New Friends
As I shared last week, we have new neighbors. They began to arrive Friday night, and then spent much of the weekend replacing carpet, painting, and moving their stuff in. We finally met them on Sunday. Nice folks. Like we guessed, they have one daughter who is about M’s age and another who is about C’s age. As a bonus, their cousins,…
Moving On
Wednesday was a sad day at our house. Our next-door-neighbors, who have lived here for nearly six years, finished three days of packing and left for a new home in Texas. They were pretty much the perfect neighbors: our age with kids, friendly and easy to talk to but not ever in our business. Their kids and our girls spent…
Three Things
This week’s list of things my daughters did that made me smile. M.: Her class has been busy sending Flat Stanleys all over the place this year. Among other places, they exchanged them with children at a school in Derby, UK. Her friend there returned a package last week that was loaded with cool stuff. British coins, postcards from the…
On Two Wheels
A follow-up to the 3 Things post from the weekend: M. has mastered the art of riding a bicycle. Early Saturday she was doing a great job of riding with me just barely guiding her, but was more interested in doing other things and cut the practice short. In the evening I made a quick trip to the grocery store and…
Three Things
Some things I’ve enjoyed about my daughters over the past week. M.: M. is always talking. Even if just to herself, her lips are always moving and sounds are coming out. We catch her whispering things to herself all the time. We’re working on bike riding. A week ago we took off her training wheels. She made some great progress…
Good Times
If we had to put a letter grade on our trip to Kansas City over the weekend, we would give it an A-. We had a great time seeing and catching-up with old friends. We hit a couple of my favorite eateries, although again with the kids present, I can’t go quite as nuts as I used to. And, obviously,…
She’s Mocking Me
Three year olds are always observing, cataloging, and analyzing the actions and speech of others. Then they throw it back at you and crack you up. Example: The other night the girls were playing outside after dinner. First M. came in saying that L. hit her. A few minutes later C. came in, crying, with the same complaint. I brought L. in and told…
Three Things
M.: Each morning when I drop M. off at school, she mumbles a goodbye to me as she scans the sidewalk between the van and the front door. She’s looking for friends who may be walking in. On the mornings she does run into someone she knows, I love the way they both light up, run to each other, start…
Three Things
Parenthood is a long, hard slog. It’s easy to get lost in all the negative things that wear you down each day/week/month. Thus, I’m going to attempt to end each week with three things that pleased me about my daughters over the previous seven days. Perhaps the public sharing of these acts will help me cope with the constant battles…
Toeing The Line
M. gave up something big for Lent this year: playing the Wii. She had already lost access to it for a week because of a controller-related incident, but I give her credit for selecting something like that as her sacrifice. Of course, by this weekend she was already saying she wanted to reclaim the Wii and exchange something else for…