BamamaPancakes

Things you say you’re going to do for all your kids: write everything down, chronicling their world and yours as a parent. Things you do with one kid: try to write most things down, chronicling her world and yours as a parent. Things you do with two kids: sometimes remember to write down garbledy-gooped words in a way that sort of makes sense if your poor reader has Jedi mind powers. So in the spirit of garbledy-goop, let’s do the Highlight Reel re: the small humans in our house: Addie started pre school! For those who follow the over-posting that occurs on facebook, yes, Adalyn cried her first few days. Loudly. Sadly. In the way that kind of twists your gut as you keep walking down the hall way away from your bawling child as other parents give you looks that range from sympathy and support to “Dude, I’m so glad that’s not me this year.”    However, we seem to have turned a corner! Her imaginary friend, Shang, went with her one Thursday and she’s been perfectly ...

Everyone asks how the adjustment to 2 kiddos is going. Ah, Life with Two. Life with two is a mix. It is animated, and it is tired. It is feeling utterly content one moment, and totally fried the next. It is frequently running behind, and struggling with sentences, and typically being covered in spit up and a little extra deodorant. It is wonderful. One minute, you can barely hold your eyes open because it was an every-hour-and-a-half-kind-of-night, and the next, you’re wide awake because your kid just smiled at you. We forgot the bleariness an infant’s sleep (or lack there of) brings, but we also forgot how fast babies learn and grow at this stage, and watching yours yawn and sneeze and discover her hands and voice is no less amazing the second time around.   It is all new, yet totally familiar. It’s like going for a hike we haven’t been on in years, but suddenly we see these landmarks we recognize, and every memory associated with it jumps forward, brushing the rust o...

One of the many roles Pauline Eccles served, and the way I am lucky enough to know her, was that of Grandma. And she did it right.   After she died, all of us grandkids thought about what Grandma means to us; some of these are singular to one; others we all share. But this is who Grandma is to us….. Grandma is roadtrips for all occasions in a little Honda. Grandma is mints in the dining room. Grandma is the bay, boogie boards and alligator float, and faithful straw hat and chair. She is meaningful gifts, her familiar scrawl explaining the stories. She is croquet. Grandma is sitting on the patio. She is cable tv, Nick at Nite, and Jordan commandeering the remote for the History Channel. Grandma is the smell of magnolias. She is the color blue. She is scrabble, Yahtzee, and Chutes and Ladders. Grandma is the Kentucky Derby. Grandma is classical music and musicals. Grandma is damint, “Open the door damnit!” She is ice cream cones for any occasion, or for...