By Kelly I will never forget the first time it happened. It was around 7:00 PM on a sunny summer evening. I asked Natalie, then two years old, to call her Daddy inside for dinner. She went to the window, looked out toward the lake and yelled, “Coh-ee! Dinner ready!” It was as startling as…
But you can’t tell mom…..
By Michael Parents are supposed to be a team, working together, presenting a consistently united front. As we all know, that’s why parent and partner have exactly the same letters. So I was reminded last week about a question that challenges all of us at one point or another. Is it ever okay to have…
Honoring their instincts
By Gretchen “Mom?’ my child said in a small voice, ‘I don’t think you should eat the pie.” I was caught by surprise and asked why. My husband had bought the pie only minutes earlier, indulging one of my late-pregnancy cravings for something untimely and ridiculous. I was looking forward to strip-mining my key lime…
World Breastfeeding Week: How Breastfeeding Changed Me
By Sarah World Breastfeeding Week is on. This year’s theme is Just 10 Steps, which is about the 10 steps to ensure breastfeeding success for health care professionals and parents.There are a lot of good resources available and, if you haven’t read it yet, there are 101 good reasons to breastfeed. Joseph breastfeeding at the…
Civilize the Savages
By Kelly My two-year-old was eating a bag of snack mix this morning, courtesy of her Daddy’s flight home from Chicago last night. At one point, I turned around and saw a small, wet pile of something on the floor. “What is that Teyla?” I said, pointing to the quarter-sized mess. “Gross!” she said, wrinkling…
Chelsea Getting Married
By Michael President Obama was on The View last week, chatting up the ladies about all sorts of earthshaking issues, when he was asked about his attendance at Chelsea Clinton’s wedding. He indicated he had not been invited and, of course, the media were filled with other names of people who were excluded from the…
Journeys, The Pink and The Blue
By Megan I’ll spend this week packing and training and mentally preparing to participate in the Susan G. Komen 3-Day for the Cure in my adopted home city, Chicago, starting Friday. But the busy-ness and excitement of this culminating week, after many months of fundraising and walking and shoe-fittings and sock-experimentation hasn’t in the least…
Harvest
By Mary This afternoon I sat in my shady corner of the deck next to our pool, and watched my kids splash into the water one by one. With only one child in the water, waves were small. But as more kids splashed and leaped their way in, the water got choppier, the waves bigger,…
Calm your heart
By Sarah For some reason, when my tinies are all wound up, I press my hand to their chest and quietly say “Calm your heart.” I don’t know why I do it. I’ve never heard or seen anyone else do it. I don’t remember when it started. But whenever Anne (4) or Joseph (2) seem…
Pushing Them Away, But Always a Fan
By Michael I was watching a hummingbird feeding its young and I wondered when the clock would run out. At what point would the mamabird stop bringing nectar or nits or whatever to her brood and force them out on their own? Would she actually kick them out of their very tiny nest and hope…