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Our First Official Family Vacation
In the 10 years since Jonathan and I became parents, we’ve never taken a real family vacation. By vacation, I mean to drive away from our home to another location, see an attraction or two, and sleep there at least one night before driving home. And hopefully, something that in no way resembles National Lampoon’s Vacation. At the end of last year, we talked about an eventual road trip to either Yellowstone, the Grand Canyon, or (ambitiously) both. Knowing how far those destinations are from our home, and knowing our children, I suggested that we start smaller, considering that the kids have trouble getting along for the two-minute car ride…
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Day 5: Countdown of my favorite love songs (non-romantic love)
Welcome to day five of my ten-day series of Valentine’s Day-inspired blog posts. Yesterday, I wrote about my favorite love/hate songs. Today’s featured songs are about non-romantic love. This can be love for your friends, love for your parents, love for your children, or love for other family members. It’s a sweet and often unconditional love in its purest form. The first song on the list is my favorite song. I used to sing it to my daughter, Meredith, every night when she was a baby and toddler. It was the only one that calmed her down.
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Christmas, Truth, and Childhood Innocence
Childhood innocence eventually becomes a thing of the past. If we’re lucky, it becomes fond memories and reason for nostalgic reflection when we’re adults or the need to keep that innocence alive in our children for as long as possible. Last week, my almost 10-year-old son asked me two innocence-ending questions. The first was about the existence of the tooth fairy. He doubted it and said he was pretty sure we put money under his pillow and took his tooth after he went to bed. Jonathan and I had already agreed to tell our kids the truth when they ask questions like that, so I told Drew the truth—that he…
