Students across Ohio are taking their OAAs today. The Ohio Achievement Assessments. You know, the ones that “matter.” My boys are still too young for these tests but one year from now, Braedan will be subjected to a special kind of pressure and strain the likes of which he’s never experienced. Not that he will […]
Austin’s preschool teaches physics. And geology, biology and chemistry. They also teach astronomy and astrophysics. Human psychology with a special focus on group dynamics. Geometry, measurement, civil engineering, thermal dynamics and heat transfer (melting crayons in an electric skillet), art therapy, art history and just plain art. There are lots of other things they do, […]
Here’s a link to an article I wrote for the St. Baldrick’s website, which was posted today. They had originally asked me to write something about the sibling aspect and the friendly competition we set up between Braedan’s and Austin’s teams. But that can be a bit of a touchy subject around here, especially as […]
Not bad at all. We just completed what was undoubtedly the best year of Austin’s life. The only year of his life, so far, without hospital stays (those few overnight hours in the ER in June in the ER were nothing). The only year of his life, so far, without surgery. The only year of […]
I’ve have spent years trying my hand at elaborate birthday cakes for my children. It all started with the 3-dimensional Hummer cake for Braedan’s 4th birthday, which I have woefully few pictures of: Then there was the Dumbo cake, which required an actual trial cake a few days before: The rocketship blasting off into space […]
People always comment on how lousy it is that Braedan’s birthday is Christmas Eve. And granted, it’s not ideal. He has a major crush of celebrations and presents all at once, with nothing to balance it out across the year. It all feels rushed and squeezed in amidst the many many other festivities. But he […]
We were doing some repairs to the ceiling in Austin’s closet last week and so removed all of its contents to his bedroom floor (boy, that was scary). Along with an absurd array of clothes, shoes, blankets, puzzles and too small snowpants came his bag of wishing stars. It had been tucked away on the back […]
The transition from Thanksgiving to Christmas seems to get shorter and quicker every year. So now that we’ve all moved on to the next big thing, it’s time to think about giving. Every year, I encourage my kids, with limited success, to weed out their toys to make room for the inevitable mass of new […]
In this household, every day is a day of thanks giving. Not that it’s all hand holding and laughter around here (I say after sending the kids to their respective rooms so I can cook for five minutes without breaking up fights), but we are endlessly and eternally thankful for all that we have. First […]
There were a few good comments on Facebook following my last post. One from my friend with a middle school aged daughter that perfectly addressed the tricky issue of privacy in a public realm. She said that she keeps passwords for her daughter’s Facebook account, email and cell phone and would only use them if […]