Preschool

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

Doing things on your own

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

Personhood

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 be, it's also utterly awesome: … Continue reading Personhood

1 Year

What is this? Why is my muffin on fire? New. Exciting. Tiring. Different. Helpless. Lucky. Happy. Developing. Small. Strong. Interesting. Giving. Awesome. Hard. Annoying. Delightful. Sweet. Loving. Time-consuming. Smelly. Messy. Funny. Stressful. Heartbreaking. Heartwarming. Beautiful... We got some words now. I cannot say whether I'm sad or happy that the year is over, I'm guessing … Continue reading 1 Year