Friday, September 30, 2011

Street Cred

Well, Caroline and seem to have weathered the worst of the teen "smartassery." She gets grouchy and snaps at me, I suggest she try another tone and refuse to talk to her until she adjusts. This seems to be working for the most part. There are still moments of pure emotional roller coaster when I wish to leave her in the woods to live with the wolves (well sometimes she acts like she was raised by them).

She and I have found common ground in movies, books, and music. She has this new found interest in doing well in school and has declared that she wants to "embrace her nerdy side." Fine with me, she's the funniest and wittiest little nerd that I've ever known. Her best friend is this amazingly sharp and driven young lady who cracks me up. They both take music lessons from the same teacher. One day while we were driving home, we started talking about music. She asked me what music I thought they should listen to and I was off on a role! U2,Greenday, The Clash, The Cure, R.E.M., Elvis Costello, The Beastie Boys, and so on and so on! They were both listening to me like I was a professor and they should be taking notes. I quickly shut up before the acknowledgment went to my head. Later, Caroline asked to borrow my CDs! It seems the era of crappy over processed techno pop is over! I knew that she would come to her own tastes. I won't push my singer song writer stuff on her, but the fact that she appreciates the music of my youth is wonderful (and flattering). Next up, the indie radio station.

We have also managed to have a meeting of the minds regarding movies. We just finished watching the updated version of True Grit. Last weekend we watched The Breakfast Club and she loved it. I was shocked at how well it held up over time. I also couldn't believe that communication between adults authority figures and teens hasn't changed a bit. Now she's all excited to go see 50/50 with me! Yay, an indie film kid!! Of course that will be after she and her friend go see the new Taylor Lautner movie. Caroline is in it for the action, her friend is in it for Taylor's other guns. Oh well, they'll have fun.

Things are looking brighter and brighter! Maybe I am just the tinniest bit of a cool mom. Maybe it's just respect. No matter what it's a bond that I don't see breaking.


P.S. As I write this we are watching a VH1 special about the top bands ever. She is loving all the same stuff as me and so surprised that we like the same music. I'm not. What do you think she listened to as a baby.

Sunday, September 4, 2011

Hurricane

The weekend after our little earthquake we got hit by Hurricane Irene. Luckily for us, it was mostly a bad storm, wind, rain, and no power outage. I written before about how we Simpson's handle big storms. First we reasonably prepare, then we hibernate! Around here in NoVA, people tend to panic at the idea of a weather event. Traffic is snagged, cell service goes down, and the stores are insane (tell me why people need to buy all of the toilet paper, milk, eggs, and bread?). We have learned to "stay calm and carry on."

Rob watched movies, Caroline watched T.V. through the Wii, Lily watched a movie of her own, and I read. I also made the best meatloaf ever. While the wind roared and lashed outside, we were cozy and calm inside. Until.......

Lily came downstairs for dinner. She'd been upstairs playing quietly (rookie parenting mistake, I know). Her eyes were red rimmed and swollen; she looked like she had been beat up. We thought that she had put something on her face and had an allergic reaction. Lily is going through a frustrating lying phase. I am frustrated because I never know the truth, and she is frustrated because she has spent a good part of the summer in time out. We pumped her for info and dragged her from room to room trying to find what she touched. I washed her face with a cool cloth, but it still looked terrible. Finally, I decided to eat dinner. I really couldn't enjoy my meatloaf at all.

After dinner, I decided to give her a shower and lay another cool clothe across her eyes. If it didn't improve, we were going to have to take her to the ER in a tropical storm. As I got the shower ready, I asked her one more time what she touched. She led me to my bathroom and handed it to me: pink lip liner! It washed right off in the shower!

Who needs natural disasters for excitement? We have Hurricane, Typhoon, Tornado, Earthquake, Blizzard Lily!