Month: August 2016

Our Roles: Which Parent Does What These Days?

The past fertilizes the future.

I read — and shared — an article the other day about what roles today’s mom and dads play within their households. I was surprised more…

Happy Birthday, FD!

Too, too fast.

Today the heart of my heart is 14. Hard to believe. I can only make sense of this is by imagining that she’s still her little self, but riding around atop a large, almost-grownup body, like the alien in Men In Black. more…

A Special Kind of Isolation

We can fit in. Really. I swear.

Yesterday, FD, SD, and I went over to the elementary school to pick up SD’s class assignment for first grade. They asked me, as they do annually, to check out contact card and make sure all the info is up-to-date. It was. As I handed back the green index card to a staffer she asked, “Still no additional emergency contact?” “Nope,” I said, “still no.” more…

It’s Complicated: Sharing Stuff We Don’t Want to Do

What day is it?

Doc and I have developed a system of alternating chores which is so complicated that FD has never mastered it. SD is trying to wrap her prodigious six-year-old intellect around it now. more…

Daddy’s Girl Is Now Mommy’s Girl, and I Miss Her

Sigh.

When we were first deciding to adopt, Doc and I each went off to think the idea through. I was at a local farm market when I finally realized how I felt. more…

The Best Fun Thing You Can Do with a Child

Do try this at home.

There are a lot of ways being with young children is fun. You can play with them, cuddle them, tickle them, or bounce them around. You can stand on the side and watch their silly, brilliant imaginations at work, or duck in laughter as they come careening by at crazy speed, likely en route to a spectacular slapstick wipeout. But there’s one thing that didn’t occur to me right away when FD was little more…

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