Leigh Sparacino

Little House in the Corner

Yesterday I went to Flipper's parent-teacher conference. I love these talks (kind of) because Flipper is too young and too much of a people-pleaser for me to have any serious worries about her school life. So it was just me and her teacher, whom we both adore, flipping through her main lesson book, exclaiming at her artwork, admiring the neat, even stitches she knitted for her flute-bag, and gener…

Posted 1 mon. ago.

Dick and Jane and Snow and Ice

Snow days meant a lot of time outdoors romping (and then crying when little feet began to freeze) but it also meant a lot of time INSIDE with a little person that rapidly got "boreder and boreder." And then...with no teaching from me, it came. The black marks in an old Dick and Jane primer finally fell into place, and "Go, Jane, go" was a mystery no more.

Posted 1 mon. ago.

A Really, Really Interesting Question. At Least to…

In November, a close friend moved to a large, West Coast city with her family. Her oldest son attended school with Flipper for three years, and we miss them terribly! As our children attended the same small, private school, and he entered first grade at a large, metropolitan public school, we have talked many times about public vs. private, what schools are really for, how do they best serve all s…

Posted 1 mon. ago.

Hair Today...Gone Tomorrow

Hair Today...Gone Tomorrow So, as time has moved on and Flipper has rapidly moved from 4 to 5 to 6 (and a half!) and therefore has learned about a million new things. I have changed and grown and learned about two million new things right along with her. But there is something out there that continually eludes me: hair. Her hair, to be specific. At this point, after a few YEARS of "practice" (lots…

Posted 1 mon. ago.

Early to Bed, Early to Rise...

Since the New Year, we (I) have taken steps to attempt an earlier bedtime, and therefore a slightly better morning wake-up-and-head-to-school-time.

Posted 2 mon. ago.

Ice, Ice, My Baby.

We are in the dog days of winter, if that term applies to more than long, hot, miserable days. It is COLD out there, really cold, too cold even for me. I like winter, but only if there was a fair amount of snow on the ground, and apres ski most afternoons. This lingering, bitter cold isn't really cutting it. There has been one beautiful side-effect to days that don't have a high much past 35 degr…

Posted 2 mon. ago.

Love is a Many-Humored Thing

Honestly, I am not sure what people find to laugh at when they don't have children. Right now, I have been working on maintaining a perfect poker face, and am happy to report that it only gets better with time. Only once have I had to turn away so Flipper wouldn't catch me laughing! Sadly, she now knows that it is AT HER and I can no longer fob off my snickers as "just something I heard on the ra…

Posted 2 mon. ago.

It Will Come Just the Same

Flipper is obsessed with the original animated "how the Grinch StoleChristmas"--the one that came out in 1966, not the More recent JimCarrey travesty. She LOVES it. Watches it daily, tries to song along tothe Whos and their carols, just loves it. As a child, I hated how meanthe Grinch was to his poor dog, Max, and even now I cringe when hepicks Max up by the scruff of his neck and glares at him. …

Posted 2 mon. ago.

A Beautiful Self-Deception

I was reminded, recently, of not just the capacity that children have for magical thinking, but their ability to not just believe but to HOLD ONTO those beliefs in the face of any evidence to the contrary.

Posted 3 mon. ago.

Favorite Stories

Every Christmas season, somewhere around the first week of December, I wedge my self under the stairs of my house, where all the holiday trappings reside. I painfully wrestle from their year-long slumber a basket of books, and set them beside the fireplace. They are all books about Christmas, in one form or another. I love them, and I have been slowly adding to this collection year after year. I r…

Posted 3 mon. ago.

about this blog

Leigh Sparacino

Leigh is a TriangleMom2Mom featured blogger, appearing every Monday.

Leigh grew up in Durham, attended college in North Carolina, left the area for an island off the coast of Georgia, the high mountains of Colorado, and her favorite mountains in western North Carolina, before returning to the Triangle eight years ago. She lives near Carrboro with her 4.5-year-old daughter Flipper and two dogs. She is single in marital status only, surrounded by friends, family, and her daughter's very involved and loving father. She works part-time and tries to be as involved as possible in her daughter's school, The Emerson Waldorf School, where Flipper is a kindergartner. She likes wood, glass and other natural materials for toys, loves the principles of Waldorf education and hates plastic. She might be the only person in the world with no TV and who hasn't been to a movie in 15 years, but races to the mailbox every Saturday for the most recent issue of People magazine. In other words, a contradiction. Or just human.

Leigh appears Fridays on TriangleMom2Mom. Read more about Leigh on her blog Flipper and Me.