At bedtime tonight, after kissing my hand, Grace said: "Tomorrow, when I'm at school and you miss me, you can just put your hand on your cheek and think, 'Gracie loves you, Gracie loves you.' And when you wash your hands a lot, it won't wash off, because it's in your heart.'" Sometimes I can't…

Yesterday as I walked down the stairs, the strap on my beloved blue Crocs suddenly broke, causing me to trip and land with a big thud. This morning Grace noticed the loose strap, and decided she'd like to repair it for me. "I'm a good fixer," she said. She triumphantly returned a couple of minutes…

I am one of those people who has nightmares about losing teeth. Usually I'm in a car crash and I hit my face on the dashboard (and no, I'm not driving). I have an irrational fear that I'm going to somehow cause irreparable damage to my smile. This probably stems from the fact that I…

What do cats do when they're bored? They go skiing, of course! And then they call their cat friends and put on a skiing performance. I don't have the heart to tell these kitties that all of the snow is melting… but I'm guessing they like to water ski, too.

Back when the presidential election was going on, Grace's school voted on a mascot. The winner was the red fox, an animal found on the island that's home to the school. Grace's classroom has their own "pet" fox, and each weekend a lucky child gets to take Foxie home for an adventure. Grace was very…

  People sometimes ask me if I wish I'd had a boy. I say: I do have a boy — her name is Grace. "It was the best day of my life!" Why? "Hockey all day. And I got to give the pirate a high-five."

Grace wakes up well before the rest of us, and so we have asked her to play in her room until we come and get her (or until 7:00, whichever comes first). She has been very good about this, and usually does artwork or plays with Poppy until she is liberated from her room. This…

"All I want to do when I grow up is: be a mom, drive, play soccer, and be an animal rescuer." She might want to add "flamboyant singing pirate" to that list.

Today was yet another snow day — we got at least a foot, and the roads were a mess. Another advantage of this wintry weather (besides having good conditions for snow tunnels) is that Grace has plenty of inside time to be creative (when she's not jumping off furniture). Today, she made her own game board,…

Lately I've been thinking about how nice it would be to live in California, or Florida, or anywhere the temperature doesn't dip below zero. And then I realize how much the girls would miss out on if we lived where it doesn't snow. At least they'll grow up to be unfazed by the extreme cold,…