Step 1: Spend your $5 from Christmas on a set of 5 race cars.     Step 2: Take them home and test them on the loop-de-loop.  Step 3: Introduce them to the rest of their new friends – including the friendly dragons.   Step 4: Take a rest with your cars all lined up […]

We went bowling today. “Lane 5,” the cashier said and pointed to the far end of the alley. We headed towards the lane, away from the other families with young children assigned lanes 20 or 30 or 35. I walked with Miles tugging on me, Nora asking so many questions and hands full of rental […]

“The future lies in the hands of young men like that, he thought.” –Mrs. Dalloway He was picking up puzzle pieces – the oversized ones that fit together to create a scene almost the size of the rug. He brought them, one by one, to my mother, piling them up  next to her while she […]

You were three. Of course. Three is the age of fighting against anything and everything you can think of to fight against. You fight against shoes. And shirts. And pants. You fight against getting in the car. And getting out. You fight against my helping you with almost anything. You fight against doing it yourself. […]

This will be my last post here on Toddler Summer. It’s sort of bittersweet. This spot on the great big Internet is where I found my blogging voice. But this space no longer fits me. I feel penned in by the idea of toddlers and summer and that isn’t what I write about, really. Not […]

January. She’s five. She stares up at the monkey bars and wonders what they are for. Hangs from one and drops down. I tell her that she can cross them, power herself from one to the next, propel her body forward and reach on to the next bar. She doesn’t want to try. February. She […]

The squeals of joy on Christmas morning never get old. It’s a day of skipping naps and riding bikes and dressing dolls a thousand and one times. Of saying yes to eating all the m&ms and watching Elf for the fourth time in as many days. Merry Christmas!

Pancakes with old friends + Cousin play time + Starting a good book + Dinner with 14 family members + Lots of Andes Candies = A very Happy Thanksgiving

I’m so tired I don’t have a coherent post in me tonight. Nora read to me tonight, a few chapters out of her new chapter book that she can read mostly herself. I almost fell asleep listening to her. I’m almost falling asleep now. My mom met Miles today for his Thanksgiving feast at the […]