Glad to Meet You

When I was younger, in third grade or so, I wanted to be Amy Grant. In fact, that year at our school’s career day, I dressed up as Amy Grant (“I’m not a SINGER! I’m AMY GRANT!”), my older brother dressed up as a pizza delivery guy (complete with the previous night’s empty pizza box), and my younger brother dressed up as a monkey. Mom handed him a banana on our way out the door to the carpool. “May as well be a believable monkey,” she said over her cup of coffee.

Once the adults around me convinced me that I could never grow up to be another person, I wanted to be a writer. I could just picture myself at a big, important desk in something that resembled the library in Beauty and the Beast, writing away. My mom got me some journals, and I filled them with really, really bad poetry and short stories about tragic orphans (I read a lot of L.M. Montgomery). Somehow I also thought I’d be helping solve crimes, too, but this was most likely just the influence of watching Murder, She Wrote with my grandmother.

In a way, I did fulfill the dream of being a writer. I’ve not really gotten PAID for this job, but I do it all the time, and it brings me happiness, so I think it counts. I write blogs (my personal blog is EmilysHollow), I wrote a terrible novel for my MFA thesis, and I even get to teach writing for various online colleges. All this AND I get to do what I love even  more: take care of these two little creatures:

When toddlers dress themselves.

Xander is two and a half, and oh, is he ever two and a half. He is hot and cold running water: sweeter than sugar and giving out kisses and huggies and whispering “I love Mama” into my ear, and then throwing a tear-filled tantrum because, no joke, I asked him if wanted a cookie.

Chubby cheeks are cute when you’re this young.

Luna is just a month old. I don’t know much about her personality, yet, except that she is very happy so long as I never, ever, ever put her down. Ever.

John is my partner in this madcap adventure. We met six years ago, in sunny San Diego, and eloped on the beach in front of the Hotel Del Coronado.

(I hope to convince Luna to elope one day. It was the best wedding ever. So easy! Minimal planning! No RSVP list!)

John teaches emergent media and digital art at Champlain College, a job he accepted a little over 18 months ago, which is what brought us to Vermont.

Get your own stick.

The other member of our family, Tonks (why yes, I am a fan of Harry Potter, what gave me away?), is 6 years old, going on 6 months. She has boundless energy, and just as much hair, judging by the vacuum canister (Oh, who am I kidding? Judging by the dog hair tumbleweeds under the couch.).

I’m very much looking forward to this new writing adventure with the BurlingtonVT Mom’s Blog, and to getting to know all of you a little better, too! To help get the introductions rolling, leave a comment and tell me what ridiculous thing you wanted to grow up to be when you were a kid.