Because natural isn't always possible — or easy.
Posted in Education, exercise, parenting, School and education, toddlers on Jan 4th, 2012
Today, three out of four kids ages 3 to 5 are in some form of childcare including daycare and preschool. Increasingly, teachers, parents, and childcare workers are focusing more on reading than on running. However, according to a new study published in Pediatrics, the official journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), running trumps [...]
Little Girl: Mommy, are my friends going to be there today? Mommy: Yes, and all the little babies, too. Baby C. will be there. Baby J. will be there. Baby G. will be there. Little Girl: Mommy, why my friends have babies and I don’t. Mommy, I want a baby, too! Mommy: You need to [...]
While I admire Little Girl’s spirit, it also makes me scratch my head sometimes. Here is a list of wacky, maddening things she’s done over the past year. Drew on the bathroom wall with deodorant. Big, round circles, which have yet to fade even with lots of washing and scrubbing. Stuck Big Girl’s DS stylus [...]
Little Girl the comedian is at it again. She’s taken to holding a play phone, pretending to pick it up, and then screaming into it, “I told you not to call me!” And then, after she pretends to slam down the phone, she laughs and laughs. All of us — Big Girl, me, and my [...]
Posted in Eating Healthy, Food, Pop Culture, Safety, Toxins on Jan 21st, 2011
Dear Woman at My Resort, I really appreciate you apologizing so profusely when, out of the blue, your 20-month-old went postal on my 2-year-old and smacked her as we passed by. I really do. I wasn’t that fazed by it, actually. Kids are kids. They do nutty things. And I didn’t think a second thought [...]
Posted in School and education on Nov 10th, 2010
This September, despite being the youngest in the class, Little Girl entered preschool without a care. She went right into the classroom — no sniffles, cries, or screams. She seemed to love it. Then, around the first of October, she started telling me she didn’t like school. She started crying when we pulled into the [...]
Posted in parenting on Sep 27th, 2010
One of the things I had to get used to when I started dating my husband was his family’s relaxed stance on profanity. My husband swore in front of his parents. They sometimes swore, too. Not just damn, either. The big ones. (Do I really have to list them?) Not all the time. Not every [...]
Yesterday I got to dance studio a little early to pick Big Girl up. The class ends at 6. Little Girl and I got there at 5:40. We sat down on the chairs and watched through the door. Sitting right next to us was a little girl in a ballet outfit. Her class got out [...]
We went to the park today. It is absolutely gorgeous here in New York. Sunny, crisp, not too hot. The perfect park weather. We got there at 5. We almost had the place to ourselves except for a dad and his 3-year-old, a mom and dad with what looked like an 18-month-old, and a toddler [...]
Posted in Education, parenting, School and education, toddlers on Sep 14th, 2010
This morning I dropped Little Girl off at preschool. It was her second school in as many weeks. The first one didn’t work out. It was a Montessori. I dropped her off and was jarred by the atmosphere. Very chaotic and more like a daycare than a school. The room wasn’t neat and tidy. No [...]