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You are here: Home / 2010 / Archives for June 2010

Archives for June 2010

What We Do at Work All Day

June 14, 2010 by sue campbell

Grandma: Nora, what does Mom do all day at work?
Nora: Eats lunch. Goes to meetings. Plays with her friends. If she
needs to go potty, she goes potty. Goes to the water fountain if she
is thirsty.

Grandma: Nora, what does Daddy do all day at work?
Nora: Eats lunch. Digs holes. Dumps dirt and gets more dirt. Goes
in his lunch box and drinks a beer if he is really thirsty.

Filed Under: Adulthood

Saturday Feature: Mistakes

June 12, 2010 by sue campbell

Most Saturdays I bring you a parenting mistake my husband and I have made. Please have a laugh or cry at our expense — we really are good parents, I swear.

Last night, for dessert, Nora wanted a chocolate dipped cookie.  I let her have half, promising she could have a whole cookie today. 

Guess who was up at four o’clock this morning demanding the aforementioned cookie.

I hate cookies right now.

Filed Under: Mistakes Tagged With: cookies, dessert, sleep deprivation

Six Word Friday: Possibly

June 11, 2010 by sue campbell

Maybe summer will come in June.

Rain will stop.  STOP.  STOP.  STOP.

The soil will dry for planting.

Nora will dig with little tools.

Chickens will not eat the seedlings.

Pathways and beds will be mulched.

Cucumbers will be turned into pickles.

Extra tomatoes will not be wasted.

Green beans frozen for the dog.

Snap peas eaten off the vine.

Potato harvest will be a blast.

For Nora loves to uncover spuds.

Crying out, “Potato! A big one!”

Filed Under: Six Word Fridays Tagged With: gardening, rain

Long Distance Grandparents

June 10, 2010 by sue campbell

My husband’s parents are in town. (Hi Larry & Deb!) They live in Minnesota, we live in Oregon.  If chewing off their own feet would mean they could see Nora more often, they would do it.

So far this week, they have read books, built towers, petted chickens, listened to every song in Nora’s repetoire, gone to the children’s museum and the swimming pool and snapped hundreds of photos — wearing blissed out expressions the entire time.

The extreme admiration is mutual.  Nora keeps running up and grabbing Deb’s legs, then looking up and saying, “I like you, Grandma.”  She climbs all over her Papa.

I can almost imagination what they must suffer being so far away from their only grandchild.  My beautiful nephew lives very far from me, but it’s not really comparable, because I have Nora to snuggle and tend to — it doesn’t leave much time for longing. 

As of this month, both my in-laws are now retired.  That will leave a lot of time for longing.  Perhaps I should get them a puppy?

Filed Under: Bonding Tagged With: family, grandparents, Minnesota, Oregon

Reading with Grandma

June 8, 2010 by sue campbell

Filed Under: Wordless Tagged With: chip wants a dog

The Stars Turned Off

June 7, 2010 by sue campbell

For her third birthday, my sister and brother-in-law sent Nora a stuffed turtle nightlight with a hard shell that projects constellations on the walls and ceiling.  It is so cool.  I am completely jealous of Nora’s room.  She has a white noise machine that plays ocean sounds and stars all over her walls.  It’s like a sleep spa in there.

Except she won’t sleep.  She has devised a stalling technique for each phase of her bedtime routine.  She can’t decide whether to read stories or poems.  Once she decides on poems, she pretends her copy of Where the Sidewalk Ends is her laptop, and I’m not allowed to touch it.  She hems and haws about kissing her daddy goodnight.  She claims she does not need to go potty.  Or that she has to poop.  She takes an inordinate amount of time applying toothpaste to her toothbrush.  She keeps me in her room for snuggle time as long as possible.  She needs water. Different socks. More blankets.  One more hug.   When I finally escape, she thrashes around, talking and singing songs.  She calls to us at ten minute intervals.  She wants underwear (she’s already wearing some), she has to go potty again, her socks fell off.  Her stars turned off.

The turtle has a  forty-five minute timer.  This means, from the time she is tucked into bed to the time she yells, “The stars turned off!” she has fought sleep for forty-five minutes.  On Saturday, there were two rounds of no stars.  An hour and a half of bedtime shenanigans.  I’m tired.

Filed Under: Sleep Tagged With: bedtime routines, constellations, nighlights, sleep deprivation, stallling, stars, turtle, Where the Sidewalk Ends

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What kind of blog is this?

This is a blog for PARENTS. True, the writer, Sue Campbell, writes books for kids. But this blog is for grown-ups. It has some swearing and would be super boring for kids. Except for the swearing.

The PODCAST is for KIDS and PARENTS. In fact, my twelve-year-old daughter is my co-host.

If your kids like Sue's books, send them over to suecampbellbooks.com where there's some kid-friendly content. EVEN BETTER, join the mailing list. You get stuff for grown-ups and printable stuff for kids. And sometimes there will be super ill-advised giveaways or coloring contests for free books.

MORE ABOUT SUE: She makes an ACTUAL LIVING from writing words and marketing books and lives with her husband, two daughters, six chickens and one messy house rabbit in Portland, Oregon. And yes, Portland IS that weird. She really couldn't be any luckier.

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