Right around the end of August, the laziness of summer starts to feel gluttonous instead of luxurious, and mom decides it’s time to whip our ship into shape. Mostly, this means taking the controls around screentime from Bluey. This doesn’t mean our family is never on screens, it just means Anna and I are working
Thomas is almost six, which means he’s at the apex of the picky-eater curve that all of my kids have traveled. They start out as adventurous eaters that’ll try literally everything and then consume almost everything they try. Then they realize, around 18 months, that they have a choice in the matter, and why would
At a recent doctor’s appointment, our pediatrician was rolling through some general healthy habits for five-year old kids. She was talking through recommendations about stuff like exercise, screen time, eating vegetables, drinking a glass of water with every meal and snack, and, hmmm, hey doctor? Any thoughts on the benefits of wearing a pair of
We aren’t a condiment family. Did you know that? Nearly 10 years of blogging and I’ve never mentioned it. Tom doesn’t like mayonnaise — that’s generally well-known. But neither Tom nor I like ketchup, and we could take or leave most everything else. Tom doesn’t even use salad dressing. (As with everything, I’m much less
One morning after breakfast, I was standing at the counter washing dishes and Anna crawled under the kitchen table. She looked up at the underside of the table and asked, “What’s this, Mommy?” I answered her broadly, not sure if she was asking about the base of the table or pointing at a screw or
I realized the other day that I included Anna in her very first Semantics post without absolutely any pomp and circumstance or even a mention. Anna is talking a lot these days, and even though a lot of what she says only a mother (or 5-year-old brother) can understand, she’s grown a lot since we took
Soon we will all embark on the strangest year of school in recent history. Some kids are going to school at school, some kids are going to school in the mornings on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, and some kids are going to school via an Internet connection. And some kids? Some kids are being homeschooled
One thing that happened in the first few weeks of the quarantine was that Mary and I had to get used to spending so much time with each other. You see, the two of us have a lot of opinions and emotions, so many that we had to move some furniture and take down a
David and Mary were fighting about what would happen if, sometime in the future, they found out that Tom and I were actually some sort of royalty. Like, how do they handle the sudden bump in status? What about all the wealth? Or the horses and carriages, what’s a commoner to do!? This argument was
Thomas was at the counter struggling with scissors. I watched him for a bit, then I offered to help. Thomas watched me easily cut what he’d been struggling with and asked, “Why did they work for you and not for me?” “Because I’ve been using scissors for more years than you’ve been alive,” I answered