Fast times and wild living with (the former) Baby Whozit…
Posted in Jessica, Little Boy, Simon says... on Jun 21st, 2010
Simon is on a roll. I have a sneaking suspicion that, even when explained, most of these items that made Matt and I laugh out loud and clutch our sides won’t translate into print. I think you sort of have to be here. And probably be (or live with) us, too. But I’m committing it […]
Posted in Jessica, Little Boy on Jun 17th, 2010
In her New York Times blog, Lisa Belkin posted a thoughtful piece called “Moments When Children Grow Up” this week. The gist was that while most of us try to pay attention to our children’s firsts—first steps, first words, and the like—last things can tell us just as much about our kids and often go […]
Posted in Jessica, Little Boy, Simon says... on Jun 15th, 2010
Despite living in a foodie heaven for eight years, I’m hopelessly disinterested in food. I have my standards and favorites, but I’m about as far as you can get from being a gourmand. It took my layoff to finally get me cooking every night, and while I’m enjoying it, it’s much more about nutrition for […]
Posted in Jessica, Little Boy on Jun 11th, 2010
As I type this, I am dead tired and my legs are sore. It might be the new Shape-ups shoes I’ve been wearing. (This family cannot resist a good gimmick.) But it’s more likely Simon. A long winter indoors did nothing to dampen his love of running. He was a little slow in March, but […]
Posted in Jessica, Little Boy on Jun 8th, 2010
Is Simon more Goldstein or Whitworth when it comes to sportsmanship? That is the question. Here’s how board games work in my family. We set up the game, ready for pitched battle. Turns take forever, as we play as though the fate of the free world is at stake. Blocks, checks, or any defensive maneuver […]
Posted in Jessica, Little Boy, Simon says... on Jun 4th, 2010
Well, it’s happened. Three and a half years on, and I have at last come across my parenting Waterloo. So many things could have triggered it before now: Colic? Frazzled and one or two bad moments, but I held up OK. A year of interrupted sleep? I was weary, but managed. The restrictions that came […]
Posted in Jessica, Little Boy, Simon says... on Jun 2nd, 2010
Looks like all those super-late bedtimes are paying off. Below is a transcript of an actual conversation in the basement tonight: Simon: “Let’s shoot some hoops, Mommy.” I take a shot from the couch and sink it in his toy goal. Simon: “No, Mommy! Not like that. Slam dunk it!” Feeling silly, I stuff the […]
Posted in Jessica, Little Boy on May 30th, 2010
Yes, you read that correctly. And bear with me; I’m getting to Simon in this post, but not right away. So, for some time now I’ve lived with the dread fear that age and motherhood were eating my brain. My recall for names and words was not what it had once been, and I was […]
Posted in Jessica, Little Boy, Simon says... on May 26th, 2010
It has to be one of the oldest clichés in the book, this notion that some young people have old souls. When applied to a preschooler, it’s a marker of something even worse than hoary sentimentality; it’s the type of cheap humor you find in movies starring celebrities on their way down or in any […]
Posted in Friends, Jessica, Little Boy on May 24th, 2010
So how does a sensitive 31/2-year-old boy handle interpersonal conflict? I’ve been wondering about this for ages. Actually, no. I’ve been worrying about this for ages. Many times I’ve seen a much younger child grab something from Simon only to look on as my stunned son stood frozen in place and cried. As many times […]