MY FIVE-YEAR-OLD SON, COLIN, started selecting his own outfits just before he turned 2. Since then, his daily uniform has been a vehicle shirt, pants or shorts with stripes down the sides, vehicle socks, and Crocs. His system is to open his drawers and grab whatever vehicle shirt is on the top of the pile […]
Write Away: My little ‘helper’
MY DAUGHTER, ANNABELLE, IS ALMOST TWO, and she considers herself a first-rate helper. She helps me unload the dishwasher by handing me the dishes. First one fork. Then one spoon. Then one more fork. She helps take Rocky his food dish. Then, after she drops the dish and food scatters everywhere, she helps me put […]
Write Away: Not-so-great expectations
MY FAVORITE BOOKS ARE LOVE STORIES. “Pride and Prejudice” tops my list. The best line in all of literature is when Mr. Darcy tells Elizabeth, “You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love you.” Doesn’t that make your heart flutter? I once asked Andy, “Why haven’t you ever said that […]
Write Away: Who put that elf on the shelf?
MY FOUR-YEAR-OLD SON IS SKEPTICAL OF SANTA CLAUS. Last year, when he was three, he asked me, “How can reindeer fly? And how can a sleigh fly? How can things fly that don’t really fly?” I said, “Magic,” which has become my answer to all of these types of questions and seems to fill the […]
Write Away: Names n’ babes
MY HUSBAND AND I DEBATED A LONG TIME about what to name our son. My name is hard to spell and pronounce, so I wanted to give Colin a name that was easy but unique. One of my early picks was Ronan. It’s different and easy to say, and I like the way it sounds. […]
Write Away: I just can’t ‘Let It Go’
LITTLE GIRLS EVERYWHERE ARE ENCHANTED BY DISNEY’S “FROZEN.” It has some cute parts — who doesn’t love Olaf the snowman, or just Norwegians in general? — but it has a lot of weird and unsettling parts, too. (Spoiler alert for people without daughters who haven’t seen it.) In the beginning of the movie, young Elsa […]
Write Away: Our marital differences
ANDY AND I TRY TO AVOID FIGHTS, sometimes by lying to each other. When he asks, “Am I going bald here?” I say, “What?! Please. You look so much like Bradley Cooper it’s uncanny.” Or when I say, “Wow, that Kate Beckinsale sure is hot,” he says, “That dog? You’re way prettier.” He’s so convincing […]
Write Away: Gentlemen prefer blond (over orange)
RECENTLY I DYED MY HAIR BLOND. I wanted to see if I’d have more fun. Before I went blond, I dyed my hair orange. Actually, I paid someone a lot of money to dye my hair orange. That wasn’t my original plan. The stylist brought out various hair samples, telling me to pick the shade […]
Write Away: The undiscovered classics
A LONG, LONG TIME AGO — I CAN STILL REMEMBER — I USED TO READ INTELLIGENT BOOKS. Dostoevsky, George Eliot, Tolstoy — those were some of my favorite authors. I remembering feeling good bringing, say, “Anna Karenina” with me to the doctor’s office and whipping it out in the waiting room because when people looked […]
Write Away: Born better
WHEN MY SISTER WAS PREGNANT, my family had a betting pool to predict the birth date of her daughter. I threw in for 8-16. I won, natch. I mathematically deduced the date of my niece’s birth because eight and 16 are multiples, and I like that. I was born on 7/14, my son Colin on […]