Maria announced, quite proudly: “I know The F-Word!” “Really? What’s the F-Word?” “You know the F-Word, Mama.” “Fun, fudge, flip?” “Mamaaaaahhhh.” “OK, why don’t you tell me what you think the F-Word is?” “It’s a bad word.” “It’s OK. You’re not in trouble, I just want to make sure we’re talking about the same F-Word.” [...]

…meet your future mandolin player. She can kind of play Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. And tune the thing. Get ready. So yes, city folk, we’re taking mandolin lessons around here. Even I grab the lovely piece and hit it some. La Nena also is taking two other classes after school. That’s three extra-curricular activities…There are [...]

Maria tentatively spoke up. “Mama, her voice sounds kind of funny,” she said nodding toward the stereo. The voice she heard belongs to a pop singer without much range, a young woman who once melted down publicly and is attempting to come back. The voice on her latest single is most definitely not completely human. [...]

We get into the car. It’s about 100 degrees and humid. Maria says: “Ay, carajo, it’s hot!” Guat? And then, I realize. We’ve been listening to the soundtrack from the musical, In the Heights — love and hope in Latino Washington Heights.  The line my kid so expertly and correctly gave me from the back seat [...]

She asked me  not to go into her room until she said it was OK. I waited. She said: “You may enter now.” She was sitting on her pink chair, a pink-jeweled crown atop her head. Long, brown hair flowing at her shoulders. “Hulll-ooh, I am the Queen,” she said, smiling. “And, I am your [...]

My husband and I sat in the small chairs at the small table. I, uncomfortable because I could not cross my legs. Maria’s teachers sat opposite us, looking perfectly comfortable, and told us lovely things about our daughter during the parent/teacher conference yesterday. I would have sat on broken glass to hear some of the [...]

If I had to think about it, I would have imagined there comes a time in a parent’s life when she realizes her job is done. She’s raised the kid she hoped, she’s instilled what she was supposed to. Or goodness forbid, you’ve raised the kid and now there is nothing else you can do [...]

My girl. Sleepy. Her first day of Elementary School. She’s 5 years and 9 months. And, art happens in the strangest of places. Like, under the church pew in the kitchen. I allow a few shoes to collect there, but it got a little out of control in the last days of vacation. Maybe because [...]

My girl stood in front of the mirror, looked at herself, and asked:“Mama, do you think I look like a 6-year-old?”It was about the third time in about as many days. She wants to look older than her 5.5 years.I tell her she looks 5, just exactly what she’s supposed to look like.“People tell me [...]

Yesterday, I heard my daughter respond with a very rude “Wha-TTT?” to my adult friend. It took all I had not to stomp across the kitchen and into the dining room and snatch her bald-headed, as they say here in the South. My girlfriend, a soft-spoken Native Nashvillian, addressed the tone, and I was able to [...]