Thomas, my little herpetologist: Mommy did you know that snakes are the same as people? Except we have hands. And feet. And also talking powers. Thomas is currently in a strong animal phase. He’s always loved bugs and other creepy crawly creatures (like frogs and lizards), but now he’s old enough to remember obscure facts
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
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
A week after the big kids started back to school, Thomas started preschool. He didn’t want to hold his bag like I asked; he wanted to hold this plane instead. FOUR! What a difference a year makes. Thomas went to school wearing the same shirt David wore to the first grade, and hand-me-down Crocs with
If you follow me on this blog or Facebook or Instagram or have ever happened to drive past my house you probably know this: Thomas doesn’t love clothes. I dress him every day, sometimes more than once, and he always just takes them off. We have requirements about clothes that Thomas begrudgingly complies with. For
I feel like I’m in a weird in-between stage of parenting. I’ve got two big kids who are in full-day elementary school, and I’ve got two little ones at home with me. This one-foot-in-each-world is not unique to me, I know. But it’s tough on the sentimental side of me that wants to mark
This is Thomas’s birthday week. He turns four on Sunday, and we’ve been building up to his birthday in small, special ways — a happy birthday banner on the mantel, a special “T” balloon on his chair. Almost every day we gently explain to Thomas’s siblings that the reason we have different expectations for him
Last week my parents were visiting and we were all outside doing some yard work. Scratch that. I THOUGHT we were all outside. My dad went inside and he found Thomas in the kitchen, holding a worm in his hand, looking in the refrigerator. My dad backed Thomas out of the refrigerator and before he
I’m writing this on the eve of the first official day of my kids’ spring break from school. The break hasn’t even started and we’ve already more spilled drinks and danced nude in the sprinklers more than any MTV trip to Cancun. We don’t have any huge plans for the week. We’re going to eat
I’ve heard that great jokes are more about timing and delivery than the punchline. I don’t know if that’s completely true, but I do know that Thomas is really leaning into a nailing a good delivery. This is his favorite joke. We do this every day, several times a day. Every time he scream-laughs because he got