Finally, success with a classroom craft. There isn’t time to go down the list of turds I’ve dropped in the artistic punchbowl over the years (the time my mom and I tried to get first graders to emulate Picasso and Matisse comes to mind) but I must say that I’m feeling quite proud of the […]
Not only is she a wonderful nanny — brimming with knowledge from special ed classes and a terrific spirit — she’s super creative. So it was hard to figure out how to celebrate Courtney, who celebrates her 22nd birthday today. An afternoon with Sophie isn’t a bad start (though for the record I did offer […]
As you might recall, the first time I tried to make candy corn, Annabelle remarked that it looked like I was making Flamin’ Hot Cheetos. Not this time. I nailed it, if I do say so myself. And it wasn’t the salted butter — the recipe I tried this time actually called for it. It’s […]
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. The way we honor birthdays in this culture is all wrong. The celebration should center on the mom, not the kid. If she has her way, this afternoon at lunch my own mother will regale a tableful of my friends with the tale of what a dick that […]
Yesterday, Annabelle and her friend Bhavini carved pumpkins. (These are their pumpkins, above.) Yeah, kids all over America carved pumpkins yesterday (I know this from Facebook) but this was special because it’s the third year in a row Bhavini has come over to carve pumpkins with us. She and her mom might return to India within […]
Things have gone a little John Hughes around here this week. The other day I had lunch with two dear girlfriends I don’t get to see very often, women I met once I moved back to Phoenix. We talked about recent purchases at Last Chance, recent travels, and recent blog posts. “Wow, you’re so brave!” […]
Who doesn’t love a cake walk? One of my fondest elementary school memories (it’s already been established that I was a pissy child, but I do have a few fond memories) is of the cake walk at the Hopi Hullabaloo, the school carnival held each spring, always eagerly anticipated. Annabelle and Sophie’s school carnvial takes […]
I had to admit to myself this weekend that I have come to loathe birthday parties. That is quite an admission for someone who named her blog Girl in a Party Hat. OK, maybe I found myself curled up in the fetal position on the couch late Saturday afternoon because I skipped lunch and it was […]
For a while, I only heard it directed at me, and I’ll admit, I felt kind of special. Long before any human should be asked to rouse, I’d roll over in bed — hair matted, face marked with pillow creases and perhaps a bit of drool, and Sophie would be staring at me. “Mommy, you’re […]
After two hours at the pediatric ophthamologist yesterday morning, it was determined that Sophie is a little farsighted but does not need glasses. She looked cute in the old lady paper-plastic sunglasses they gave her to shade her dilated eyes, though she didn’t keep them on much past this photo. She was too excited for […]
