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Truce
The relationship between Piper Finn and Beckett has been turbulent since their first meeting. Their two years together have been filled with highs and lows. The highs – sweet photos, short hugs, occasional sharing. The lows – pushing, smacking, hitting, general lack of kindness. This weekend, a new level of understanding was reached between these young friends. While enjoying a taco together on a recent outing, Beckett and Piper sat beside one another. Beck leaned in and bumped his fist a few times at Piper. Piper leaned in toward him and whispered, “Beckett?” Beckett put down his fist and said, “Huh?” “No fighting today, okay?” Beckett responded, “Okay.” And their…
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How We Roll
Recently Mosely asked if she could dress Piper Finn for our day’s outing. I said yes. Not only because I like to encourage sisterly love and older sibling helping, but because it was a busy morning. Kevin was out of town. Breakfast had not been served. (Or, more accurately, breakfast had not been passed out in cellophane wrapped squares. Hey, I think they were organic pop tarts, does that make it better? Who cares – right?) I still had to dress Wilder. London couldn’t find her other Chuck Taylor and Bergen was not satisfied with the choice of button up shirts I had placed on the table for him to…
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Friday Morning
Friday morning. Remember our breakfast schedule? Now our muffins are dinsoaur-shaped. And this morning, London made them. (Almost) entirely by herself.
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Receiving Good Gifts: Part I
It’s fun to do things for other people. Mosely and I made my mom’s Snickerdoodle recipe this week. (The recipe card is actually in her handwriting. I like using that card.) And when we were done baking, Mosely wanted to give all of our cookies away. To Mandy and Jody and Nate and Lanier and Greg Boone and the guys who were cutting a tree down in our yard right then – Ben and Jim. So she put cookies in two cups and carried them to Ben and Jim. And she bagged some cookies for Nate and Lanier. (Apologies Mandy, Jody and Greg – not sure I remembered to follow…
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Do Numbers Lie?
5: Dentist appointments yesterday. 7: Stops on yesterday’s outing. 3: Outfits Fox wore before 11 a.m. 1:50 a.m.: Numbers on my digital watch when I laid my weary head to rest the previous evening. 6:30 a.m.: Time the alarm went off yesterday morning. 8:30 a.m.: Time I actually got out of bed. 3: Minutes I spent in the shower because I slept past my alarm clock. 2: Hours spent at the dentist’s office yesterday. 25: Dollars earned from selling our old printer/copier. 200: Inventions made by students at the Invention Convention we attended yesterday. 6: Cupcakes consumed by our family at Strossner’s Bakery. 14: Wet feet climbing over the seats…
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Capable
There’s just something about a tiny baby’s hands – isn’t there? They just look adorable. Sometimes they’re kind of wrinkly and even a little peely. (I just coined that word. For the record.) Honestly, as cute as they are though, and as much as I love to kiss them and admire them, they really can’t accomplish much early on. They only grasp what you place in them and they don’t even work really well in unison with one another just yet. But, man. You just blink a couple hundred times or so and those mini hands morph into something else entirely. I’ve been noticing the hands of my “bigger” kids…
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Things That I Do Not Do Well
1. Remember to change our home’s air filters. 2. Small talk. 3. Go to bed at a reasonable hour. 4. Sweep. 5. Drive at night. 6. Take out trash. 7. Get up when the alarm first sounds. 8. Chit chat on the telephone. 9. Watch commercials. 10. Return phone calls. 11. Clap in rhythm. 12. Potty train my children. 13. Respond to e-mails in a timely fashion. 14. Keep Magnus from making a mess. 15. Check the mail.
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I Wish This Was More Unusual Than It Sounds
As Piper was just heading to her nap, she said, “I poo on little people.” I sort of laughed. Because it sounded funny, okay? And then, because I wanted to move on to my next task, I said something like, “Oh, okay. Sleep well, Little Willow.” And she said, “I poo on little people.” Insistent – eh? Not satisfied with my response? Alright Piper. “Oh. Well, Piper. Don’t poo on little people.” And then she pointed to a basket on her floor. Full of Fisher-Price Little People. Uh-oh. Now things were beginning to make more sense. Unfortunately. The Little People victim was not hard to spot. The brown smear across…
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This Game Needs A New Name
One of the most enjoyable aspects about raising kids has been the opportunity to pass on games and activities and tradtions that I played as a kid. And just this week I remembered a new one. Funeral. I think we made it up one long ago Virginia summer at the Wickstrum’s farm. It’s a simple game, really. Probably born of hot summer days and looking for excuses to not run around outside. One person pretends to be, er, dead. The, uh, dead person lies on the ground alone, arms crossed. After the deceased is lying still and his face is composed, the other players enter the room. The goal of…
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Why You Should Always Read The Label First
Check out the sweet sweater little Willow is wearing in this photo. Isn’t it cute? It’s wool. I bought it at the Gap maybe eight years ago. For myself. But one day I washed it. And dried it. And now a two-year-old is wearing it.
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I’ve Been There
I saw a woman at the children’s museum we visited this week. She had five children with her – just like me. And her kids were a lot like mine . . . kind, funny, rowdy, polite, unruly, curious, speedy. Just like any number of small people that we know. I was sitting on a bench feeding Fox his lunch and I was watching this family. They were preparing to leave the museum, but this mother of five wanted one little group photo before they left. She lined them all up, posed them properly. (Anyone who has photographed children in groups knows what a daunting task that can be.) They…
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I Like To Read: The Red Pony, A Book Review
I like to read. (And I wish I had more time for it. One day, right?) Left to myself I would read primarily fiction – my favorites are Lee Smith and Sharyn McCrumb, Ron Rash and Appalachian authors in general. But as a former English major in college and current English teacher I feel an obligation to keep up my reading of classic literature. Actually, it’s less an obligation and more a simple desire to keep my mind working in some other direction than diapers and Cheerios and the easiest way to clean my filthy oven. So, I…
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The Chronicles of Avoiding Wal-Mart
Day One: I needed a few groceries. I shopped at our local Bi-Lo . . . avoided the yellow smiley face, earned fuel perks points and saved $46 on a $106 grocery trip with their daily double coupons. Kevin even joined my shunning and purchased the just-released Where the Wild Things Are at Target instead. Day Two: Received an e-mail requesting me to complete an opinion survey about my recent site-to-store purchase. You better believe I was excited to spend my ten minutes filling out that puppy. And there was even a space to add my own comments – so I told them about our little shun. (Do you…
