Ages + Stages

Motherhood is hard. There isn't a manual, book or Google search to help begin to answer the 10,000 questions I've Googled anyway out of desperation, curiosity or just sheer exhaustion. I tried searching Terrible Twos, then Terrible Threes and I...

My little girl wants to be Wonder Woman. She puts on that outfit and vanquishes bad guys and saves the world. She spins and jumps and lassos until she is stopped mid leap by the full length mirror in my...

They say it’s those we love the most who are also the ones we hurt. I have found this to be excruciatingly true as a mother who sometimes struggles with uncontrollable anger. I have memories from childhood of my mother...

When I was a kid, I spent many Sundays at my uncle's house listening to people yell excitedly at the television as football teams battled it out. I often sat there snacking with a book, and side-eyed them—like a...

Can you imagine your child getting as excited about reading as a Ducks or Beavers fan gets about the Civil War football game? Believe it or not, students all over Oregon are motivated to this level of excitement through the annual...

My kids suck at unstructured, inside play. They do this brand of play that is exactly what siblings have been doing since the dawn of time. It's called pick pick pick, poke poke poke, tickle, scream, repeat. I think...

I sit in the rocking chair in the dark bedroom. The aluminum foil on the window, trashy as it may be, does its job of keeping out the midday light. I've been humming "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" on repeat...

Hidden in each of our children are sparks of greatness. Even from a young age I began to see in each of my kids desires, passions, gifts, and abilities. Some sparks are more innate than others, some may be...

The days are long but the years are short. Early childhood is the longest shortest time. Yada, yada, yada. Why is parenting such a perplexing conundrum? I call it the cha cha because it so often feels like for...

To my Christmas baby girl, who is turning 10,  You arrived on Christmas Eve, and we swaddled you in a stocking. We sat mooning over your silver blond hair while The Christmas Story played quietly in the background on a...