Deep and Dark

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 […]

The Dude Diary

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 […]

The Ugly Truth

I apologize in advance if this one is disturbing for you, but I feel it’s a necessary part of our full story. On Austin’s birthday last week, Mark and I took a moment to look through the photo album that contained images from his first birthday, and to reflect for a minute on just how […]

P.S.

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 […]

All Out

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 […]

My Sunshine

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, […]

The Right Time

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 […]

Where Were You?

Where were you? For me, it was completely random. I was in a place I had never been before and would never be again. But one that is forever seared into my memory. A few weeks into my one and only year teaching middle school in Cleveland Municipal, I had a two day in-service for […]

Luxury

Austin had an appointment with his nephrologist today. That’s the kidney doctor for those of you not in the know. While we don’t have any official results from his labs yet, she did say that his estimated GFR is now about 60. If you remember back to last spring when we were trying to decide […]

Half My Strength

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 […]