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	<title>Girl in a Party Hat</title>
	<link>http://girlinapartyhat.com</link>
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		<title>Nine Things I Love About Sophie</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Dear Sophie: Happy birthday! I cannot believe that you are 9 today (even though we have been talking about your birthday for months) and some days, I cannot believe that I am your mom. Or that I am a mom at all. I am so lucky. Also tired and exasperated &#8212; and sometimes not as nice as I should be. [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://girlinapartyhat.com/index.php/2012/05/nine-things-i-love-about-sophie/</link>
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		<title>They Matched.</title>
		<description><![CDATA[We were both juggling hectic workdays, so the phone conversation was quick. And as it often is with my best-friend-from-second-grade, it was totally over-the-top. &#8220;OK,&#8221; Amy said, &#8220;so I&#8217;m thinking about going to Mood and buying fabric and hiring a seamstress to make Sophie and me matching purple pajamas for our birthday sleepover.&#8221; &#8220;Are you insane?!&#8221; I [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://girlinapartyhat.com/index.php/2012/05/the-best-sleepover-ever/</link>
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		<title>Happy Mother&#8217;s Day, Jenny Ignaszewski</title>
		<description><![CDATA[I cannot say I know her well &#8212; we&#8217;ve met in person a handful of times, at the most, and Facebook really doesn&#8217;t count, right? But I&#8217;ve long admired Jenny Ignaszewki vis a vis her paintings: large, primitive cityscapes and birds (long before Portlandia), marked by bright colors and oversized heads, an in-your-face celebration of [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://girlinapartyhat.com/index.php/2012/05/happy-mothers-day-jenny-ignaszewski/</link>
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		<title>One Last Bowl of Chicken Soup with Rice, R.I.P. Maurice Sendak</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Share:]]></description>
		<link>http://girlinapartyhat.com/index.php/2012/05/one-last-bowl-of-chicken-soup-with-rice-r-i-p-maurice-sendak/</link>
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		<title>On Your Toes, Sophie</title>
		<description><![CDATA[&#8220;Hey Mom, look!&#8221; I glanced up from the computer the other morning to notice Sophie standing at the kitchen counter, all the way up on her tippy toes. I mean all the way. In her sparkly purple Toms. This could explain why those shoes are so trashed &#8212; the ends are basically gone. I&#8217;m hoping [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://girlinapartyhat.com/index.php/2012/05/on-your-toes-sophie/</link>
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		<title>It Takes More Than a (Special Olympics) Village</title>
		<description><![CDATA[The athletes emerged from the staging area onto the dusty track, ready to begin their heat in the 100 m run this past Saturday &#8212; one of dozens of heats as hundreds (thousands?) competed in the Special Olympics state track meet. Sophie was the smallest. Waiting to race, she was tiny next to her competitors, [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://girlinapartyhat.com/index.php/2012/05/it-takes-more-than-a-special-olympics-village/</link>
			</item>
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		<title>Dear Safeway: SHHHHHHHHH.</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Good morning, welcome to Starbucks! This is (insert perky name, I think it was Marissa), how are you today? Hi. Could I please get a hot grande non-fat latte? Pause. How are you? Oh fuck. I pissed off the Starbucks girl. Everyone who&#8217;s ever heard the one about the Jack in the Box clerk who [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://girlinapartyhat.com/index.php/2012/04/dear-safeway-shhhhhhhhh/</link>
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		<title>Who You Calling Stupid?</title>
		<description><![CDATA[The girls were chattering in the back seat one evening this week, when Annabelle&#8217;s tone suddenly got dark. I turned down the radio for more effective eavesdropping and when that didn&#8217;t work, hollered, &#8220;What&#8217;s going on back there?&#8221; Turns out, they were discussing Sophie&#8217;s new friend at school (we&#8217;ll call her Sally) and something Sally&#8217;s sister [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://girlinapartyhat.com/index.php/2012/04/who-you-calling-stupid/</link>
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		<title>Wisdom</title>
		<description><![CDATA[My wise friend Noan gave me permission to share this note she sent me earlier this week, in response to last week&#8217;s post about Sophie&#8217;s IEP and the psychologist&#8217;s year-old comment that she has the cognitive skills of a 3-year-old. I met Noan in Mothers Who Write, the class I co-teach, and each week students [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://girlinapartyhat.com/index.php/2012/04/4176/</link>
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		<title>Head Games: A Year Later, I&#8217;m Still Wondering if Sophie Has the Cognitive Abilities of a 3-Year-Old</title>
		<description><![CDATA[I am afraid I have permanent brain damage. I thought by now it would be out of my head, but more than a year later, I&#8217;m still sitting at that conference table at that school, hearing that school psychologist say it. I&#8217;m asking her pointed, doubting questions about the battery of tests she&#8217;s just given [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://girlinapartyhat.com/index.php/2012/04/head-games-a-year-later-im-still-wondering-if-sophie-has-the-cognitive-abilities-of-a-3-year-old/</link>
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