A few days ago I was doing some yard work, and instead of putting the nozzle on the hose I let it run so the kids could play with it while I worked. At our old house, the kids played in the hose all the time. Sometimes with the sprinkler, sometimes with the slip ‘n
It has been unreasonably hot here for the past few weeks — we’ve spent all of our time in the air conditioning or the pool or wishing that’s where we were. But don’t misunderstand me — even when I’m sweating through my shorts at the park, chasing the shade and praying for a breeze? Just a small one? Is a breeze be too
Mary Virginia loves to play doctor. Usually I’m the doctor and the game starts out by me telling her that I can’t play doctor because I’m cleaning up the mess from painting and, remember Mary Virginia? When you were painting 15 seconds ago? Can we have even a little bit of transition time? She now
When we bought our last house, it never occurred to me to ask if there were kids in the neighborhood. I was 7 months pregnant, but it just wasn’t on my radar. I didn’t know how important it would be to have friends for my children, and friends for me, just a few doors down.
This is not a political post. This is a post about the fact that, regardless of your politics, it’s a big deal that a woman was just nominated for president. This morning I pulled Mary Virginia into my lap and told her that the first female was nominated as a candidate for president last night. I knew
The other day “Happy” by Pharrell came on the radio and David and Mary Virginia both started screaming from their carseats, “IS THIS MY SONG? THIS IS MY SONG!! MOMMY!!! MY SONG!” And then they started having a fight about whose song it was, and I rolled my eyes because does this song belong to
A few days ago a good friend asked me for tips on how to baby proof a house. I told her, you have to prioritize. Stop what you’re doing right now and put your Cheetos out of reach. After that it all sort of falls into place. For us, baby proofing has happened naturally. They sort
If Thomas could talk and you asked him about his family, he would probably tell you that he has a brother, a father, and two mothers. These two mothers are mysteriously, constantly at odds. One is best described as a doting bully. Very attentive, but also, quite frankly, dangerous. The second mother spends most of
Growing up we always dyed Easter eggs on the night before Easter, so I planned to do the same thing with my kids. This year, I had meant to prepare by boiling the eggs and setting aside bowls and food coloring, but the whole thing completely slipped my mind. The whole thing slipped my mind
Last fall I took the kids to get new shoes before school. I went to a particular store in Richmond, one that has a reputation for how well they measure and fit shoes for children. Because of this reputation, I consciously ignore their high prices and the 47 other shoe stores I pass while driving
Last weekend Thomas’s bottom teeth finally poked through. They took forever. I’m not exaggerating, I could SEE them just under his gums for a month. A MONTH. I don’t know what happened. Maybe they forgot something and had to go back? Maybe they ran out of gas on the way? I have no idea. I just hope
Last fall we were struggling to get in the flow of the preschool schedule. It’s a lot — getting all three kids and myself fed, dressed, and out the door with all their bickering and necessary bags. Plus, Thomas was still very new, and I was spending much of the night awake with him. The year
David started preschool over two years ago, just a few weeks after his second birthday (Mary Virginia was barely three months old). Back then he wasn’t potty trained, had no hair, and was barely speaking in sentences. And, he didn’t have an opinion about what he wore so I was able to coordinate his clothes with the
Sometime after Christmas a particular virus hopped on a bulldozer and drove straight into our cozy happy house. The fever and cough started with Mary Virginia, a few days later Thomas got it, then just hours after Thomas’s fever broke, David sidled up to Tom and asked him to put him to bed. The next day, David’s fever climbed,
When I had David I constantly thought about what it would be like to have more than one child. My day was so full — so consumed. From the moment he woke up in the morning to the time he went to bed at night I was harried and overwhelmed with every step of caring
Recently I wrote age order posts about each of my children (David, Mary Virginia, Thomas) because, when I have time to think, I think a lot about my kids — about who they are and what they need as individuals, and about how they fit into and shape our family. Our kids are pretty close in
Over the weekend Thomas got his first fever. It wasn’t a horrible. It was just a 24-hour thing, flanked on both sides by fussiness and hold-me-all-day-ness. After two doses of acetaminophen and 72 straight hours of snuggling, he was back to his normal self. People often make comments about Thomas, that because he’s my third baby he
Me, talking to Tom: Did we decide we want to have P-I-Z-Z-A for dinner? David: Mommy, did you just say “pizza” in letters?
Do you know any babies who do not want to be held all the time? Cuddled, snuggled, toted around on Mommy’s hip. And babies should be held all the time, especially the giggliest, wiggliest, chubbiest, smiliest ones. But there are chores to do and laundry to be put away. And there’s preschool, a quick stop at the
I don’t often give parenting advice here, but Thomas asked me to tell you about this. Give your babies a chicken bone. A chicken bone, cooked and stripped — it’s nature’s teether. All my babies have loved chicken bones because all babies love chicken bones because, what’s not to love? It has flavor, it’s the perfect shape for holding and
If anything is harder than being the middle child, it’s being two years old. Mary Virginia is both. And only because she hasn’t learned the phrase (yet) I’ll say it for her: IT ISN’T FAIR! At two, she isn’t a baby anymore, but she’s not quite one of the big kids. But, because we do
Most mornings, David asks me how we’re going to spend the day. Often, he asks if we can go to the children’s museum. No, I tell him over and over. We aren’t going to the museum. Inevitably he asks why and I tell him the truth: Because Mommy’s afraid to go to the museum with
This is Thomas’s Halloween costume. I’ve been putting it on him as Halloween approaches for two reasons: 1) Glow-in-the-dark skeleton clothes are completely seasonally appropriate, and this skeleton costume doubles as pajamas! 2) I’m worried he’ll grow out of it by October 31. After every wash I cross my fingers and hold my breath as I
“Mommy, is there Target in heaven?” David asked me one morning. “Um,” I answered. “Well, David. The Bible doesn’t specifically say. But. I don’t think it would be heaven without Target.” We have conversations like that a lot. My kids love Target. Because when we go, they never know what we’ll leave with. And isn’t
Thomas is nearly four months old, which means we’ve been out of the fourth trimester for a while. In the past 16 or so weeks I’ve learned a lot about taking care of three little ones. Here’s one bit of wisdom I can pass on: It’s impossible. If you’re currently pregnant, stop scrolling Pinterest for “unique jewelry
A few weeks after Thomas was born, I got a package in the mail from Alli, a close friend from college. I gasped when I opened it, so David came running to see what was inside. When I held them up, David wrinkled his nose in disgust and disappointment. SHIRTS!? No, David, not just shirts. Shirts with your
Today is my 33rd birthday, and I’m going to spend it doing two of my all-time favorite things: 1) Licking icing off cupcakes 2) Hanging out with my family A few weeks ago Tom and I were taking the kids to the park, and as I was walking out the door he stopped me. Tom: Why are
I’m going to begin with a tangent, but stick with me, because this rabbit trail is leading straight to a toddler activity, I promise. I am a person who enjoys an ice cold Diet Coke, or twelve, and if you also enjoy Diet Coke then, like me, you have probably encountered friends and strangers who feel obligated to
Baby Thomas turned 11 weeks old this week, and in the past 11 weeks I’ve often wondered when life with three kids will feel “normal.” I keep waiting to get used to this new rhythm and pace of life, but I’ll be honest: things haven’t felt normal or manageable for a while. Since Thomas was born, I constantly feel like I’m
I decided on the title “Postpartum chic” for this post because I figured no one had ever put those two words next to each other before, and maybe I could trademark them or something? Chic isn’t the first thing that pops into my mind when I think of the postpartum period. There’s all kinds of medical things
When we go on vacation with Tom’s family, there are six kids and six adults. That sounds like a manageable ratio, perfect for man-to-man defense, but it’s not. Somehow toddlers multiply when they’re together. Several times a day one of us would look around and say, “Are there extra kids here? It feels like there are at
David loves holding baby Thomas. He asks to hold him twice as often as Mary Virginia does, and she asks a lot. “Mommy, I wish baby Thomas could be in my belly,” David said to me the other day. He says that, but I don’t think he’s prepared for the stretch marks, heartburn, or nine months without wearing his favorite
Aside from her cameo last November, this is Mary Virginia’s first Semantics post. It surprised me because she makes us laugh all day, every day. There’s something about her tone, her enunciation, her confidence with speech — she talks like an adult but sounds like a two-year old, and it’s all hilarious. This is her first post, but
When Thomas was just a few hours old, Tom brought the kids to the hospital to meet him. David was extremely uncomfortable when he came to meet Mary Virginia in the hospital, so this time I planned ahead with lollipops. “Mommy, where’d you get these lollipops?” David asked me, because he thinks that lollipops are contraband
This isn’t the craziest birth story you’ll ever read. It isn’t the most dramatic or fastest or the closest call. But it is my craziest birth story. I’ve already told this story several times, and each time I feel a bit like I’m lying, or at least exaggerating because the timeline just doesn’t feel real. Whenever I tell it, I
One thing I didn’t expect about having kids is the arranging required to do absolutely anything outside of the normal schedule. You take this kid, I’ll take this kid, Mimi will pick up that kid, and ugh, I wasn’t even thinking about their carseats. Do we have enough Goldfish and carseats? The arranging is why moms just stop
It’s hard to know when or where to begin baby Thomas’s birth story. Does it start it when I felt my first, painful contraction? Or a month before that, when I packed my hospital bag and asked several close family and friends to please keep their phones on in the middle of the night just in case.
We are in the middle of the late-pregnancy waiting game. Maybe tomorrow we’ll wake up, make breakfast, go to the park, have lunch, shirk a few chores, and count the minutes until Daddy gets home. Or maybe tomorrow I will have a baby and our family will be forever changed. Who knows. The weather just turned — it’s
A little over six years ago I injured my hamstring in a triathlon. I’d iced, stretched, rested, done physical therapy, and still it wasn’t quite right. I kept running, but I could only run conservatively — I couldn’t push myself. Two years later when I got pregnant with David, my hamstring was still bothering me. I ran through
Mary Virginia loves babies. She acts like an over-eager grandmother when she hears about an infant. She gets so excited that she starts talking in falsetto, and has to channel her energy into frantically knitting tiny sweaters and bootees. Then when she’s actually in the room with an infant, she transforms into a middle-school-aged boy with a crush. She
I’ve been trying to make a real effort to not complain about this pregnancy because I don’t want to lose sight of what a blessing it is to have a complication-free pregnancy and carry a baby to term. But as the days and weeks pass it’s getting harder and harder. I’m achy, I’m tired, I’m getting bigger,
David looked at me the other day and said, “Mommy, the baby is taking a long time to come out.” Then I had to sit down and rest because I was exhausted by how right he was. When people ask me when I’m due, I always say, “In May” because the ambiguity seems deter unsolicited
I always dreamed of dressing my little girl in smocked outfits and grosgrain bows. It never, not once, occurred to me that I’d have a daughter with an opinion. Every day clothes are a battle. That shirt Mary Virginia was obsessed with yesterday? NOOOO! I NO LIKE IT! I no lika dat shirt! I find myself
These blankets I knit for my babies take a long time. 130 stitches per row, 238 rows, all on 4.5mm needles. I’ve knitted 93 rows so far, and I just have eight more rows before I’ll need to start purling the initial. That means we need to finalize the name for this baby. I love
I always dread asking for the bathroom when I’m pregnant because, suddenly, I become a cliche. Oh! She’s pregnant! Of COURSE she needs to pee! Get this girl to the bathroom! But, actually, I have to go to the bathroom because I’m a human. In fact, I bet you’ve used the bathroom today. Maybe even more
My photography class ended last week, and Tom told me that, as a graduate of Photography 101, I’m not allowed to take any more bad photos. I’ve never really used the Auto setting on our camera, but now I’m experimenting with even more — ISO, exposure, light metering. The unfortunate truth is that the more I experiment with
My mom once told me that after she had my brother — her third child — she started wearing sneakers every day. Her days started early and ended late, and she spent them gardening, hanging laundry on the clothesline, making pickles, sewing, leading Girl Scouts — oh, and taking care of three kids. To make it through the day she needed support.
When my mom describes me as a baby, she usually says I was, like, the sweetest baby ever. She says I was mild-mannered, chubby, bald, cuddly, and a great sleeper; I slept every night from 6 p.m. – 6 a.m. without fail. So when our kids wake up at 4:55 a.m., skip their nap, and
Tom got me an electric blanket for Christmas. I can’t figure out why my skin isn’t made of the same material as this blanket. It’s the perfect gift, the sort of gift that helps me know Tom really knows me. I’m always cold, and I can’t stand being cold. I’m the kind of person who has an overwhelming urge to
The other day we went to Target and left with ANOTHER new toy car for David, and ANOTHER doll for Mary Virginia. If you know anything about gender stereotyping and how toys perpetuate gender roles, then my shopping trip is grooming David to be an engineer at Ford Motor Company and Mary Virginia to flunk third grade math. If