Blog – Page 43 – KJ Dell'Antonia

Patience, and Wagon Rides

By KJ / Friday, October 2, 2009

I am slowly but surely becoming a better person, and will no doubt achieve that flawless maternal perfection epitomized by, say, Dooce in time to work it on my great-great-grandchildren. I recently managed to go from being late all the time to at least much better (and wrote about it for Parenting–look, that glam mom in the accompanying picture is me! Really!). This month (season? year? decade?) the project is: Patience. The expert coach for the moment is Rory. Because […]

An Afternoon of Indulgence

By KJ / Thursday, October 1, 2009

An Afternoon of Indulgence Originally uploaded by kjda KJ Dell’Antonia sent from my iPhone

You Know What I Love? School! (Plus Activity Angst)

By KJ / Wednesday, September 30, 2009

School gives us a glorious level of consistency in our lives that I would otherwise be unable to achieve. Every morning, for four hours, there is ritual and order in Wyatt and Rory’s lives. Every day, for 6 hours, the same can be said for Lily. Every day, for seven hours, Sam is safe and surrounded by kids his own age, learning age-appropriate stuff at a school that suits him very well. And every day, when I get everybody back, […]

A Thing I Hate About Breakfast

By KJ / Tuesday, September 29, 2009

If I’m in the kitchen making lunches (or, ideally, sticking the already packed sandwiches, etc, into the lunch boxes) during breakfast, they’re all lined up across from me at the bar. This seems to alert some sort of inner “soda bar” facility deep in the brain, as the combination of the bar, the kitchen and the breakfast makes them conclude that I am a waitress. A bored waitress. So if I’l there, they spend all of their eating time thinking […]

Lest You Doubt Our Small Town

By KJ / Monday, September 28, 2009

I just had the following conversation with my husband: Me: Heather says Extreme Home Makeover picked a house in Lyme, and Seth’s hardware store is donating a bunch of stuff, so he’ll be on the show. They’re really excited. Rob:Yeah, everybody was talking about this in the barber shop today. And then they played the theme from the Andy Griffith show, and my wacky neighbor popped in to borrow an egg.

News Flash: Not Everything is About Rory

By KJ / Monday, September 28, 2009

Or having four kids instead of three (or two, or one, for that matter). At some point over the weekend I said to myself “Self, you have got to quit this blaming it all on Rory/having four kids business.” I had bad days before we had Rory. I had days when I felt like I would never get out of the house, that the dishes would never be done and the laundry would never be washed (Full disclosure: I have […]

Meeting the Guo Jis

By KJ / Sunday, September 27, 2009

We met up with the Guo Jis today. Much, much bonding. Among those adults crazed enough to adopt themselves into biggish although not huge families–or possibly those women crazy enough to come up with it, and those men crazy enough to marry said women. But no, let us admit that we are all crazy, and that that craziness seems to spread into other attitudes–about life, mountain biking and its importance, many although not all general child-rearing practices and, I suspect, […]

Family of Four/Six

By KJ / Friday, September 25, 2009

I’m over thinking I’m not cut out to be Rory’s mom, I think. My new thing is that I’m not cut out to be the mother of four. Although… Rob was out of town for the last two nights. I think he’s been away a few times since Rory arrived, but this is the first time since school started in earnest, and in a full-on, all-out week–the week with nightly swim lessons. It’s a biannual occurrence that makes me simultaneously […]

How was the Big Birthday?

By KJ / Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Great, if you just whitewash it here and there. The thing is, from two on, I had to just get my skates on and GO. 2:00 pick up Sam, town, snack, buy balloons, 3:00 pick up Lily, home put together big ole’ plastic doll house, cry because we cannot play more with it and it is not ours (well, that would be Lily). 4:00 babysitter’s, share cupcakes, celebrate. 4:30 Farmer’s Market for dinner. Park, try not to get run over, […]

If You’re Not Reading Let’s Panic About Babies!

By KJ / Wednesday, September 23, 2009

You’re not laughing hard enough. http://www.lets-panic.com/

Happy Birthday Rory!

By KJ / Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Happy Birthday Rory! Originally uploaded by kjda Rory is four! (Well, in a few hours, anyway, and as best as we know, so there you are.) If you’re thinking “That’s a pretty lame cake for a 4-year-old, KJ,” well, you’re right. It’s also pretty tiny. But just outside the picture are the two plus dozen mini cupcakes she’s taking to school, and the extra cupcakes for breakfast, and still more to share with her babysitter and friends, it looks a […]

Updates and the Tattle Brigade

By KJ / Monday, September 21, 2009

Inspired by Guo Ji Mama, who updated her blog header the day her last daughter came home, I have FINALLY updated mine. Call it what you will. Maybe I wasn’t ready. Maybe I’d just forgotten how to use Cyberduck to upload the file to my theme, or more importantly to resize the picture. Maybe I’m just lazy, and the kind of hostess who leaves the giant bottle of nature’s miracle (used to remove the scent of doggie “accidents”) on the […]

Be as the Powerful Current (I made that up.)

By KJ / Sunday, September 20, 2009

Three solid i-friends (Mommy, Lori and the mother of Awesome Cloud) are in China right now. Some bonding troubles, not all is going perfectly–but I find myself envying them, especially those last two, who sound, at least, uncomplicatedly happy. I think China really screwed us–and this has nothing to do with Rory at all. But the quarantine…that was so hard, and so scary, even though in retrospect I can see that we didn’t need to be frightened, and so long…you […]