Parenting Notebook
Sunday I was finishing up my story on the state swimming meet at my desk. Around the corner, I heard C. reading a book to S.. It didn’t register at first, but soon I stopped writing and paused to listen closer. C. wasn’t slowly picking out sight words or reading some book for early readers that mixes pictures and words.…
Weekend Notes
Some various and sundry notes about the weekend past. I covered the boys high school state championship this weekend. As always, it was something else. The event itself is kind of tedious, especially when I only had one swimmer, who was in the finals of two events, to write about. Watching the crowd is the best. I believe I’ve written…
A Little Privacy Please
It is winter, which means we spend a lot of time in our basement where it is warmer and less drafty than our family room. I, especially, tend to head down there in the evenings to watch TV, read, and relax after the girls have gone to bed. Recently M. let me know she was keeping tabs on me. “Dad, I…
Party Notes
Book-ending our vacation were L.’s first two birthday parties that were her own. She’d been to several parties over the years, but always because she was the third sister, not because it was the party of someone her age. So she was awfully excited about these two gatherings. It was funny to watch her. As one of the two or…
Down With Disney
We haven’t taken a ton of family vacations over the years. But when we have we’ve always been fortunate to have safe travels and good times at our destination. Our luck held up once again and we had a fantastic time last week on our first (and still expected to be last) trip to Disney World. I’ll do my best…
When Long Held Beliefs Are Cast Aside
There’s no easy way to say this, so I’m just going to let it rip: we’re going to Disney World tomorrow. I didn’t go when I was a kid. My parents were never in position to afford it when I was little. And I wasn’t ever into anything Disney. In fact, the contrarian streak in my personality could probably be…
Back To Normal
We’re back at it. M. and C. returned to school today and L. will head back tomorrow.1 It was a pretty good break. I was worried that things would spiral out of control last week, when S. was back at work. The girls were cuh-ray-zee in the first couple days after Christmas and I wondered how they were going to…
Christmas 2012
It was a pretty memorable Christmas for the B’s. Not because there were any super special presents, although we’re having trouble forcing the girls to stop playing with their Barbie Dream House. It wasn’t because of a surprise visitor, although we did have some fun guests. Nope, it was the anticipation of the Blizzard of 2012 that really added something…
Holiday Notes
I’ve written at least 2000 words about Newtown, but none of them have felt right to share here. I may yet post some thoughts about it, but for now let’s focus on more enjoyable stuff. So, holiday notes! Any home with girls in it will have a higher than normal amount of random glitter. Stuck to furniture, in the laundry,…
The Perfect Shot
Many of my regular readers are on our Christmas card list. Thus, they know that we generally go with the obvious option and just slap a picture of the girls on it. Over the years, that process has become problematic. I have no idea why, but there’s something about lining up for a picture in Christmas pajamas or other holiday…