My husband woke with a start at 1 a.m. Hence I woke with a start at 1 a.m., to find that Babyman was standing about two inches from my husband's face, barely whispering, "Daddy?", like some tow-headed, munchkin-sized apparition. Both of our hearts racing (but me being too pregnant and groggy to respond coherently to the situation) my husband got out of bed and quietly walked Babyman back to his room, where he snuggled in without protest and immediately went back to sleep. We have transitioned to the Big Boy Bed. This is actually our second attempt: Big Boy Bed, Redux. The first ... [READ MORE]
On Elmo the Dentist and Other Marketing Perils
April 1, 2011 by Leave a Comment
Babyman ran to me when I picked him up from school, so excited he could barely get the sentence out: "Mommy, may you -- may you -- may you please put Cheetos in my lunchbox?" Huh? For a brief, hopeful moment I assumed he meant the cheese-flavored rice cakes I've been packing lately, until his teacher explained: Babyman's lunch buddy gets Cheetos at tea-time every afternoon, and Babyman is hell-bent on getting his hands on some of that neon orange goodness. I looked at the teacher and murmured, "I'm afraid that would be something of a departure for me." Even as the words escaped my ... [READ MORE]
Princess No More
March 10, 2011 by Leave a Comment
Remember your first pregnancy? The one when you still had no idea what you were going to be up against, and your body was a temple, and it actually felt kind of good to sacrifice booze and brie for the benefit of your unborn bundle of joy, and people carried even your lightest grocery bags for you, and you loved the way your hair looked like a Prell commercial when you blew it dry, and you got to (HAD to!) discover a whole new world of retail, and pedicures were a weekly must -- especially once you had gained a few pounds? That was nice. It's good to be Princess for a month or ten. This ... [READ MORE]
Ch-ch-ch-change it up!
March 10, 2011 by Leave a Comment
Babyman is off yogurt. This happens from time to time; he'll devour something for months, then want nothing to do with it for a while. Of course eventually it works its way back into his heart...provided I keep offering it every so often. Some of these hot-n-cold foods don't really pose much of an issue (sweet potatoes, squash, bananas) as they are easily substituted or concealed somehow (usually in muffins or oatmeal). Others are a big pain. Yogurt falls in the latter category, as it is one of my breakfast-lunch-snacktime staples, easy to transport, and fun to mix with other ... [READ MORE]
The Metamorphosis of Small Bear
February 19, 2011 by Leave a Comment
Babyman's favorite books are the Berenstain Bears series. Most of us remember the Berenstain family thusly: Mama, Papa, Sister and Brother. (Later on, Stan and Jan Berenstain's son Mike muscled his way into the family franchise and created third sibling Honey Bear, as well as a number of more commercial books and the animated television series, but we are purists.) A closer look at the canon reveals that in the first book (and the early readers, like Old Hat, New Hat) there are actually only three bears living in the tree-house deep in Bear County: Mama, Papa, and Small Bear. The story ... [READ MORE]
A Week in a Day
February 15, 2011 by Leave a Comment
My husband has taken up yoga on Saturday mornings, which means Sunday mornings are my gym time, and I am quite liking it. In particular, while I am gasping away on the Stairmaster I like watching Meet the Press to get my comprehensive week-in-review for news and current events, followed by a new Food Network program called Week in a Day hosted by Rachael Ray. The former program wraps up the week, the latter kicks it off. Symmetry in TV-land. Love her or hate her (and I confess I oscillate on that one), Ms. Ray has landed quite a concept with her new show, and while I haven't actually ... [READ MORE]
Me Time, Tea Time
February 9, 2011 by Leave a Comment
My Facebook feed the other day contained two articles about the disenchantment of parenthood: one analyzed how little "me-time" the average parent gets in a 24-hour period (90 minutes), and the other discussed the cognitive dissonance of parenthood, i.e. that we delude ourselves into thinking that this whole enterprise is rewarding in order to cope with the stress. Hmmm. I can't help but wonder what purpose is served by these types of studies. Is the human race to stop reproducing? Should we be focused on the endless pursuit of personal pleasure and ignore an innate instinct to propagate ... [READ MORE]
