Mark and I were reading on the couch, and talking about superheroes and villains. “Of course, this is just a story,” I said, “Sandman is not real.” “Just like Santa Claus,” Mark replied. Startled, I looked down at him and he smiled his angelic, gap-toothed smile. I went back to reading about Spiderman and Sandman. […]

Today was Mark’s first day of kindergarten, signifying the end of summer vacation, the return of actual summer-like weather notwithstanding. I thought I’d be spending the last of vacation doing fun, outdoorsy things, but instead I spent it taking care of the boys who alternated between being lethargically, feverishly ill and incredibly rambunctiously healthy, but […]

And no, I’m not talking about my ladies’ holidays. No, I brought the curse on myself. Last night, I said to Rob, “Isn’t it great, we haven’t really been sick since March? I mean, no one has really had a cold or anything. ISN’T THAT AMAZING???” Right after I said that, I immediately regretted it. […]

I accidentally stumbled on a documentary about the “Octomom”. I lasted all of three minutes watching eight crying infants, a few tantruming toddlers, and some surly school-aged children. Hoo boy! That sure was awesome. Mark learned how to take pictures on our camera, and now every day he asks to use it. I uploaded the […]

When I was an undergrad, I attended a presentation by David Foot, who, for anyone not particularly interested in economics or demographics (which I realize is probably a large portion of the population) is an economics professor and author of the book “Boom, Bust, and Echo”. He extensively studies changes in demographics and writes about […]

It finally stopped raining and the sun came out, which is the perfect, if somewhat clichéd, metaphor for today. It’s a very good day. For one thing, the weather change meant I spent this morning cutting back my insanely unwieldy Siberian iris, while the boys happily gathered the leaves and played “wood chipper”. Gardening makes […]

The flip side to a great vacation is, obviously, the readjustment to regular schedules. I naively thought I was in the clear because yesterday, the day Rob went back to work after two weeks off, was a really good day. The boys played happily together all day. You read that correctly. All day. Happily. Together. […]