Their Bad Mother

Jasper, age 22 months, prepares for his future as a skate park punk.

I get hate mail. I’ve gotten used to it, for the most part, but still: getting angry e-mails (or comments or Facebook messages) from people who don’t like something that I’ve written or – more often – the fact that I, a mother with two small children, write about my life at all is never…

My 100 Miles For Tanner Project, with its inauspicious start, just got the most wonderful boost: Tutus. For Tanner. My heart might just burst from the love. Having learned yesterday that Tanner is declining ever more quickly, too quickly, such that he might not be able to live at home for much longer, our hearts…

Last weekend, it was my father’s birthday. We were at Disney World. I thought about him, a lot. When I was a little bit older than Emilia, my dad’s stepfather died. I remember it well, because we had just arrived back from a trip to Disneyland, and as I watched my father mourn and observed…

Tanner, for whom I am running/persevering/living/dreaming/tutu-wearing/self-forgiving/running/running/running. 100 miles, if I can. 100 miles, I will.

I didn’t run the Disney Princess Half-Marathon. I am, to put it in as few words as possible, gutted. I fell the night before the race. I had a bad dizzy spell – a fade-to-black-and-spin dizzy spell – and fell. I was carrying Emilia at the time. She was okay. I hurt my knee. Had…

My husband made this. It’s kind of awesome. You should watch it, like, a lot, and then try to guess how many bags of Doritos get eaten on a road trip with small children.

Taken by Miss Alli, aka Mrs Fussypants, chez Fussypants in Tennessee. That’s our sweet GM-Canada-sponsored ride in the background. It’s no girl-scooter, but still.

Somewhere in Ohio,* Jasper met his first puppy. Cuteness ensued.*En route to the Tiarathon on our 100 Miles For Tanner/GM Canada road trip. Ohio, we discovered thanks to our friend Barefoot Foodie, is full of puppies and awesome.)

We’re off! As you read this, I and my children and my partner-in-awesome, Katie, and her daughter, are winding our way south from Toronto to DisneyWorld, tiaras secured firmly to our heads. We’re headed to the Tiarathon, which I’ll be running as part of my project to run 100 Miles For Tanner. It’s going to…

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