From the monthly archives:

May 2009

My daughter, my…er…joy

May 31, 2009

Serena has been sneaking up on having a two-year-old temper. This afternoon, she pitched a ferocious wobbly, at the height of which she maliciously (yes, maliciously, with clear intent and an evil gleam in her eye) peed on a book in the middle of the living room floor because I would not let her use [...]

Tagged as: humor, parenting, serena

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Alphabetical Objects

May 30, 2009

I ran across this page of interesting alphabets the other day. It’s not exactly for kids. One of the alphabets was made by clothespinning flesh into letter shapes. I personally do not want to put that idea in my five-year-old’s head. But a lot of the alphabets are charming, and very kid friendly. There are [...]

Tagged as: art, education

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Talking to kids about sex

May 29, 2009

If you’re at all like me, you don’t enjoy talking to kids about sex. I love talking to kids, and I love talking about sex, but the two together can get pretty awkward pretty fast. With my little ones, this is mostly “funny” awkward. It’s my four-year-old asking every adult who sets foot in the [...]

Tagged as: education, sex

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still five, now with more photos

May 28, 2009

Rio’s goddessmama posted a lovely set of pictures from her party, including this gem: The fairy cake was one of the most ridiculous food events I have ever participated in, and it was *exactly what she wanted. Yes, Rio, just this once you can have your cake and eat it too. Enjoy!

Tagged as: birthday, photos, rio

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"The Sheriff is back in town"

May 27, 2009

The scene: my bedroom, late at night. Y’all are adults, and can use your imaginations to fill in the action behind this (very quiet, sneaky, don’t-let-the-kids-catch-us) dialog: Me: “mmmm” Husband: “ooooh” Me: “oh! oh! Oooooh!” The door slams open, hard. We jump apart like teenagers caught in the back of a car. When I dare [...]

Tagged as: funny, sex

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National Missing Children's Day

May 26, 2009

Yesterday appears to have been National Missing Children’s Day. You can read some exciting tips about keeping your children safe from abduction here. They include things like: sneaking home and ringing your own doorbell to test your child and see if she will answer it (she should not, according to this article). teaching your kid [...]

Tagged as: news, parenting

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love letter for a five-year-old

May 25, 2009

Today you crawled into my bed singing, “I am five. I am five. I am five.” This is because you are five. You nursed for the very last time. We’ll see how you feel about that tomorrow, but today you seemed content with the plan. From morning cuddles, the day was full of questions: Do [...]

Tagged as: birthday, rio

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What does obnoxious mean?

May 23, 2009

At dinner, Rio engaged in a little friendly spitting-water-at-her-sister. “Rio, you are being obnoxious,” I said, like you do when your kids are spitting at the dinner table. “Mama, if I was your mother and you were my child and you were five years old and you were behaving this way, I would tell you [...]

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Thirsty kittens

May 22, 2009

Serena has started prowling around my legs going “meow, meow, meow” when she wants water. I assume she learned this from the cats. Just now, Rio came up to her with a glass of water saying, “Look, Serena, I have your meow-meow.”

Tagged as: funny, serena

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Is this a clock?

May 21, 2009

IMG_3894.JPG, originally uploaded by MzMuze. This is a photograph of the clock on top of my kids’ puppet theater. The hands only move at the urging of human hands to set the time. There’s no battery or clockwork behind the face, so normally it does not keep time. We use it as a learning toy [...]