I don’t know whether to laugh or cry over this picture of my girls trying to use their new saucers on a 2-foot mound of snow.

Last September, Dawna Friesen became the anchor of Global’s national dinnertime newscast. She is one of the first women to anchor a major newscast in Canada. I sort of pooh-poohed the hype surrounding her appointment. I was glad to see a successful woman, but wasn’t sure why her gender needed to be such a big [...]

Our family received a very cool Christmas present from my aunt and uncle:  a one-year family membership to the Toronto Zoo. Today was a sunny, cold winter day, which for us was just perfect for launching what we’re now calling our Zoo Year.  Our goal is to visit the zoo at least once per season.  [...]

Right now our girls are going through a phase where they want all compliments to be shared equally. This was cute at first … Me:  “Tasha, I like the way you are eating your supper up!” Charlotte (suddenly shoveling food into her mouth):  “Me, too, Mom?  Am I doing good?” But it has also led [...]

During a March break that was wonderfully warm and sunny, we fixed and painted our front porch.  This was a whole family affair:  Hubby and my dad did all of the fixing stuff, I helped paint, and Tasha and Charlotte entertained us. It was a particularly idyllic moment when Hubby and I, who were on [...]

We don’t tend to make a big deal out of Santa in our household.  He’s a fun character in our storybooks, and that’s about it. Today our girls went to a mall with their grandparents and lined up to meet Santa.  Apparently they were a bit nervous, but they bravely sat beside him. Our conversation [...]

We’re trying to train our girls about some of the finer points of politeness.  Lately we’ve been working on decreasing the frequency and volume of non-emergency interruptions.  It’s been tough, but both girls starting to take interrupting quite seriously. So here’s a conversation I had with Tasha this week: Tasha (highly indignant):  Mom!  Mom!  Charlotte [...]

We hit a milestone this week:  Tasha wrote her first “don’t come in” sign for her bedroom door.  She put two “don’ts” on it for emphasis because it was one of those days. I’m curious:  is this the first major piece that every child publishes?