I’ll never forget that right after Sophie was born, my sister said to my mother, “Well, Amy will always have someone to get a pedicure with.” I love that line. And while it’s not always true (Sophie’s certainly not up for EVERYTHING), she’s pretty game. Yesterday afternoon I asked Annabelle if she’d like to bake […]

(NOTE: SOPHIE’S PLAY DATE’S NAME IS SPELLED Niamh — I BOTCHED IT BELOW.) “Hey, she’s 5 and I’m 4 and I’m bigger than her!” Neve commented, not at all unkindly. Yes, I thought to myself, and in every way: Neve is an adorable, precocious little girl (little, though she probably DOES stand a head taller […]

Last night I made the girls an extra bubbly bath, and forced them both to endure the worst possible torture: hair combing. Sophie negotiated some extra TV time, and grabbed a book she insisted I read after the brush was relinquished and her hair braided. She was obsessed with one book, called “Countdown to the […]

I watched it. Turned out, it was a very old tape (much heavier than current VHS tapes, which I guess are lighter because they’re getting ready to go POOF altogether, followed by DVDs, leaving me screwed) with Alfred Hitchcock’s “Notorious” taped after the 1992 documentary “Educating Peter,” which a friend had given me — she […]

The double messy bun has turned out to be such a big hit that Sophie requests the ‘do regularly. This morning Annabelle (who normally puts her own hair back in a low ponytail, unless it’s post-bath, in which case she’ll grudgingly let me comb her hair out and braid it) requested the same. I was […]

I rolled over this morning and noticed it on the floor, an old VHS tape, “Educating Peter” scribbled on the label. I really should shove that in the box, I thought, rolling back the other way to avoid morning and the inevitable ouslaught in the wake of a vacation. Or, I suppose, I could watch it. Last […]

It was a mistake to try to make dinner tonight. It’s not like I cook often. And we’d just gotten back from the beach, so surely I had an excuse. But Ray’d clearly gotten into the habit, over the last week, of eating more than Ritz crackers and Lorna Doones in the evening span Americans […]

I hate the last day of vacation, the exquisite pain of sitting on the beach for the last time, the last morning latte, the last evening vodka tonic. Long ago, my sister and I worked the last day lather into a fine art, and at this point I’d almost rather not go at all than […]

It’s official. Our family is switching over from the high five to the fist bump. I’ll admit it, this decision was made after I read last week’s NYT magazine and learned that William Safire has noticed the fist bump, thus dragging it into the public lexicon in a way I just can’t ignore. Plus, I […]

In years past, I’ve measured the success of a beach trip in books — as in, the number consumed while sitting prone on a lounge chair, covered (in more recent years) with towels, Diet Coke at the ready. But this year I have yet to crack a page, and it’s already Day 5. I’m not […]