Memories of Strawberry Shortcake

We went to the St. Matthews library today to return some books and enjoy the preschool story time hour. Spencer was already having a rough morning and then we walked in the door to the library and saw a boy carrying a Backyardigan’s Tower of Power book. (In case you didn’t know, that is Spencer’s very favorite Backyardigan’s episode and he wants to have a Tower of Power themed birthday party this year). At that point, Spence had a meltdown. I guess he figured that the boy had gotten the only copy of that book and, unfortunately, he was right. I managed to mend the situation by finding another Backyardigan’s book, and we put the Tower of Power on request to get the next copy available sent to our branch. Story time was filled with books about the ocean and the kids made a fish out of a paper plate.

Larry had to work all day today basically. He is at work tonight, which meant that I had to do dinner, baths and bed all by myself. Ugh. I managed to coordinate it all somehow. After Spence got out of the bath, I put his eczema lotion on and then put leave-in conditioner in his hair. I got him situated in front of the TV, and then went to rock Olive to sleep. Luckily, baths really relax the little Olive and she went right to sleep after her last feeding. But while I was rocking her, I noticed that my hands smelled just like my old Strawberry Shortcake doll. It must be the combination of the eczema lotion and the hair conditioner. They say that the olfactory sense triggers memories more than any other sense and because of this I was transported to my friend Carina’s bedroom floor, playing with our Strawberry Shortcake dolls. I remembered one night I was spending the night at her house and we put on a show for her parents, singing a duet between Strawberry Shortcake and Orange Marmalade…I can still remember most of the lyrics…gosh I must’ve only been 8 or 9 years old. Those were such fun and free days and I know Carina feels the same way (now a mother of two, herself)….I wonder if she remembers the lyrics.

Tonight when I got out of the shower Spencer was standing on my bed, dancing and singing songs, watching himself in the mirror. He is such a character. He used the word predicament today…ugh, he’s growing up way too fast.