More Than Four Sides

Category: Parenting

  • Stuck inside…thanks Sandy!

    I read with appreciation my thoughtful friend’s words in anticipation of today’s deluge courtesy of Sandy: Sandy I was also anticipating a lovely day at home with boys. And, for the most part, it has been. Highlights: pumpkin pancakes for breakfast reading stories two sets of drawings of S and J, executed by S and…

  • Going stroller-less

    J is getting very close to being as old as S was when we first brought them home. Unlike biological parents, who know precisely the day (and time) that their children come into the world, our guys came to us with birthdays that were created for them by someone in the adoption/orphanage system, and were…

  • Dropping Off vs Picking Up

    “Who’s dropping me off today?”, J asks. “I’m dropping you off, and Daddy will pick you up.” I reply. “So, will you see me in soccer after school?”, he asks. “I wish I could see you doing soccer, but I’m dropping you off, not picking you up. That means that I’m taking you to school…

  • I yelled at my kids

    Yes, I yelled. It was this past Friday morning, and both the husband and I had to get to work early. I had offered to deliver kids to their respective child care programs (S had no school, but was going to Kids After Hours, which he loves!). We were doing great, with clothes on in…

  • Alphabetizing

    S has “Wall Words” that he has to learn. He’s in the Giraffe word group in his class. The other two groups are the Elephants and the Pandas. He’s starting to figure out how reading and spelling work, but it’s been harder for him than most other things that he tries to do; and he…

  • An Education with Carlo Collodi’s Pinocchio

    I learned about Collodi’s original version of Pinocchio about a year or more ago, when I mentioned on Facebook that we watched the Disney version with our kids, and my very well-read cousin (yes, you, R) told me of the “real” version. I love this version so much more than the Disney-fied, saccharine story. I…

  • Gender identity

    My first child turned 30 (!) last year. When she was born, I had all kinds of ideas about her identity as a girl, informed in part by my own experience as a first-born daughter, and from classes I took on child development. My husband and I bought no clothes for her that were pink…

  • “I have a hurty froat”

    It became clear to us in the middle of last night why J may have been so crabby and clingy the last couple of days, when he crawled into bed with us, and his whole body emanated heat! He complained of a sore throat (pronounced “froat” by him) two days ago, but he had no…

  • What blessing do you say, Mommy?

    That was the question posed to me this morning by J, our new Pre-K student at the Broadman-Kaplan Early Childhood Center. It was asked in the context of my grabbing my lunch bag to take out to the car, as I was leaving for work. So, I asked him, what blessing do you mean? And…

  • Crafts to kick off the school year

    A friend, and prolific blogger, posted a challenge a couple of days ago to share a beginning of school year craft project tradition.  The prize for submitting ideas is a craft kit, which I am pretty sure my boys would dismiss as too “girly” (although, S is very into paint and color, and glitter would…