Pico DiPaolo

Joelle has a habit of stalling for bedtime. It’s the oldest parent and child dance, there is nothing new or unique about Joelle’s typical requests: I need to go potty, I need two straws instead of one, I need tissues… you get the idea. Tonight, she requested different socks after we’d already put on her socks. (Requesting the socks was already a stalling technique. It’s summer and she has a down comforter, socks aren’t needed.) Specifically, she wanted her “tink socks.” So, that’s where we drew the line. “No other socks. Good night.”

She didn’t fuss too long, but did come out again from her room with a request to go potty. So, while I was helping her go potty, I decided I would get her tink socks because she didn’t fuss so much. I wanted her to know that we get things for being good. My Dad once did that for me when my CD player broke. I complained and bitched about not having one. When I stopped fussing, one magically “fell off the truck” in front of my Dad and he gave me a new one.

Anyway, I know everyone is thinking, where is this story going??? Joelle had already put different socks on, UNDER the socks we’d put on. I asked her why she did that and she said, “So you wouldn’t know.”

So, Chris and I used to go to Pappasito’s every Friday night. We kept this up for a very long time. We once figured out just how much money we’d spent there and it was embarrassingly much.

We hadn’t gone in a long time, but decided on a whim to go tonight. Wow! I forgot how much I love that place. There is no coincidence that we own a full set of Pappasito’s “limited edition” glasses. Hands down, they have the best chips, salsa, margaritas and fajitas. Why go anywhere else for classic tex mex? However, I will say that we were both disappointed tonight to find that they’ve changed the birthday tune. It used to be “Hey baby, que paso? It’s your birthday we all know.” Thankfully, they still bring you the sombrero.

You may wonder why we had a hiatus… I think part of the reason is that we thought it was so FAR from our new house. Ironically, it’s 6 minutes from our new house and 2 exits. Our old house was over 10 exits from Pappacitos and 15 minutes.

Obviously our tolerance for driving has significantly been reduced since the move. Today, over coffee with my friend Alli, I asked her if she liked living in Houston. She said, “Yeah. Why do I feel like I have to qualify that or say something like, it’s crazy, but yeah?” It’s true that almost all Houstonians who love it here kind of sheepishly admit to it. We’re afraid people won’t understand why we love it here. I can say though that one reason I do love it here is our new area of town. I feel like we live in a small city, but have all the amenities of a big one. We unofficially counted tonight and think there are possibly over 100 restuaurants within 10 minutes of our house! Chris says, “I know why I like Houston – it’s cheap and we get everything a big city has to offer.”

Although Hungry’s, Sam’s and Sandy’s are all significantly closer to the house, I think my vote goes to making the “trek” to Pappasito’s now and again. I sure did miss that place. (Yes, Joelle LOVED it, too. She actually had a round belly after dinner. Their “kid” sundae was enough to feed three people. It was HUGE.)

On the way to lock the back door before bedtime, Chris found another use for the cool blinky shoes that you can buy for kids. Joelle’s were left by the backdoor and Chris tripped over them. The room filled with a blinking red light as the house was pitch black. (Since we’re conserving energy, only the rooms we’re in are lit.) For a moment, his heart raced as he tried to figure out what alarm he had tripped. I say it’s a good way to set up an amateur security system. Take that crooks!

Chris and Joelle suffered from the worst, a summer cold, here is some of their “sick talk.” Mommie dodged the sick bullet this go round. Second in a row, I’m doomed next time!

chris: I coughed!
jolle: take some m’s

chris: boy am I sick
joelle: lamby’s not doing a flip today (frown)
chris: aw, is he under the weather too?
joelle: no, he’s sick like you

On the way to swim tonight, Joelle reported to us that she had spines on her arms. (Arm hair) She said, “I don’t want them there.” Hm… She commented on another song that came on, too. “What? What, are they saying to teach us to say ‘good-bye’? We know how to say ‘good-bye!’ ” (The song says, “Learn to say good-bye.”) By the way, she dove off the pool edge to Dad over 25 times at the pool. She has had a complete turn around with the water in one week. It’s amazing. She was even eyeing the mushroom waterfall at the pool. I think she contemplated running under it! That guarantees getting wet.

Other Joelle snippets:
* The other night, Joelle thought her injury of falling on the concrete was particularly painful. She said, “I want a parent band-aid.” (Plain brown, no character)
*Randomly wished nana and poppie a happy thanksgiving when they left the other day. She often likes to give us hugs and wish us a happy valentine’s day.
* “Nah, I don’t want water. Water will spoil me up.”
*We were reminded of something Joelle used to say A LOT when she pulled it out of the air and said,”take away” for the water. (She wanted juice). She used to say that for 30 minutes straight when she got frustratedwith a toy when she was much younger.

Today, Jojo asked me, “What does it feel like to be a girl?” I responded, “I dunno. You’re a girl. What does it feel like?” She said, “kinda dancey.” Girls, take that to heart. There’s the good and the bad to being a girl, but it’s always, “kinda dancey.”

For those of you who are Madonna savvy, the question comes from yet another song of hers. Yes, I skip the songs that aren’t something I want her to hear, because she is listening very carefully to the lyrics now. Like, she asked me today why, in a song, they said, “…tell the sun not to shine.” I found it strangely hard to explain that the song writer was explaining that love is true because she says, “tell me love isn’t true, tell me the sun doesn’t shine…”

On another unrelated singing note, we were serenaded tonight to… “Jeremiah was a book club.” Tia Ria and Uncle Joey will have to bring down music when they visit to introduce her to more. She loves it.

When Joelle was born, I noted that her skin was flawless. Aside from one birth mark on her waist, she was plain white. So, I asked everyone when people got freckles and no one knew. The answer is almost 4! After spending the morning at Noah’s Ark pool, she has three freckles!! We told her they were angel kisses and her badge of honor for being so brave about swimming. Kind of like Nori, from Mermaidia, when she swims down to the depths of despair and earns her courage tattoo. Yes, I watch a lot of kid movies! We saw Brokeback Mountain and Mermaidia is in close competition…

Today, after Joelle’s third swim lesson, she asked me to sign her up for more. Yes, two days ago she was pleading with me to never take her again. I still see a few bumps in the road as she gets more and more used to going under water, but she’s definitely seen the light! She was SO proud of herself after finishing class today. It was a lovely thing to see.

So, when I signed her up for more swim classes… they asked me what coach I wanted and I said, “um, actually, I know this is really random, but can we get in a purple or pink poker chip class?” Wouldn’t you know, they’re all booked up. So, Joelle got special permission to take a purple chip for her extension classes. (The extended classes are just once a week, thankfully. I see the purpose in going every day for these first 2 weeks, but it’s wiping me out.)

Turn the corner in this random neighborhood of Southwest Houston, and you’ve discovered the Mecca of swimming. In a sea of tastefully neutral SUVs and minivans, the cars are crammed into all four streets leading to the Ka’bah, the pool.

Every 30 minutes, a new flock is herded to the pool for lessons. Today, the pink ring was not given to her. It had to be earned. In the first class, the instructor ended the class by giving them each a diving ring. Joelle, being materialistic, loved this part of the class. In this second class, they actually had to dive for it (with the help of the coach) and Joelle did it!

She did cry the majority of the class, but did every task and was proud of herself in the end for doing all the tasks. She did also break into one tiny smile when the 4 kids in the class got their own two buoys to clutch before being paraded around the pool with Coach Rudy. Four little ducklings holding tight to the buoy that kept them afloat.

Swimming to the promised land… If she learns to go under water in these two weeks, I’m a believer.

So, Joelle started her intensive 2 week swim lesson regimen. 2 weeks, every day. fun.

Once the garage door lifted, the new crew of swimmers ran in for their 30 minute session. Joelle, although ticked that she didn’t get the pink or purple poker chip (each teacher has a color poker chip and the kid has to find their teacher’s basket to put the chip in), was eager enough and ran to find her coach. We, the parents, watch from behind a mirrored observation room – just like in law and order. She was happy, listening to the coach and doing as instructed while with him or playing with the watering can / trying on googles when it wasn’t her turn. Until…

She was dunked underwater. I heard her scream from behind the glass observation room. She cried through the rest of the 15 minutes left. TWO different life guards came over to cheer her up. I could see that she was giving them quite an earful; however, she was not to be consoled. I continued to hear about it for the 30 minutes home. I just kept repeating, “give it two weeks, every day for two weeks and if you still don’t like it, I won’t make you go again.”

Somehow, she got it in her head that she won’t be dunked again. Good luck with that tomorrow Coach Rudy.

As another consolation approach, we told her about all the things she can do in the water once she learns to swim. Go down slides, play under the water with googles, join a swim team, etc. So, we told her what swim teams we were on and what she could be on: barracudas (Petie), gators (Chris) or the sharks (her swim team in the future — maybe). Poppie said she could be a barracuda like her momma and she said, “No, I want to be a duckie.” I said, “You know even duckies put their heads under water.” I got quite a scowl on that remark.

The saga will continue… 2 weeks, will they break her?