More Than Four Sides

Tag: children

  • First full vacation day – Animal Kingdom (and a sick boy)

    We arrived in Kissimmee Florida, and found our rental townhouse, by about 5:15pm, just before sunset. It turns out that our unit is on the end, and right next to a really nice little playground, which the boys found enchanting after a long day cramped in the car. We’re just across from the swimming pool…

  • 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’m itchy now!

    I was really hoping that after two exhausting weekends out of town, and a busy week in between last week, that today we could finally settle back into the normal routines. That hope was shattered when I looked down at J’s scalp on returning home, and discovered that he had a nice infestation of head…

  • Haircuts…

    For the past several months, S has been wanting to grow his hair long, so that he can have bangs!! I’ve tried explaining that his hair really won’t form bangs, but he has been undetered, and even wanted me and his nanny to braid his hair, which she attempted last Friday, but we concluded that…

  • Sleep

    Every parent deals with sleep, at some time or another. I’ve been going through our photos documenting this past 1 1/2 year experience with our boys, and a pair of photos taken on our first day home brought the whole “sleep” story of the past year back to my mind. Ethiopia is 8 hours ahead…

  • No “umm hmmmm”, no “ah haa”

    When I don’t understand what a child says, or an adult, for that matter…I tend to use the auditory placeholder “umm hmmmm” or “ah haaa” as a way of giving myself time/space to figure out where the conversation is going. 5yo S, in his year of language acquisition, never seemed to mind this verbal tick…