My husband and I both come from two-child families. He has one sister and so do I. We knew, going into this marriage/family thing that we wanted, on some levels, to replicate our own experiences. Two kids felt right and complete to us.
So when Milo was 15 months, we decided to start trying to conceive Belle. (Which, in retrospect, makes me jittery and giggly in a most nervous, unattractive way. We began going for baby number two when we had a toddler that was barely toddling and communicating exclusively in screeches and grunts??)
Belle, apparently, was waiting like a jaguar ready to spring from behind a rock to be born—because it took all of one try before her cells started dividing, and multiplying into a real, live person.
When she first came into the world, it was hard, of course. I was sleep deprived and trying to juggle a two-year-old and a newborn. But it was, I thought, totally doable. (Read more…)
As part of the Ladybug’s first grade reading curriculum students were assigned short books to bring home every night to read aloud to a family member. Generally these were sweet little stories about bright red fire trucks, or brothers and sisters and their trip to the sea shore. No cliff hangers or plot twists here—just easy sentences with manageable words. Many evenings the Ladybug would sit at the kitchen table and read while I busied myself with dinner prep. Admittedly, I usually only listened with one ear, coming to attention when she struggled with a particular word.
That is, until the terrifying tale of the Ten Little Snails.
The story began innocently enough as ten little snails happily (albeit slowly) made their way through the forest. Eventually two of the group depart and the reader is left with eight snails. Math AND reading, can it get any better?
“Mommy, there are only eight snails now because two died.”
What? I remember my surprise that the Ladybug would suggest such a gruesome end. I made a mental note to cut back on the television and assured her that our heroes have not died, they simply went off on another adventure. Died. Good grief, what is our world coming to? (Read more…)
