1. Last Saturday, Eric got up in the morning and took a shower. Prior to showering, he took his glasses off and set them on the bathroom counter. He got out of the shower, dressed and went to the other bathroom to put his contacts in.

None of us thought about the glasses again until the next morning, when he got out of bed and looked for his glasses. And I looked for his glasses. And we ordered the girls to look for his glasses. We looked everywhere we could possibly think of. I looked in every drawer and cupboard in the bathroom.



Evie can now climb up and get things off the counter, and enjoys depositing said things in strange places that apparently make sense to her. Just today I found a sippy cup in my boot and a baby doll in the laundry hamper. Because of this, I considered no place off limits in the glasses search. I searched the trash to make sure she hadn't tossed them in there. I was beginning to say to myself: she couldn't have flushed them down the toilet...could she? And also: Gosh, the kitchen sink hasn't been draining well this week...she couldn't have put them down the garbage disposal...could she?

And this morning I was fixing my hair and I opened up the drawer and picked up the hair dryer and there in the bottom of the drawer were the glasses.

Now, I KNOW I looked in that drawer on Sunday morning. And I have blow-dryed my hair every single day this week. If they were there all along, how could I have missed them?

She couldn't have put them somewhere else, found them again, and put them innocently back in the drawer just to mess with my mind....could she?


2. If you have ever seen the movie Cars, you should read this post. If you like to put way too much thought into the existential questions raised by childrens' entertainment, you should read it. If you like funny things, you should read it.



3. I bought fresh Parmesan cheese the other day to use in a recipe, when previously I have always used the canned stuff. Oh my goodness. It is more expensive, but wow. I didn't know what I was missing.


4. I haven't really talked about how babies get made with my kids yet, although I think the time might be approaching to give my oldest a tad bit of information. She's in school now and who knows what other kids might tell her. She does have some questions. This post has a review of a book that sounds like a really good resource in case other mommies are trying to figure out what to say, and how to say it, as well.

5. I was interviewing someone for a story yesterday. It has a holiday theme and is the kind of thing that is frequently run at this time of year. And the source actually laughed at me mid-interview and said she hates these kind of stories because we run them every year. And then proceeded to be very great and cooperative and give me what I needed for the story. But...ouch. She was right. It sucked.

6. Do you ever feel a mingled sense of pride and sadness at your children growing up? So do I. So does every mother. If you'd like to wallow in it a little bit, go read this post.

7. In the book Ramona the Pest, which we recently read and enjoyed, Mrs. Quimby and her neighbor Mrs. Kemp walk their two kindgerteners to school for the first month or so. Then they let the kids walk to school by themselves. One day, Mrs. Quimby even leaves Ramona at home by herself for 10 minutes and trusts her to see herself off to school. I read this lots of times as a kid and never thought anything of it, but now that I have a kindergartener of my own I just thought: Wow. That would never happen today.



Even though the school yard is right around the corner from our house, I still wouldn't let Beth go by herself. In a few years, maybe. But not at kindergarten. Plus, the school won't even LET kindergarteners walk themselves home. An approved adult must pick each child up at the door. I'd like to think myself as more "free-range parent" than "helicopter parent," but I'm afraid I just can't go with Mrs. Quimby on this one. Thoughts? Am I paranoid? Has the world changed so much since the book was written in 1968?

More Quick Takes at Conversion Diary.