I seem to have entered a new phase of parenting for which I feel most unprepared. Braedan, currently completely engrossed with reading The Diary of a Wimpy Kid books, purchased a “Dude Diary” at his school book fair the other day. It came with a key and everything! Of course, he worked extra hard to […]
Two other little tidbits about the Rocket Car party. On Wednesday afternoon, the day of Austin’s actual birthday and the day before the party, the Rocket Car guy called me up at 3:30 to say, “Just checking in to see if you still want me to come even though it’s raining.” Hmmm. Well, it was […]
Surely you must understand that I simply cannot keep myself from going all out for Austin’s birthdays. Which means, by default, that I go all out for Braedan’s birthdays too. We’ve had a lot of years of elaborate parties around here! Last spring at an auction, Mark and I purchased an hour on the Euclid […]
Today is a day we weren’t sure we’d ever reach: Austin’s 5th birthday. And yet, here we are. I was the parent helper this morning for his preschool class, where we celebrated with frosted zucchini muffins (at Austin’s request) to which one child asked in disbelief, “Are there really cucumbers in here?” And moments later, […]
You’d think we parents would learn after a while that so many of the things we worry about regarding the development of our children seem to eventually just resolve themselves. I remember fretting over the fact that Braedan was the last kid in his playgroup to learn to walk. This was a wonderful group of […]
Nine years ago yesterday, I married someone who is pretty much the best guy in the universe. Over the weekend at my high school reunion, I spoke with a couple different people who made comments like, “I don’t know how you did what you were able to do,” or “I never would have had the […]
Thank you for the many, many comments pouring in on this subject. It is always good to hear from parents who’ve struggled with the same issue, both to borrow your techniques and to hear how dramatically your kids have improved as time’s gone on. In fact, there are some people I’m stunned to hear were […]
I gotta tell you, one of the hardest things about parenting is understanding a child who is deeply different from you. Of course, conventional wisdom always say it’s hard when you’re too much alike also, as when two strong headed personalities clash. But at least the parent can understand that; you can see where your […]
Surely you won’t be too surprised when I tell you who had a fever and was vomiting today? That’s right: my sweet Brady-Bean, Brado-potato, the Braedanator. (Please, do everything you can to restrain yourself from ever repeating those pet names in his presence or he will disown me.) Yup, came home yesterday afternoon and crashed […]
The boys and I went out to Chagrin Falls (boy, is that far away) for the Kick It event Friday evening. Their team had fun despite being a hodgepodge of ages and sizes and ability levels. We literally had three year-olds who didn’t know which way to run after kicking and ten year-olds who were […]