China Syndrome

Big victories are hard fought with little kids. So you take the small ones and pat yourself on the back, with gusto, when something goes right. Like today after the preschool pickup. The kids were really having fun playing with each other by the train table, giggling, totally engaged with each other. So I stole away to the kitchen to fill out the form for next year's preschool admittance. And at that moment, as I inked Harry's name into the blank fields, I really felt proud. What a great mom I am, I reflected. And that's when I heard it, the faint tinkling of fairy wings.

Funny, I mused, we don't keep fairies in the house. But we do keep crystal.... In the cabinet.... Right next to the train table. HOLY S***! screamed my brain. Racing into the dining room I found my brilliant toddlers on the floor, still playing with each other, and their great-grandmother Charlotte's gold-leaf crystal sherry glasses, stacked one upon the other. Charlotte, who clearly has a future with Cirque du Soleil's plate spinners, was doing all the work. Harry was watching, laughing, as he eyed my mother's Ginori coffee cups, which he was already digging out. Aside from grabbing everything I could as fast as I could, I simply could not believe they didn't break anything. The above photo is an exact replica of my 15-month-old's building skills (sorry Lego, but crystal is clearly more fun). It is my fervent hope that the cabinet will be as impenetrable as Fort Knox by the time I upload another post.