How did that happen?

It's been said about raising children that the days are long, but the years are short.

The Boy may be ready for first grade soon... he can handle the academic part. But our local school district is pretty hard-core about the cut-off dates: The kid must be five by the beginning of the school year for kindergarten, six for first grade, unless your kid can pass all the elements of an early-entrance psychological assessment.

Geez. In my day, you just had to be the right age by like early December.

TwoBoo has had his first haircut last month (the barber missed a spot, though). Once again, he looks like a smaller, chubbier version of The Boy. But he's still young enough -- and flexible enough -- to gnaw on his right foot occasionally. Then he'll look at me and smack his lips like he's eating barbecue. Shoeless Joe much prefers to walk now, if not run. Usually with one shoe and sock missing.

I'm telling you, that child moves faster than a virus through day care.

Next up: the constant ferrying of children between this activity and that. I am not a fan of scheduling a child within an inch of his life (partly because humans need time to just be, and partly because I'm Slacker Mom). But that's kind of what's on the horizon, when and if I can find transportation for The Boy. I work weird hours at my day job, so I can't leave work at 3 to shuttle the kids all over creation and then take them home for dinner. The Husband has a contract gig right now, which would help pay for these "extras that are really necessities" but again, time restrictions. You can't just sashay out for soccer practice when you're not a full-timer.

I think The Boy will need to do the same activity as his friend(s) so I can pay the other kid's parent gas money in exchange for a ride. Or something. How do you guys handle that stuff? Help a sistah out and throw some ideas my way in the comments, no?

It's probably not Art, but...

I wonder if art-making will survive a Bravo reality show.

On June 9th, Bravo premieres a competition called "Work of Art: The Next Great Artist." Here's what I'm expecting: attractive and/or interesting-looking people stabbing each other in the back for a few months, only to be forgotten three weeks after winning the competition. No, wait -- the winner makes the rounds as a D-list celeb for a year too.

No, I'm not cynical. Why do you ask?

Certainly they're not going to find the next Andy Warhol -- wait, this would be perfect for the next Andy Warhol! -- but I bet they get a lot of people who think they're the next Julian Schnabel. Let's meet back here on June 10th and snark, shall we?

Take a big bite out of something small!

The dollhouse rooms haven't gone away -- in fact, they're appearing at the Eastside Miniature Show!

On June 5th -- that's the first Saturday in June -- I'll bring some of the rooms I created for the book "Mixed Media Dollhouses." I'll also have some copies of the book for sale after my talks.

I know most dollhouses are a little more... realistic, shall we say, than many of the dollhouse rooms.

Not a lot of flight plans in your usual dollhouse attic. But isn't a dollhouse really a parallel world -- tiny people in a tiny world of their own?

Remember "The Borrowers"? They made their home out of bits they "borrowed" from full-sized humans. We'll talk about how you can create your own version, incorporating family photos and repurposed bits -- you'll be a Borrower and a "borrowed-from." Whoa. That's kinda like having your cake and eating it too.

The Eastside Miniatures Show will be here:


Sons of Norway Hall
23905 Bothell-Everett Highway
Bothell, WA 98011

Click here for directions. And if you bring a friend to the show, I'll put you in the running for a free book!