By Esther Baird First published in the Beverly Citizen, Jul 25, 2007 “Ok, go play!” I pushed my 3-year-old daughter towards the looming play structure at Herlihy Park. “Remember you only have three minutes. That’s time for one slide and a run around the jungle gym. Then we’re off to the next playground which is ….
Category: The Baird Facts
Thou Shalt Not Covet Thy Neighbor’s Garden
By Esther Baird First Published in the Beverly Citizen, Jun 27, 2007 I’m typing this from my kitchen where I can see my neighbor’s driveway. She’s pulling her garden hose down to the front of her house where she’ll water her beautiful flowers. It’s 8:30 a.m. I watered my flowers at 7:30 a.m. Before the…
Makeover a Mother in Multiple Shades
By Esther Baird First published in the Beverly Citizen, Jun 13, 2007 Recently there was a makeover contest in a local Boston parenting magazine. To enter you simply had to write an essay about some aspect of your parenting life that needed renovation. It could be anything: Organizing, cleaning, cooking, or perhaps even showering daily…
Getting the Winter Moth to Fly Away
By Esther Baird First Published in the Beverly Citizen, May 30, 2007 May is an unpredictable month. But there is one natural phenomenon that is entirely predictable, other than the fact that it will downpour and freeze the day after I plant my pansies, and that is that our maple trees will get chewed into…
Resisting the Mini-Van’s Siren Call
By Esther Baird First Published in the Beverly Citizen, May 16, 2007 And then there were two. Our new daughter, seven weeks old as of this typing, is doing great; our older daughter is adjusting nicely considering we didn’t name the baby “Avenue.” As for my husband and me, we are seeing double. We now…
Pursuing the Avenue Not Taken
By Esther Baird First Published in the Beverly Citizen, March 21, 2007 Well, fellow Beverlians, this is my last column for a month or two. Most of you know by this point that I’m pregnant and due right about when this column is scheduled to be published. What you don’t know is that at the…
Vermont Invasion Yields Chills and Thrills
By Esther Baird First Published in the Beverly Citizen, March 07, 2007 My friend pulled into our driveway in the largest non-commercial vehicle I’d ever seen — some sort of Suburban/Expedition/Destroyer. “What is this?” I gawked. “Yeah,” my friend sighed. “I wanted a sturdy rental . . . but I didn’t mean this.” We were…
A Sticky Project for a Crafty Mom
By Esther Baird First Published in the Beverly Citizen, February 21, 2007 Last Tuesday I was ‘Craft Mom’ at my daughter’s preschool class. The teacher reminded me the Thursday before. “So, are you still planning on doing a craft with the children next week?” A craft? Me? Was that what that list outside my daughter’s door had meant?
Answering Duty’s Call, But Which One?
By Esther Baird First Published in the Beverly Citizen, February 07, 2007 I’ve never been called for jury duty. Probably because I’ve moved every two years since I was 18. So I knew it was simply a matter of time before the system caught up with me in my stable, Beverly existence. And I was…
Freecycling: Converting Trash to Treasure
By Esther Baird First Published in the Beverly Citizen, January 24, 2007 Last summer I suggested that parents unite to redistribute their oversized and underused plastic toys. I recommended some system that involved signal flags if I recall. A friend remarked, “You know Esther, www.freecycle.org already does that — except they are online and you…