Not About Me

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 […]

True Self

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 […]

Ordinary

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 […]

Better Safe than Sorry

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 […]

As It Should Be

The CureSearch Walk was lovely. Thank you so much to those of you who came or who donated money to our team. Northeast Ohio raised more than $47,000 for the important research of the Children’s Oncology Group. Last year, because the weather was so awful, people registered quickly, walked with their heads down against the […]

Monkey Bars

My, what a year can do. Austin’s last day of preschool last year: And Austin’s last day of preschool last week: Which of course brings us back to that pesky old question: Was that his last last day of preschool? Weeeellll, I don’t think so. I’ve been leaning more and more in the direction of […]

Happily Ever After

There were many years when Mark and I planned our springs and summers around weddings. Weddings of his friends, my friends, family members. Weddings in Cleveland and Chautauqua, Chicago, Florida, New Orleans and Boston. And then suddenly, right when we were complaining about too many weddings, they stopped. We got old, I guess, and as […]

One Year Down …

… one to go. All went well today, except that everything took way longer than expected (I’m amazed that I still somehow expect things to go as scheduled). But Austin was a trooper — it is so much easier to wile away half a day in waiting rooms at this age than when he was […]

One Step Closer

Tomorrow are Austin’s one-year scans. He’ll have his usual procedures: labs drawn, followed by an abdominal ultrasound to look at the liver and kidney, followed by a chest CT, followed by a visit with his oncology team. And we’ll follow our regular schedule: a normal morning at school, then lunch at the fountain outside the […]

A Mother’s Joy

Early in Austin’s cancer journey, when I first requested wishes to transcribe onto the stars dangling from his hospital room ceiling, several people mentioned “homemade cards” in their wishes. As in, “I wish you live long enough to make plenty of homemade cards for your mom and dad.” At that point in my parenting career, […]