Ali lost her fourth tooth in a month on Thursday night. Okay, “lost” doesn’t accurately portray the traitorous and forceful separation of tooth and child that had to take place. Unlike the three previous teeth, this one wasn’t eager to turn loose, and I didn’t exactly achieve stellar parental ranking by a) insisting on removing […]
Blog Roll
Cherries Need New PR.
I spent 31 years of my life automatically assuming that I despised cherries. There was the cherry cough syrup I was given against my will as a young child, shaping my first impressions of cherries as The Fruit That Tastes Like Gastric Acid. Then there was cherry-flavored candy – it didn’t matter whether it was […]
Technology Killed the RomCom.
I admit it. In the past, I was a Romantic Comedy junkie. (I still really really really like them but have tried to move on to more adultish genres.) (I am sometimes successful at this.) The 80’s and 90’s were a hot bed of Romantic Comedies, and as that paralleled with my impressionable childhood and […]
The Slumber Games.
Guest post by Lindsey Murphy. Two tributes: One adult male, one adult female. Three rivals: District 4: Male, four years old. Tactics include wetting the bed, loud footsteps, and the desire to play with other tributes at ungodly hours of the morning. District 3: Female, three years old. Susceptible to bad dreams. Deep attachment […]
35 Things to Do in Birmingham.
I’ve lived in Birmingham my entire life. Seriously – even college. The longest I’ve ever been away from this city was six weeks at the age of 16 when I went overseas. As a kid, Birmingham was clearly a dying city. My parents told stories of what it once was, but it was impossible to […]
“Life is Hard,” Say Kids Everywhere
Tuesday’s plans included the grocery store and the pool. When I told the kids this news, Ali said with a sigh, “Let’s go to the grocery store first. I like to get the hard things over with first.” “Oh really, honey, is going to the grocery store so hard for you?” “Yes, it’s just not […]
An Anniversary of Questions.
June has come back around. It has been a year since I quite suddenly became unwell. I remember the night that it started – a Friday night – wide awake half the night, my lungs overcome with pain and feeling like they’d been deflated, my head dizzy and full of pressure, my heart beating faster […]
Hosepipe.
If I understand the differences in regional dialects correctly, some of y’all don’t call this a hosepipe. You call it a “garden hose” or just a “hose” or some other type of gibberish. In Alabama, we call it summer entertainment. That is, unless you’re not the one holding the hosepipe. Then it’s called a source […]
The Gravity of Granting Permission.
I’m not one to write a post for a particular day such as Easter, Thanksgiving, or Christmas, and especially not Father’s or Mother’s Day. I don’t even acknowledge it on Facebook or change my profile picture to include the appropriate parent. I know – I‘m a social media pariah. I get my cynical anti-bandwagon genetic […]
Parenting By Manipulation.
For those of you who were around last year, you will remember that Ali got fired from Private Swim Lessons. And rightfully so – she doggedly persevered in her 6.5 year rebellion against allowing water to come into contact with her face. The child doesn’t have a strong-willed cell in her brain – except when […]