Leigh Sparacino

Pleasure (and treasure) delayed is ...

... pleasure intensified, at least according to my father. This is one of his favorite quotes. He has several of these "character building" life mantras, but I remember the delay-of-pleasure one the most.

Posted 4 mon. ago.

Summertime

Summertime here in the Triangle exemplifies (for me) the old adage, "The more things change, the more they stay the same." Or something like that. First, that which has stayed the same for 35 years or so: The pool. Hollow Rock to be exact, where I spent many, many hours as a kid on the swim team, then as a ne'er do well teen-ager, and now as a magazine-reading grown-up, with my own little fish in…

Posted 4 mon. ago.

Milo and Otis and Sadness and Tears. Or, Movie Nig…

The frightful weather of the past few days has kept us out of the pool and trapped in the house with regular breaks for dog walks and firefly-trapping at dusk. But boredom has set in, and in a moment of weakness I traded DVDs with a friend: my Fantasia for her Otis and Milo. I had medium-high hopes for Otis and Milo, for a child that lives in a TV-free household, ANY video viewing is a huge treat…

Posted 5 mon. ago.

Endings

Kindergarten for Flipper ended yesterday. She has spent two years with the same teacher, and many of the same classmates, five days a week, 4 and 5 hours a day, week after week, month after month. Unlike the high school students - most of whom are beyond thrilled to flee - Flipper has been teary and tormented and angst-ridden at the sight of her freshly emptied cubby, reluctant to both stay and g…

Posted 5 mon. ago.

Loose

SOMEONE has a loose tooth. SOMEONE ELSE has breaking heart! I think you can guess what belongs to whom! Flipper has been eagerly anticipating losing her first tooth, and not for any sort of monetary prize doled out by the "tooth fairy" but because she is one of the last kids in her class to lose a tooth. All my rational explanations as to the fact that her baby teeth arrived a little late, which m…

Posted 5 mon. ago.

Cell Phone Cold Turkey

Do not believe those old drug-terror movies from the 70s: cold turkey isn't that bad. After my debit card debacle back in March, my cell phone bill missed an online payment, I conveniently ignored the ten million phone calls from my company, believing that they would just add whatever was missed to my bill the next time the automatic withdrawal came around. But I was wrong.

Posted 5 mon. ago.

Six

I survived. BARELY. Who knew only six kids could make such a sustained, hellish racket in my house? Who knew the mere presence of balloons would cause said kids to run amok, bopping each other and screaming at the top of their lungs for 30 straight minutes? Who knew that Mommy needed something much, much more "festive" than coffee? Who knew that I would be beyond thrilled to realize the next such…

Posted 6 mon. ago.

Not Again!

I learned something new online today: There aren't actually any cheap wigs. I even typed in those very words: cheap wigs.

Posted 6 mon. ago.

Three Little Ducks Go for a Visit

On Tuesday, three little hand-sewn felt ducks "visited" our house. Until I found out that they hadn't just wanted a change of scenery, but had been, well, REMOVED from Flipper's classroom without permission and smuggled home in her lunch basket. In other words, stolen, although that seems a bit harsh.

Posted 6 mon. ago.

Coming soon ... to a playground near you!

For the most part - well, almost the WHOLE part, I leave Flipper's school life at school, and try not to interrogate her about her day, ask too many questions about what they did, who was nice/mean, and so on. She and her little friends are all about the invented, make-believe games with rules so elaborate and unfathomable that I fear Dungeons and Dragons will make some sort of comeback when she i…

Posted 6 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.