11:36 a.m. Dear E, Today is your first full day of kindergarten – JK. I am sitting here fervently wishing I were a fly on the wall of your classroom. Are you having fun? Are you nervous about anything? Did (do) you like your first recess? Are the other kids nice? Have you eaten any…
Tag: new experiences
Things to be grateful for when travelling with small children
Travelling with little kids is tough and stressful. As such, it would be easy to kvetch about the monkey wrench in our travels to my cousin’s wedding in New Mexico last weekend – the storm that delayed our flight from Buffalo, meaning the folks at Washington Dulles didn’t have our gate ready, meaning we missed…
Creamy Spring Cauliflower-Cheddar-Sorrel Soup
Our family is lucky enough to be able to buy super-fresh, uber-local veggies from gardener friends of ours. Our first batch included pea shoots, green onions, rhubarb, and sorrel. To my knowledge, I had never cooked with or even eaten sorrel. It sounded like something from Outlander. But I figured, sorrel is a green leafy…
Happy New Year!
It’s January Seventh, Twenty-Thirteen! Happy new year (more or less), Di-hards. It’s the first day back to school, the 13th day after Christmas. As good a day as any for a new year post in which I lighten up a little bit… with a silly celebratory questionnaire meme. Woo hoo! {Disclaimer: Dilovely wrote these responses,…
Best and Worst Parenting Moments (in one day)
Yesterday there were some radically contrasting highs and lows in the tapestry of our family life. Some high points with Baby A: Starting to get waking smiles this past week – the ones when she’s looking right at us, so they seem like she means them. She peed on her potty for the first time!…
Baby Lessons, and How Daddy Saved the Day (or Night)
There is a lot I’m re-learning about having a very young baby. Lots of things I only half-remembered, especially the counter-intuitive parts. For instance: The more sleep she gets, the sleepier she will be. The more tired – or overtired – she gets, the more awake she seems. She may hate the swaddle (and she…
The new life of the two-child family
And now, how we’re doing back on the home front, after 2.5 weeks: Mommy, Daddy, big brother, little sister… just like the Berenstain Bears. The New Family What’s the same: The new baby looks like Daddy! Although now, people are more likely to say she looks like her brother (who is Daddy’s Mini-Me). She does,…
To my big boy, before his little sister arrives
Dearest E, We have been talking about your baby sister a lot this week, because we know she will be here very soon. In fact, as it’s now Thursday evening, chances are very good you’ll meet her within 48 hours! This morning you remembered, very soon after waking up, that your sister is almost here….
Talking about anatomy with a preschooler
Sean and I have always used the scientific words for certain body parts when talking with E. There are reasons for this. For one thing, we both know that personally, we would feel like tools if we used words like winkie and hoo-ha or whatever. (This is why I never got the immensely popular “Once…
Encouraging the love between boys
Imagine a 12-year-old boy with a chip on his shoulder. He moves from an inner-city school in a large metropolis to a well-to-do urban school in a much smaller city. He has been moved, for the most part, because his mom doesn’t have a clue how to control or improve his behaviour. The administration at…