I have mentioned before that my 75 year old mother has a tendency to make slight errors in her pronunciation of certain words.

Usually her terminology is good for a chuckle, but last night at dinner she had me completely stumped when she asked, “Diane, have you seen that HBO movie I told you about yet? The one about that acoustic girl.”

I stared blankly. She continued, “Temple something…”

“Temple Grandin?”

She replied, “Yes! That’s it.”

“Mom, I think you meant to say autistic.”

Though I suppose it’s entirely possible that Temple played a mean guitar.

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On Wednesday night my husband and I picked up our 11 year old daughter from track practice.

She excitedly jumped into the back seat, began to buckle herself and without a hint of a greeting blurted out, “Guess what?”

I turned to look at her with her red face and hair falling from her ponytail, “What?” I asked.

“I ran in a 400 meter race against three boys from my class and I came in second. The winner only beat me by two seconds!”

“Wow, honey! That’s great!”

“Yeah. I ran pretty hard and I sprinted really fast at the end…and when it was over I threw up a little bit.”

I don’t know if I have ever been more proud.

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1. If you work in a school kitchen and introduce your seven year old son to some of the delivery people, you may find him telling the milkman all about his lactose intolerance.

2. When your husband quits his job and the next day he tears his calf muscle and needs an MRI and a walking boot and physical therapy, then two weeks later your son gets an ear infection, and a few days after that you get a sinus infection that requires five antibiotic pills that cost $178.00, you may find out that your husband’s former employer didn’t give him any grace period and instead canceled his health insurance the DAY HE LEFT.

3. And you may find yourself wanting to tell everyone you know what a horrible, greedy, downright nasty company for which your husband used to work.

4. Then you may consider using your blog for evil purposes.

5. Twitter and Facebook too.

6. If you spend months considering whether or not to have your hair shortened, and you finally muster the guts to have five inches cut off, it’s possible no one will notice.

7. Except for your husband.

8. And he knew you were going to get your hair cut.

9. If your family gets Super Mario Bros. for the Wii, you may find it brings about some extra-special, family bonding time.

10. Or, maybe everyone will just yell at each other a lot.

11. The DVR is the best invention ever, especially when you’re using it to fast forward through American Idol.

12. But, then you might get spoiled and think you can fast forward through your laundry.

13. And then you will be sorely disappointed.

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At my daughter’s fifth-grade basketball game on Saturday the other team had a center who was quite large for her age. Actually, large doesn’t even cut it. This girl stood a good foot above the other girls and likely weighs more than my husband.

I, having reached the towering height of 5′ 9″ by the time I finished seventh grade, could feel her pain. Though at least this girl was smart enough to play a sport in which height is an asset. The only thing for which I used my height at that age was hiding out in my basement pretending to be a Solid Gold dancer.

Of course, when my seven year old son spotted the overwhelming presence towering over his sister, he had to say something. I shouldn’t have been surprised when he exclaimed, “Wow! That is a really BIG BOY!”

I quickly hushed him then said, “Hey! That’s not nice. You can’t say things like that.”

He looked at her again, looked at me and said, “Sorry”.

Then he paused before saying, “That is a really BIG GIRL!”

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