Month: September 2017

My family loves surprises. A couple weeks ago, I drove to Chicago to surprise my mom for her 70th birthday. She and my dad had been on a cruise and I met them at the airport with a big sign my kids had made, complete with sparkly stickers and glitter glue. It was awesome. That particular… Continue reading Surprises Are My Love Language

As I was carrying my daughter down the stairs the other night, I had two concurrent realizations. The first was that carrying a forty pound four-year-old is a good way to trip and die. And the second was that, when my older daughter was four, she had two younger siblings and she never got carried.… Continue reading Birth Order Inevitably Impacts Parenting

I looked out of my kitchen window last weekend to see my six-year-old son poised on the brink of disaster. Somehow he had managed to maneuver a seven-foot-tall step ladder out of the garage – bypassing bicycles, lawn mower, and various pieces of sports equipment – and had partially unfolded it beneath a tree. He… Continue reading Can I Please Bubble Wrap My Children?

I took my kids to an outdoor sculpture park on Labor Day. My big takeaway from the day – besides the general thought that there really ought to be more weird sculptures in the world – was that one should always choose to be impressed. Now, it might seem like something you wouldn’t have a… Continue reading Choose to Be Impressed

I have a love/hate relationship with my lawn mower and the feeling appears to be mutual. On the plus side, it’s an electric start, self-propelled dream. I don’t so much mow the lawn as I keep my mower company while it does its thing. I get big sticks out of the way and move yard… Continue reading Frailty Thy Name Is Lawn Mower