Sunday, 23 September 2012

Nia Vardalos’s Blog: Savoring the Last Moments of Summer

Please welcome Nia Vardalos for a one-time celebrity blog!

Best known for her Oscar-nominated role in My Big Fat Greek Wedding, the actress celebrated her 19th wedding anniversary with her husband, CougarTown star Ian Gomez, earlier this month.

Vardalos, currently starring in For a Good Time, Call, has also added author to her resume, with the upcoming April 2013 release of her new book, Instant Mom, in which she chronicles her journey of adopting a daughter in 2008 with only 14 hours notice.

You can find her on Facebook and @NiaVardalos on Twitter.

In an exclusive blog, Vardalos shares how she is savoring the season’s fleeting moments and learning to cherish each sweet memory with her daughter — especially from the front seat of her car.

It’s fall. Are you thinking what I’m thinking? I mean, when I last looked up it was June.

Ever since I became a parent, time moves far too quickly. My vision always feels like I’m wearing giant kaleidoscope-goggles.

The past three months of summer meld into one colorful blur like a dropped rocket — popsicle melting on the sidewalk. As images whiz by my eyeballs, I see my daughter squealing down a water slide, now running out of art class covered in glow paint, and then kicking her pink ball across the field at soccer camp.

In the time before I was a mom, my summer days were not like this at all. On a film set, the summer work day is long because the director needs to make use of every bit of that long-lasting sunlight.

Afterward, if we’re away on location, many of the cast and crew usually find a place to eat a late dinner together. It sounds exotic and exciting and yep, it is and I’m grateful for it … but still, I used to sit there and wonder if I would ever be a mother.

In an instant, I became a mom and now my summer days are a steady stream of driving my daughter to playdates, stopping to get swim goggles, getting a text from the hostess to pick up cupcakes and extra ice, then hanging in a backyard addictively munching Goldfish crackers and chatting with other parents as we all watch our kids put on a play about fairies or pretend to be tigers/dogs/monsters maniacally chasing each other across the lawn.

I sit in this comfortable lawn chair and marvel at how quickly my life changed … as peals of kids’ belly laughs echo through the air and the sun sets.

My favorite part of any playdate comes later when I get to carry my exhausted and sleeping daughter to the car.

Is there anything more trusting than a sleeping child completely and utterly leaning into your body?

Like a lot of kids, my daughter can pass out anywhere but as I carry this precious cargo, I walk slowly, so very carefully. Her breath is dewy-soft and gentle against my neck and I try not to jolt her awake as I set her into the booster seat.

But I shouldn’t worry — not even the closing car door can jar her from this blissful state of pure-fun exhaustion.

The girl who was belching a made-up tiger song a few hours ago is now bathed in a holy moonlight that makes any child look like a Norman Rockwellian angel. Her cheeks are flushed, her hair is in moist ringlets and her lips are curled into a smile that surely means she’s dreaming of eating chocolate ice cream in bed.

I should start the car but instead I sit in the driver’s seat, looking back at her. With everything moving so fast now, I have to grab this chance to watch her innocently and beautifully breathing in and out.

The night is completely still.

It’s one of these moments when I realize once again … I am a mom. And nothing will ever be the same.

What a relief.

– Nia Vardalos



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