This is the post I’ve been wanting to write for a couple of years: the post in which I acknowledge the aging process. But I’m in this weird in-between time when, according to Merriam Webster and everyone who is older than me, I am most certainly NOT middle-aged; I am still a young’un. And yet…
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The big f-o-u-r
Today it is all about this guy: …because it’s a big day in his world. Michael is a big four-year-old! It’s a big day in our world, too. You see, age four means we finally, finally are legal to leave behind those stupid five-point harnesses. That’s a milestone we’ve been looking forward to for a long time.…
Read MoreTaking Stock at Forty
When you’re a kid, certain ages stick out as milestones. Ten, and thirteen, and then of course every single one of the teen years, up to twenty. Twenty-one is a big deal because of the alcohol thing. Twenty-five. Thirty. But I have to say I never looked beyond that. Forty, obviously, was middle age. The…
Read MoreOf Nicholas, At Age Four
Birthdays in our house seem to be lasting a week this year. (Or two months, if you follow Julianna’s sublime refusal to acknowledge the passage of time.) For the past week Nicholas has been in Heaven. But a weeklong birthday that always falls during Lent causes its own brand of difficulty for a family that…
Read MoreTo Boo Boo, Upon Turning One (a 7QT post)
one…. How does a name like “Boo Boo” become associated with a child, anyway? Perhaps the same way this child… becomes this one… two… It’s my name for him, no one else’s, although Nicholas has tried to adopt it. I have all manner of permutations, every one you can imagine: boo boo, baby boo, boo…
Read MoreMaking Peace With My Birthday
For most of my life, my birthday and I have had a pretty dysfunctional relationship. It’s not about age–I’m seeing the first hints of the aging process taking its toll, and I don’t like that, but psychologically speaking, I think this whole obsession with youth is ridiculous. No, it’s about the day itself: the purpose…
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 MoreMultitude Monday
After spending an entire week focused on infertility, my brain has been having trouble grinding into gear, casting about for topics for the coming week—and in particular, a topic to anchor my Monday morning gratitude post. Do I focus on the conference we attended this weekend? On visits with friends and family? On the bizarre waking nightmare…
Read MoreReclaiming the Home Birthday Party
As of Sunday, I’m on a mission to reclaim the old-fashioned, have-it-at-home birthday party. It seems like every party we go to these days is a “destination” party: Chuck E Cheese, Bonkers, Little Gym, etc. And I definitely see the perks to having it off-site. Namely, you don’t have to clean up! Still, there’s just…
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Kathleen M. Basi 