B had a rough several days. He called me at the end of track practice, that desperate quaver in his voice. He'd had $60 stolen from his wallet. "I was going to take it to the bank to deposit it," he said ( Read more... )

"Wait, Ima, how do you crack an egg?" B asked. He was totally serious ( Read more... )

A lot of the conflict with B comes at the dinner table because that's the only place where all four of us are present. I don't want to give up on family dinner, even if he makes it miserable, because family dinner has always been the basic touchstone of our family ( Read more... )

E: (at the dinner table) Who are you going to the gym with ( Read more... )

B is pretty much toxic and intolerable. When he comes in the house, he throws around so much negative energy, so many insults and slams, that I can't believe he can keep up that much hatefulness for hours. He does, and makes things horrible for the rest of us ( Read more... )

pene asks: How much do you think you will police/manage/be involved in/discuss/worry about R's clothing and external presentation as she gets older ( Read more... )

B has been agitating for getting a RAST test for months. It's an allergy test, much more accurate than a scratch test but still not conclusive. We've been getting one for him roughly once a year in the fall since he was a toddler. The way it works is that if your numbers go down enough on an allergen, you do what they call a food challenge. We go ( Read more... )

Of all run-of-the-mill bad days - not the day someone dies, or the day of a natural disaster, just a regular I-had-a-bad-day days - this was the worst ( Read more... )

"I can't imagine H not telling me everything," G said ( Read more... )

B turns 14 tomorrow. For months he's been refusing to get out of bed when I wake him in the morning. He will sit up but not get out. The other night I went in to say good night to him and he was wrestling with his comforter and the duvet cover.

"How so you get this thing on?" he asked, frustrated.

I showed him the trick of grabbing the corners. As ( Read more... )