By Veronica We do not have a television. We did not have high-minded reasons for pitching the tv. We did it for one reason only: whenever I have a tv, I watch garbage. For hours. Afterwards, I can not even tell you what I saw. Now we entertain ourselves with the internet. Whether it’s blogging…
Author Archives: Veronica
The Parrot and the Chocolate Shop
By Veronica A while back, I took my two oldest girls with me to a chocolate shop. I don’t want to mislead you; this is not a common occurrence. My girls are not compliant little angels who float in and out of candy stores without slavering or mussing their wings. But every now and then,…
Are Children a Kind of Pollution?
By Veronica You may have seen the articles popping up on news sites for the last few years. Maybe you’ve even received a sanctimonious lecture from a family member, friend or a stranger in the grocery store. Whether you’ve already received the memo or not, the word is out: having too many children hurts the…
The Heart-Shaped Box
By Veronica Ten years ago, Az the Husband brought me a gift of chocolates on Valentine’s Day. Our tender gifts still conformed to expectations: chocolates, jewelry, romantic dinners, etc. Now that we have been married for thirteen years, we get more sentimental over an unexpected basket of folded laundry or an afternoon to indulge in…
Three Is a Magic Number
By Veronica There is something about having three kids. Having one was hard; that sudden switch from non-parent to parent exhausts everybody who experiences it. Two had its challenges; I could no longer focus on meeting the needs of just one kid. Everything had to be shared. But three. Three was a whole new ballgame….
Comparing Children
By Veronica Is it ever okay to compare your children? Because I do it. There are the obvious things that are just part of getting to know your kids: this one is more stubborn than that one, this one needs cuddles more often than the others, this one is a great eater while the others…
Teaching Children What to Feel
By Veronica My oldest daughter, five-year-old JellyBean loves the story of Moses’ birth. Unfortunately, when she is acting out this story, she does not play Miriam or Jochebed or Moses. Instead, she strips down to a shirt tied around her waist, puts a pair of pants on her head for a headdress, and pretends that…
Sweetpea Sleeps
By Veronica My daughter Sweetpea dropped the regular nap last fall. There were too many afternoons where I would open her door after “naptime” only to find that she had spent the entire hour bouncing on her bed. We sighed, resigned ourselves to her new maturity, and stopped putting her down for naps (though she…
Closing the Door on Baby-Having
By Veronica Yesterday, I had a tubal ligation. My friend Deb drove me to a small medical center where an anesthesiologist put me under and my OBGYN zapped my fallopian tubes. The hospital where my babies were born is a Roman Catholic hospital, so the procedure could not be done there. At this point in…
Untrodden Ways
By Veronica I named her for my favorite flower, the small, unassuming, purple blossom that is scattered through lawns and woodlands. I did not know when I named her that there would be nothing unassuming about her. From the beginning, she had no warm-up cry. Her wails of dissatisfaction began full-throated and strong, a holler…