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Shower the people you love with advice

By monkeys, thoughts5 Comments

The coolest baby shower I’ve ever been invited to is happening right this very minute and you’re invited too. It’s for Liz and Tammie and Christina, and there are games and prizes and cute pictures of babies, so go have fun. I hear citymama is even bringing booze, so you can get your champagne on too. Happy happy. My long-winded advice is rooted in the logistics of handling two kids where previously there was only one (or, in my case, none). When Zoe and Lucy were born, my parents moved in with us. It was incredible and loving and helpful…

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The scissor sisters

By monkeys5 Comments

Zoe and Lucy’s scissors disappeared recently, and despite many thorough cleanings of most areas in our house where they might be, we can’t find them. So I want to get them those scissors right there. Cute cute cute. Plus, ambidextrous! ‘Cause Lucy’s a lefty. Counter-intuitive though it may sound, I need to get two of the same. Otherwise, the girls will impose some arbitrary hierarchy and will end up fighting over one pair while the others sit unused, laughing at me for once again falling prey to my desire to have some variation in our lives. I love the ones…

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Zoe tells it like it is. Take 2.

By funny ha ha, monkeys, overheard4 Comments

(Second installment in an apparent series.) “Mama. Girls are prettier than boys. And. Boys are handsomer than pets.” — A little while later… In an attempt to commit this to memory so I could tell you about it tonight, I repeated it to her. “So Zoe. Girls are prettier than boys and boys are handsomer than pets?” “No mama. Girls are prettier than boys. And boys are handsomer than babies. And babies are handsomer than pets.”

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Love Thursday: 4 Girls

By love thursday, monkeys, photos5 Comments

My niece Tess turned 2 last Saturday and had a fairy birthday party. All the kids had wings, tutus, wands and flowery headbands, and my sister-in-law Brooke beautifully and tastefully decorated the house to lovely ethereal effect. Needless to say, the kids (all girls except for one boy, for whom Brooke, made a little elf costume!) had a blast and loved all the fairy play. This photo is of the aftermath: Brooke reading on the couch with Lucy, Tess and Zoe, who would have sat there, all pink and cuddly and rapt, for 5 hours had Brooke been willing. The…

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Ugh Valentine’s Day. Ugh Presidents Day.

By monkeys, thoughts11 Comments

Trying to write anything creative right now is proving terribly terribly impossible due to a little run of crappy we’ve had here. I’ve got 3 or 4 posts started, but none finished, and all outdated, despite their all containing information I wanted to tell you. So what do I do? Mashup? Forget it all and move on? Just keep writing and pretend everything is still current? Yes. A list! Of all the crappy! So I can get it out and move on! You’re brilliant! (Warning: It’s a long one. And it contains nothing truly tragic or even deserving of much…

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SquidSoap

By monkeys, sites to see4 Comments

My friend Shelly provides me with a constant stream of clever ideas and sweet things to look at. Her latest passalong is a fabulous idea for teaching kids to wash their hands: SquidSoap. When you push down on the dispenser, you get a little ink mark on your hand. Then you wash your hands until the ink mark disappears. 1. 2. 3. 4. So brilliant it makes you slap your forehead and say Doh! Just make sure you’ve washed that ink spot off your hand first.

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Some things…

By monkeys, photos, thoughts5 Comments

In no particular order: – We went out last weekend to a friend’s 40th birthday party and, although I’m still a few years away from that big celebration myself, I have to admit to being skeptical that the words “fortieth birthday” will ever apply to me. – I woke up terribly hungover the next day, but I swear I don’t think I had the kind of fun the night before that warranted it. How much of a bummer is that? The hangover without the fun. Is that part of getting closer to 40? If so — lord I do not…

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Love Thursday

By love thursday, monkeys, photos9 Comments

The day we made sand angels out at Latta Plantation, the girls were really hooked into Bob. They wanted to do everything he did. So when Bob ran and jumped up on the tall skinny tree stump near our picnic table, Lucy wanted to climb up there with him. Then later, while the girls and I were playing in the sand, Bob lay down in the sunny sun. After a short while Zoe saw him and went over and arranged herself in his exact position. She even closed her eyes, as if she, too, understood the sheer joy of napping…

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