life,

all before 8am.

The post My kid is funny. appeared first on Mommy Ever After.

Except, I wasn’t quite ready to get up, nor was I feeling my best, so I decided that while we were “up” we could snuggle on the couch watching music videos for a good hour before starting our real day.

I will share with you our playlist, but I have to say, it is going to seem painfully unoriginal, as I have recently written about most of these songs, but that’s how things work in our house (and, presumably in the house of anyone who has children; a song gets stuck and is everything until the next song comes and takes it’s place. There was a six month David Bowie streak during my pregnancy with my son–my daughter was obsessed–which means that I can no longer listen to “Starman” without feeling queasy).

So, our morning soundtrack sounded a little bit like this:

Uptown Funk, our go-to dance party song of the moment,

which led us, by way of Mark Ronson, to “Valerie” as it is a song I sing with my band, both acoustic and electric,

which took us to “Summer Nights”,

followed by “You’re the One that I Want”, both from Grease, which is still in her top two favorite musicals of the week;

I asked her if we could listen to “Somebody to Love” as it a) now has a special meaning to me and b) is an amazing song;

She was allowed to choose next, and picked this song, something she listens to with her dad on the way to school;

Then it was Elvis Costello’s “Oliver’s Army”, which I am shocked that I have not previously written about; I almost can’t believe it to the point that I am skeptical of the accuracy of my search function on this site. “Oliver’s Army” defined my family vacation car rides with my parents and sister. We both thought it was called “Oligazombie”.

Then, for my son, his favorite song (I’ll let you figure out the one about which I am referring; he is decidedly less fickle than my daughter. He finds a song and sticks to it).

And watching my kids dance, and watching them experience music, something that is so important to me, was the perfect way to start the day.

May your day be filled with a lot of funk, somebody to love, a minimal amount of lumps, no zombies and, of course, that bass.

By the way, the featured image for this post is a photo from about 25 years ago, when I first got into “Oligazombie”, Queen and Musical Theatre; Since it’s #tbt and all, I figured I’d go with it.

The post A Musical Morning. appeared first on Mommy Ever After.

And I can’t believe how different things are now.

She is no longer in college.

She is no longer a White House Intern; (Though we now stay in touch with her former boss from that summer, as he has become a dear family friend.)

She is no longer traveling abroad on the reg.

But, some things never change.

***

Today, I introduced my kids to Grease for the first time.

I am lucky enough that my daughter is just young enough that anything inappropriate goes over her head (she was completely oblivious to the cigarette smoking, shockingly, and does not even come close to getting any references to drugs or sex).

I did, however, have to explain the premise to her; I said, “Imagine that we were away in St. John and you made a best friend and you were sooooo sad when we had to leave because you thought you would never see your friend again…and then you ended up both going to the same school, and you didn’t even realize it.”

She was a bit hesitant. Her loyalties are to Into the Woods and Rent and I respect that, because, come on, they are genius in completely different ways, but Grease…it’s Grease!

I told her to wait for the first song; I told her that I thought she would like it.

And oh, she suddenly transformed, in an instant, from The Baker’s Wife into Sandy.

It didn’t matter that we had spent this entire snow day acting out Into the Woods 172 times, or that she stood at the sink for a half an hour “preparing things to bake”, or that she told me, at one point, that she was pregnant.

She was now Sandy!

And I don’t blame her, because

It may be four and a half years later,

so much may have changed,

but,

still,

Grease is the word.

#pinkladiesforever

The post “Tell me more, Tell me more.” appeared first on Mommy Ever After.

-the baby sis

The post and she did Tell Me More appeared first on Mommy Ever After.

As I may have mentioned before,

my sister is a summer intern at the White House.

What I may not have mentioned is that she has been dating someone,

a chap from somewhere overseas,

and he will be returning home this week.

So, just this afternoon, I got the following text from the baby sis:

It read,

“What if [insert name of foreign mystery man] and I are like Grease. We will go back to school and people will ask about our summers and we will spontaneously break out into “Summer Lovin’. ‘Took her bowlin’ in the arcade…”

Well, all I have to say about that is,

Tell me more, tell me more,

like, does he have a car?

There’s nothing like some good musical theater,

or a message from my sister that makes me actually laugh out loud,

on a quiet, hazy Wednesday afternoon.

The post from the mouths of babes… appeared first on Mommy Ever After.