At dinner, we were laughing about some political remark one of the girls’ classmates made. M tried to explain that this child simply didn’t know what he was talking about. “Oh, I know,” Cute W said. “Most kids your age don’t really follow politics. They just sort of parrot whatever their parents say.” “Including you … [Read more…]
I started writing today, and I was going off on so many tangents that I finally decided to cut myself off and break up my various stories into a few posts. They’re all loosely related to a theme, which is that parenting is like gardening. Both of them require delayed gratification and a healthy dose … [Read more…]
Yesterday was J’s first day attending school since the Rash Incident. She’s been improving, so I gave her a non-drowsy allergy medicine and sent an email to the nurse telling her that my doctor swears it’s poison ivy or poison oak, as unlikely as it seems, and that it’s absolutely, definitely not chicken pox. J … [Read more…]
I haven’t been loving winter break this year. M is a social butterfly. This morning she called me to ask if she could please stay at her sleepover friend’s house until 1 pm, when everyone was going to go roller skating, which would be followed by–you guessed it!–another sleepover. I insisted on a brief stay … [Read more…]
We got the game Set for Christmas, and I’ve been meaning to post about it, because it’s a good one. Set is a strange game. We heard about it from my niece, whose math teacher would let the kids play it in class sometimes. Of course, that gives you the vague impression that it’s educational, … [Read more…]
My poor little J is suffering from an allergic reaction to something. Or she’s suffering from something. I don’t know what it is, but the poor child is a mess. She is red and bumpy and splotchy all over her entire body. She looks almost normal if she’s all drugged up on Benadryl, except that, … [Read more…]
We’ve decided to relax this weekend and not do too much of anything. Good idea. Except that when the girls appear to be playing contentedly on their own, it often means that they are Up To No Good. Exhibit A: I was taking out the recycling when I noticed that my good stock pot was … [Read more…]
M ran directly from her friend’s minivan into the house and to the computer. A beeline to our computer can only mean one thing: there’s something that she wants to buy. We have entered that very special time in a young girl’s life when a great deal depends on whether you have That Thing That … [Read more…]
While I was trolling for pictures of my firstborn’s snarled hair, I stumbled on bunches of photos from little games that I’d play with the girls when they were little, and I thought that they might help some folks out there with babies and toddlers while away the long not-exactly-winter. For a little while, we … [Read more…]
I volunteer at the elementary school library, and lately M and her 4th-grade friends have been wild about a new series of picture books called Way To Be! Manners. It’s mystified me, actually, because they are little-kid picture books, officially designated kindergarten and up, but clearly a bit young for these sophisticated almost-tweens. The school … [Read more…]
