It's been a week of craziness around here. Kokopelli's birthday was last weekend, and we had a party for him. 9 kids around the age of four for two hours. My mom was here to help, and was a life-saver on more than one occasion. My mother-in-law was invaluable as the photographer for the event - I would have forgotten to take photos at all if she ( Read more... )

At Daniel's request (and with some misgivings), I invited all the kids from Daniel's pre-K class to his birthday party, and have gotten two RSVPs. Two. All of the others have given me no indication of whether or not their kids will be there. So I have no idea if we're having 2 kids or 20. It's really hard to plan for an event with that much ( Read more... )

So, hubby and I decided to sit down last night and watch the director's commentary on the new Serenity collector DVD, after we got Kokopelli off to bed. We brought cats and snacks with us downstairs, and settled in to watch. About halfway through, Zoë started scratching at the side of the sofa to get my attention (she only does that to me - I feel ( Read more... )

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Back in July, I posted about an old friend who had chondrosarcoma of the spine, who had been moved into a nursing home. A couple of days ago they moved Barry to a hospital, because he had developed pneumonia. I called him yesterday and talked with him briefly, just long enough to tell him how much I love him and miss him. He was too weak and out of ( Read more... )

http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prhtml07/07257.html

Many Diego and Dora toys here, as well as Sesame Street. Another lead-paint treat from our buddies in the Chinese toy manufacturing industry. Pretty soon our kids will have no toys left!

My extended family in Alabama is a bunch of close-minded, right-wing, religiously intolerant bigots. There are exceptions within the family, but the majority fall into this category. It's a trait that has driven me crazy for years, and ultimately figured heavily in my moving across the country from them - less opportunities for my blood pressure to ( Read more... )

So, Kokopellidad and I decided to get out and see the new Harry Potter movie this afternoon. Our neghbor's 15-year-old daughter babysat Kokopelli (she's sat with him before, and he's always seemed pretty happy about it.) When we got home, after she left, Kokopelli started telling us about the new game that she taught him. He was very excited about ( Read more... )

So, I was going to run about a dozen errands today, winding up with taking Kokopelli to the gym to swim in the big outdoor pool. First stop was the accountant's office, to pay them for handling our quarterly tax stuff. Easily done, right? Well, it would be, except I made two errors, first parking at the wrong set of buildings in the complex,which ( Read more... )

My little guy carefully arranged two beach balls side by side today, draped a blanket artfully over them, and said, "Look what I made! It's a serious Mama."

They did look a lot like the gals on Baywatch covered in a blanket... :)