parenting

Once More unto the Braces Breach

Tomas and Daniela both underwent years of braces work. Now it’s MC’s turn. She actually had been looking forward to getting braces for the first while, mainly because she got to see her older siblings do it, and anything your older siblings are doing must (by definition) be cooler than whatever it is you’re doing. (Note: this only lasts for a certain amount of time. There comes a time when you no longer really judge how you’re doing by how your older siblings are doing. Or is that just me?) As we came closer to the date of actually getting

Revisiting Older Disney Animated Movies

Denisa and Daniela have been gone at Young Women’s Camp this week, meaning it’s been me and MC holding the fort down at home. (Well, Ferris has been there too. Mustn’t forget the puppers.) I think MC was kind of less-than enthused about the idea of having three solid days of Dad. Of course, some of that was off set by the fact that she went over to friends’ houses yesterday and the day before, so it was really more like three afternoons of Dad, but still. Why would she be less than enthused? Well, for one thing, she’s a

You Don’t Trail Blaze as a Parent

Some more thoughts on parenting and life today. Up this time? All the time I’ve been a parent, I’ve viewed myself as a sort of guide who can show my kids the ropes. I’ve lived more than 42 years, after all. It’s easy to think that I’ve encountered pretty much any situation they might come across, and so as a parent my job would be to accompany them along that trip to adulthood, pointing out all the pitfalls I’d found along the way. I’d already been through all that rough ground and blazed a trail for my kids. All they’d

Driver’s Ed at Last

Tomas is coming up on his seventeenth birthday, but COVID derailed his driving plans until just last night. He had been planning on signing up for driver’s ed right about when COVID struck, and then . . . 2020 happened. He got on the waiting list for the program, and they just barely caught up with him. It’s interesting to see how Maine approaches driver’s ed differently than Pennsylvania, where I got my license. He has to get ready for a written exam at the beginning of May. Once he’s passed that and taken the driving course as well as

Spending Time with the Kids

I believe one of the best ways you can show someone you care about them is by spending time with them doing things they’d like to do. And on that theory, I’ve had a goal to spend time with each of my kids doing activities of their choosing. This is a great goal on the surface for a number of obvious reasons, but I’ve found it’s also a very difficult goal to actually keep going. For one thing, I have three children and only one me. It’s true that Denisa also spends time with the kids doing a variety of