Blowing & Drifting

One of our wonderful neighbors – someone who runs Swag, a great (web-invisible) shop in downtown Northfield – bought some oversized adirondack chairs for her backyard. Before wheeling them out of sight, she invited us to come over and sit in them, which we promptly did, being suckers for a cheap fun time. Julia predictably [...]

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The Betsy-Tacy road trip was a huge hit.* We spent the better part of four hours touring the beautiful (tiny!) houses, walking the neighborhood, and picnicking in the same park where Betsy, Tacy, and Tib picnicked. The girls were great – curious about the oddities in the houses (a sewing machine! old-fashioned telephones!), patient on [...]

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I had an oddly happy, satisfied, excited feeling all day today. Absurdly, I initially chalked it up to having a quiet, meeting-free day at work in which to get a lot done. I did, and I did, but after dinner, playing outside with the girls, I realized that the sensation was much more due to [...]

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I dunno why, but Mother’s Day 2010 was quite the up-and-down affair at our house. On the “down” side, Genevieve has some sort of cold-allergy thing, Julia acted like a bratty teenager several times (including once while we were out for bagels this morning: mortifying), and, worst, the girls ended one activity by actually hitting [...]

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This afternoon, Shannon and the girls went to the mother-daughter tea party that a family friend throws every year. This is a Big Deal, and the three of them got all dolled up for it. Not visible in this picture is the enormous number of delicacies that they all enjoyed at the party. This is [...]

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At the risk of using up my entire yearly quota of good parenting ideas in the first third of January, this morning I suggested that we all go to Carleton’s fabulous Recreation Center for some exercise – Shannon could run while I played with the girls. Amazingly, it was a complete success. Not only was [...]

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Innumerable small and large changes mark the girls’ transitions away from being babies and toddlers and toward being kids – a term they both, interestingly, embrace. Lots of these changes are fairly public: going to preschool and kindergarten, potty training, learning to write and to read. Other changes are more private, but still pretty obvious, especially [...]

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Northfield’s not short on great official and unofficial traditions, but the Winter Walk is one of the best. This is the third year that we’ve attended, and the first year that everybody walked the whole time (except for the short ride on a wagon pulled by two giant Percherons). This photo shows that the girls [...]

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I’m so proud of my wife! She had a fantastic time traveling to Chicago to read her essay (the finest one) in P.S. What I Didn’t Say: Unsent Letters to Our Female Friends, meeting the book’s editor and three of the other authors, hanging out with an old and dear and generous friend, and generally [...]

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The girls have done pretty well with the temporary no-Mama routine today. Julia had a fine time at school and welcomed the chance to spend time with Grandma during the late morning. Vivi, too, enjoyed her time with Grandma (someone who doesn’t balk at the fifteenth straight game of Candyland!), even while I ran Shannon [...]

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Today was pretty much the ideal fall day. Not only was the weather perfect, but the daylight hours were full of fun, from a kids’ obstacle course/fun run with some friend (free pumpkins to all finishers) and a short visit to library in the morning to great bike rides (me in the Arb after lunch, [...]

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Q: How do you minimize the chances of the evening tantrums at our house, which have been awfully common since school started about six weeks ago? A: Give everyone a day off from school. Today was the first day of “MEA Weekend,” when all the public schools in Minnesota are closed for a teachers’ convention. [...]

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For the first time in our four summers here in Northfield, we ventured as a family to the town’s famous (or at least well-known) Defeat of Jesse James Days, a huge celebration centering on the town’s counterattack and defeat of Jesse James and his gang when they tried to rob the First National Bank of [...]

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Here is a partial list of things that the Tassava family did today: Had a smooth, easy morning. (Everyone.) Ate a dozen cherry tomatoes for breakfast. (Me.) Listened to about forty Raffi songs. (Everyone.) Drove to and from the lovely Linden Hills neighborhood in Minneapolis. (Everyone.) Did not complain for even one second about the [...]

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Tuesday night, Vivi had a little big toilet accident. Shannon, as the first responder, had to extricate our preschooler from the mess, and such was the stench that she involuntarily went, “Ewwww. Parenting!” Julia immediately asked, “Why did Mama say, ‘Ewwww. Parenting!’?” I replied (as Shannon left the room in search of uncontaminated air) that [...]

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