When Babygirl was a teeny tot, she loved her babies like a real mama. She lined them up on meticulously smoothed dishtowels. She wiped their faces shiny-clean with baby wipes, and bundled them up safely in her stroller to roam around the apartment. We always took her aptitude for baby care as assurance that she herself was well-attended-to in daycare, kept clean, warm, and well-fed all day long. When Babygirl turned three a friend emailed me a SALE from the American Girl website. "These babies never go on sale!" she assured me. I do love me a sale. And so we acquired Bitty Baby. I ... [READ MORE]
But Where’s the Damn Tooth?
April 14, 2015 by Leave a Comment
If there is one anatomical thing I've learned in the past year it's that teeth are frickin' small. They might look really big in the mouth, and be able to inflict a decent amount of pain, but in actual fact, in the palm of your hand, they are REALLY. SMALL. And if you don't realize this at first, you totally (totally) realize it when you (you, not them) lose one -- after it's already been lost from the head of your child. LittleMan lost his first tooth in late June 2014, on my 36th birthday. My husband was out of town so a friend had stopped by for a glass of champagne, and the kids ... [READ MORE]
Do You Believe in Magic
March 13, 2015 by Leave a Comment
Riding home one afternoon, Babygirl expresses no shortage of concern that she does not own a green shirt. "Did you know? Did you know, Mommy? Mommy: there is something I have to tell you: on the Clover Day, the leprechauns will come and if you are not wearing green -- LittleMan, I have to tell you -- if you are not wearing green --" (in the rearview mirror I see her turn to her brother, trembling and grinning with gleeful horror) "-- if you are not wearing green they will pinch you ON THE BUM!" "No-oh! Uh-uh!" counters LittleMan. "My teacher told me that if you want to wear green on ... [READ MORE]
The Blog
March 5, 2015 by Leave a Comment
I've taken some heat lately for neglecting Less on the Floor, which I promised myself (and, perhaps, others) I wouldn't do. I let an entire month go by with nothing at all, a first for this blog. Which is why I'm going to go ahead and hack this one post out: to have something on the board. Something to prove that I haven't given up on the thing that brought me to where I am today. It might be crap but it's a return, which is something. After all, this blog changed my life. My kids changed my life, of course. My kids took everything I knew to be true about myself and the world and ... [READ MORE]
Nature Nurture Babygirl
January 23, 2015 by Leave a Comment
I am going to oversimplify here, but for the sake of argument I will state that LittleMan’s two great wishes in life are 1) more Legos, and 2) to be left alone, to his own devices, to build and play in his magical, mashed-up, imaginary world in peace (but with a comforting force close by). If he needs something — help finding a missing brick, a snuggle, a sip of bubbly water — he will ask for it. In this way, LittleMan and I can sit at home together on a Monday afternoon for hours with nary a word uttered between us, happy to coexist in the quiet and go about our private enterprises. This ... [READ MORE]
Blank Slate
January 9, 2015 by Leave a Comment
Sometime around 10am on Christmas morning, long (long) after all the wrapping had been demolished and LittleMan was on to Lego Number 5, Babygirl started to do that thing that she does when she wants to "make". Girlfriend loves to get her make on. She loves to make cupcakes and make lunches with mommy and make hard-boiled eggs and -- picture hand-on-hips here -- "make something, like, with glue...and paint...and glitter..." Anyone who has made a habit of reading this blog (and, frankly, anyone who ever met me) is aware that crafts are not generally my jam. DIY has always been ... [READ MORE]
Where are you going, where have you been
December 2, 2014 by Leave a Comment
Forgive me if I'm repeating myself but if you are just joining us here at Less on the Floor, a few words about me. I am a mother to two: my elementary-aged son and preschool-aged daughter. Together with my husband, we live in the heart of a major US city, in a two-bedroom apartment on the 15th floor which boasts sweeping views, a teeny-tiny floor plan, strategic bunk-beds, and a dining room table currently strewn with 4,000 Legos, my laptop, some stray salt and pepper, and (don’t ask) the belt from a bathrobe, which is tying several of the chairs together. This is what passes for a fort on ... [READ MORE]
