Scene: Tucking Graham, age 8, into bed. Graham: So why doesn’t Santa put anything in you and Daddy’s stockings? Cheris: I don’t know… I guess because we’re grown-ups. pause Graham: Does Santa put anything in drunk people’s stockings? Cheris: Ummm… drunk kids? Graham: No! Drunk grown-ups! Cheris: Well… I don’t think so… they’re still grown-ups. Graham: […]
Posted in family, Graham, Parenting |
Eight and a half years. That’s how long I’ve been writing this blog. Three hundred and thirty posts. But in the past year I’ve written only six. Why is that? The kids are older, I have more time to myself, I am no longer perpetually exhausted… so what’s the deal? Maybe part of it IS […]
Posted in Parenting |
“So what are you doing with all your free time?” That is the question I started to dread last fall when Graham went off to kindergarten. I didn’t know how to answer in a way that would erase The Look. There are two varieties of The Look: 1) from the working parent, a mixture […]
Posted in family, Parenting |
Violet was so ready for school when she started kindergarten. She had been ready for years. As Rob is fond of saying, “She would move out and get her own apartment if we let her.” I had no qualms dropping her off that day, except an overwhelming curiosity to see how she went about taking […]
Posted in Graham, Parenting |
Today is the last day I get him all to myself. Tomorrow is Violet’s first day of summer vacation. In the fall Graham will start kindergarten. The girl sometimes expresses dismay that her brother gets to stay home with me while she has to go to school. I tell her that she had me all […]
Posted in Graham, Parenting |
Okay, I don’t mean “Yay! My kid is sick!” Of course I hate to see them suffer. And I don’t love the sleepless nights and rivers of snot and feeling like every surface will be covered in germs forever. But there is something sweet about sick days. No to-do lists, no gym, no errands, no […]
Posted in family, Graham, Parenting |
A few months ago I dragged the kids’ IKEA storage bin systems, packed full of toys, out into the garage. They never noticed. No, I wasn’t having a fit of rage this time. It’s just that these kids just don’t seem to do toys. I mean, they’ll play with new things for a bit; mostly […]
Posted in family, Parenting |
You know those pool tubes for kids? The ones that keep them floating? On TOP of the water? Well, they don’t work when the kid is upside-down. Just be aware. Graham decided to illustrate this point on the Fourth of July. We were having a family BBQ and pool party on Long Island. The kids […]
Posted in Graham, Parenting |
“Iwannawatchashow!Iwannawatchashow!Iwannawatchashow!Iwannawatchashow!Iwannawatchashow!Iwanna!” A week after school got out, Rob came home to find the TV in the middle of the living room floor. That was as far as I could drag it after I flipped out on the kids and ripped the thing off the wall. (Okay, I carefully unplugged it.) Before summer started we had […]
Posted in family, Graham, Parenting, Violet |
On the first day of summer vacation we woke up late. (Yes, 6:30 is late.) I made pancakes (not from the box!), omelets (from our backyard flock!) and plenty of coffee (for me, not the kids.) The rest of the day we puttered around, played games, cooked, read, went to the gym and had a leisurely bedtime […]
Posted in family, Parenting |
