Tweet I knew the minute I saw her. Her eyes were big, friendly and inviting and she immediately came to the bars and flipped over so Astrid could pet her fluffy tummy. We played with her and petted her for several minutes. Her purr was almost deafening as she continued to gather us completely into…
Tweet I survive each day only by making a plan. The morning shines brighter when I can get our day into a list of activities and corresponding times that flow as ordinarily yet orderly as a stream down a mountain. 3:00 put chicken in the oven, 4:00 leave to pick girls up from language,…
Tweet This is the first picture of Esther that I posted on my blog nearly five years ago. Five years ago, my three year old Esther loved dressing up in tutus and playing with toys. My Esther is eight today, and I’m happy to say that tutus and toys still occupy a big space in…
Tweet Esther runs down the sidewalk towards me. Her ‘just off the bus’ look – disheveled braids, peanut butter dried on the side of her mouth, an off-center headband, a backpack sitting low and heavy off one shoulder, her skirt slightly turned to the side, the side-seam now showing in the front, worn-at-the-knees bright pink…
Tweet Astrid is slowly trying to kill me. My first two girls were beautifully agreeable to everything that I’ve ever said or asked them to do. Astrid(thankfully) has a mind of her own – and she’s not afraid to use it on any of us. She is the clear boss of the household and…
Tweet I used to call myself a marathoner. Not that I was truly a marathoner – because someone who takes four hours to finish marathon isn’t exactly competing against other people. But I used to run marathons. Before kids. I’ve been running for 22 years. I run 5-6 days a week for 3-5…
Tweet I just finished off a jar of peanut butter. Granted there really wasn’t more than two tablespoons left in the jar, so eating it straight with a spoon was completely justified, but still it felt a little indulgent. But maybe the indulgent part didn’t come until after I could scrape no more with the…
Tweet We are continuing our weekly This Is Childhood series today with SIX. I admit that Bethany blew me away a bit with her perfect post depicting SIX today. (Except for the Minecraft part – I still need to Google that to figure out what it means…;) Bethany nailed it. Nailed it. Six is…
Tweet “I want to hold the whole wide world..right here in my open hands.” – from the song ‘Whole Wide World’ by Mindy Gledhill Last Monday, I was part of a volunteer delegation of 100 men and women – bloggers, pediatricians, nurses, college students, from the US, hand-selected to be educated and advocate for…
Tweet I paid $8 for parking today which really doesn’t seem like much for a big city, but I only needed to park there for 10 minutes so I could pop-in somewhere, and the only street parking I could find was beyond my parallel parking capabilities, which are slightly diminished in the winter when you…
Tweet This post has been weeks in coming. Life is so crazy right now with school, kids, activities, work, writing and seriously all that dang laundry to do. There are days that I’m barely keeping my head above water and I just want to sit under a blanket with my kids while I drink some…
Tweet It’s a difficult thing mourning for a cat. It’s something you truly don’t want to talk about because no one wants to compare an animal life with a human life, and truly nobody wants to fully admit that they are possibly some crazy cat lady. So I believe that most cat mourning is…
Tweet We are continuing the This Is Childhood series today with three. I have one of those right now. A three year old. Three is hard. But three is beautiful. And three is truly one of the most magical ages, so don’t ever wish it away. Nina writes with such heart, honesty and love…
Tweet It turns out that the last thing you want to say to your seven year old as they board the bus is “Don’t be shocked if you come home and your cat isn’t here anymore! Okay, have a great day sweetie!” Because that seven year old will then tell her bus-mates, her friends,…
Tweet Take this easy quiz to see if you are ready to become a parent! 1. You can be a nurse without training! You can clean-up vomit – from floors, walls, clothing, hair, bodies, furniture, your MacBook, doors, stuffed animals, pianos and crayons – without gagging once while simultaneously holding a child and wielding…
Tweet Eloise got her braces off yesterday. These were her phase one braces that stayed on for six months. She now has a retainer and then will get her phase two braces around age 13 or so when she has all of her adult teeth. Phase one basically expanded her mouth so her teeth would…
Tweet I’m going to take five minutes to write this post. I know I have five minutes maybe because Astrid is asleep again thank god, Esther is still in bed, Eloise is eating two waffles and drinking a glass of milk, and the cat that is sick or something(did I mention this) just threw up…
