Mom on the edge.
Two weeks ago, she finally got it, and became, as my friend Zeile would say, Walky Walkerton. Here are her first steps: And now, as you can see, she fully understands the advantage of walking (that you can hold something in each hand while you’re moving across the room). (This video also demonstrates how quiet [...]
Once again Amy from Let’s Explore provides us with an awesome little activity. She made up a downloadable sheet where kids can go through their home and count how many of each item (chairs, windows, bathtubs) there are. I don’t know about your kid, but Henry was so excited about this he could hardly stand [...]
Today is my day to channel Vintage Kids Books My Kid Loves. My mom visited us a week or so ago, and brought with her a bunch of books she’d picked up at the library sale in her town. They were all animal encyclopedia books, for the most part, because those are Henry’s bread and [...]
A Dark, Dark Tale by Ruth Brown My kids can be scaredy-cats when it comes to some things. I remember reading one Anthony Browne story to Henry, and we got to a page with a giant gorilla, and Henry just snapped the book shut and said, “I don’t want to read any more.” We never [...]
So while Henry has his own rituals for the morning of the first day of school, the afternoon of the first day of school had him peeling off his clothes and climbing into Dave and my bed. Which led Eli and Zuzu to join in, which led to this, one of my favorite photos of [...]
I always (over-indulgently) let the kids choose what kind of birthday cake they want. This year Henry picked “blueberry cake with chocolate frosting” which sent me in a bit of a panic. I mean, that’s not usually something you see, and I wasn’t really feeling like I had the time to invent a recipe and [...]
A few weeks ago Portland was treated to a visit by the fun guys of Drive By Press, sponsored by MECA. My neighbor alerted us to it, and since I always have about a million blank t-shirts hanging around, I grabbed a bunch and we went on down. It’s very cool: these two guys basically [...]
Jeremy Draws a Monster by Peter McCarty The first time I read this book I got to the ending and said (out loud, mostly to myself), “What happens in this book?” Eli turned to me and said, “A boy draws a monster.” Yes, that does happen. But when you read it a few more times, [...]
At the end of the summer, we went to Palace Playland* at Old Orchard Beach. Before you think we’re completely insane (Old Orchard Beach’s motto seems to be: Where Everyone is A Little Bit Misshapen, and Some People Are Noticeably Drunk), let me tell you that Henry is a carnival ride nut and we hadn’t [...]
Without a doubt, my favorite Summer Jar activity was making our own stuffed animal monsters. We got the instructions from Craft, which were blissfully straightforward. First, the boys drew pictures of what they wanted their monsters to look like. Henry drew a wacky elephant thing, and Eli drew a rectangle with a belly button. Then [...]
