Two sixth graders in black T-shirts, in a garage on a warm, windy Sunday afternoon. Their friends and their mothers (except for me, because every time I sit up I feel like throwing up) are out in the driveway, cutting and Gorilla gluing and holding pieces of cardboard together until the glue sets, to make a boat…
Read MoreAll articles filed in babies
The Babies I’ll Never Have
It is Saturday afternoon and I am folding baby clothes—new, soft, tiny baby clothes—and layering them lovingly into a gift box for one of our choir members. I had forgotten how much I love baby clothes. I love everything about babies. You know, I don’t even hate the diaper changes. Did I get tired of…
Read MoreHurricane Basi
My sister and her baby girl were in town for Memorial Day weekend, so we spent most of the weekend at my parents’ farm. We descended on the house with our usual entrance of noise and chaos. My kids were over the moon about getting to see the baby. She thought they were very interesting,…
Read MoreBabies, Bird Babies, and Flower Babies: a 7QT post
___1___ Today is the last day of school. The kids have been bringing home treasures all week, including these two pictures from Julianna’s school: Christian has taken a couple of days off this year to participate in their program for dads–hanging out in the classrooms to model father participation in kids’ lives. I adore that…
Read MoreMama Rabbit And Me
There’s a rabbit under the red maple in front of my house. It’s standing in a funny position, back legs on the grass, front legs up on the mulch. I’m about to turn away when suddenly there’s a flash of gray under its belly. A wiggle. Another flash. You know that cliché about hearts stopping?…
Read MoreMysteries
There are many mysteries in the world. Like my computer, which for some reason decided recently to require Control-Alt-Delete before giving me my login screen, after eighteen months of bringing it up automatically. The fact that Java has to be given permission every single morning to “make changes to my computer” since I downloaded an…
Read MoreNot Yet
Every January there’s a day or two like this: shorts weather in the middle of frozen weeks. Days when we open the windows and let the humidity in, sniffing the air and saying, “Oh right, that’s what that feels like.” In the afternoon, I put shoes on the kids and we trek outside to scooters…
Read MoreMichael Mayhem
I capitulate, and confess: my fourth-born has officially outstripped my third-born for the title of Trouble. In fact, he has a new name: Michael Mayhem. And he’s so quiet about it, too. You never know it’s happening until it’s a fait accompli. I took Alex to his piano lesson yesterday afternoon–with all four kids in…
Read MoreMoto Perpetuo
He never stops moving these days. I could spend my entire day, every day, following him around the house and taking things away from him. Church is a one-hour wrestling match that leaves my upper arms feeling trembly and jelly-ish. I try not to assume that everyone in church is there to watch my family,…
Read More(Non)Fiction Friday: New
Sometimes people think I’m crazy for having a fourth child. Sometimes I think they’re right. As I sit on the sterile operating table, this cold November night, I know full well that not one person in the OR approves of the decision to proceed with a 37-week C section. They think I should go home…
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Kathleen M. Basi 