Chipping Away at My Resolutions W/O Meaning To

The book is coming slowly. I'm plugging up the entire creative process by writing the first draft as if it were the final draft. I obsessively go back and edit every word, every line, continually altering and changing all my original text, sometimes to the point where I don’t even recognize what I started with.

Today I think I was a better parent than writer.

Before I stole away to the corner gourmet pizza joint, Z Pizza, (home of rivers of organic tomato sauce beneath four fine cheeses, kalamata olive slivers, a flurry of crumbled feta chunks and pungent, thin sliced red onions – can you tell I’m addicted?) to hack away at the book on my hobbling on the verge lap top, I hosted an impromptu get together with some friends and their kids that looked more like a Halloween sidewalk trick-or-treating march than play date. Holy run-on sentence.

Pigtail Sprite, 2, hasn’t noticed much of her sparkly dress-up garb given to her for Christmas until today. Her friend, who I’ll call Precocious Bangs, 3, because she’s smart as a whip with a cool, roaring 20s bob cut, came over today. Holy run-on sentence, Batman.

Bangs adores "dressing up" and dragged out all kinds of Pigtails' pastel pink and mint green fairy gear (shimmering wings, wobbly fairy antannae, feather tufted glamor heels, etc.). Once Pigtails spotted her older friend prancing around the front yard all gussied up with her silver plastic tiara, faux pearls and a fancy dress strapped over another fancy dress underneath, she warmed up to the idea of girly costume play.

Eventually Pigtails ambled up to me with her new gauzy Tinkerbell tutu dress and said, "Can you pees hep me put dis on, Mommy?" Pigtail Sprite's brothers weren't far behind. They rifled through the dress up drawer in the play room as if they were in the throws of a desperate search for Willy Wonka's golden ticket.

My eldest, the Maestro of Mouth, almost 6, resurrected his old Halloween costume -- Anakin Skywalker, who had to make do when the costume store sold out of Luke Skywalker outfits. A blue Star Wars light saber proved the perfect accessory for the ensuing frontyard drama.

Moody Cheeks McGee, 3, pranced around on his tip toes as usual in his coveted royal blue dragon ninja outfit, cut jagged and sloppy at the ankles with a pair of kitchen scissors for added authenticity.

Actually, I cut them with sheers in a hurry because I can’t even sew a button on, and had just given birth to his sister six days before Halloween that year, when Cheeks’ brother reluctantly wore the baggy outfit and then refused to walk up to any houses to collect Halloween candy.

Cheeks practically lives in that ninja outfit. He wore it all day on Christmas. It seems to extend and enable his shy nature, allowing him to hide behind a flimsy polyester blend mask that shows only his expressive, sensitive brown eyes. He can observe in silence, like a true ninja, completely enveloped in his character.

Letting my kids wear costumes wherever and whenever they want is my way of allowing them to express themselves and experiment with their budding identities.

Even if I hate what they pick out, I still let them wear what they want for the most part. For whatever reason I was motivated to clean out Pigtail Sprite's closet and drawers for items that no longer fit. Hey, I just realized I was chipping away at one of my New Year's resolutions without realizing it at the unusually productive time.

I owe my husband a candle lit massage and a heavy dose of doting attention. See resolution number something or other.

With that, I bid you adieu.

It’s early yet, but how are you doing on your resolutions?