Mac had his first day on skis yesterday in this little thing called the Micro Mouse program.

He had a miserable day at day care by all accounts EXCEPT for when he was a Micro Mouse:



Today he refused to do the program, but he only cried a little bit in the morning. He also did not run into my arms with tears in his eyes at the end of the day proclaiming, "Mom, I have been missing you a LOT!"

Instead he announced proudly to Dan, "I had fun at my school!" Great, Mac!

The moral of the story is: you can never tell with a 2-3 year-old. You just have to take it an hour at a time.

I am going to blog every day of spring break. So here I am. It's the first night of our vacation in Vail, and I'm blogging.

Here's what I learned today: Shef is almost a better skier than I am. For sure, he's already better at moguls.

Dan took this video to prove it. Shef is in the middle of the frame, above the snowboarder who is also in the middle. You might have to watch it twice to really see where he is. When you figure it out, you'll probably be impressed.



I'm so lucky there's no video of me doing this same run.

I don't know how Mac got the idea to do this pose or where he's seen it before, but it's probably something to do with having an older brother.

Having an almost-seven-year-old brother is also the reason I had to explain how Mac knows "California Gurls" by Katy Perry when I was at his conference last week.

"He has a really good ear," his teacher told me. "He sings songs he must know from the radio?" And immediately I pictured him doing his "bikinis on top" number during Montessori work cycle.

Today, my friend Elizabeth and I gave a presentation to the teachers at school. I think we did a pretty good job. I mean, only maybe five or six people were grading papers during our presentation, and no one asked any mean-spirited questions.

Later, I taught Shef how to ride his bike and also made enchiladas.

Mom of the Year, or what?

Here's a little story from the other day:

"Mom," Shef asked, "when they say 'take it in the nuts' does that mean the penis or the butt?"

And that's how I got to explain about the scrotum and testicles.

"OH!" Shef said, after several clarifying questions. "It's the BALLS!"

You got it, kid. It's the balls.

Last night, our mother-daughter book club went to hear Gail Collins in celebration of International Women's Day. Gail wrote a cool book about the women's movement, which I will now read.

During her talk, Gail mentioned that almost every woman she knows who was working outside the home in the 1970s has a "slacks story" - sometime when she was yelled at or not taken seriously because she wore pants in public. My mom is about Gail's age, and she was nodding along knowingly during this portion of the talk, which I found ironic.

I found this ironic because she sent me to an all-girls school where there were very strict wardrobe restrictions. There were uniforms. Uniforms with knee-length pleated skirts (no more than two-inches above the knee! They measured!) and boxy button-downs and v-neck monogrammed sweater vests.

"Mom!" I said. "You sent me to a school where I wasn't allowed to wear slacks in the NINETIES!"

"I know!" she laughed.

Hahaha! That was feminism at its finest. Especially when the head of the upper school lectured us ladies about the honor and privilege of taking one's husband's last name.

Well, here I am again with nothing much to say.

The kids' latest favorite television show is Dinosaur Train. In the show, a family of pteranodons (I think these used to be called pterodactyls. What's up with that?) rides around on a train meeting other types of dinosaurs. The family has adopted a sunny little T-Rex named Buddy. Buddy hangs out peacefully with his sibs talking about how he likes meat, while the rest of his family likes fish.

"I have sharp teeth!" Buddy exclaims from time to time.

"I don't have any teeth!" says his sister Tiny.

Dan and I think the whole dynamic is hilarious. Of course, Buddy should be eating Tiny and the whole family. We make up our own little dialogues about this when the kids are out of earshot.

"Of course, when I grow up, I'm going to eat you, Tiny!!"

Apparently that's all we need for entertainment around here. It doesn't take much.