This past weekend, Jim, the younger boy and I took a quick trip to Tennessee to hang with the in-laws. As a group, we didn’t have any set plans to speak of. (My individual dance card, however, was full: I had plans to lunch with my favorite Dad-of-triplets on Friday as well as a visit with Kate, Bean, and Squeaks on Saturday.) Overall, it was going to be one of those great, lazy weekends during which we wouldn’t do much except hang out. Pretty exciting stuff, because having no firm plans is a once-in-a-blue-moon thing for us. About eight hours into the ten-hour drive, the younger boy leaned forward from…
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Do What I Say, Not What I Do.
We have this little “joke” in our house. Whenever there is a car parked in the driveway*–which is often these days, what with the older boy having his own car and all–anyone who leaves the house to get in a car and drive away gets the warning, “Don’t hit so-and-so’s car! haha!” It doesn’t matter if Jim or I parked outside of the garage for some odd reason, or if Julesie is visiting, or if it’s just the aforementioned older boy’s car, parked in its normal space at the lower left end of the driveway, the warning is the same: Don’t hit it! HAHA! You can imagine my surprise when,…
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Apparently I Need My Religious School Teaching License Revoked.
My second grade religious school class was working on a project for an upcoming all-school event called “Torah Day”. We were asked to make puppets of some sort that portray different people from our bible stories (Old Testament). My co-teacher and I decided, due to the age and wide range of motor skills in our 19 students, to do some simple paper-on-a-stick puppets. We started with a simple “gingerbread man shape” on white paper, and then glued them onto a colored background before putting the popsicle stick on the back. As you might expect, some of my seven-to-eight year olds did some quick scribbling and then decided they were finished,…
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Overconfident=Bad.
I’ve always been a great speller. As a kid, being able to spell what I thought was a difficult word made me walk with my head held a little higher, and I loved when people told me how smart I was (who wouldn’t?). But I was small potatoes, really, when it came to spelling. Growing up, I always admired the kids in my school who walked around with the study guides for the big spelling bees. I always thought it would have been so FUN to be crowned the National Spelling Champion. Unfortunately, classroom spelling bees that led to the school-wide spelling bees, which led to the district-wide spelling bees,…
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Windy City Snapshot
The 17 year old and I met my sister at the riverwalk so she could take his senior portraits. Unfortunately, the weather didn’t cooperate–with its coldness and wind and all–so we cut the session short.
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Sometimes the First Bite Is Also the Last.
Most parents have a strategy for getting their young children to eat foods that they don’t want any part of. If we never pushed our kids to try new foods, they’d grow up on Gerber applesauce and pureed carrots, after all. Some parents make their kids eat one bite of the new food for every year of their age. Some parents make their kids try just one bite. Some parents make their kids clear their plates, and some parents avoid the issue entirely by making an alternate meal for their finicky kids. I am fairly certain that, growing up, I just had to have a taste of the foreign foods…
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At The Very Least, NOBODY Likes Being Taunted By A Teddy Bear…
Back in December of 1996, Jim found out that he would be attending a week-long conference in San Francisco, for work. To our surprise, his boss at the small company he worked for at the time told him that he should bring his family at the company’s expense. (Does that even happen anymore? Doubtful.) We were thrilled beyond belief as we packed up what was necessary to go away for a week with an almost-two-year-old and a four-year-old. Being the Type-A person that I am when it comes to everything vacation planning, I did my research on San Francisco (we had never been there before) and made lists upon lists…
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My Mom of the Year Award
Many of my friends have written about their “Mom of the Year” (not) awards, and I thought I’d toss my own story out there. It’s incredibly hilarious now, and in fact I barely remember anything about it because it was such a little blip, but it really could have turned out badly. In retrospect, I view it in my head like part of some 80s sitcom: all’s well that ends well. J was just a toddler of two. I do remember that. I remember that I was home with the boys but I can’t remember if Jim was home. Wow, this is a great story. I don’t remember what I…
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A Word To The Wise
I know there are three weeks to go before July 4th, but each year as it approaches, my mind gets stuck on the memory of one July 4th holiday in particular. I will share it with you today, for your safety AND amusement. When your kid tells you that the neighbor boy got this cool new toy for his birthday called a Stomp Rocket, and is bursting with excitement about checking it out, that’s cool. It’s nice to have a playmate who conveniently lives next door and is always willing to share new stuff. It’s great to watch them for a few minutes through your bay window in your quiet…