Leigh Sparacino

To Buy or Not to Buy...that is the question (at le…

Yesterday Flipper came home with something that felt very normal-school: an order form for a fundraiser. And it is a clever fundraiser for the 8th grade class trip; you pay a smallish sum for a slice of pizza delivered every Wednesday for 11 weeks for lunch. My (silly) reaction? TOTAL WORRY ABOUT WHAT OTHER PARENTS WOULD THINK IF I SIGNED FLIPPER UP FOR THIS.

Posted 2 mon. ago.

Two Very Unrelated Topics

I am going to veer off topic for a moment and rhapsodize about just how happy this summer's weather has made me; indeed, continues to make me!

Posted 2 mon. ago.

The Games People Play (but not at my house)

I usually cruise for a few weeks on good-parenting mode, both of us relatively happy, food on the table, clean clothes on our backs, roof over our head, etc. But then every now and then I will be reminded of some area of Flipper's life that I feel as though I am woefully neglecting. These days, that area is GAMES.

Posted 2 mon. ago.

Fried Chicken in the Classroom

On Tuesday, Flipper will walk across a small wooden bridge, holding the hand of a rising senior to represent the start of her educational journey. The senior will give her a rose, she will shake hands with her new first grade teacher, and then the class will walk to the first grade classroom together. On the last day of school, she will give back a rose to a graduating senior. It is, as I am sure…

Posted 3 mon. ago.

Knock Knock ... DON'T ANSWER!!!

...who's there? Someone with a much less developed sense of humor than I have. I cannot, but CANNOT bear being subjected to one. more. stupid. joke. Who invented knock-knock jokes? And where can I find them so I can lock Flipper in a room with him or her, and let THEM listen to her endless, endless "jokes." Because they aren't jokes at all...they are some vague, weird approximation of a joke. Here…

Posted 3 mon. ago.

Love means never saying you're sorry ... unless yo…

Love means never saying you're sorry...unless you mean it! Suddenly, I am living with a very, very mouthy, irritating little person. I hate it when people say (cheerfully), "Just like living with a teen-ager!!"--as though those years won't come quickly enough. Why should this give me any comfort? I don't want to live with a teen-ager for another 7 or 8 years. I want to live with the six year old. …

Posted 3 mon. ago.

Here comes Pippi Longstocking!

In another attempt to find a video that satisfies both of our needs (hers: not scary, me: too many restrictions to list here) we checked an early Pippi movie out from the library. It was one from 1975. I even remember going to the tiny Northgate movie theater to see it when it came out.

Posted 3 mon. ago.

A little note and a little manipulation

I've come to the realization that there are some skills that serve parenting quite well, but don't necessarily translate into the adult world. If I think about it too much, some guilt and bad feelings arise, but I am quite good at NOT thinking about things that might bother me. That in itself is a good skill to have as well.

Posted 4 mon. ago.

Tall mountains and a taste of the future. Maybe.

We are far away. About 2000 miles away, to be exact. I've returned to a place that, for many reasons, I thought I would never return: Southwest Colorado, in the heart of the San Juan Mountain range. Telluride, Ophir, Ridgway. 9000 feet above sea level. That's almost two miles!! I have come to the conclusion that the dominating emotion in my life is neither happiness nor anger nor sadness, but fe…

Posted 4 mon. ago.

Rocks Everywhere

Last night Flipper and I came home from the pool and my attention was immediately caught by a round, tan, shiny glob of poo on my carpet, doubtless from one of the dogs. I gathered paper towels, prepared to pick it up ... when I discovered that in fact is was a rock covered with Scotch tape. WHAT???

Posted 4 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.