From the yearly archives:

2009

Let there be light!

December 30, 2009

The solstice is a week behind us, but the cold days sure don’t seem longer or brighter yet. When the sun is out it’s too cold for me to want to go out and play in it. Dark comes too early too early. I feel it, the kids feel it. My beloved mother noticed us [...]

Tagged as: health, holiday

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Serena vs. Nori

December 29, 2009

In the further adventures of Serena and food: we went to a friend’s house this evening where they were making sushi. We offered her some and she complained that it was stinky in her nose and turned her face away. She pretended to be shy, and demanded to be taken into another room and read [...]

Tagged as: food, serena

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Christmas Chocolates

December 28, 2009

Serena had chocolate for breakfast Christmas morning. We feed our children on an exclusive diet of chocolate kisses, coca-cola and rusty nails, so this morning wasn’t anything special. Actually, of course, she sees candy pretty much only on holidays. Usually even then I try to curtail her consumption, but what would you do in the [...]

Tagged as: holiday, serena

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Natural Consequences

December 24, 2009

Serena is hard at work on a project. She’s painting that jar with every fiber of her being. Rio comes down and stands next to her, a little too close. Rio: Serena, do you promise that you will [insert ridiculous scheme that benefits only five-year-olds whose names begin with R] Serena: ignores her. Keeps painting. [...]

Tagged as: parenting, rio, serena

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Cookies for Santa

December 23, 2009

Rio has just figured out that Santa will be coming tomorrow night. “We’ll have to put out a plate of cookies for him,” I said. “Cookies? For Santa?” “Yes. You put out cookies and milk for him. Santa likes cookies.” “We get to eat the rest of the cookies, right? We don’t have to give [...]

Tagged as: holiday, rio

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Going to visit Santa

December 22, 2009

The children have built a car in the kitchen. They are driving to “the arctic” to visit Santa. Why? “This is in olden times, before there were any pencils. We went into the woods to find some feathers and there weren’t any. Besides, when we went to the store to buy ink, all the stores [...]

Tagged as: holiday

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The Glass Mouse

December 21, 2009

I’ll have a longer holiday post tomorrow. But in the meantime I give you the strangest story told around the Solstice fire this year. Listen carefully: the audio is terrible but worth it.

Tagged as: creative, holiday, rio, solstice

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Princess Smackdown

December 18, 2009

We have two guest stars at home today: Rio and another kid who both go to private schools that let out freakishly early for holiday break. The kids are doing what they do every morning: eating their body weight in Cheerios, playing with the princess dolls in the dollhouse, and reading every book they can [...]

Tagged as: play, princesses, rio, serena, wildflowers

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Dentist: Do Not Mess With This Kid

December 16, 2009

Rio totally rocks her dentist visit. She’s so fierce. She totally jumped into that chair and opened wide. I want to be like her when I grow up.

Tagged as: health, rio

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Cheer Me Up!

December 15, 2009

The weather is getting to me more than usual this year; I’m grumpy and tired a lot of the time. On top of that, my life has been shifting really fast. It’s all good stuff – I’m suddenly gainfully employed as a writer and getting a fair amount of attention for my blog, my health [...]