My children know how to behave in a restaurant: make as much noise as possible, run and jump and spin from one end of the place to the other, and swoop down on the table intermittently for a bite of pizza or a sip of a Shirley Temple. And maybe even pole dance (hello, Google [...]

Earlier this month the Denver Museum of Nature & Science invited Mommy Bloggers to a sneak preview of their new exhibit, Nature Unleashed: Inside Natural Disasters.
The kids and I were greeted by Twitterer Tara (a hostess-with-the-mostest who allowed Tessa to carry her cell phone and who remained good-natured [punny, no?] as Reed dragged her from [...]

Clearly, my son has both gender chromosomes. I know this theoretically thanks to my 8th grade science teacher, Mr O’Connor. But I have recently been able to see it for myself as well.
First, the Y:
“Mommy, which weapons can I bring to school?”
(Now, don’t go judging me to be a pistol-packing mama. Our son, despite [...]

“Dear God –” my mom prayed when I was 2 years old and she was pregnant with my middle sister.
You might think she prayed for a certain gender, for a healthy baby, for an easy delivery. But her prayer was along different lines:
“Please make this baby not persnickety about its hands the way Lori [...]

15 YEARS AGO
What I had
* My own home (a condo), furnished with stuff *I* bought
* A fascinating job as head of an adult learning network
* Good grades in grad school
* A lot of time to myself to read, write, [...]

A child asked at bedtime, “Mommy why is there war? Why can’t there be peace in the world?”
“Well, to have peace in the world, we need peace in our country.
“To have peace in our country, we must have peace in our city.
“To have peace in our city, we must have peace in our neighborhood.
“To have [...]

Editor’s Note: Wanna win a Wii and Wii fit? Enter here!
All I wanted for Christmas that year was the fashion show stage on which to perch my Dawn doll.
And I got it. And a ton of other stuff, too. Christmas at my childhood home was always a little out of control, and these days, [...]

“Mom! At school I got to visit the Treasure Box!”
“Really, Reed? What did you get?”
“I got this ring. It’s a very special ring.”
“What so special about it, Honey?”
“Well, this ring has the power to deSTROY the WORLD!”
“Wow. That’s some ring. How does it do that?”
“It explodes the WHOLE PLANET!”
“Really. Why would you want to do [...]

Our society is so squeamish about death. Until the last six or seven decades, I imagine that death was not so hidden. During agricultural times, I think we were used to farm animals dying and to dressing our own dead, to having their remains sit in the parlor downstairs until we marched them in a [...]

If my son forgets to wear a coat on a chilly October day, he experiences cold.
If my daughter forgets to bring the lunch I pack for her, she experiences hunger.
Neither experience will cause lasting damage (well, maybe a little for the teachers who have to deal with them). In fact, my hope is that such [...]