These are strange days. The rain has been endless, the news has been relentless, and the children have been so sick. Fevers and sniffles and that croaking cough that haunts our sleep. I spent all of last Wednesday night in the octopus-like grip of Babygirl as she hacked her way restlessly through the long, dark hours, the humidifier bubbling steam into the bottom bunk. I awoke after intermittent rest with a stiff neck and a child no closer to being healthy. We have been housebound, all of us together in this apartment high above the city, for what feels like weeks. I am grateful for our ... [READ MORE]
Recipe Roundup No. 11: A Week of Something Good
January 10, 2017 by Leave a Comment
Stock for days. So it's the New Year and a handful of my friends have been doing Whole 30. While I've heard many people describe it as "life-changing" it's just a bridge too far for me. For one thing, you know I love my veggie staples and I can't wrap my head around anything that forbids beans. It just doesn't compute. But Ugh, fine, we've just come off the latest round of holiday hedonism (which seemed to come just right on the heels of summer's hedonism...and late summer's hedonism...and early fall's hedonism) so I suppose it makes sense to rein it all in for a bit. Back in ... [READ MORE]
Hello, Again
January 6, 2017 by 1 Comment
Further evidence of my incredible photography skills. The sun was shining straight into the Tahoe house and the kids were watching Home Alone 2, and I was finally (finally) revisiting the blog. I was going to write about how being a parent of small children sometimes just doesn't offer many chances for reflection. And just when I was typing that, my children decided they were bored and wrestled one another off the couch, so I stopped reflecting in order to keep the peace and set up a craft station. If that's not life in a nutshell half the time, I don't know what is. Part of the problem ... [READ MORE]
Recipe Roundup No. 10: Nostalgia, with a Side of Salmon
October 24, 2016 by 1 Comment
My husband and I established our evening routine of cooking together very early on, when we first moved in together back in 2001. We were barely out of college and interestingly, though we had already been together a long time, outside of our relationship we had very separate lives -- career-wise and socially -- so our time together on weeknights had a kind of self-conscious "coupled up" vibe: there was a little thrill in the otherwise mundane. Planning meals together, and then preparing them for ourselves and for company, cemented the grown-up status our shared lease seemed to have earned ... [READ MORE]
Six Year Itch
October 4, 2016 by 2 Comments
I came across this article today and it touched a nerve, largely because this is a topic I've been wrestling with a great deal lately. I'd love to hear some reader feedback on it, honestly...this blog has been around for six years now and it continues to evolve, and in recent months I've really grappled with the fine line between sharing myself and sharing my children in a public forum. They never asked for this. When I started Less on the Floor in 2010, it was a blog about food. Baby and toddler food, specifically, and the experience of interacting with my then-two-year-old son ... [READ MORE]
Love is a Battlefield
September 19, 2016 by Leave a Comment
Babygirl does not want your help. She does not want your help with her zipper. She does not want your help pouring the milk. She didn't ask for your opinion about whether those shoes are appropriate for school. And she sure as hell doesn't want you brushing out the nest that is her hair in the morning. She wants many things: hugs, treats, your undivided attention at all times and it doesn't count if you're not watching me with both your eyeballs. But if it's help you're peddling, you'd best move along, because she's not interested. Like right now, for example: I'm typing, and ... [READ MORE]
Lunch Lady Land
September 9, 2016 by Leave a Comment
A smattering of new lunchbox containers (yay!) featuring the Shark Chase, Pop of Color, and Rockstar Custom Name Labels from Minted. I remember exactly the first time LittleMan read me a book. We had bought a compilation of Level One stories based on Pixar movies, and this particular story was about opposites: The horse is fast. Merida is happy. The bear is mad. The wall is high. LittleMan was in Kindergarten and we sat on the couch and he read me these ten pages or so and afterwards I flipped through the book alone and wept with pride and amazement that he had cracked ... [READ MORE]
