Call me a pagan, but Halloween is my favorite holiday. The veil between the worlds grows thin in late autumn, and stillness descends on the land. There’s a sense of anticipation in the dusky shadows, the flickering pumpkins. For one night, we can transform ourselves into anything. I love dressing up. Halloween is the only [...]
Entries from October 26th, 2009
The Curse of Markers
October 25th, 2009 1 Comment
I hate markers. Their caps get lost, they dry out, and the girls draw all over their bodies with them. Markers are always underfoot. Despite a hard-hearted vow to allow only crayons from now on, I broke down and bought a pack of Crayola Slick-Sticks. These babies are a lethal hybrid of marker [...]
Tags: kid scissors · markers
The Dark Season
October 18th, 2009 1 Comment
Give me October in Vermont and I’ll give you apple-picking, leaf-raking, and blazing orange-red hills. I’ll also give you 35 degrees and raining. This morning I manhandled A. into her winter parka and physically pushed her out the door. She was refusing to go outside due to the cold, and I was having an [...]
Tags: daylight saving time · Parenting · preschooler · winter
Jump Up
October 14th, 2009 No Comments
Just when you think you think you know who your children are, they surprise you. It’s easy to fall into the trap of labeling two different siblings (even if you’ve read Siblings Without Rivalry). Too often, we pigeonhole our kids: A. is the artist, C. is the athlete. A. is imaginative, C. is physical. A. [...]
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Touch-a-Truck Poetics
October 5th, 2009 2 Comments
Saturday, pouring rain. I could’ve gone to Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Philip Levine at the Brattleboro Literary Festival. Instead I brought my toddler to Touch-a-Truck in the hospital parking lot. Why? I figured I’d already heard Levine– one of America’s most beloved and esteemed living poets– back when I was in college. Then I took [...]
Tags: toddlers · Touch-a-Truck