Lara Bricker's Blog

Two weeks ago my grandmother who is 92 and lives with us went to the emergency room for what I thought was a heart attack. Turns out it was pneumonia and she seems to have rebounded with rest, plenty of fluids and her course of antibiotics which is a wonderful thing.

Will has discovered the girl next door. She is 5. He is 3. I think we are in trouble.

 This all came to be after my husband took Will for a walk a few weeks back. Will returned home to tell me that he went to Sydney’s house. He went on to tell me that she has a tree house and that they climbed up into the tree house, where there was a bed. They took their shoes off and went onto the bed.

Anyone else remember those small white lies your parents told you about food, like if you ate your carrots your eyes would see better?

So I swore I wouldn’t resort to any of these little exaggerations with Will. I know it’s another of those never say never with kids scenarios. But after now three years of trying to get the King of the Picky Eaters Society to eat something besides PB&J, grilled cheese or macaroni and cheese, I had to get a bit more creative.

I’ve noticed a trend among parents I know with young children lately—the phenomenon of the parent finding a little bit of pre-child person in themselves again. One dad I know has taken up running 5K races, another couple has both taken up running half-marathons. Ok, so that’s a wee bit overly ambitious for me, but then I wasn’t a runner before I had a child so it’s not likely I’m going to be a runner now. I returned to horseback riding this spring and for that one afternoon a week it’s like I’m my old self again. Before marriage, before child, before post child weight gain that while it went away left my body a completely different shape than it started. It’s nice to remember that the person you started out as is still in there for a few minutes.

Okay I admit before a few weeks ago I had never heard of Ralph’s World (www.ralphsworld.com), headed up by Ralph Covert, a long hair rock star with an electric guitar whose groupies are mostly between the ages of two and five.

            I confess, since then, I have found myself singing along and rooting for Edward the Tap Dancing Elephant as he questions whether he’d made it to stardom.

I dropped Will off at school this morning for what will be his first day back after what I think was a cold, but who knows given the current germ climate around here. Everywhere I turn lately someone thinks they have the H1N1, their child has croup, their child might have H1N1 or they have the plain old flu.

            Candy for Costumes.