May 2009

My goddaughter is christened on a glorious May Sunday. My children were hilarious when they took their first communion (which I learned in godmother class was the right thing to do). Whit asked the priest in a whisper whether the wafers had nuts in them, and Grace asked me if the next time I could ask them to use white wine because I told her it was better than red.

Elizabeth and I have a sunny pizza lunch in the park with our five children (!).

Start the summer with a weekend in Manchester with Hadley & family, celebrating my godson’s birthday.

The kids have a blast at our school spring fair and that of their friends Clem and Campbell. Grace and Clem dress up as witches, complete with black hair paint. Removing said hair paint in the bath is an epic job.

Lisa Belkin spurs me to think yet more about the tension between pushing our children ahead and holding them back.

I read Free Range Kids (loved it), Bad Mother (liked it), It Happens Every Day (adored it).

Grace starts writing poetry and blows me away with her insistence, both pedantic and inspirational, that she is going to “look at things a new way.”