By Kelly To parent successfully, one must be both teacher and student. Here is what I’ve learned from my children this past week. Note: This is an abridged version. Dialing 911 even in the middle of sequence still calls 911. Guess which 16-month-old doesn’t get to play with the phone anymore? Personal aside to the…
Category Archives: Kelly
Year-End Project
By Kelly The state of Minnesota apparently took an Instant Summer pill today. It’s so beautiful outside, it hurts. (Or maybe that’s just the 97-degree sunshine hitting my arms.) The kids in our neighborhood are riding bikes, shouting greetings, begging for another popsicle. According to one little girl, her whole body is boiling! As if…
Do Over
By Kelly The morning has not gone well. I had hoped to get up early and write, something I rarely do, but hold as an option of last resort when my brain is too mushy to be creative after the kids go to bed. (And last night, my brain was mushy by 9:00 PM; I…
The Shower
By Kelly It’s dusk. I sit in the rocking chair and read a book to the freshly bathed baby, who smells like the breath of heaven. On the other side of the wall, the shower runs. I can hear the rush of water, the splattering noise it makes on the curtain liner. But louder than…
The Children’s Museum That Wasn’t
By Kelly Imagine with me, if you will, a children’s museum built out of steel, concrete and hard lines. Almost everything is gray, so as not to intrude on a child’s sense of imagination, and the sparse displays are abstract, so as not to dictate to the child what to think or see. Oh. Wait….
Happy Winds-Day
By Kelly It’s an afternoon worthy of Pooh — blustery and wild. The clouds, puffs of translucent white, scuttle across the sky. They seem to be in a rush, racing across the turquoise canvas, casting a swirl of shadows on the baby grass outside my window. (Grasslets?) I wonder if they see the glory surrounding…
Great Expectations
By Kelly If you want to know what kind of day I’m having, you need ask only one simple question: Has the baby napped? If yes, then I’m having a glorious day, abounding in productivity and sprinkled with sunshine and rainbows. If no, then I’m having a frustrating day, thick with clouds and whining. Of…
Eating Out, Minus the Eating
By Kelly I distinctly remember my birthday last year. Teyla was just four days old. We had only gotten home from the hospital the day before. But since it was my birthday, and a Sunday, my husband bundled everyone up and took us to a fabulous brunch at a quaint, old inn near our house….
I Can’t Believe I’m Having Triplets
By Kelly I really want to write a crazy lead paragraph for this post — I found a toenail in my Jamba Juice today! I’m moving to Morocco! I drove my car off the side of a mountain and was buried in snow for days! — but I suspect you’re aware of the date already….
Is There a Word for Phobia of Children?
By Kelly Good gravy, yesterday was tough. My brain is still numb, my shoulders still clenched in an upright and locked position. I just now realized I forgot to call my sister back last night. And I do believe I didn’t go to the bathroom yesterday until I was getting ready for bed. (I developed…