Leigh Sparacino

Freedom ... and Fear

On Sunday morning, Flipper pushed down with one of her new shoes, wobbled a bit, and then took off, gliding down the sidewalk. My hand, the steadying one that has held the seat so she could start, dropped to my side. It had been a long weekend of trial runs, many falls, many tears of frustration, and then she got it. Pride â hers AND mine â knew no bounds. I could remember â barely …

Posted 3 days ago.

New, Very New Shoes

Flipper got new shoes earlier this week. While not exactly earth-shattering news, it does mark a first of sorts. These were the first shoes she has ever received that DID NOT come to our house in a cardboard box via UPS. No, she actually tried these on. In a store. And, blessedly, without me!

Posted 1 week ago.

Mom NOT Logic

The Internet has opened worlds previously undiscovered to me. Worlds, I tell you! And after some serious research on my part, (read: wasting time at work) I have discovered the ULTIMATE, the most stupefying oxymoron ever. And, for those that were dozing off or writing intricately-folded notes during eighth grade English, an oxymoron is "a figure of speech that contains two normally contradicting …

Posted 2 weeks ago.

Happy Talk

Our family is at the beach, "our" beach (Topsail), one that we have been coming to since 1971. Which is a long time. Flipper, the beach kid, the kid whose life right now seems to be one llooonnnnggg vacation, has made some remarkable strides and breakthroughs recently. There is the swimming in the ocean, which on the surface seems like a good thing, but like so many little developmental leaps, has…

Posted 3 weeks ago.

No Mushy Anything!

I have this belief (one of many, actually) that as we get older we are more accepting of our own quirks and faults, but less tolerant of others'.

Posted 1 mon. ago.

Money, her stack

Money, it's a crime/ Share it fairly but don't take a slice of my pie / Money, so they say /Is the root of all evil today / But if you ask for a raise it's no surprise that they're / Giving none away (Pink Floyd) The above will, hopefully, become Flipper's new mantra. I have been debating/over thinking/wrestling with the concept of kid+money. And not how much I spend on her, either. What, she does…

Posted 1 mon. ago.

5 Rings

The Olympics, they are coming. Soon inspiring stories of heartbreak and hope will be splashed across the front page of the paper, and, undoubtedly, on the news. Being TV-less, I am very, very out of MANY loops, and the Olympics are just one more. However, I would like to host some Olympics of my own. Note that all the events are ones that I would undoubtedly dominate, REGARDLESS of my age.

Posted 1 mon. ago.

NEW Parenting Books!!! Except they're old ...

I have a long shelf of parenting books. Granted, I don't really USE much of the advice given, mostly because I simply can't remember it, but I find the topic as whole very interesting, even before the advent of Flipper into my life.

Posted 1 mon. ago.

It's the Only Way to Fly

Travelin' Light ... as the song says, is something I have always aspired to, but rarely succeeded. Until now. For THIS trip, I promised myself, before I even found out that Delta now charges $25 per bag, it would be carry-on only.

Posted 1 mon. ago.

Memories (hopefully)

I read a blog written by a father that debated whether or not to travel with his very young daughter. Readers weighed in (of course), with many definitively saying NO, DON"T DO IT!! And while traveling with small children and babies is a bit taxing, their rationale was surprising to me. Why take your daughter along to Paris? they wondered. She won't remember it.

Posted 2 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.