http://tucker-raymond.net/itsagirl Thu, 19 Aug 2010 06:02:27 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en In the summer, I often like to wax nostalgic by reading children's literature, better known these days as YA (that's shorthand for "young adult") fiction. Sometimes I pick stuff that was marketed to preteens when I was in elementary school, such as Dicey's Song. This summer it's been classics of ... http://tucker-raymond.net/itsagirl/kids-books/ To those of you who've never lived with a dog, the obvious similarities between dogs and babies may not be, um, obvious. For what it's worth, here's our list. 1) Drool. Delphine is not an especially drooly tot, but place a typical excited Labrador next to a typical excited baby, and ... http://tucker-raymond.net/itsagirl/baby-or-dog/ Delphine has always been a mellow, easygoing tot. She likes to observe people; she likes to sit and play with her board books, turning the pages; she likes to caress and chew her toys. She's never been one of those frenetic tots, flailing their legs and arms incessantly from day ... http://tucker-raymond.net/itsagirl/looking-for-virgil/ Seven years ago, when we moved to Oregon and started seeing a succession of dentists (two in Eugene, two in Portland), we soon realized that every initial dental visit was going to be the same: a look inside our mouths, followed by the dentist proclaiming, "Oho! You must not have ... http://tucker-raymond.net/itsagirl/chemical-frazzle/ When I was 14, my parents remodeled part of their house. My father hung his various scholastic degrees on the walls of his new office. My mother took her own collection of degrees and hung them on the walls of the new laundry room. When asked why, she'd say, offhandedly, ... http://tucker-raymond.net/itsagirl/bettys-world/ So my favorite Oregonian food writer, Leslie Cole, did an article recently about people trying to get off the grid, getting back to nature, growing their own food, keeping chickens, spending more time with their families, yada yada yada. If this sounds like retro hippiedom, well, it is. But now, ... http://tucker-raymond.net/itsagirl/radical-foodies/ Right after my college graduation, a dozen-odd years ago, I flipped through the book on my dad's nightstand: Anne Lamott's Operating Instructions. I'd seen him snickering at it, and occasionally sniffling, and wondered what was up. First published in the early 1990s, the book — now a classic of the memoir/parenting/spiritual-journey ... http://tucker-raymond.net/itsagirl/reality_bites_or_not/ Delphine hit the big one-oh a few weeks ago, on Sunday, March 21. We had planned a party for her in Cambridge, but then, well, our plans got rejiggered, and we ended up just having a little party for her here at home. http://tucker-raymond.net/itsagirl/the-year-that-was/ So Matt Gross, who writes the amusing Frugal Traveler blog for the New York Times, recently published a article (and a hilarious video) about taking his 13-month-old daughter, Sasha, to San Francisco. Alone. As Gross wrote in the article, "One week with this baby was more physically challenging than hiking across ... http://tucker-raymond.net/itsagirl/12-months-vs-13-months/ This is Caleb's version of the children's classic. (The video was taken a few months ago, when Delphine was considerably pudgier.) http://tucker-raymond.net/itsagirl/patty-cake/