I wasn't sure I was going to write about Mother's Day. It seemed every mother-blogger in the world wrote about it; what more could I say?

Then I read this (at Cranky Mama) and this (at Murphy’s Law). And in a bit of a non sequitur, I thought of a little girl in Hamlet's preschool class. She hasn't heard from her mother in many months--since that mother moved out of state.

I don't know much about her situation,… Read More

It had been several days without rain, so after mulching my garden, I thought I'd water. Hamlet, of course, wanted to help.

I let him hold the hose while he pretended to be a firefighter. He did a pretty good job spraying the water back and forth over the ground, just as if he were really putting out a fire. I held my tongue when his attention wandered; the only time I opened my mouth was to tell him which new… Read More

Remember the heffalump? The formless, never seen creature that Winnie the Pooh was so afraid of? The allegory to the unknown?

Our heffalump reared its head last week not once, but twice, as both Hamlet's grandfather and then Rain Dog landed in the hospital. Pop-Pop had a pulmonary embolism. Rain Dog had radiating chest pain and shortness of breath.

On Wednesday we went to visit Pop-Pop. Hamlet has been in hospitals before--most recently after his baby brother's birth--but… Read More

It happens every year, despite news coverage of when it happened last year: babies die in hot cars.

The reasons are as tragic as the losses themselves: parents who forgot it was their turn to drop the child off at daycare, who thought the workplace parking lot would be safe enough (in lieu of childcare), who didn't want to disturb the child's sleep.

That last, I can sympathize with the most. A baby who goes from a sleepy newborn to… Read More

Rules and routines go out the window when you have two (or more) kids simultaneously screaming in your ear. Personally, I go into crisis mode when my boys start in: Hamlet fighting a diaper change, Boris wanting and one. Hamlet throwing a fit over something he can't have, Boris demanding something I can't give him until I'm done with his brother. Worst is when I'm nursing Boris, and Hamlet--feeling jealous--chooses that moment to act out. I'm stuck, ineffectually saying, "No!"… Read More

Hamlet's a picky eater. Many of the things he rejects have offensive textures, or look like they will have offensive textures. As you might imagine, this makes it hard for us to get fruits and vegetables into him.

Enter V8 Fusion. This juice is so good that I don't know what took V8 so long to invent it. Three different flavors--Strawberry Banana, Tropical Orange, and Peach Mango--combine vegetable and fruit juices to make one full serving of each food… Read More