We planted blackberries four years ago, and every year we watch the plant bloom, grow berries, and then every year birds, squirrels, chipmunks, or some other form of evil gets to them before we can. This year, just like every year before it, we watched the plant bloom, grow glossy red berries, and then, we watched in amazement as
If David and Mary Virginia are both awake, they are bickering. They fight in the car, during meals, in the stroller. Whenever I’m on the verge of making me LOSE MY EVER-LOVING MIND, I try to remember that they’re kids and this is normal kid stuff. Having siblings is just one way we learn to interact,
Reaching month one feels like such an accomplishment. It’s the first mile marker — your chance to pause for a moment, take a breath, look around, and pump your fist in the air because WE’RE DOING IT! WE’RE REALLY DOING IT! From the very start, Tom has encouraged me to take this whole “mom of three kids”
It was my idea to name our third baby after his daddy. And, ugh, that sentence is an example of how confusing it can be to have two people in your family with the same name. Saying “…to name Thomas after Tom” sounds convoluted. So far we’re calling the baby “Thomas” or more often “baby Thomas.”
Before I begin, I’d like to answer the two questions people keep asking me about Mary Virginia. First, Mary Virginia has been sleeping like a champion. A CHAMPION. Well, ok. Maybe not a champion, but she’s been sleeping like a normal toddler. She wakes occasionally at night, but no one is singing nursery rhymes from midnight to
The other day Tom took the big kids on a quick errand, and I decided it was high time I got around to giving Thomas his first bath. I’m not going to tell you how old Thomas is in these photos because my mother raised me with higher hygiene standards than that, and she has a reputation
Mary Virginia turned two last weekend, and we had a little party to celebrate. And by “little” I mean little. Because normally when I say “little” I mean that I restrained the guest list to our 20 closest friends and their 400 children. The theme of this party was “mama just had a baby.” I
When Thomas was just a few hours old, Tom brought the kids to the hospital to meet him. David was extremely uncomfortable when he came to meet Mary Virginia in the hospital, so this time I planned ahead with lollipops. “Mommy, where’d you get these lollipops?” David asked me, because he thinks that lollipops are contraband
We were outside the other day and Mary Virginia climbed onto the armrest of my chair. As soon as she did it, she started shrieking with joy, “LOOK AT ME! I’M ON YOUR CHAIR! I’M SO HIGH!!” I’m not sure if she was proud of her accomplishment, or pleased with herself because she figured out
This isn’t the craziest birth story you’ll ever read. It isn’t the most dramatic or fastest or the closest call. But it is my craziest birth story. I’ve already told this story several times, and each time I feel a bit like I’m lying, or at least exaggerating because the timeline just doesn’t feel real. Whenever I tell it, I