One thing I have never quite got is putting children's name on answering machines. I have several friends and some family whose messages play along the lines of "Rob, Lisa, and William are unable to take your call right now." William is 6 months old, who could possibly be calling him?

It reminds me of friends who had their dog on answering machine message ("Matt, Sara and Rex aren't able to come to the phone!") before they had kids. Brian and I would call them and bark messages instead of talking. Of course, caller ID ruined the whole shtick because they would promptly call back and tell us to knock it off.

Back when I was a kid, it was a real adventure answering the phone, you never knew if it was your best friend, the boy you had a crush on, or your neighbor calling to report to your parents that you cut across their yard… Read More

Last weekend we had dinner at a friend's house. They have two little girls, one exactly Jack's age, and a newborn. I guess we will have to be each other's ying and yang, our two boys to their two girls. It's always really interesting watching their daughter and our son interact. Physically she is half Jack's size, but you almost don't notice it based on her tendency to speak like an adult. Shortly after we arrived, and dressed in her… Read More

As children, my siblings and I were all labeled as "gifted" and as a result, were periodically taken out of our class to sit in empty classroom where we would look at the 3 other smart kids in the class. Sometimes they would have us do more challenging math labs or creative writing exercises, but sometimes they just had us do crafts. Wouldn't you know it my most vivid memory of my gifted program was making a wreath out of… Read More

So I didn't get a huge response on my grand unveiling of the best white icing recipe ever. Ok, I get it, you're health conscious. In a world where laws are passed to allow prosecution of those who use partially hydrogenated vegetable oil, writing about a butter-based frosting was probably the wrong way to go. Speaking of which, I'm not a fan of trans-fat but have you tried the new Lay's potato chips since they switched to sunflower… Read More

Jack has taken a real interest lately in the Discovery Channel and science shows. Last night we watched an episode of Planet Earth on mountains.

It's really sweet how fascinated he is with learning about nature, and really annoying how he doesn't get that if it's not on Tivo I CANNOT "fast forward it" when a commercial comes on. He will tell me 50 times to fast forward like I'm a old lady with dementia who can't process what I'm being… Read More

I can't wait for the Just Amy blog post in about 17 months on how we finally trained a "challenged potty trainer". I'm giving myself another year and half because I figure he will be close to five years old by then, so we should have a really strong progress report to share.

Grrr.

Having just read Dr Mommy KC's blog post about her daughter training in exchange for a single M&M, I thought, why do doctors have all the luck? … Read More