Posts

Let’s say you’re the owner of a small but popular bakery and a gifted cake decorator with aspirations to be, say, the next Colette Peters. But how do you get there? Baking celebrity cakes would help. Writing a book, ditto. But somehow you’ve got to get the attention of the celebrities, and publishers insist that a book needs a “platform.” “Who’s going to buy a book by an unknown baker,” they demand, while you’re left moaning “but how do I […]

Cyberbully students are causing endless angst for schools who feel obligated to interfere when students bully and are bullied–but aren’t sure where the limitations of their authority lie. Legal wrangling about cyberbullying goes on–and so does the debate about what a parent’s role should be when it’s his kid on one side or the other of the online equation. Last week’s New York Times article spotlighted one parent who sued on behalf of his daughter, who was suspended from her […]

To add to the nature vs. nurture debate: One proposal that in some cases, nature will always win out. Dr. Richard Friedman, intrigued by reports from patients he knew to have been “more or less decent parents” that their adult children were mean, unkind, unsympathetic, and rude, suggests in the New York Times that “for better or for worse, parents have limited power to influence their children.” Maybe, he says of one patient’s child, “this young man was just not […]

We’re crazy for baby names. The marketing genius behind Nameberry.com knows it, and she knows that any time she can release some new scoop on who’s naming who what, the parenting world will pounce. We believe names matter, and we’re right: as Sierra wrote earlier this year, girly names doom a boy to teasing and poor-sounding names decrease your odds of success. As Time magazine put it, we want to be unique, but not too unique. Or maybe we do […]

Well, yeah. Little bit. We’ve long since conceded, of course, that these are not really Real Housewives. Many of them do not even have Real Breasts or Real Foreheads, let alone Real Checkbooks or Real Laundry Baskets. The pleasure of the Real Housewives lies in the fact that they’re not real at all. As for the Real Catfight that’s been Really Hyped: well, let’s just say that that’s not even Real Hair that got pulled. This isn’t reality television. It’s […]

Add this to the list of things that I’m apparently supposed to worry about, to which I don’t think my own parents gave more than a passing thought: Recent research results on moving during childhood show it’s harmful in the long run. Relocating parents of extroverted kids needn’t worry so much, but those who’ve spawned introverts and other “neurotic” types can add another brick to the never-ending load of guilt. With all due respect to the idea that knowing more […]

The Gosselins have been another of my guilty pleasures ever since my husband, flicking channels one night after a day of moving house with a six-month old, a two-year-old and a five-year-old, came across Jon attempting to put all six toddlers into ski suits and we settled in for a good bout of schadenfreude. I resisted their pull last season as the marriage imploded (just too prurient) but I can watch Kate parent her eight on her own with only […]

Fall Guy Originally uploaded by kjda This is a little suction cup guy we have had for at least eight years. Isn’t it funny how some things just stick around? I am a big purger of things, but somehow, some stuff sticks. (I am thinking, for example, of the ancestral family beach towels. I have beach towels that I’ve had since I was five.) Bear with me, I do have a point. At mile 28 or so today, Sam’s wheel […]

35 Miles! Originally uploaded by kjda KJ Dell’Antonia sent from my iPhone

As you can probably tell from the syntax, that’s Rory talking. Earlier this week, Lily had a friend over, and Wy went to said friend’s house to play with her brother, leaving Rory at somewhat of a loose end. At least she thought so. I was working on a promised Strollerderby post at the kitchen counter. She came and lay under my barstool. She crawled up and sat in the stool next to me, fingering the fruit in the bowl. […]

Tonight’s Project Originally uploaded by kjda Lily got the bed for her birthday. A friend made it. Tonight we made the bedding. Glue gun city! I’ve been wanting to sit down with Lily and do this for weeks, ever since the bed came. I mean, a plain bed with no sheets is no fun. Today I blew off a chunk of work and took her to Kmart for the sheets we used as fabric, and then actually sat down and […]

Wyatt needed one too. Originally uploaded by kjda KJ Dell’Antonia sent from my iPhone

Yep, it’s been a year. Actually, as of this writing (I suspect it may take a while to finish and post this) it’s been one year and 3 days. And I have not written the traditional anniversary web post. I believe, based on what I’ve read and seen, that it should be addressed to Rory, should include a lovely list of all the ways she’s grown and changed in the past year and all the ways she’s made our lives […]

Last Day of Strawberry Picking Originally uploaded by kjda KJ Dell’Antonia sent from my iPhone

Meh. It’s summer. This makes me happy. I bonked, halfway through a DoubleX post today that I wNted to write, in fact, told people I would write–three hours later, there I was with the same single paragraph. I can tell you that is not an economically sustainable business model. This makes me unhappy. Rory is having a delightful touch of nighttime regression, refusing to go to sleep, romping about her room, kicking, jumping and building forts until all hours. Unfortunately […]

Nicest "pool" ever!!! Originally uploaded by kjda KJ Dell’Antonia sent from my iPhone

Parrot! Originally uploaded by kjda The Heard museum outside Dallas has, among other cool things, a parrot that says "Hello!" I think, that from Rory’s point of view, it was as if a dog greeted her. KJ Dell’Antonia sent from my iPhone

Happy Birthday to Sam Originally uploaded by kjda Not really his birthday yet, but we will be traveling…so today was his full on, all out Mad Science Birthday, and it was awesome. This was his volcano cake. With melted Jolly Rancher lava. KJ Dell’Antonia sent from my iPhone