Image credit: Photo by Bob.Fornal on Flickr Licensed under Creative Commons If you had asked me, before Austen was born, if nearly every detail of my life was fixed in routine, I would have said no, and I would have thought that was quite true. After all, I had free will and all that. If [...]
Posts under ‘perseverating’
A Spoon Is Not a Spoon
Image credit: Photo by skinnylaminx on Flickr Licensed under Creative Commons As I write this, I have a cup of tea beside me, and I am trying to get myself to drink it. I'm not hesitating because I don't like tea or because I think it will be unpleasant. I'm hesitating because I'm trying to [...]
How Austen Convinced Me Torture Doesn’t Work
Image credit: Photo by ...-Wink-... on Flickr Licensed under Creative Commons "How did you know?" my son Austen asked. "Know what, buddy?" I asked. We had been talking about how a particular connector fit into a particular slot. This, along with batteries and speakers, is a particular fascination of Austen's lately. When we were watching [...]
Looking Back
Image credit: Art by jeloid on Flickr Licensed under Creative Commons I started keeping a journal semi-regularly when I was in middle school. My very earliest journal entries are a thrilling roller coaster ride through the life of a suburban tween: from the heartbreaking lows of the cancellation of my favorite TV show to the [...]
My Kids Deal with Death
Image credit: Photo by two stout monks on Flickr Licensed under Creative Commons My daughter, Janie, found the body. Our pet* had been missing for a while, so at first she shouted to me excitedly. She found him! But when I ran to her, it was clear that he was already gone. She looked from [...]
No Answers
Image credit: Detail of a photo by Carla216 on Flickr Licensed under Creative Commons This week, when our family pet went missing and later turned up dead, I did an obsessive imitation of some of my favorite literary detectives; like Sherlock Holmes, I tried to piece together the smallest clues and like Hercule Poirot, I [...]
Just a Routine Checkup
Photo credit: Photo byNick Atkins Photography on Flick A few weeks ago, my son had his annual checkup. Because I am perpetually disorganized, and because insurance only pays for one checkup a year (meaning each must be scheduled at least one year and one day apart), my children's checkups keep moving further and further from [...]
Help for My Son in the Human Habitrail
Last night we took the kids out to one of those kid friendly indoor play spots, the kind that have play structures that look like giant Habitrails. My son was both very eager and extremely terrified to play in it. He wanted to climb up, crawl through the maze of tubes hanging above our heads [...]
Perseverating
I loved it when my kids were really little and easily distracted. They'd be crawling, with dogged determination, toward something they were not supposed to have: a book they were intent on shredding, a cell phone they were going to use to call Mongolia, a checkbook they wanted to eat or a bottle of red [...]
