Motherhood & Words
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a quartet of mothers
Nanci Olesen of MOMbo fame will be performing “A Quartet of Mothers: The Familiar, Desperate Edge of Everyday Motherhood” this weekend at the Illusion Theater in Minneapolis as part of the Fresh Ink Series. Two plays are part of the event: “I’m Telling” and “Child of God.” Shows begin at 8 p.m. tonight, Friday, and…
"6 or something"
Stella came home from soccer camp yesterday with a huge grin that revealed a gaping hole where her left front tooth had been just hours before. “I can’t believe it! You’re such a big girl!” I gave her a crushing hug and demanded the story. She reenacted the biting of a baby carrot and the…
i'm back
Sorry for my recent silence—we just returned from nine days upstate New York. We spent the first week at my aunt’s cabin in the Adirondacks, then drove down to the Catskills for my closest friend’s wedding. There is nothing like leaving the Twin Cities and the day-to-day grind of life to put things back in…
grateful
I’ve been feeling so stretched lately—juggling the two girls and work and life. D has been working long days, and sometimes I feel like screaming. (I did, in fact, scream in the car the other day when Zoë was wailing and Stella was whining. I just screamed, and I scared the sh*t out of Stella…
upcoming workshops and classes
After six months off from teaching, I am anxious to get back into the classroom. I’m craving that moment in class when a student realizes her writing is going in a direction she didn’t expect. I love being a part of that excitement and discovery. I have two classes coming up this summer/fall: Writing Family…
firsts
It was a big week for us. D and I went on our first date in six months, Zoë pooped for the first time in four days, and Stella has her first loose tooth! D and I haven’t been out together—just the two of us—since I was about six months pregnant. But Friday it was…
a discovery
I just made it through another five-day stint as a single mom, which I hope explains my recent silence. Stella is also on a reduced pre-school schedule this month, so I have even less time to sneak away to my computer. When to blog? When to blog? When D is gone, it’s the extra sleep…
two sisters, two winners
My dear sisters didn’t follow my directions. They were supposed to read the haiku entries, then confer and choose a winner. But they each chose a winner, so now I have two winners of the first Mother Words haiku contest. (Not such a bad thing–I loved all of them!) The winners are: Emmie and Soon…
who's the sucker?
Last night, Stella cried out in the middle of the night. When I went in to check on her, she was kicking around and couldn’t get comfortable. This didn’t surprise me. How could she possibly be comfortable when her bed was filled with baby dolls and stuffed animals? There was hardly any room left for…
don't be afraid of a haiku
You can be afraid of mastitis, but don’t be afraid of a little haiku. Post your entry for the mastitis haiku contest here. The contest closes tomorrow (Friday) at 5 p.m. The winner receives a $10 gift card to amazon.com. This is big-time, people. How can you not enter for a chance to win?
daddy bonding
I never worried about D bonding with Stella. He was with her in those moments after she was pulled from me, when the neonatologists were checking her vitals. He was with her after they placed her in an isolette and wheeled her up to the Special Care Nursery, where he sat and spoke to her…