-1- I came in from putting Julianna on the bus the other morning to find Michael wrapped up in the window sheers, wailing “Du-du! Du-du!” (that would be “Juju”) Actual ensuing conversation, with Michael lying on my chest: Me: “Are you sad because you didn’t get to say bye-bye to Juju?” Michael: “Yes.” More crying.…
Read MoreAll articles filed in Michael
Ice Buckets, Nazis, Reprints and other QTs
___1___ Well, I did the ice bucket thing this week. I’m kind of scared to say this, but I have to admit to some ambivalence about this challenge. It’s great that people are donating to ALS research, but am I the only one who felt like I HAD to do it or I would look bad?…
Read MoreAdventures in Liturgy With A Musical Mom
Friday morning, I flew into church at 7:59 a.m. for 8:00 holy day Mass, trailing a widely-spaced gaggle of little ones–the last one wailing. With Christian out of town, I was single parenting, and it was also the last field trip day of the summer, with speech therapy thrown in for good measure. We’d left…
Read MoreBaby Steps
I always knew the day would probably come when Michael would cease to be the easygoing, always-happy little boy he’s always been. But that didn’t make it any easier when it happened. For a fleeting period of time, I had a handle on all my kids–on how to handle their personality quirks. Not perfectly, but…
Read MoreMichael and other Quick Takes
___1___ Michael’s newest word: “baby doll.” He also, abruptly and without prompting, switched from a singsong “Ma-ma!” to “mommeeee!” at bedtime one night last week. ___2___ Michael’s speech therapist thinks he has apraxia, which basically means he has trouble making the mouth muscles cooperate. And I can see that. He’s fully 30 months now and…
Read MoreThe Run-and-Hug Game
There comes a day in the life of every toddler when the great concept of “I want” butts up against the concepts “I have three siblings” and “I can scream really loudly.” On that day, life gets a whole lot less pleasant for the mommy of the house. Because it used to be that when…
Read MorePiggyback Rides
Ah, Toddler
If I had to sum up my youngest child in a pithy phrase, it would be this: he’s a holy terror, but at least he’s an adorable holy terror. Adorable: blissfully innocent of gender stereotypes, he wears Julianna’s pink hat, Nicholas’s Mater ballcap, Michael’s monster-eyes stocking cap, or…Julianna’s pipe-cleaner-and-butterfly fairy crown. Holy terror: We are…
Read MoreMichael
My baby came over to me last night while I was on the phone with my mother, wearing one Rainbow Brite leg warmer on his arm and a Power Rangers mask on his face while he tried to feed himself blueberry yogurt. Unfortunately, the mask doesn’t have a mouth hole. I couldn’t see his face,…
Read MoreOn Graduating From Diapers (mostly), and Other Quick Takes
___1___ Michael is in underwear! I admit, when I picked Christmas break to push him over the hump from “toilet trained while naked” to “toilet trained while clothed,” I was more than half expecting it to be a very messy, unhappy two weeks. And it started off that way. I started off…
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Kathleen M. Basi 