“Dad and me are going to a movie, just us boys.” Milo was rubbing it in as Naomi looked at him with her big brown eyes.”
“Well, Naomi and I are going to get our nails done and then go out to coffee!” I shot back. I like to fight back with hyperbole…it’s not as if I ever get the nails on my crusty strictly-utilitarian hands painted. I just claimed the first girly extravagance that came to mind, and made it an expensive one to get a jab in at Jeremiah too. By “get our nails done” what I really meant was walk down to the pharmacy and buy a bottle of nail polish from their startlingly complete collection. Purple sparkly, of course.
We put purple sparkles over a pink base for a stunning result to these nails. I even dabbed a drop on each ear lobe, trying to convince her to get her ears pierced.
At the café Naomi downed her three pink marshmallows in quick succession (did you know that little girl can fit three whole marshmallows in her maw simultaneously?). Then she ate the frosting off her lemon bar and rejected her fluffy.
Saturday morning Milo was at my elbow (as always) when I realized that I hadn’t seen Naomi in a while. I poked my head around the door and found her in the middle of a carefully laid-out doll arrangement; bed made, high chair ready, babies all dressed.
That morning she had put on her “princess dress,” chose a green cardi, and packed her purple hand bag in readiness for the outing to a theatrical rendition of Snow White. “I need to pee in the grass,” she said with urgency when we got there. At least she’s not too prim.
Neither kid wanted to cooperate for a photo, but what I WANTED was a nice picture of them in front of the Alice in Wonderland poster–Milo and I watched that play together the day Naomi was born.
Give It A Burl 
Naomi is looking big. I feel like Milo doesn’t grow! They are both little characters.
Very amusing and nicely written, as always!
Small girls are a mystery to me, probably because I never was one myself, and I’ve never had sisters or daughters. Why would a second X chromosome make sparkly fingernail polish so appealing? Is it a status symbol? Girly bonding thing? Sign of love and attention? Cheers, Graham