This is a first. I’m in an art show! A few weeks ago, I took a photo of Sophie asleep on the couch. These days she tends to stick her hand in my face when I try to take her picture, but she couldn’t stop me then. And I loved how she looked. From time […]
Saturday was the state Special Olympics cheerleading competition. Sophie’s team bombed. They finished third out of three, winning bronze medals. I found Sophie’s crumbled on the not very clean porch windowsill the next day. No one had even bothered to bring it into the house. A rather sad end to the season, in contrast with last […]
The phone just rang, and I held my breath. Ms. X is the only person in my phone with the “xylophone” ring tone, and even though Sophie’s been out of kindergarten for five years, and Ms. X has become a dear friend — meaning the call could have as easily been about margaritas as a […]
Hi my name is Sophie and today I will talk to you guys about my birthday. Can you give me ideas for songs for my 11th birthday mix? And hope you love my post. And also me and my mom got some song ideas together, like Party in the USA and we are thinking about […]
Editor’s Note: For a long time now, Sophie has wanted to start her own blog. She and I discussed it and decided that’s a lot of work, so instead she’ll do occasional posts on Girl in a Party Hat. Here’s her first. She wrote it herself start to finish — though I did offer my […]
I’d known for weeks that I had to attend a meeting to discuss Sophie’s future — but I couldn’t bring myself to open the envelope from the psychologist till I was in the car, headed for the school. I knew what was inside: All of the testing that has been done on Sophie over the […]
It begins before I’ve opened my eyes in the morning. “Mommy. Mommy. MOMMY,” Sophie stagewhispers from a few inches away, as she pulls my blanket over herself. (Unintelligible mumbling from me, something worse from Ray’s side of the bed.) “Mommy, can I sleep in your bed tonight?” As the Meanest Mom in the World, I […]
Reports of the death of print journalism have been greatly exaggerated, and if you don’t believe me, consider the intense debate in the past few days over two magazine covers. Print journalism isn’t dead, and neither is its struggle to figure out how to depict women. Consider Lena Dunham on the cover of Vogue and […]
One year not long ago, I resolved that every day I’d write down or photograph a reason to love Phoenix. Another, to quit complaining about the heat. The first worked better than the second, though after each I resolved to quit resolving. Then I passed a display in my favorite nail salon and made one […]
I was collapsed on the couch yesterday, surveying the holiday damage — the game parts on the floor, the containers of sparkly nail polish spilling out of the bin, the candy wrappers and piles of pine needles — when I noticed one element still standing proud, tall and unmarred, a contrast to the teetering candles […]
