You spend your childhood fantasizing about adulthood: who you will be, what you will wear, and how you will live. When I was 10, all I wanted was to click across a marble foyer in kitten heeled slippers, white silk robe flowing behind me, as I rushed to get dressed for a high-powered business meeting. I floated on power past imaginary children and gave them conciliatory pats on their neatly combed heads. They sat on tuffets eating curds and whey, reading Homer.
Never, not once, did I imagine reaching illegal levels of euphoria in the dish soap aisle at Target. I stood there among the bottles of sodium lauryl sulfate and weighed my options. Softer hands? Antibacterial super powers? Foam like a discotheque in Canc�n? The brisk scent of a walk along a waterfall in New Zealand? Maunga wai, that’s the one!
I ran out of the soap I bought three weeks ago at the 99� Store. Back then, the only thing I wanted from a bottle of soap was a flip lid. Today I wanted the world, or at least parts of the southern hemisphere across the Tasman Sea.
Last year I went to the supermarket, alone, for the first time in six years. This week I ran two errands, alone, for the first time since June. Both boys are in school. Life is glorious.
I went a little nuts taking pictures of Nicholas today. Here are some of my favorites. (I don’t know why the pictures are blurry in the slide show. I swear they are crystal clear in real life.)
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Great photos! They didn’t show up blurry in the slide show, but the whole page reloaded for each picture. My son is such a poser too. As soon as he realizes the camera is on him I can forget about it.
The reload is fine, but I can’t figure out how to get it to load at the bottom, near the picture, instead of at the top again. Oh well. I rarely do slide shows, and maybe someone familiar with NextGen will tell me what I am doing wrong.
p.s. I wish Nico posed! The second he sees the camera he looks the other way. I have to lay in wait, like a serial killer, with the camera in front of my face.
A stalking mommy with a camera. :) And I forgot to add earlier…. Picking out dish soap is serious business. I bought one a few weeks ago and I forgot to do a smell test at the store. I was so happy when it was finally empty. Wish we had Mrs. Meyers here.
Mrs. Meyers is my favorite. I love the basil scent, but hate the lemon verbena. Of course, all I ever find is the lemon verbena. That’s all Target had yesterday!
I bought the soap at the 99� Store because our Target is under super construction (as are most in so-Cal). They are all getting remodeled with supermarkets. The parking is ridiculous and with the boys always wanting to “take one quick look” at the toy aisle…
I counted down the days until that cheap soap was gone. It smelled like shattered dreams and desperation.
Let us not forget the dishsoap that saves the world … at least a few feathered folk. I cave everytime I see their little oily faces. Sigh.
And I love those photos! The first and the last one are just too much. Pretty sure they are capable of making any day brighter!
I squee just a bit every time you post pictures of your boys. So crazy cute!
Be careful what you wish for with poses. My four year old daughter always poses. In ballerina pointed toe and arms outstretched kind of ways. Or the who-taught-her-to-be-a-model kind of poses with her hands in her hair or on her face.
Aaaahahahahaha! Yes, I guess either extreme is no good.
Ok, I’m guessing Nico is a little too young to take over modeling for David Beckham, but Oh.My.Goodness. that little boy is adorable! :-) (I totally forgot what your post was about – did I tell you these photos are amazing?)
Julie
He’s hilarious and so darn cute! Wow, I can’t believe he’s in school, he’s such a big boy and I am such an old lady.
Nico looks so much like you! Your boys are ridiculously cute…
Random aside: one time, I bought a new (floral) scented dishsoap, and discovered that I hate soap that smells like anything other than clean, soapy goodness. I have this irrational fear that my dishes will, like clothes in the wash, absorb the scent, and all my food will taste of floral soap.
You’re not the first person to see a resemblance. My friend, Cathe, swears Nico looks like me. I don’t see it at all!
I’m particular about the way candles smell. I can’t stand candles that smell like cookies, cakes…well, any food really. I want my candles to smell floral or perfumey, nothing else.
Ohh, especially when they really smell like cookies baking! Then all you can think about is a craving for unhealthy sugary goodness…
Funny! I was just marveling on how nice it was to be all alone in my house yesterday! So quiet and peaceful!
Agreed … there’s nothing worse than nasty smelling dishsoap!
Very cute pics!
Target is good for a religious mom moment. For sure. Add in a latte from Starbucks and a new dress, and you’ve got nirvana. And I love his smiles! So cute.
Wow, what a cutie, that top pic is precious. And yes, I think he looks a lot like you, most esp. in Picture #8. People call my daughter my “mini-me,” even though she is blonde & blue-eyed (and I’m so not). I’m flattered, but I don’t really see it.
love the top pic the best! and the red sneakers!
will you be at target for missoni today? aack, was gonna sleep over but…
Nico to me looks like your husband.. that is from the small pics I see here.
The feeling of being alone shopping while your kids are in school hasn’t gone away for me : )
Our target is being done over too… it’s the only place I can find cherry toaster strudel. Don’t ask.
Dish soap has to be oderless.. hand soap we can go wild. They found a ginger ale flavor smelling soap at target and it’s not bad.
He is such a cutie. Love the red chucks.
P.S. Regarding the blurry photos – couple of suggestions, sorry if you already know all this: try PNG files instead of JPG. They tend to look better on the web. Although, they do take a little longer to load.
You might also need to change your resolution/size them down before you upload them. They could be blurry because your slideshow program is automatically resizing for you – which compresses the image and makes it look bad.
Those are all great tips, Marisa. I’ll bet that is what’s happening. Thank you!
Do PNG files take longer to load on my end, or for blog readers?
PNG files will load slower than JPG for blog readers – but not by much, especially since your photos are on the smaller side. (You may or may not be able to see the difference on my blog – the images on the first page of posts are a mix of JPG and PNG).
I’d try the resizing first (make sure your resolution is 72) and see if that fixes your problem.
Ha! I swear I had this link all ready to paste here, telling you this would change your life – http://www.mrsmeyers.com/Products/Household_Cleaners/Basil_Liquid_Dish_Soap
PS – Cost Plus always has a better selection of Mrs Meyers than Target :)
I know you were really there for Missoni ;)
this is funny, your buying a soap for its NZ-ness (Maori; maunga wai = mountain water) and here I would buy anything that said California sunshine. I love picture #1 of Nico and, this smile aside, he really does look like you.
Hey, I was guessing on the maunga wai! I spent way too long googling New Zealand native languages and how to say waterfall. I couldn’t find that specifically, so I looked for mountain and water and hoped for the best. :)
He has such an adorable, happy, round face. Great photos.
And shopping alone sounds glorious. I don’t remember the last time I’ve done that.
Haha! This totally reminds me of my daughter. I can not get a single shot of her where she smiles willingly and naturally! Sigh.
Nico is ADORABLE!