Children need their parents. Parents provide support, comfort, wisdom, structure, someone to look up to, and all that mature adult jazz. Parents are important, they matter. Right? Amused horse is amused. Yeah, well, my precious daughter, who just turned 12, doesn’t need me for a whole lot, it seems. It’s great that she’s independent and … Continue reading Parental redundancy
Julia is not technically a young adult, of course. Young adult literature, for example, targets adolescents aged roughly 12 to 18, while the medical definition of young adult starts at 18. Whatever the definition, we’re definitely not there yet. But “young adult” is nonetheless how my precocious freshly-11-year-old consistently seems to me. Are you saying … Continue reading “Young adult”
10 years. But we were just at the hospital with my wife giving birth! Then again, it was a lifetime ago that Julia kept us awake at night or wore diapers or lived on breast milk. And yet, sometimes, I feel like she’s always been the smart, curious, independent, sensitive, cheeky preteen kid she is … Continue reading 10
Like I wrote a few years back, it’s inconveniently difficult to distill a single year in a child’s life into one or two clear themes for narrative purposes. Except when it’s not. Sometimes, it’s actually super easy. Like this year. The title may have already given it away, but let’s reiterate: Horses. Horse. So much … Continue reading Year of the Horse
A certain respiratory virus finally caught up to my family and pushed our birthday party and blogging plans back a few weeks, but we got off easy in the end and now we’re back to our regularly scheduled programming. So… One more month and change, and Julia will have successfully completed first grade. No fuss, … Continue reading First grade
So. Those twelve months just happened. Pandemic. Social distancing. Global recession. Western democracy in crisis. The climate almost at its recorded warmest. Toilet paper shortages. … Preschool has been great, though! Great. According to Julia, she’s enjoyed preschool more than day care, and she loved day care. The first few days were a bit rough, … Continue reading Preschool
I was perfectly happy with just the one child, to be honest. We’d already resolved to keep it at just the one, my wife and I. I was especially happy about the fact that Julia had grown independent enough to manage most daily stuff on her own. Brushing her teeth. Putting on clothes (and constantly … Continue reading Maikki
She’s five already? Yup. She’s five. I’m starting to feel a measure of kinship with the countless parents I’ve heard complain about their kids growing up too fast. I say “a measure”, because there’s no “too fast” in there for me, at least not yet. My daughter keeps getting smarter and more independent, she keeps … Continue reading Growing up
Child development inconveniently does not follow a neat yearly schedule, so it’s difficult to distill a single year into one or two clear themes for storytelling (or blogging) purposes. But two things do nonetheless stand out from my daughter’s fourth year: (1) fierce drive to learn and do things on her own without help and … Continue reading Doing things on your own
Year 3 was to year 2 mostly what year 2 was to year 1. More fun and much more interesting. What it was not, though, was easier. Our daughter gave us plenty of attitude and pushback in the bargain (and, naturally, continues to do so). But however annoying or infuriating this developmental phase can sometimes … Continue reading Personhood
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