They say you should write what you know. Some days, I think I know a lot. Most days, I know that I don't know nearly as much as I sometimes think I do. Some days, I think the only things I know are how tomake peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and where to look for a particular child's shoes, andhow todo laundry. All day. Without completely losing my mind. I know how to scrub syrup (which I only recently started buying again) off the kitchen floor. I know how to remove magic marker from a two-year-ol...
We recently lost our electricity for four days as the result of severe thunderstorms. It led to a few realizations for me: In the grand scheme of things, considering that some people lost their homes, cars,or even their lives, it is not a big deal to lose your electric for four days. Having said that, with three young kids inside andone hundreddegree temperatures outside, losing your electricity for four days can feel like a big deal. Especially when it also means that you have no water. The value of...
I recently started readingTo Heaven and Back By Dr Mary Neal. I haven't gotten very far, but somewhere around Chapter One, in the context of choosing how toapproach our lives,this phrase jumped off the page: React with Love Oh yeah. Now I remember. That's what we're supposed to do. I talk to my kids alot about kindness. Of the many things I want them to be, it's the most important. And yet, sometimes, I realize that I do a crappy job of teaching by example. I'm impatient. I get overwhelmed...
A lot seems to change between kindergarten and first grade. In kindergarten, N's social angst waslimited to disbelief that some kids didn't believe in fairies. What was wrong with them? How could they not believe in fairies, when everyone knows they're real? In first grade, fairies were still important, but I noticed that she started to pay attention to other things. Who had longer hair. Who was best friends with whom. Who had a tendency to be a bit bossy. And who seemed to have an issue telling the tru...
I love showers. I used to love baths, but now just the word bath conjures up images of a flooded bathroom,flying bath toys,and someone either screaming at me that they don't want to get in the bath, or screaming at me that they don't want to get out of the bath. So baths don't really do it for me anymore. Now, I'm all about the shower. Jimmy says I take too long and waste water. I probably do. But I figure what I waste in water, I save in money notspent on psych meds. I think it started when I had ...
I was recently going through old books and came across a book about whatmight happenin the first, oh, twelve months or so of your child's life. You might have heard of it. It was a good book. I found it helpful. Most of the time. But the things is, there werejust a few things that weren't covered in as much detail as they could have been. Like oh, what not to expect. Don't expect to be free of poop for more than an hour. Holy...poop.Babies poop a lot. I had no idea how much they pooped. Newborns--espec...
I'm an optimist. I think. Or maybe I'm a realist. All I know is, I'm nota pessimist. If I was a pessimist, I would have stopped after child number one. I would have looked at her sweet face, smelled her sweet baby smell, and then looked around at the piles of laundry, stacks of mail I had yet to go through, and baby toys everywhere, and thought I cannot live like this for the rest of my life. No more kids. Instead, I looked around and thought, This is just temporary. And it is. Of course it is. ...
So, Itook B to the dentist today. When you're done laughing, I'll tell you the rest of the story. OK, so I knew it wasn't a good idea. I knew it. I know this child, and I knew he was not ready for the dentist. But there's this small part of me that thought that, since he is almost four, it was time. Images of him as a five-year-old with horrible teeth kept popping into my mind. The dentist shaking his head as he looked at the x-rays and said "Well, if you had brought him in when he was three like you ...
I try to remember to be grateful, though some days it's easier than others. Yesterday I was trying for what seemed like hours to get all of us out the door. B was not cooperating. Then he couldn't find his shoes. He finally found them, and proceeded to throw them at me. Hmm...this would normally require a time out. But the whole morning had been a time out. We needed to go. And besides, if anyone is getting a time out around here, it's going to be me. Someone will read this and think how I'm not being ...
I feel like I already spend a lot of time telling you what I want, sweet boys. I frequently want you to bejust a little bit quieter. I want you to stop throwing things. I want you to listen to me the first time. I want you to sleep through the night. I want you to please, just pee on the potty.But of course, you already know all of that. And that's really not important anyway. Hereis what I really want for you: First, I want you to be boys. Play in the mud. Dig up worms. Play with sticks. Of course, you...
