Four

It is hard to believe that four years ago we were in the midst of another series of Winter Olympics.  As I labored with you I complained to H, "I've already seen this figure skating couple!" To which he replied, "Uh yeah hon, it's 3 o'clock in the morning.  They are repeating things now."  Right. We had been at the hospital since seven a.m. for your induction.  You clearly did not feel like making your entrance into this world even though you were already two weeks late.  Today you are four and you still hate getting ready in the morning, putting on anything that isn't "pajammies" and heading out the door.  You much prefer to while away the hours bare foot and comfy with copious amounts of blankets, pillows and stuffed friends surrounding you.I … [Read more...]

A Barbie Dream House for Me

A reprint of a post from the past- all about a Christmas past.  Enjoy!  Be sure to check out MPR's Holiday Gift Guide- new items have been added!There it sat. Huge and under the tree. The tag insisted that I was correct, this big box from Santa/my grandparents was intended for only me. My five year-old brain was buzzing with ideas. I could barely contain my excitement. My mother kept warning me to stay away from the tree, "It's not time to open presents yet. Stop touching things and back away from the tree!" I think I might have done a little dance of protest before I backed away. I sat on my grandmother's paisley and floral couch and wondered, what could it be? A pony? It was certainly a large enough box. Then my mind settled on it. The only thing it could be. The only thing I … [Read more...]

Traveling my Childhood Fantasties

Oh, if only I could uncover the photograph taken of me from Christmas 1985. You would see a pink-sponge curler topped Vicky in a lilac bathrobe clutching a giant tome of a book about the size of my torso while a face-cracking smile threatens to bust through the photograph.For weeks I would drag my mother to the book store so I could gaze longingly at Robert Ballard's book, The Discovery of the Titanic, in all it's full color glory. Filled with beautiful illustrations, actual photographs from the deep sea wreck as well as those from it's maiden voyage, this book was all I wanted for Christmas. I memorized it before I even owned it. Before it was in print I had watched television specials, read articles and checked out every book about the Titanic from my local library. I was a kid obsessed. … [Read more...]

On Life, Death and Our Children

I have never felt so inadequate or so much like an adult as when I attended my friend's mothers funeral a few weeks ago. I was alone in attending and unlike other funerals I didn't have my grandmother, or my father or my husband to lean on. As I sat there listening to my friend and her sister eulogize their mother with such tremendous poise and grace I felt that we were passing into a new phase of our lives that needed plenty past life healing. Our parents are dying now. We have officially grown up. Then I thought back to my childhood and remembered a few of my school friends whose parents passed away due to long illnesses while we were still in grade school. In first grade I celebrated my birthday with cupcakes at 8 a.m. so that the whole class could attend a fellow classmates fathers … [Read more...]

Free To Just Be

Ever since we found out we were going to be parents H and I knew that we would without a doubt let our kids feel free to be themselves. Their quirks and personalities, likes and dislikes were free to gad about and we would not try to stifle them. Lefties are welcome just like kids with blue hair and opposing political views.Then the other day I realized we actually haven't been doing that. TD has some wildly untamable hair and everyday we run the gamut of detangler, soaking every layer and then combing it out. "Combing out the weave" is what H calls it. It's definitely a process and one that goes completely AWOL about ten minutes later. Inevitably I end up combing her whole head about three more times in a day. If I don't do this it looks like a pack of rabid squirrels ran through it while … [Read more...]

Strawberry Shortcake – The Nudist

As a kid, I grew up in the Ocean State. Ah, lil' Rhody with it's four hundred miles of beaches. Bet you didn't know that the smallest state in the country could boast so much coastline. We certainly had our pick of the beaches and of all those sandy strips my parents often chose the one that you actually had to strip at. That's right, a nude beach. Moonstone to be exact and I'm not trying to be funny.Now a nature reserve for the piping plover or some such bird, Moonstone was a nude beach into the early 80's. As a small kid I didn't notice much of anything in the way of awkwardness I rather liked the whole no sand in the bathing britches factor and I was literally free to run around and play all day. Minus the fact that there were often few other children to play with it wasn't a bad beach. … [Read more...]

What is Pink and Squishy and Family-Friendly? BARBAPAPA!

Sure you have your Cabbage Patch Kids, The Golden Books, your Strawberry Shortcake, throw in some Winnie the Pooh or Where the Wild Things Are and you have yourself many childhood favorites. All things many of us look back on with happy nostalgia. However, it was while I was visiting Paris during my pregnancy that I discovered a toy in a French department store that brought back much of my childhood to me. It was Barbapapa! I knew instantly I had to have him. Excited and in utter disbelief (this toy is still popular?!) I had him rung up at the register and brought him home to await the arrival of my daughter, T.D. That and Holzspielzeug für Kinder are my favorite toys I bought for my daughter. As a kid Saturday morning cartoons dawned early in my house. Barbapapa (the cartoon is based … [Read more...]

Barbapapa Lives!

On YouTube. Anyone else watch this show as a kid? It was on a Canadian channel when I was growing up in N.E. If I didn't have the books to prove it no one would believe me when I talk about this show. It was a favorite of mine and T.D. loves the books despite them being ratty and almost thirty years old. … [Read more...]