Yesterday was the Port Chester/Rye Brook Girl Scout Annual Pasta Dinner. Francesca and I attended. Although we did drop about $50 or so on various gift basket/50-50/grab bag tickets, we were not the big winners. "Big Winner" in Francesca's eyes would be the girls who walked away with either the Webkinz or High School Musical basket. In my eyes, the big winner was the lucky person who won the 2 free weeks to PC Rec. Day Camp - now there's a prize!! Anyway, for our efforts we did come home with 2 prizes - a $25 Home Depot Gift Card (Scott's reaction - "Wow, I got to stay home AND you brought me a HD gift card - Babe, I love you!!") and Francesca's $1 grab bag gift - nail polish, toenail spreaders for a do-it-yourself pedicure and a mini emery board (had to explain to one of her friends the purpose of the "scratchy stick").

Well, you would have thought we WERE the big winners. The moment she got home and got changed, I had to sit right down and give her a manicure!! I had 2 more loads of laundry and a slightly cranky husband and 4 year old son to deal with, but of utmost importance was my 5 year old's teeny tiny fingernails that I had to file and polish. Not in cotton candy pink either, she won some brownish-reddish-purplish old-dried-blood-on-a-bandaid color. I tried to offer her some cutesy, perky alternatives - "Mommy has peach, pink, mauve!!! Don't you want one of those???" Noooooooooooo...of course not, she has to have her nails painted THAT color. So whatever, I'm tired and I still have the laundry to do plus meet my 2 Daisy Girl Scout co-leaders for a quick planning meeting (that's really why I was late Krista, although there WOULD have been more of a meltdown had I NOT done her nails). I do her nails, making sure to only put one coat of polish on so that her father, teachers, grandmothers, Girl Scout leaders would not think that I was cultivating some 5 year old mini "Goth in the making" - (although Francesca certainly has that angry Goth "I don't care" sneer down pat).

This morning I had just dropped Gavin off at nursery school and was heading to work when my cell phone rang. Seeing it was home, I got worried - was Francesca throwing a fit about going to school??

Conversation as follows:

Scott: Where's the polish? Where did you put it?

Me: The what?? What are you talking about?

Scott: The nail polish, where is the nail polish???!!!

Me: Top of the corner shelf.....WHY???

Scott: She has a chip, damn it, and she REFUSES to leave the house unless it's fixed!!!!

Me: Giggle, giggle, giggle (imaging husband doing 5 year old's nails)...BYE!!

Well, as confirmed by a later phone call to Scott, the chip in the nail was promptly and neatly fixed, although Scott now knows that one needs to wipe off the little brush before applying nail polish. He had to wipe off the excess with a paper towel without causing a smudge!!!!