I don't know a single mother who has managed to survive the early years without a crock-pot. Although I got mine as a wedding present, I have used it most frequently since having children.

My particular crockpot is 5 quarts, so I'm sure I could contribute to a family reunion including both sides of our Irish and Slovak Catholic families; the meals I've made for just us could feed us for three days, and still seem paltry sitting prepared in the… Read More

Both Rain Dog and I grew up knowing families with favored children. Each parent had a favorite; that child usually represented an ideal of some kind: either the parent's unfulfilled dreams, or a sense of family bonding that no one else--parents or siblings or spouse or other family--had ever been able to fulfill. On the flip side, we saw, one parent's favorite became the other's anathema--often because s/he represented and maybe even embodied too many of the parent's own flaws.

Parents… Read More

Although Hamlet surprised us this year by being ready for preschool sooner than we thought, we're still considering leaving him back: postponing his entry into kindergarten for an additional year.

A July baby, he'd be one of the youngest children in his class. He'd likely be less mature than the others, especially the girls. Additionally, he's small for his age: 25th percentile for height, 10th percentile for weight. He's strong, but how strong compared to a peer in the 95th percentile?… Read More

When I was pregnant with Hamlet, I joined an online forum of mothers whose babies were due at the same time as mine. Daily we shared the joys and trials of pregnancy. When our babies were born, we shared the joys and trials of new babies.

And the tragedy.

Two months after giving birth to her son, one woman posted a shocking message: he'd died in her arms as she burped him after a nursing.

Over the following months, she kept us posted… Read More

Just as Boris is showing a need for a comfort object of some kind, Hamlet is showing signs of giving his up. It's an interesting process to witness, especially as he periodically pretends to be a baby.

He first attached to "Arf," his lime green beagle, when he was three months old. It was around the same time that he learned to suck his thumb, so before long, he was fingering the dog's ears as he sucked. Soon after that, he… Read More

I bought a pacifier for Boris today. I didn't really want to; I loathe the idea of waking in the middle of the night, or worse, having to stop the car every 5 minutes to find an ejected binky. However, I've had to reconsider this position for several reasons:

1. He is not a comfort nurser.

2. At 4 months old, Boris has not yet found his thumb. I'm not sure he's likely to; he slurps his fists mainly to tell me… Read More