• Why will my toddler happily eat both dog and cat food, and throw a fit when I take it away from her, but reject baby carrots, pasta, toast with strawberry preserves, and goldfish crackers as “YUCKY”?
  • When did she become a toddler, not a baby?
  • Why does the same child who thinks playing outside in the rain is great fun scream and yell and generally freak out when confronted with having shampoo rinsed out of her hair?
  • Why does my husband sneer at a perfectly good three-year-old minivan, but go into raptures over a 20-year-old VW with power nothing, NO LAP BELTS in the front, and what looks like White-Out inexpertly hiding scratches in the paint on the hood?
  • Why do I still feel the need to use capitalization for emphasis, even though I know it’s juvenile and goofy?
  • How does one decorate a room shared by two girls, one obsessed with princesses and anything pink and glittery, and the other, although too young to really express a preference, completely taken for some reason with “Finding Nemo” and anything to do with fish? (Don’t suggest mermaids. I tried that. One would think it would be a good compromise. One would be wrong. Ariel, it seems, is not really a princess. And she freaks Mimi out a bit.)
  • Am I compromising my principles by even allowing those blasted princesses into the room, in the form of removable wall stickers from T@rget? And even if it is, do I care? Because that bribe got Mimi to go to bed in her own bed, in her own room, with very little complaint. Of course she still winds up  in bed with us by 1 am most nights, but it’s a start.
  • Why don’t I just go buy an extra umbrella to stash at work instead of walking to/from the bus in the rain, AGAIN?