Guilty As Charged

Kid speak
Poor Logan. He had a pretty good cough going when he left for school, but every time he gets a cold, it stirs up his asthma, so I chalked the cough mostly up to that. I arrived home from picking up groceries today to find him on the couch, sleepily rubbing his eyes and red-cheeked with fever. “How are you feeling?” I asked, smoothing his shaggy hair back from his forehead. “Not so good,” he croaked. “My brain really, really hurts.” What’s your most recent kid speak funny?

Just a note
After a 4-day hiatus, I wanted to write something profound, pass on some gem of parenting advice or otherwise compose a post worthy of a Stumble or Digg. It’s not going to happen though, folks, as I find myself sitting here feeling like I’m living among ice cubes with a headache that waves between pure fog and dull pain. No gems from me tonight. So instead I decided to list some of my favorite words in the English language, some of which inspire me, and some that paint vivid mental pictures in my ridiculously active brain. It’s about all I can muster at the moment. Here goes: torn, rich, warm, gold, rose, shatter, glisten, fall, harp, comfort

Giveaway winner
Congratulations to Karry from Ontario, Canada, winner of the Modest Middles giveaway! Thanks to everyone who entered the drawing. ♦      ♦     ♦     ♦     ♦     ♦     ♦      ♦      ♦      ♦      ♦      ♦      ♦      ♦      ♦      ♦      ♦ Have you entered my giveaway for a LeapFrog Tag Junior Book Pal bundle? Take a second and enter to win!

Sisters make the best friends
My mom always told my two sisters and me when we were growing up to treat each other better than anyone else because someday we’d be each others’ best friends. Yeah, right, I’d think to myself. There is NO way I’m going to be best friends with these jerks! Well, as moms often are, she was right. The two I once dubbed as geeks, tattle-talers and stupid pains-in-the-neck as I sat, punished, in one of many corners pondering the best means for their mutual demise, are definitely my best friends. I’m grateful on an almost daily basis for them. Though as kids we fought Every. Single. Day. (sorry, Mom!), now we’re all confidant

Have a toddler? Keep this in the back of your mind.
One word: Distraction. It’s one of the best lessons I ever learned from my kids’ paternal grandmother. Toddlers have notoriously short attention spans. They also have very few resources from which to draw to know how to effectively and calmly express their emotions. The result? A little person with unpredictable moods and unstable actions. Distraction is simple, really. So obvious, it’s easy to overlook. I mean, who wants to be constantly saying “no” and engaging in a battle of wills with a person who still wets his pants? Especially when the solution is so much more pleasant, gets parents a lot further and almost always works? Le