My Dearest Madeline,

I wanted to take a moment to formally apologize to you for what has occurred over the past 5 years.  It’s no secret that with the seemingly sudden and unexpected arrival of my son and then daughter three years later, you have gone from being our first love to a second class citizen at best. Though I’m certain this offers you no comfort, you should know that this happens to all dogs.

Having said that, I am sorry that it seems like overnight you went from being the light of my life to the bane of my existence.  That is certainly not the case although my incessant use of the f-word in your presence may indicate otherwise. I know this is no excuse but my life too has changed and some days, I am just one episode of Calliou away from a full blown rampage. [Read more…]

I don’t have many memories from when I was a four or five years old but the ones I do have, are so vivid, so clear and so very permanent that I am beginning to worry about what my son is going to remember about this age?  Up until now, my husband and I have both had the security of knowing that he’ll never remember this or that because he’s too young, but now every moment really does count. Of course, my hope is that he recalls the days spent at the beach playing in the waves, laughing, loving and in awe of how Mother and Father managed to parent with such joy and patience. But knowing my luck, the only memory he will have is of the time I let a rather heavy, commercial door slam into his head because I was too focused on getting into skating lessons on time. [Read more…]

That old cliché is true…Kids do say “the darndest things”.  I just didn’t realize until now, that when they said  “the darndest things” they meant “brutally honest, surprisingly insightful and horribly shaming”. Just yesterday, in the middle of explaining to my son why he can’t sit on his sister he said “Mommy, you’re talking too long.”  And he was right, I was.  I didn’t just say “you can’t sit on your sister because you can’t sit on your sister.” I had to go on and on about why it isn’t right to sit on your sister, how it makes her feel, how it makes mommy feel and how if we all went around sitting on people it would show that we have no… holy shit, I just dozed off writing that.   [Read more…]