“Why are you wearing those sandals?”
“Because they are so beautiful.”
“But they don’t fit.”
“But I want them.”
Do you want things, wear things, even if they don’t fit, just because they are so beautiful?
My Girl from the East, who is four, is sitting on the floor trying to stuff her size 8 toddler feet into size 6 [...]
Sixteen years ago today — Presidents’ Day 1994, I was watching the Olympic Winter Games in Lillehammer, Norway, waiting for the Pitocin drip to work its magic and make a baby fly out of my body like a luge racer.
I wondered: boy or girl? What will he or she be like? Am I ready for this?
Turns [...]
My Girl from the East is high energy. This is an understatement. She needs her daily exercise. When she can’t get it in traditional ways outdoors such as when the weather is too cold or too wet, she will improvise. She likes to run back and forth and jump around in our bedroom. It drives [...]
I base many of my parenting decisions today on things I did as a teenager.
That is why my almost-16-year-old lives in a box in the basement.
Well, not yet. Soon. She’s going on her first big night out with another teenager in a car. Alone.
I’m worried. I sound like my mother did in 1980 when a [...]
This day is steeped in tradition.
In some parts of the country, it is known as Devil’s Night. Here it is called Angel’s Night.
Today is our Family Day. Three years ago today we opened our arms to Girl from the East, closed them around her slight frame and haven’t let go.
When we met her for [...]
It’s been a busy stretch, with many events converging upon a three-week period. I’m behind in my reading of other sites. I’m slow in developing posts. I have another award to acknowledge. I have outdoor chores and indoor duties. I have co-op preschool responsibilities and freelance work deadlines.
On the weekends, rather than play catch-up, I’ve [...]
The cure for boredom is curiosity. There is no cure for curiosity.
–Dorothy Parker
Push the pretty buttons
I do not like teenagers.
Yes. You read me correctly. I do not like teenagers.
I love my teenager.
The rest of the lot? Take them, please.
To those of you who work with this segment of the population: I admire you. Clearly, you are constructed of tougher material. You are sheet metal. I am onion skin.
Why do I [...]
It doesn’t happen often.
But, it happens.
It’s not going to stop.
Ever.
“Excuse me,” is how it begins. When I have a loaf of bread in hand, examining ingredients and calorie counts. When I’m loading my car in a windswept parking lot. When I’m at the community center watching my girl leap and jump and twirl.
“Would you mind [...]
Life is odd, isn’t it?
My Girl from the East does not know the name Michael Jackson.
We don’t own any of his music. There are no pictures of him in our house.
But right about the time MJ died, Girl from the East found this one white dress glove and started wearing it.
It is a right-handed glove.
Sometimes [...]
