I bought a pair of Rayban sunglasses in 1987. Last summer, I bought three pairs of sunglasses–one prior to vacation, one during vacation and one post-vacation. I’ve since lost two pairs and broken the last pair.
The 1987 Raybans? I have. Why couldn’t they disappear? Why do only new sunglasses vanish or break?
So today, I purchased a pair and a spare from Marshall’s. Hopefully, these will last through the summer. (They say we buy more sunglasses per capita than any other city in the nation. I wonder if it’s true? Do we just lose them over the course of too many gray months?)
* * *
My daughter continues to amuse me. She’ll be four years old in September and pronounces most words perfectly. But she still mishears a few words. For instance, this morning, we went to church a few minutes early so I could photocopy something. I told her we were going to “make copies.” When he dad walked by the copy-machine, she proudly informed him, “We are making coffees!”
At the pool this afternoon, crowds of kids splashed in both pools. Being a reticent child, she sat on a chair and said, “I am not going in the pool today. There are too many kids.” Moments later, she spotted a baby in the pool and *blink* she was gone.
She is drawn to babies like a moth drawn to a flame. She wrapped her arms around her floating duck-ring and bobbed near the boy holding the baby in his arms. I couldn’t tell if she talked or only gazed. When the baby left the pool, she reappeared at my elbow, only to abandon me when she spotted another baby some distance away near the picnic area. She zoned in on that baby, eventually setting up camp in the middle of a family preparing their meal. I went over–twice–and reassured the father and mother: “She is not an orphan!” I said, “She just loves your baby.”
They laughed and waved me off.
I wish that my daughter could have given me a little transition time when she transformed from Miss Cling-on to Miss Independence. I’m a little dizzy from the change.
The sun shone today and for the first time this year, I doused my kids with sunscreen. I hear the drizzle is supposed to return. I kind of hope it does. It’s hard enough to concentrate on this final week of school without the distraction of beautiful weather.
* * *
My daughter likes to say, “Mom?” (Repeat ten dozen times.)
And I say (in various degrees of annoyance), “What!?”
She says, “Did you know I love you?” Pause. “But only a little bit.”
I find this uproariously funny every time she says it–she tells her dad the same thing–and I wonder if perhaps something might be wrong with me that I find her confession so hilarious. I never laugh, though, I just say, “You do?” And she says, “Yes.”
I know she loves me more than just a little bit and I have no idea why she says that, but it is what it is. Kids! They keep you just the littlest bit off balance all the time, just because they can.
Actual Unretouched Photo 
My daughter and I have a similar routine.
Me: You know what?
R: What?
Me: I love you!
R: That’s not a secret. Tell me a secret.
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my boyfriend and i have been together for 5 years, and i still play that “i love you, but only this much” game (hand spaces and all!) with him. and if i say an amount that he thinks is too much, he smooshes my hands closer together, til there’s nothing but maybe an inch of space left. and then we giggle lots. lol. and i swear i really AM 24! 😛
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my daughter does the same thing.
“Mom?”
“yes…”
“Mom?”
“What…?”
“Mom?!”
“What!?”
(Ahhhhhhhhh)
Before I had kids I had the same sunglasses for like 5 years. Now, I go through five pair a year instead.
(maybe your daughter is trying to tell you something…like she wants another sibling. My kids are asking me to have another baby and I am like, uh no.)
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The off balance thing? can go on for quite some time, possibly forever. Not to worry though, it can be exhilarating.
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“just because they can” that answers SO MUCH!
I can’t wait to hear spontaneous I love you’s, even if it’s allegedly “only a little bit”.
Mom? Mom? Mom! (x’s 10)
WHAT!? (complete with flaring nostrils, red face and smoke coming out of my ears)
You tell ME what!
That’s what I say to him when he asks me things like, “Why are you changing Avery’s diaper?” He knows the answer. I’m all about answering questions but when they are feeble attempts at conversation, I have to put it back on him. And now it’s put back on me. Because he can.
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I still have my fave Ray Bans that I’ve had for years. I love them!
I tell Mason, ‘You are my favorite boy in the whole entire world!” and he tells me ‘You are my favorite Grammy in the whole entire world!” Of course, we are each other’s only Grammy/Boy 🙂
~K!
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I saw a survey from Seattle once that said that sunglasses are the most frequently misplaced items. So I’m guessing that correlates with the fact that they are the most frequently purchased items.
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I think Portland must not be far behind in the sunglasses buying department. Almost every year I need to buy another pair because I can’t manage to figure out where I put the glasses back in November when the sun went into hibernation.
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I, too, bought a pair of Rayban’s in 1987 — I was a lifeguard and could afford to blow $75 on sunglasses. Are yours Wayfarers? I was SO cool — except not really when I was still wearing them last year. They fell off of my kitchen counter and snapped in two. Their time had come. Baked to death by the West Texas sun, I suppose. Now I have a $15 pair that seems to do the trick.
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The trick for sunglasses is to buy them at the dollar store. Dollar store glasses never get lost. Even when they break, they are always around. The more expensive the sunglasses, the more likely they’ll be crunched in the car seat or left on the picnic table.
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