I love the way, when I threaten to “get” him, Nicholas decides I’m not getting around to it fast enough and runs toward me to speed things up. I love the way he talks. “Tyoo, Mommy,” he says, patting his belly, and even now it takes me fifteen seconds of constant repetition before I figure out he’s…
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A Kerfuffle About Doughnuts (or, The Rules Apply to Special Needs Kids, Too!)
By the time I got there, Alex was crying. It began, as far too many of these encounters do, with Julianna. She took advantage of the fact that her parents were caught in conversations after church and helped herself to someone else’s juice cup. We saw her, but the people talking to us were not…
Read MoreHi, Baby
I wish I had a picture. But there is no way to capture it as I see it: these three beautiful children gathered around me, on the couch, lounging on my bed while we read bedtime stories, sometimes even in the middle of the kitchen. “Mommy, I want to pat the baby,” Alex says. “Nicholas,…
Read MoreBathing Beauties
It’s official: we’ve reached that icky time of year when stepping out the door at 5:30 a.m. feels like stepping into a steam-filled bath room. This was the first morning when, at the end of my run (well, let’s call it a jog), I came back inside and it felt cooler in the air conditioning…
Read MoreBoy, Girl, Spork?
We don’t find out the sex of our babies. I know many other people feel differently, and that’s fine, but I can’t imagine going through the third trimester with no suspenseful anticipation to offset the misery. Not to mention the misery of a spinal, which is, hands down, the worst part about a C-section. (Much…
Read MoreFirst Trimester Screening: A Motherhood Moment
Most of the parents I know eschew the first trimester screening. Before Julianna, that was me, too. I was not at any particular risk for having a child with chromosomal abnormality, and what was I going to do with the info, anyway? Besides, I knew the tests often gave false positives. After Julianna, we decided that it was…
Read MoreIn Need of a Fresh Start
So I’m a slow learner. I know that attitude changes everything. I know that put-on anger in the interest of discipline leads smoothly to real anger, and real anger to helpless rage, and that starting a cycle leads to looking at all of life in the negative. And yet here I am again. On the…
Read MoreDoing it all, 2.0
Some people say the hardest transition is the first. Others say the real challenge lies with the second kid. Still others think going from “man to man” to “zone” defense—i.e., from 2 to 3, when the kids outnumber the pairs of arms needed to carry/restrain them—is the one that really makes the difference. But everyone…
Read MoreIt Takes A Village…
Yesterday morning, after the big ones were off to school, Nicholas and I walked up to the neighborhood playground. I leaned against the stairwell of the tiny climber and tried to work on my Advent article for Liguorian magazine (don’t knock it; it’s due in four weeks) while Nicholas spun the steering wheel and used…
Read MoreHow Did You Know?
“How did you know, Mom?” My mother paused in the act of shredding lettuce for salad. “How did I know what?” “How did you know Dad was the one?” …I’m guest posting today over at Catholic Mothers Online. This one is not just for Catholics. Come on over and tell me how you realized that…
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Kathleen M. Basi 