On the morning of Thomas’s preschool field trip to the pumpkin patch, I was in the bathroom frantically getting ready. Because she never strays farther than six inches from my heels, Anna joined me in the bathroom. She insisted, INSISTED on using my blush (I tried to just hand her the blush brush but baby
A portrait of my children, once a week, every week, in 2019. David and Mary / Are your kids unbelievably, impenetrably silly when they come home from school? I can take some silliness but WOW. It’s a good thing they have each other because Tom and I can’t even understand then when they’re all spun up.
When our cat was an adolescent — not a kitten, an adolescent. It’s an important distinction because kittens are adorable imps and adolescents are adorable jerks. So as I was saying, when our cat was an adolescent he spent all day being cute and all night demolishing our house. We were living in a house
Have you heard the joke about the interrupting cow? It’s one of my favorite jokes, and it goes like this: A: Knock, knock. B: Who’s there? A: The interrupting cow. B: The inte- A: MOOO! Living with Anna feels like living inside that joke, all the time. Anna isn’t talking a ton yet, but it’s
A portrait of my children, once a week, every week, in 2019. David / It’s a bummer that this photo is blurry, because David asked me to take it. When your 8-year old asks you to take a silly photo, you grab your camera so quickly that everything ends up out of focus. (This is one
Last week Tom had a minor eye injury. That’s how Thomas, Anna, and I found ourselves having lunch on a 97-degree day at a picnic table in an office park. Because we had to give Daddy a ride to the optometrist, and I needed to figure out what to do with my two toddlers during
It was so hot this week. I’m not usually one to grumble about unseasonal warmth, but this week would have been a doozy even in July. The forecast promised relief from the heat and humidity on Friday (but still no rain) so until then I called kibosh on outdoor play past 10 a.m. and exercise
Next fall Thomas will start kindergarten. This fall he is conducting experiments in our yard with the garden hose. One afternoon I was watering the garden and Thomas started digging in our mulch. I was using the hose attached to our irrigation, so he got the hose that’s attached to the front of our house
When I planted these beet seedlings back in August, I promised them that in September the temperature would at least occasionally dip below the 90s. I promised that it might rain at least once a month. And I lied. They’re limping along, despite the lack of rain, incredible heat, and yesterday afternoon when my 8-year old filled
A portrait of my children, once a week, every week, in 2019. David / This photo is out of focus and through a window because I wanted to snap it without him noticing to send a picture to my mom. The kids have a chore chart and opportunities to do extra chores. David is really,