It was with great sadness that I dropped my mother at the airport today.
When I hugged her goodbye, there were tears in my eyes.
When you have your own family, it makes you think about the family you came from a whole lot more. And I’m ashamed to write that it’s taken me this long to realize my mother and I are more similar than we are different.
Things I used to think were controlling I now realize are well intentioned ways of trying to help. I may not always agree with them, but at least now I can see they come from the heart.
The entire time she was here she spent all her time helping. Laundry, cooking, cleaning, baby sitting. At 75 she was able to juggle the twins on her own while I took the older kids out. When music from one of the toys turned on, Aaron would do a little shuffle back and forth on each leg while Sam did a tap dance, and Mom would join in, swaying her hips to “The Wheels on the Bus”. She and Sam even had their own inside jokes, like roaring at godzilla together.
She also stayed at home most night while Adam and I went for drinks, or a run, or even just a walk around the neighborhood. It was an hour or more of pure freedom and romance with my husband I will miss.
However, at the airport, in her eyes I didn’t see sadness. I saw fear.
“How long will you be by yourself before Brandy comes?” She asked anxiously.
Brandy is my niece. Her mother, my sister, has offered her up for a week’s free help. I think my sister Lara thinks it will be nice for her to spend some time with her cousins. I hope she feels that way too when she arrives. But she could just be in shock about all the poop, tantrums, and fighting she is about to be inundated with.
I think the perfect example of my Mom’s good intentions that can be misconstrued is this dress below. She actually brought it up here a few years ago thinking I would wear it to one of these fancy affairs that Adam and I sometimes attend. She saved it for 20 years for me! Then lugged it in her suitcase from Florida so I could have it! So thoughtful. It is a dress I wore to homecoming one year. I feel bad I never wore it after such an effort, but perhaps when you see it, you’ll understand why. Anyway, she took it back with her to Florida today. She plans on taking to a consignment shop in Boca to sell on. I hope she gets some cash for it. Eventually everything comes back in style, right?
We headed out early and hit 
We got a tip from some people in the park on a new Dim Sum place and decided to try a new adventure.
The cake didn’t explode, but I think it will make your gut explode later. It was a triple layer cake, stuck together with icing, then covered in chocolate icing, then topped with orange, red, and green icing, and red jelly. Then we iced dinosaur cookies, dipped them in sprinkles and added them to the cake too. I think if you go to Sweet Mandy B’s and order a cake this size and 2 cookies it would cost more than the fee for the class. Amazing.
These are no ordinary mangos. They are Bombay Mangos. They taste like mango custard. They don’t have strings in them. I am getting hungry just thinking about them, even though I just stuffed my face with volcano cake.
My kitchen smells like heaven. Like a fragrant tropical honey.
Lucky for me her husband was out of town and she had already bought the tickets. So she very kindly offered me his spot.
There were a ton of different drinks and foods to sample. Top restaurants like GT Oyster, Girl and the Goat, the Ritz Carlton, and Wood pitched tents next to wineries from Mendocino and locally distilled Gin.
People also showed up with their own trays to carry samples on. Another good idea, you could put all your little samples on the tray, sit down and try them all together.