As I drove home last night, I witnessed the first Christmas decorations of the year. Nothing too fancy - a porch outlined in multi-colored lights, a wicker light-up deer, and a big inflatable Santa in the front yard. OK, so it was a little ugly. And for a brief moment I started to panic, thinking to myself, "Wait, we have no decorations up yet! Where are our decorations?"

Then my senses came back to me, and I reminded myself… Read More

On Saturday, my husband and I split the childcare duties. He took Cordy for the afternoon, while I had Mira. I didn't want to stay in the house all day, so I planned to go out with my nearly sister-in-law. She admires our Siamese cats, and wanted to go to a cat show to find a breeder. It was going to be a relaxing day for me, since I didn't have a preschooler to keep away from the show cats.… Read More

Halloween was last Wednesday, right? So why is it a week later and I still can't convince my preschooler to let it go?

This was the first year she really got into the concept of Halloween. She loved trick or treat - wearing a costume, going door to door, getting bright, shiny pieces of candy to put in her bucket, and looking at all the spooky decorations. I thought the ghosts and goblins might scare her, but my warrior princess has… Read More

It was not a good weekend for Cordy. After a week of switching to a morning class at preschool, we thought it would be an easy weekend. She had adjusted to the new school schedule without trouble, and seemed to be doing better overall.

But then Saturday she was disconnected from everything around her. We call these her bad days. Some days she's very interactive and playful, making eye contact and pulling us into her games. But on other days,… Read More

Tonight was our city's trick or treat, and this was Cordy's third time going door to door. Her first year, she wasn't walking yet, and so we put her in the stroller and spent a lot of the time meeting new neighbors. Last year, she would go up to each house and let people put candy in her pumpkin, but she didn't really understand what was going on. This year, though, she understood the excitement of Halloween and spent the… Read More

I've mentioned it before, but it bears repeating: Mira is not an easy baby.

I was certain that my second child would have to be an easy-going child. After all, we suffered through colic, reflux and a general grumpy attitude with the first, so we were owed some sort of cosmic karmic repayment, right?

Apparently karma doesn't work that way. Mira is also a grumpy baby who hates, more than anything, to be put down. "You've spoiled her," my mom tells me… Read More