Tuesday, January 24, 2012
Young football fans eagerly await their first Patriots Super Bowl.
When my daughter woke up Sunday morning, the first words out of her mouth were, “I get to wear my Patriots dress today, right?!!” If this wasn’t enough proof that my three-year old is showing signs of becoming a prodigy in the sports fan department, then you must also know that she came home with some art from school earlier in the week which depicted a smiling face (hers, of course,) lots of scribbles (no idea,) and a very good rendition of a football which was impressively drawn quite proportional to the size of her head. Under this masterpiece were the words, “I had a dream…about football.” So, she’s no Martin Luther King, Jr., but she did make her dad and I very happy. Not to be outdone as the littlest football fan in the house, my son…
Tuesday, November 8, 2011
Daylight Saving Time is always a bit of an annoyance, but with kids, that one hour throws their little worlds for a loop.
Those couple times a year when we change the clocks to save ourselves a little more daylight usually sneaks up on me. This year, it fell at a particularly hectic time in our lives. In the past week alone we have had more going on than we usually do in an entire month. We moved into a new home which is a huge adjustment for anyone, but especially for two kids under the age of four. Throw in a freak snowstorm, power outages, a birthday, sugar-induced highs from Halloween and then mess with the inner workings of a toddler’s time clock–and you have the makings of a very chaotic household. In all the craziness of the past week, I must confess the one thing I feared the most (moving) was actually the easiest for the kids to adjust to. I thought …
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
Fall family fun means apple picking and cooking up warm and comforting baked goodies like this favorite apple pie.
Fall and apple picking just seem to go hand-in-hand for families in New England. Now, if the weather would just stop being so humid, we could get on with our cool, crisp autumn days and bring on the good stuff like apple crisp, cider, donuts and leaf peeping. We try to go apple picking at least once a year with the kids. It’s still a novelty for them at this point – the hay rides, visiting the farm animals, getting a boost to pick just the right apple. I’m sure when they are teenagers they will want no part of the whole family apple picking excursion, so we’ll just keep going until they revolt. In fact, it was a happy discovery the year we realized that our picky eater, Lily, would not only eat, but devour apple after apple out in the …
Tuesday, September 20, 2011
Shopping with children changes everything.
Before I had children, grocery shopping was not something to which I gave much thought. It was simple – I needed food, so I would go out and get it. The day of the week and time of day was pretty trivial. But now, attempting a weekly shopping trip for groceries with my two little ones in tow has the ability to make me break out into a cold sweat. It usually goes a little something like this: While making my shopping list at home, I pretend I am really organized. I start with my pad I keep on the fridge meant to be marked whenever a necessity runs out. Typically the list is blank because no one remembered to do that so, I work from memory on our needs and try to cross reference the sale circular and coupons. (No, I am not a crazy coupon …
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
Columnist Vanessa McManus sends her daughter off for the first day of preschool.
The day has finally come. I have to let my baby go, just a tiny bit, as she embarks on the beginning of her academic career. I say “academic career” lightly because she is heading off to preschool where I know her days will be filled with playtime, songs, music and fun. But it is the beginning of something new for her, a small chapter in the story of her childhood. In the days leading up to her first day of school I kept thinking how I will never again be the only one who spends every waking hour with her. Never again will we have our regular lazy mornings playing in our pajamas and having breakfast so late we call it brunch with no strict schedule. Life will be busier and more structured from here on out as we get into the swing of a …
Tuesday, September 6, 2011
Columnist Vanessa McManus holds on to summer memories before the hustle and bustle of school and fall activities begin.
For most people, summer is already over. With the arrival of September and the conclusion of the Labor Day holiday marking the end of the laid back carefree days of summer, going back to school and welcoming fall is at the forefront of most everyone’s mind. But, according to my calendar, the last day of summer is officially September 22. My daughter does not start preschool for another week so I am choosing to ignore the imminent change of season and just soak in those last summer days while I can. So strong is my desire to hold onto the memories of this summer that I confess I have not fully unpacked our suitcases from a week ago in the Cape. Secretly, I love the smell of the salt air that is trapped inside from endless hours spent on the…
Tuesday, August 16, 2011
A child's first attachment object has a very special place in her heart.
It seems every child has that one special thing to which he or she becomes most attached. Be it a blanket or a stuffed friend, your child depends upon it fiercely. They need it to sleep at night. They want to hold it in their lap on long car trips. They never want it out of their sight. In our house, his name is Pookie and he was once a tan-colored bear attached to a small blanket. I purchased him on a whim one day strolling the aisles of Babies R Us in a sleepless haze when Lily was about two-months-old. Now, he is dingy, gray in color, well-loved and snuggled. His head has fallen off at least four times requiring emergency surgery. He has had too many trips through the washer and tumbles in the dryer to count, each one an exercise in …
Tuesday, August 2, 2011
Columnist Vanessa McManus discusses her least favorite parenting task.
Of all the thankless tasks associated with the drudgery of parenthood, there is one I dread the most. No, it isn’t diaper changing, potty training or even cleaning up vomit. It is cutting my kids’ nails. Parents rarely talk about it but it is probably the most challenging thing I do as a parent on a weekly basis. Holding onto a small squirming child, wielding a sharp instrument and trying to zero in on a tiny fingernail for the smallest calculated snip has me sweating bullets every time. And then doing it again and again 10 or maybe 20 times in one sitting? Worlds of patience, I tell you. It wouldn’t be so bad if they would just stay still for a couple minutes, but that would be like asking the sun not to shine–not gonna happen. While I …
Tuesday, July 26, 2011
Picky children are much harder to please, especially while searching for a new backpack. Columnist Vanessa McManus discusses the lengths she went to, just to get it right.
In general, I try not to compare my kids to one another, but it appears my eldest has made a name for herself as being “the picky one.” At mealtime, she sits disdainfully, regarding her food and pushing it away as her younger brother shovels it in. Lily whines, “I don’t want this, Mommy,” while Jack says, “More! More!” with his mouth full. Maybe it’s the age (she’s three,) but I have a strong feeling that we are in for it with her. It’s not just the fact that she is and has always been a picky eater, it now seems she is quite particular about pretty much everything under the sun. She starts preschool in the fall and recently, I told her that she could pick out her own backpack to bring to school. She likes pink, so I thought I’d show her …
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
Becoming a parent can bring out the best and worst in a lot of people.
It all started when my firstborn came home from the hospital. Like most new parents, I was fascinated by my daughter and the love I felt for her. That part came easily. However, I learned pretty quickly that my thoughts would start to be pulled in many different directions at once. Instead of just going through the daily motions of life for myself, I now had to think of anything and everything that my baby might need. Gone were the days of coming home from work at 6:00 pm and browsing through the fridge to figure out what I could make for dinner. And gone were the mornings of being able to get out the door in less than 30 minutes. Instead of simply getting myself showered and dressed in the morning, I found the addition of a newborn …
Daniel
10:08 am on Wednesday, November 9, 2011
It is a nightmare changing the clocks for me. I have over 500 hundred to alter. Our antique shop http://www.pendulumofmayfair.co.uk get regular visits by the cameras when the clocks go back and forward but I really wish it didn't. Coming home from school in the pitch dark, just seems not right to me. I would rather we kept the hours the same all year round more ›