The best gift

My parents provided me with so much as I grew up.

They gave me the love of travel. When I was 12, my dad taught in Singapore for six months, and my half-year stay in Southeast Asia inspired my curiosity about different cultures and places.

They gave me a love of words. To hear them tell it, I read book after book (kind of like a certain toddler I know). One of my earliest memories is “writing” letters—squiggly lines across a sheet of paper—that I’d “mail” to family members. I now make my living as a writer and am so fortunate to work in my dream career.

But one thing I value over every other gift: They gave me siblings.

Ugly Christmas pajamas family photo
An outtake from the Ryan Family Christmas 2007 card

Read more

Peeper the water weasel

Yesterday Peeper graduated from her first swim class.

Ok, maybe “graduated” is too fancy a word. But her first swimming lessons ended, and she got a certificate, so that counts, right?

Peeper squeals and bucks her whole body in excitement when we put on her swim diaper and when we walk up to the local Y. She knows what’s going on.

Her joy overflows the minute she sticks her toes in the water. She must remember the version of “If You’re Happy and You Know It” that we sing in class—the part that says “If you’re happy and you know it splash your hands”—because she slaps water from the beginning of class to the end.

“She’s like one of those wind up toys,” her teacher told me the last day of class. “You know, the ones that you wind up, set in the water and watch as they swim away?”

Yep, that’s her.

Ten Thousand Hour Mama Read more