Five is fabulous. Bold and kind, surprisingly good at sharing. Five loves his people, all of us. And I love Five and all his many, many ways. I continue to feel enamoured by this kid and so glad to be his Abba ( Read more... )

In the last week the small person turned four. The Teenager made cupcakes, we all sang, and having been celebrated by his Wallace grandparents last weekend, he is spending this weekend being celebrated by his Bergman grandparents. This year, he will celebrate his birthday at school, slightly late, by bringing in 750 bouncy balls. He was inspired by ( Read more... )

We're at the Biodome in Montreal, and The Small Person and I head to the bathroom. The Small Person refuses to come into the men's with me, insisting he is a girl. I decide it's fine for him to go into the women's, although I'm not prepared to go in with him. He goes in, and I sit down on a bench outside. Not two minutes later a woman sticks her ( Read more... )

Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray, 1891Becoming a parent is for me an exercise in compassion for my parents. As a child I failed to understand how constant children are. I failed to understand how much my parents might have their own interests and desires. They were my parents, and I understood them in relation to me, not in relation to their ( Read more... )

Sometime last week The Teenager were having dinner. As part of my work, I'm creating activities about Cyber Bullying and recruited some real world help from The Teenager ( Read more... )

When I dropped The Small Person off at school the other morning there were already three children in princess dresses playing in a castle they had built out of giant bricks. The Small Person did a basic inspection of what was happening; in the pop-up tent, what was going on with the world map puzzle, and decided that the castle was where it was at ( Read more... )

Last Tuesday evening, Stanley told me he wanted a haircut. Stanley has never had a haircut, and his beautiful long blond hair falls in gorgeous ringlets, which I was washing at the time. Stanley has always hated having his hair washed, and I though perhaps he was requesting a haircut as a way to avoid future hair washing. Anyway, it was after eight ( Read more... )

After synagogue last week, there were masks on the tables in the kiddush. The tables were covered in blue cloths and in the middle of each were stacks of beautiful feathered masks and noise-makers. Our synagogue was a little late celebrating Purim, but we got there. The Small Person was delighted to see the masks and sorted through them to find a ( Read more... )

Three out of the last four nights I have be woken up by the Small Person calling out "Abba, where are you?" This is unusual. In general, the Small Person goes to bed in his own bed. We read him the customary three books, we generally allow for negotiations for a fourth, and then there is snuggling and sleeping. Sometime between midnight and three ( Read more... )

The Small Person turns three on Monday, and while in the grand scheme of things three is still pretty new, from the perspective of this parent, three is an amazingly big kid ( Read more... )