Articles in Big Guy's story
When we last left Big Guy, his big mouth was causing problems at school on a daily basis. It’s a seasonal issue for him that’s going to crop up just as sure as the teacher …
Have you ever had the bad luck to be good at something you don’t like doing?
It happened to me once, between my sophomore and junior years in college. I’d accepted a summer internship as a …
When she rang the doorbell Monday after school, tears streamed down the second-grader’s face. I was shocked, because while I don’t know her well I do know that she’s a tough kid who doesn’t hesitate …
Mommy, BFF’s been lying to me, Big Guy said last night. He doesn’t really have a brother.
I had suspected as much for months.
In the fall, the “brother” was a teen-ager who’d left a few weeks …
Big Guy bounded down the sidewalk, Best Friend and B at his heels. The three raced to the park, for a real game of basketball instead of the lame ones featuring Mom’s feeble attempt to …
Big Guy does not play with dolls. They’re too girly-girl.
He instead plays with bears – but not babyish ones like the once-beloved Bear who got kicked to the curb after Big Guy’s kindergarten classmates laughed …
I have to admit, people who hide what they really want deep within layers of bluff and baloney drive me up the wall.
It’s tricky situation when you wind up living with someone like that – …
Big Guy has two passions in life: Soccer and D, who’s now been elevated to “the greatest friend on Earth.”
So imagine Big Guy’s joy when we went to a pre-soccer season meeting last week and …
Big Guy had big news just before the holidays. He’d been promoted to the hot-pink dots under the school library color-coded system for deciphering reading levels, meaning he now was allowed to check out “chapter …
The purest form of love? It’s not that of a parent for a child or of one spouse for another. It’s the love a little boy has for his first true friend.
Big Guy has had …
Thursday was a great day for Big Guy.
He won $10 and a chocolate bar at a bingo game then spent $8 of the take on Christmas presents for others. He volunteered to share the candy …
If I had a pet chicken I will eat pizza with it.
I will eat hot dogs with it.
I will have a cocoa with it.
I will play with it.
I will take it to The Box.
What would …
Notice to Big Guy:
Effective 10 November, 2009, the terms of your school-morning checklist will change. Please note this and make plans to adhere to the following requirements.
Put your lunch box in your backpack.
Be quiet on …
A 6-year-old begs for weeks to play in the front yard without mom skulking over him. Mom finally gives him a chance at a 15-minute test drive.
What happens during that quarter of an hour?
The 6-year-old …
One boy froze as if paralyzed when the plastic bag of foam spider parts landed on his desk.
“I can’t get it open,” the first-grader pleaded. “Can you do it?” I did, but uncertainty seemingly gripped …
I can’t remember why it started – I think my mom might have called earlier the day of the race and mentioned that it was going to be on TV that night.
But I do remember …
Two months and nine days after Big Guy’s summer fell from the monkey bars and came crashing to an end, he got it back.
He actually got lucky – his wrist was supposed to have been …
“Red and yellow and pink and green,
Purple and orange and blue …”
I hate you.
All of you, especially pink. The rest I didn’t despise until two weeks ago, when a note from Big Guy’s teacher gave …
For Big Guy, the only thing that could match the anticipation last year of leaving the baby school and going to kindergarten was the excitement of a potential school bus ride.
His dreams were destroyed before …
Once in a while, procrastination is our friend.
Big Guy was due for a checkup on his busted wrist almost two weeks ago. But due to a series of delays, some my fault, he couldn’t get …
Back in the spring, Big Guy was upset that Dad’s birthday fell during basic training and all he got was extra push-ups from his drill sergeant. Forty-two – one for each year. Then he had …
They’ve learned to count to 100, by single digits as well as by 5s and 10s.
They’ve learned the sounds that all the letters make, thanks in part to a lovely little alphabet song to the …
Big Guy is the reigning monarch of the misplaced.
Where are my shoes? “Did you leave them by the door, like you’re supposed to.”
I can’t find my pants. “Did you check the dryer?”
What did you do …
Big Guy being Big Guy, he immediately was suspicious of the basketball jersey when it arrived in the mail Friday.
Even though he’s begged for one every game of the NBA championship series, even though it’s …
It was our equivalent of a prenuptial agreement settling religious differences in raising the children:
I could brainwash any offspring into following the Cincinnati Reds, while Dad was allowed free rein in turning them into Los …
Nothing says love like a slip of a 5-year-old toting an eight-pound Camelbak around for 45 minutes at a school open house – particularly when the same kid claims that carrying his own backpack is …
It was the kind of event I would have done anything to dodge when I was a young reporter : Stand in the sun for hours on a weekend at a “fun” event and pray …
They never believed me.
From the time Big Guy started eating solid foods, I insisted that it be done the “right” way – the way doctors recommend for any child, but particularly for one with a …
There’s often a reason why Big Guy does the seemingly quirky things he does. A reason that makes sense only in his 5-year-old brain, but a reason nonetheless.
I usually don’t question, because if it’s genuinely …
A week ago, Big Guy wasn’t sure he liked kararate at all.
It was “OK,” which for Big Guy is almost as big an insult as “ponies, unicorns and rainbows – girl stuff, blah, blah, blah.”
He …
If I want Big Guy to do a chore regularly, it will get done only after much teeth gnashing and blood letting.
If it’s something Big Guy assigns himself, though, he will execute it faithfully and …
The men in this house get strange sometimes. Which means the house gets strange when two of them decide to let their quirks run wild at the same time.
For Big Guy and Dad, the weekend …
Big Guy’s fondest wish when our neighbors, the parents of a 10-year-old Big Guy blatantly hero worshipped, told us they were moving is that the new family would have kids he could play with.
The initial …
“Goodbye! See you next season!” the friendly concession stand lady waved to Big Guy yesterday as we left the local college ballpark after the final game of the season.
“Bye!” Big Guy waved back brightly.
A few …
Want to see your IQ drop and your credibility plummet quickly? Have a kid.
Within three years, you’ll find out that the rest of the world is so much smarter than you.
Big Guy’s preschool teacher knew …
Big Guy probably had been pondering the move since Bear’s disastrous visit to kindergarten but, just like his mom who left for lunch one day in a clunker and came back to the office with …
From the second he started kindergarten, Big Guy gravitated toward Best Buddy.
By the end of the first day, they already knew each other’s names – an accomplishment when you’re not quite 5 and faced with …
Six and a half months into kindergarten, it turns out that I’ve had Big Guy on the wrong approach to homework the whole time.
That’s what Best Buddy says, and if Best Buddy says it must …
There’s often a reason why Big Guy does the seemingly quirky things he does. A reason that makes sense only in his 5-year-old brain, but a reason nonetheless.
I usually don’t question, because if it’s genuinely ...
Parties in the park seem to be the rage around here of late – a rage that will be over by the time Big Guy’s birthday rolls around in 103-degree July – and today’s was ...
