It’s seven-thirty on Saturday morning, and Alex is already in trouble. He got Michael out of the crib while Daddy and I were downstairs and then wandered away, leaving his nine-month-old brother on the bed. It doesn’t take much imagination to spin out the picture: The thunk, followed by baby wails, brings me running upstairs.…
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7QT
___1___ Alex and Nicholas have been adorable lately. They’re playing Batman, Transformers, and Lego together as if they’re not 4 years apart in age. It makes me all mushy inside. ___2___ Nicholas’ first-ever homework assignment was to complete an “all about me” page. It took us a tour of the color wheel to determine his…
Read MoreCome To Jesus (or: what happened in the wake of a Mommy meltdown)
No one likes having to confess that they lost their cool in front of their kids. It’s a tossup deciding which is worse: the experience itself, or having to admit it where others will hear about it. It’s been three weeks since my bad week–the week in which I lost it (twice), and life looks…
Read MoreBack-To-School Takes
___1___ We went to the pool on Wednesday. I put one toe in the water and realized pool season is over. Amazing, what ten days of cool weather can do. We washed all the suits and are officially retiring the pool until 2013. ___2___ I’ve been feverishly juggling end-of-summer, beginning-of-schoolyear commitments with DEADLINES. Which is…
Read MoreRandom Tidbits For A Wednesday
1. You know what the worst part about having four kids is? Corralling the clothes. The ones that SAY 5T, but MEAN 3T. The ones that SAY 3T, but mean 5T. The ones that still fit, so you leave them in the drawers till they don’t, and by the time they don’t, you can’t figure…
Read More7 Quick Takes: An Update on Kids and Weather
___1___ As of Thursday morning, the scales read 141-point-(something, I was too stunned to remember). I have now grazed a weight I haven’t seen since pre-pregnancy with Julianna, six years ago. (Fist pump.) ___2___ Alex spent an hour and a half yesterday morning in the lab of a soil scientist at the university, doing “experiments”…
Read MoreBig Feet
The thing about having four children close together is that I’ve been locked in small child mode for so long, I’ve become fixated on the age of five. By five, they should be past diapers and defiance, they can brush their own teeth and bathe themselves, be trusted with certain tasks and I can feel…
Read MoreMany Gifts, One Body: a first grade lesson
Alex didn’t have a good last day of school. Silly school, they thought all the kids would enjoy a non-uniform day filled with nothing but outdoor games. (Well. And Mass. Can’t begin or end a school year without that.) Alex thought he was going to enjoy it too, until he fell down in a three-legged…
Read MoreI Love That About Him
My baby, the child of my heart, turned seven this week. With the literalism of a first grader, he insisted he wasn’t seven until 6p.m. On the way out to the playground, his teacher began to tease him that maybe we shouldn’t have a birthday party after all, but halted mid-sentence. She knows my boy…
Read MoreCore
“Mommy, that boy called me stupid.” I shaded my eyes against the yellow heat of the sinking sun and saw Alex, his big brown eyes simultaneously wide and droopy, pressed against chain link as if trying to squeeze through the backstop and draw comfort from me. I hitched Michael up onto my hip and got…
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Kathleen M. Basi 