From the category archives:

My Kids: the Rock & the River

The Truth About Kids and Dogs

by paige on August 5, 2010

I SWORE UP, DOWN and all around, that I would never raise another puppy. Puppies, I said glibly to friends considering getting their own, are like children, without benefit of diapers. What I should have said, instead: Be careful of the stone certainties, the pronouncements, the “I’ll nevers”–they’ll bite you in the ass, every time. [click to continue…]

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My Sister, the Speechifier

by paige on July 16, 2010

I THOUGHT IT WAS ONLY PARENTS who felt (with guilt aplenty, of course) that they wished their children, sometimes, you know, just for a moment, time to collect one’s thoughts, or maybe just form a thought…could you all, please, just for a second, BE QUIET? Apparently, this is a sibling issue, too. [click to continue…]

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Sibling Savagery

by paige on June 16, 2010

RIVALRY? HA. THAT’S teeny, tiny potatoes. My resident little sister and big brother have tabled competition, in favor of all out war. It’s looking like Afghanistan in my house: no end in sight. [click to continue…]

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Little Sister, Dreaming Big

by paige on June 9, 2010

http://www.vimeo.com/12300775FOR WELL OVER a year now, our family’s little sister, aka the Rock, has been telling just about everyone she meets all about her professional ambitions. You’ll never guess. [click to continue…]

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Sibling Supernovas

by paige on June 4, 2010

Pleiades and Stardust. Credit: Rogelio Bernal Andreo (Deep Sky Colors)

MY KIDS ARE exploding this spring, turning into ever-evolving, endlessly fascinating, newly reinvented versions of themselves. And though I try to pay attention, it seems that many days, I’m just hanging on for the ride. [click to continue…]

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Feelin’ Groovy*

by paige on May 28, 2010

YouTube Preview ImageWHEN I FIRST LEFT LOS ANGELES for the rural slice of paradise where I now live, I had trouble adjusting to lots of things: No dinner delivery. Strangers’ insistence on actual conversations at the Post Office. Repairmen operating on their own, often secret, always elastic, schedules. But my biggest adjustment? Dialing my own speed way, way down. [click to continue…]

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Glee Club

by paige on May 13, 2010

YouTube Preview ImageI DON’T KNOW about you, but I am obsessed–OBSESSED–with Glee. If you have any memories of high school at all, good or bad, and you like to sing in the car, the shower or somewhere more public, this show is, dare I say, for you. My enthusiasm for the Glee kids has me singing everywhere (much to the horror of my kids the Rock and the River, who have, at last, decided that I am, in fact, the most embarrassing person on the planet. Especially when I’m singing.) [click to continue…]

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Bedtime Stories

by paige on April 23, 2010

Bedtime's not quite this peaceful...but it's close

F OR THE LAST few years, my family’s bedtime routine has been one of divide and conquer. The H would take bathtime, I’d deal with pajamas and teeth. One of us would read to the Rock, who generally demanded at least three books, one of which had to contain Clifford, while the River, for the longest time, was really engaged by Laura and the Little House, which I alone would read. But this spring, something had to give, and I feared reprisals. [click to continue…]

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March’s Many Sisters

by paige on March 3, 2010

WE TRY to keep track of notable sisters’ birthdays, so that we can remind ourselves (and you, of course) of all the women we admire, and acknowledge them on their special days. But as we were putting together our plans for this month, we noticed that an awful lot of spectacular sisters were born this month. This Friday is the birthday of Indy car racing pioneer Janet Guthrie, and next week, we’ll be celebrating actress Lynn Redgrave, Civil War heroine Harriet Tubman, singer Liza Minnelli and photographer Diane Arbus. That’s a whole lot of talent packed into seven days. As with everything around here, we’ve got theories about why. [click to continue…]

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Rock and the River, On the Road

by paige on February 18, 2010

ON THE POSITIVE side: No one threw up. But what happens when you pack two not-so-copacetic siblings into the car for a four-hour ride? In our family: headphones, iPods, and a whole lot of discussion of just what makes boys so gross, anyway. [click to continue…]

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