My girl stood in front of the mirror, looked at herself, and asked:“Mama, do you think I look like a 6-year-old?”It was about the third time in about as many days. She wants to look older than her 5.5 years.I tell her she looks 5, just exactly what she’s supposed to look like.“People tell me […]

Yesterday, I heard my daughter respond with a very rude “Wha-TTT?” to my adult friend. It took all I had not to stomp across the kitchen and into the dining room and snatch her bald-headed, as they say here in the South. My girlfriend, a soft-spoken Native Nashvillian, addressed the tone, and I was able to […]

OK, so over at Parenting.com today, you get a more rounded picture of just how it goes here. Busy, loca, cansada. I know: whine, whine, whine. Annoying for the blessed to be so damned whiney. But, Maria busted me a few days ago. She told me I work too much. It hurt my heart to […]

So, the other day I was at Maria’s school for a meeting. The mom of the boy whom Maria told me she was going to marry said: “So, I hear the wedding is off. (Cute boy) told me Maria broke up with him. She is now with (another cute boy).”“I had no idea,” I told her. “But, […]

“Dorothy” and I spent a warm and breezy Sunday afternoon at a friend’s house. The girls jumped on the trampoline, played dress-up, picked flowers, and explored the sweet and lazy creek that slides slowly past our friend’s country home. As I sat on the big rocks next to the creek, I closed my eyes and […]

We woke up here Sunday morning to powdery snow. It was beautiful, but I covered my head with the blankets again. I long for Spring, warm breezes and nesting baby birds. Aye. The snow has mostly melted, but it’s still freezing here in the Boonies. And, I am beginning to think of myself as Jack Nicholson […]

OK, happy Friday. Al fin. This week, over at Parenting.com, my daughter attempts to convince me our new president decreed girls cannot wear pants anymore. Oh.yes.she.did. And, over at the Latin Baby Book Club, I decide it is time to work toward my mother’s biggest dream: That her granddaughter be a star of stage and […]

OK, happy Friday. Al fin. This week, over at Parenting.com, my daughter attempts to convince me our new president decreed girls cannot wear pants anymore. Oh.yes.she.did. And, over at the Latin Baby Book Club, I decide it is time to work toward my mother’s biggest dream: That her granddaughter be a star of stage and […]

Monday night: Husband turns to wife at dinner table and motions toward 5-year-old daughter. “She’s lucky she’s so cute.” Daughter smiles, nods head. “Daddy, I’m not lucky I am cute. I am lucky I am having a good life.” Amen.

New England, Thanksgiving, 2008 Monday night: Husband turns to wife at dinner table and motions toward 5-year-old daughter. “She’s lucky she’s so cute.” Daughter smiles, nods head. “Daddy, I’m not lucky I am cute. I am lucky I am having a good life.” Amen.