There comes a time in every baby’s life when they realize they are destined to be bipeds — descendants of homo erectus. As soon as the baby realizes this, it is the only thing they can think about. Practicing standing becomes the baby’s only focus, their sole pastime. It’s their browser home screen, their phone
It’s mid-July, and right on schedule we have homegrown tomatoes, cucumbers, and peppers from our garden. We didn’t plant much this year. We have a small space for our garden, but more importantly, I was trying to be realistic (for once) about my ability to maintain a garden. I tried to be really thoughtful about
We’ve had this thing for three summers and no baby has ever really used it. Every now and then someone comes over and their baby tolerates it for a bit, but it never lasts too long. Usually they put the baby in, it’s happy for a few minutes, then it realizes it’s been tricked! It’s parents are
This past week Mary started summer camp — her first time ever doing something like this. (The first time any of my kids have done any sort of camp.) A few weeks before it started, she asked me, “Mommy, how long is camp?” I answered, “It’s just for a few weeks.” Mary looked down at her hands
One morning after I put Anna down for a nap, the middle two were distracted so I stole a few moments with David. He’s doing big kid stuff — working a 300-piece puzzle, drinking seltzer water, wiggling his two loose front teeth with his tongue. Moments earlier, I’d just peered into Anna’s mouth, checking to
Thomas was standing on the pool stairs, bending his head backwards into the water. When he stood straight, his hair was all slicked back. His curls, when wet, reach his shoulders, and his hair is so blonde on top it almost looked like he was bald with a mullet. “You guys, look how funny Thomas’s
This post is sponsored by Degree Women but the content and opinions expressed here are my own. I regularly walk around, unwittingly, with stickers on my clothes. At the beginning of this month I hosted a birthday party with a nursing pad sticking out of my shirt. Whatever, my look is “discombobulated mom of four”
During wedding planning: Me, “We’ll get married on July 3 and we can call it Co-dependence Day!” Tom, hesitates then says, “Do you mean…Interdependence?” Tom Krieger, helping me with vocabulary and basic arithmetic since 2009. Our anniversary is July 3, and Tom gave me the only gift I ever want — he took a few
While on a walk a few weeks ago David noticed a bramble of blackberry bushes. The berries weren’t ready, the branches were covered in white flowers and tightly-packed clusters of green and pink, so we promised to come back in a few weeks. When we did, we found the bushes heavy with black, shiny berries.
When people read the title of this post, I imagine them doing the same thing I did, “Seven months? That can’t be right.” Then holding up their fingers to count off the months, “November, December, January, February…” Sure enough, seven months with sweet Anna Leigh. But it can’t be seven months… (By the time I