A portrait of my children, once a week, every week, in 2016 David / If you follow me on Instagram, you already know we gave David an long-overdue back-to-school haircut this week. As I was cutting it, he said, “Mommy, don’t make my hair pretty. Make it cool. Make it like a triangle with flames shooting out.”

We spent last week on vacation with Tom’s family on Lake Anna. So this week we’re doing laundry, missing our cousins, and languishing in post-vacation hangover/denial. More vacation pictures to come (what kind of mommy blogger would I be if I didn’t publish at least 300 photos of my children in puddle jumpers?) but for now,

This month Thomas got a new nickname. We’re calling him Screamy. And it’s not an affectionate nickname or a clever nickname, it is a very literal nickname given by two parents who are exhausted by a sweet little imp named Screamy. Thomas has hit his stride as a toddler. He’s realized that though he is

Last year at preschool, David’s class sang a song that he called the Octopus Song, even though it’s actually called the Butterfly Song. He specifically loved the line, “If I were an octopus, I’d thank you Lord for my good looks.” And because he loved the song so much, and because he related so much to
David is five years old today. FIVE! And he still weighs less than the amount of weight I gained when I was pregnant with him. Everyone knows about the terrible twos, and then you have a three-nager. There is no similar catch-phrase for four-year olds. Or if there is I’ve never heard it. Four was such

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
This past week my kids added the word “Olympics” to their vocabulary. Olympics, and also its variants — Owimpics, Limpics, and the ever popular, “Can we watch something else?” We let the kids watch some of the opening ceremonies on Friday, and then watched several sports on Saturday. Tom and I love the Olympics, but