The other day I was playing with Mary Virginia, and I was just struck by how lovely and sweet she is and how thankful I am to be her mommy. So I told her, “Mary Virginia, did you know that I used to pray that God would give me a daughter? I prayed that God would put a baby
Last weekend Tom took Mary Virginia to a Father Daughter Dance. As he was getting ready, I encouraged him to put on a suit instead of a sport coat. “Some of the dads will be wearing tuxes, Tom. And come here, look. Elizabeth Phillips has already posted photos. Come look at what Sloan’s wearing.” Tom didn’t even
I rarely put on makeup these days, but when I do Mary Virginia is always underfoot. “Mommy, can I have lotion in my hair? Can I have deodorant on my belly? What are you puttin’ on your mouth?” If we’re going somewhere that requires more than me redoing my ponytail when we arrive, Tom and I team
I was looking for Mariah Carey’s Christmas album on our AppleTV the other day, and Mary Virginia looked at the display of the album covers and asked, “Mommy, is that a picture of you?” Oh, my darling little sugar plum. Moments like this almost make up for last night when you smeared potatoes in the
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
David is going to preschool three days a week this year, and Mary Virginia is going two days. So on Monday, we spent all morning rushing around, fumbling through our new preschool routine, and also explaining to Mary Virginia over and over and over that David was going to school today, but she was going
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
Before I begin, I’d like to answer the two questions people keep asking me about Mary Virginia. First, Mary Virginia has been sleeping like a champion. A CHAMPION. Well, ok. Maybe not a champion, but she’s been sleeping like a normal toddler. She wakes occasionally at night, but no one is singing nursery rhymes from midnight to
Mary Virginia turned two last weekend, and we had a little party to celebrate. And by “little” I mean little. Because normally when I say “little” I mean that I restrained the guest list to our 20 closest friends and their 400 children. The theme of this party was “mama just had a baby.” I
We were outside the other day and Mary Virginia climbed onto the armrest of my chair. As soon as she did it, she started shrieking with joy, “LOOK AT ME! I’M ON YOUR CHAIR! I’M SO HIGH!!” I’m not sure if she was proud of her accomplishment, or pleased with herself because she figured out