Raising Devils

About to race! Originally uploaded by kjda KJ Dell’Antonia sent from my iPhone

BoxSled Racing Originally uploaded by kjda With Hannah Kearney at the start gate! KJ Dell’Antonia sent from my iPhone

Our local diner, Lou’s, hands out Wikisticks (you can see them in the picture below) to kids to play with while they wait for their food. Wyatt asked me to help him make a house and two people. Rory looked at Wyatt’s house, handed me her sticks, and said: C’you make my China? I said ok, and while I made her a house, she worked with some sticks. That me, she said of a blue circle with two legs. Look! […]

Wiki Processing Originally uploaded by kjda KJ Dell’Antonia sent from my iPhone

You must stay in bed. You have been up six times since I put you to bed 20 minutes ago, and you must stay in bed.  Your daddy is out of town. For the third–no, fourth–night this week. And every single night this week, without exception, a dog, a child, or 100 mile an hour winds, or all of the above, has woken me up more than once. And on two days this week, a school has woken me up […]

Actually the title’s an exaggeration. I decried no Nintendo except on weekends (in an amount and at times to be determined by me) and asked my babysitter to impose something similar when they’re with her (often at her house, with her kids) and she went with maybe when they’re there in the evenings. So far, so good–we’ve had more outdoor play, more make-believe and more card-playing and puzzles already. It’s a relief to me just not to have to constantly […]

Check out the Player of the Game! Originally uploaded by kjda KJ Dell’Antonia sent from my iPhone

Toying with it, maybe–kinda just thinking hey, what-if… I have a feeling you’re out there. Email me or post a comment and ask me to email you. (No one can see your address but me.) It is so hard, and you should totally do it. There are so many kids out there, Rory’s age and a little older, that need the life we have.

I found this on my camera and it was too good not to post. I think he’s recording the fact that he was able to peel hard-boiled eggs and leave shells mostly intact.

We spend an awesome day with the GuoJi famiglia–or at least three of them. Moms bonded over, well, bonding difficulties. Kids bonded over dolls and snow. We actually made dumplings–the first time I’ve done anything yet to “Celebrate Rory’s heritage” because, well, for a while there I think I had Post-traumatic quarantine syndrome. I did not want to even think about China, and that extended to Chinese New Year–but somehow, today, I at least got in a first batch of […]

Today we flew home from DFW to BOS, just me and the gang of four–and we were fine. Dandy, even. Got to the airport, checked our bag and the little bag of coats, went through security, ate breakfast, got on the plane, seized our portable electronic devices (in my case, the Kindle) and went to town. Thanks to my policy of forbidding all access to said portables while visiting Grandma (well, ok, not for me), we were delighted to see […]

On our way! Originally uploaded by kjda KJ Dell’Antonia sent from my iPhone

The American Girl Doll Store Originally uploaded by kjda Yum…but after, there was Orange Cup Yogurt: my new absolute fave. KJ Dell’Antonia sent from my iPhone

Grandma is barfing, so… Originally uploaded by kjda Grandpa steps up. That’s Fox in Socks: a level five reading challenge. KJ Dell’Antonia sent from my iPhone

Texas Hike Originally uploaded by kjda It’s gorgeous here today! And no one Compared this hike to a "forced march." KJ Dell’Antonia sent from my iPhone

We’re visiting my parents, much loved by all kids including Rory–but she’s never been to their house before. And we haven’t stayed overnight anywhere besides our house since we went to the Cape last summer–a place which offers many, many consolation prizes for not being home, and where Rob was with us. Here, no pool, and no Rob either. Rory is doing really well–too well, some of the time, tearing around shrieking and jumping on the sofa–but she’s also sucking […]

They Take Mardi Gras Seriously Here Originally uploaded by kjda KJ Dell’Antonia sent from my iPhone

You may recall my muffled, angry comments about a mysterious local dispute I referred to as the “MPHOLLYPMHRPYLL MURPH MURPH Tempest, teapot MUMBLE MUTTER GRUPM GRIPE” in an earlier post (one too short to merit a link) and then questioned everyone about here, referring to the whole kerfluffle as “Thingy…” If so, or even if you don’t, prepare yourself for what has, thus far, made nearly everyone I’ve described it to giggle in its utter, insane, blown-out-of-proportion-ness. Here’s what I […]

Texas Snowman Originally uploaded by kjda KJ Dell’Antonia sent from my iPhone

Texas snow is different. Originally uploaded by kjda KJ Dell’Antonia sent from my iPhone

Off to Dallas Originally uploaded by kjda KJ Dell’Antonia sent from my iPhone

Circs, tonight, allowed/required me to take Rory and Sam to dinner, then to Sam’s hockey practice. Rory had a chicken and cheese quesadilla, which she has had before and liked, and continued to like until she saw that with my soup, I had been given chips. I offered her the chips, not thinking much of it, but now she would not eat the quesadilla. We didn’t have much time, and I didn’t really care, but it’s important to note for […]

Not Cold Originally uploaded by kjda Sitting at the rink, eating ice cream, no coat–but these warm jammies. KJ Dell’Antonia sent from my iPhone

What I Want to Send for Lunch Originally uploaded by kjda I would do it, too–except that even though I have three kids all eating lunch at the same school, they aren’t allowed to share food. We spent the day skiing–fabulous! Wonderful! Also surprising, since at 3:45 this morning Lily was throwing up. But unless it involves contagiousness–hard for me to imagine on a ski slope–I never argue with a kid who says she’s feeling well enough to get outside. […]

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

Trails are in great shape Originally uploaded by kjda More later, but looks great for kids. Lily says let’s do another lap. KJ Dell’Antonia sent from my iPhone

Friday Festival of Sugar and Fat Originally uploaded by kjda What, you don’t celebrate that? KJ Dell’Antonia sent from my iPhone

I’ve spent several hours in the last few days doing things that I think are going to convey a totally faux idea of who you’re dealing with here. First, Saturday night, I waxed all of our nordic skis (well, mine, Rob’s and Sam’s). With hot wax, and a wax iron…this is something I just started doing, and I’m very proud (plus the results are indeed pretty great), but I feel like waxing makes me sound like the kind of girl […]

But I’m not going to go into details. And actually, all this reclusiveness and the MRRPHS and the Thingy and the HH wasn’t because I’m worried about my fellow parents involved in Thingy. Actually, it was all reasonably civil, and although some ugly things happened they were reasonably civil ugly things, and I will have an interesting story to tell everyone one of these days. Nah, the parents within Thingy–I mean, I’d already written a litter, so saying I’m all […]

Drat. I’d written a whole post about the MMRRPPH and the MHRRPH MRHHRPH, and I just can’t do it. This town is too small, and people too gossipy–but can I just ask the peanut gallery this: Let us say that you are one of a group of parents whose children are all involved in the same, um, thingy. With an adult in charge of the Thingy. Let us call said adult the Head Hullabaloo, because I do not want you […]

Last night Lily announced that her tummy hurt. I muttered an uh-huh, sorry your tummy hurts sort of acknowledgement that we all know means “I don’t believe you,” and Sam asked: Has any one invented–you know how one person feels pain, and the other person can’t know, like, how bad it is–like when you try on hockey skates, and no one but you can tell whether or not they really fit? That was a little incoherent, but I got it, […]

You MUST go read this Choose Your Own Adventure parody by Marjorie Ingall, or I will never forgive you. Seriously, you deserve this big a laugh today.

There have been many, many times here when I’ve wished for anonymity. Such rich veins of commentary as would open up to me! Such rants I could post about various and sundry things that I CANNOT EVEN MENTION HERE EVEN A LITTLE BIT! Ok, so MPHOLLYPMHRPYLL MURPH MURPH Tempest, teapot MUMBLE MUTTER GRUPM GRIPE darn it I really can’t even get any more specific MRPHO MRPH just wrong. Also, helicopters.

  One Sparkly Day Originally uploaded by kjda Post day exhaustion. THis was also me, trying out the multiple photo share option on the iPhone. Turns out they each come as a separate email.  Ok, got it. I love this picture–had to sneak to get it. I suspect Miss Thumb does not want to be recorded like this, although we’ve never objected to her thumb-sucking at all–in fact, we love it. For one thing, it helps her sleep, and for […]

One Sparkly Day Originally uploaded by kjda Atop of our driveway pile.

One Sparkly Day Originally uploaded by kjda

One Sparkly Day Originally uploaded by kjda You probably can’t tell, but Rory is wearing both a full snowsuit AND a ski jacket. I do not think she was cold.

One Sparkly Day Originally uploaded by kjda

I didn’t lie. I never lie to them, but I do sin by ommission, as it were. We did have to leave early this morning. There was a “because.”  Everyone did need to go brush their teeth before the usual alarm. No one really needed to know why. But Sam guessed, and guessed right. The final flu shots lay in wait.

Mellow, Relatively Speaking Originally uploaded by kjda This was yesterday, actually, at the bookstore. Lily read a Dora book that I refused to read–which was of course a serious bonus. Coffee was had, a small tantrum thrown for reasons too dull to describe here (suffice to say that no, I won’t buy TWO copies of Berenstein Bears Valentine’s Party–in fact, I can’t believe I bought one.) And we skied a few runs, had a Lily friend over and her mom […]

Killing Time, Coloring Tongues Originally uploaded by kjda We have half an hour before Chinese class, and we are spending it wisely. KJ Dell’Antonia sent from my iPhone

Caitlin Flanagan just published a provocative piece in the Atlantic about why the “garden curriculum” created by Alice Waters and running rampant in California is a bad idea. I agreed with her (here on DoubleX)–not because I think there’s anything wrong with a garden in a school, or because I think the school gardens represent a particular affront to immigrants and migrant workers (her token inflammatory hook–man, she’s good at that–I’ve yet to master it)–but because, as she finally says […]

Rory is So SAD. Originally uploaded by kjda Wyatt was invited to a birthday party, and Rory…was not. Neither was Lily, but that is ok by her. Rory, in the other hand, is very upset. She even had Wyatt convinced to skip the party and come home to play Mario Wii with her…until I decreed the afternoon a Wii free zone and freed him up to go to the party. She cried all the way there…fortunately the party hosts couldn’t […]

I took only Rory and Lily to dinner at the home of one of their friends recently. New friends, a family I didn’t know, along with another family we were already acquainted with (the boys were home on the sick side with Rob). The new friends have two daughters, 2 and 4, and although I don’t have the impression their girls are peaceful and retired types, I’m not sure they were prepared for Rory–who took one look at their large, […]

Today I shall accomplish great things, many many great things. And in honor of those things, I will post them here, to share, as the day goes by. I have already accomplished the first: Laundry Basket Reclamation. When we returned from China, in July, I put all the things we acquired there into a laundry basket and sat it on the dog crate in our bedroom (which, as you can gather from that statement, is a very relaxing and well-designed […]

Happy New Year! Originally uploaded by kjda For us, that meant fondue with friends, a neighbor’s bonfire and bedtime! KJ Dell’Antonia sent from my iPhone