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Monthly Archives: April 2012

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Becoming a 4-Year-Old

April 30, 2012 – 11:12 pm

March 30, 2008 March 30, 2009 March 30, 2010 March 30, 2011 March 30, 2012 “If growing up means it would be beneath my dignity to climb a tree, I’ll never grow up, never grow up, never grow up! Not me!” —J.M. Barrie

By kara | Posted in All | Tagged 4 years old, birthday, Sophie | Comments (1)

Easter 2012

April 23, 2012 – 10:56 pm

‘Twas Easter-Sunday. The full-blossomed trees Filled all the air with fragrance and with joy.” —Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

By kara | Posted in All | Tagged Easter, eggs, family | Comments (0)

Crème Brûlée for Dinner

April 21, 2012 – 11:14 pm

For this I am either a terrible parent or a fantastic parent—I suppose the answer lies in who you ask. Sophie ran errands with me all afternoon. We dropped off clothes I’ve been meaning to have dry cleaned for more than a year (I don’t have occasion to wear dry-clean-only clothes often) at Atlas Cleaners. We went […]

By kara | Posted in All | Tagged crème brûlée, dessert, jewelry, parenthood, princess, Sophie, worry | Comments (4)

The Middle-of-the-Night Cold

April 19, 2012 – 11:45 pm

Sophie is: wide awake at 10:53pm watching the all-hours Sprouts channel (so this is why they play children’s shows so late at night) in our bed sweaty but cold rubbing her always-watering eyes endlessly making awful sounds when she breathes. She calms, for a few moments, then sits up, a sobbing mess. She says: “My […]

By kara | Posted in All | Tagged parenthood, sickness, sleep, Sophie, worry | Comments (2)

Morning

April 18, 2012 – 9:26 am

I imagine—know—some people spend 20 minutes on a yoga mat doing sun salutations every morning. Somewhere someone is drinking hot coffee while sitting in a rocking chair on a front porch while watching chickens peck about their yard. A crew team simultaneously dips their oars in water that reflects the newly risen sun. A commuter […]

By kara | Posted in All | Tagged coffee, Heather Ross, ideal, laundry, morning, parenthood | Comments (4)

Grandparents’ Day

April 17, 2012 – 12:10 am

Sophie is lucky. Several weeks ago was Grandparents’ Day at her preschool and she had four grandparents present, including two from Baltimore. I was lucky, too. Most of my childhood was spent with four grandparents present in my life. At the time, I didn’t realize how lucky I was. They were simply a part of […]

By kara | Posted in All | Tagged Grandma, love, Nini, Paw Paw, Pop Pop, preschool, remembering, Sophie | Comments (1)

A Hurting Heart

April 11, 2012 – 3:29 pm

Sophie was whining this morning. I handle crying, screaming, tantrums, arguments, flung food, coloring on things other than paper and about a bazillion other things better than I do whining. I can’t stand whining. I ignored her (but not for long—I can never ignore whining for long, a fault, I know). I told her to […]

By kara | Posted in All | Tagged heart, parenthood, Sophie, whining | Comments (3)

Eric Carle placemats

April 10, 2012 – 10:30 pm

These are the placemats my children use every day, for every meal. My mom made them. They were Valentine’s Day gifts. Each is a laminated Eric Carle print. James gets the very hungry caterpillar (with the big sun) because he out-eats everyone, daily. Owen gets the moon. He loves the moon. And Sophie gets the […]

By kara | Posted in Things I Love | Tagged eric carle, James, Nini, Owen, placemats, Sophie | Comments (3)

Days Like This

April 5, 2012 – 5:34 pm

Maybe it was the four shots at her 4-year well-child checkup. Maybe it was the understanding that we couldn’t go to the big park today. Maybe it was the fact that James, with his ladybug ride-on toy, accidentally ran over her pink stick-to-the-wall-when-you-fling-it starfish that she picked out from the pediatrician’s treasure box after her […]

By kara | Posted in All | Tagged parenthood, shots, Sophie, strawberries, whistle | Comments (0)

Motherhood, In the Eyes of a Childless Craigslist Buyer

April 3, 2012 – 3:29 pm

As mentioned here, after months of searching, I finally found a decent patio set on Craigslist—for $50. Most patio sets are well worn, which is why the seller is selling it. But this family was moving, had no time or desire for negotiation, and just wanted it gone. I happened to be the first to […]

By kara | Posted in Things I Love | Tagged 20something, andy, craigslist, motherhood, patio table | Comments (9)
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    3rd, 5th, 3rd! James can’t really see (he lost his glasses a couple days ago so he has an appointment to get a new pair tomorrow) and Sophie managed to forget her lunch box (which I swear was in her hand three seconds prior to this pic). But they’re all at school, with brushed teeth, semi-brushed hair and that first-day mix of nervousness and excitement. And James let me hug him in his classroom (a real win). Onward! There was another roll on top of this roll. Pulling it out revealed this tube of toothpaste. Sophie doesn’t approve of the boys’ interactions with toothpaste (they get it everywhere) so she has her own tube and she hides it someplace different every night. This place is pretty clever although I’m regularly impressed with her ability to tuck it away behind the bathroom mirror. (Life with 8-year-old brothers can be challenging. For all. ) Months ago we planned a trip to Atlanta to celebrate Marty’s 70th birthday, which is today. We still went. We visited the aquarium, ate at Mellow Mushroom (a restaurant Marty loved), the cousins played together, Lizz made biscuits and gravy ... wish you had been with us, Marty. We sure miss you. It’s Twin Day! Owen flipped his Gatorade bottle and it landed here and I’m fairly certain he’s never been more proud of anything he’s done in his 8-year-old life. “Is this heaven?” (This quote was even better when there was a crop of corn growing where the pine trees are.) This is a $400 mattress. I was living with a girlfriend in Mariemont, and my parents were lending me a bed. It was 2002? I think? I received a $400 freelance check (a fortune, I felt, at the time) and I purchased this mattress, from The Original Mattress Factory. It was my first “adult” furniture purchase. Fast forward 16 years. What are these two doing?!? It’s a 16-year-old, $400 mattress! Their beds have to be more comfortable than this. (Some truths: Instead of waking them up or attempting to carry them to their bunk beds I simply rolled them over to Andy’s side of the bed so he can deal with them when he comes up. Also, it’s not my fault they’re not wearing pajamas. They long-ago figured out that sleeping in next-day’s clothes saved time in the morning.) I really should write a book on parenting . from the weekend ... After realizing we didn’t have seat assignments and were officially on standby, we woke up at 4:30 a.m. to get to the airport early to see what we could do about the matter. In these situations Andy and I try several things: kindness, patience and humor. (No one likes to be yelled at for something completely beyond their personal control.) Maybe that helped or maybe we got lucky but not only did we all get seats, we got upgraded to Comfort+. It’s incredible the difference a little extra leg room can make. 22 hours later, from the time we woke up in Munich, we were home. Sophie was upset during the rainy train ride back to Munich. We were scheduled to fly home the next day, and with thoughts of home came thoughts of Grandpa. I said all the things, both in my heart and from what I’ve researched on the matter. But often that’s not enough. So then, as usual, I just let her cry and I listened. Maybe the signs she and I see are silly, I don’t know. James recently told me matter-of-factly there was a 50 percent chance that a bird or a sunset is from Grandpa. Then he thought about it more and said, “But it’s probably just a bird or a sunset, Mom.” Still, I was thankful for the rainbow we saw when exiting the train station in Munich. It was something visible I could show her, something beautiful and unexpected that appeared right when she needed it. I’m sure the odds are less than 50-50. But it’s the great unknown, no? You can’t bet on it. But if a sign can be a blanket of comfort for a 10-year-old who is so angry and sad that she can’t shake herself out of it, I’ll take it. And use it. And, let’s be honest. I use them, these signs, often and quietly for me, too. I devote a lot of my life to looking for truths of the matters. But I’ve also learned that sometimes, we simply see what we see. And maybe that’s OK, too. the boys, playing with ducks at the lake (Alpsee) view from the castle We couldn’t get tickets to tour Neuschwanstein, so on Tuesday we toured its neighbor, Hohenschwangau Castle, King Ludwig II’s childhood home. His story is fascinating. After eating lunch in Füssen, we ran in the pouring rain to catch a bus to see this: I loved these six little trees in a row. (View from the train to Füssen.) Tuesday morning we woke up early to take a train to Füssen. After our afternoon Munich adventure (note we did all that the same day of our later-than-we-hoped-for train ride from Salzburg) we had dinner at Hofbräuhaus. In this picture we had just ordered, and yes, my beer is already half empty. 🤣 We made the 5 p.m. “show” of the Rathaus-Glockenspiel. Sophie forgot her glasses, so Andy recorded it for her. His face in the second picture ...
    TAP

  • Favorite Essays

    Choosing Compassion in a Culture of Fear

    Seeking the Bigness in the Everyday

    The Love in Trying

    The View from Up High

    Season of Innocence

    The Huffington Post guest post: Apologies to the Parents I Judged Four Years Ago, a TIME's top 10 opinion piece in 2012

    Simple

    Changing Love

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