By Esther C. Baird First Published in the Tri Town Transcript November 26, 2019 When you read this it will be right around Thanksgiving. My early Christmas decorating may be mildly annoying to some of you, but still within the acceptable range. But what if I tell you that our decorations, like so many twinkling…
The Baird Facts
Highlights for Late Fall
By Esther Baird First published in the Tri-Town Transcript November 13, 2019 Recently my daughters and I got our hair done. My girlfriend is our hairdresser and the only person on the planet I trust with the skunk-like grey streak that runs down the middle of my head. Her salon is in Revere, which isn’t…
Detour to Vacation Mode
By Esther C. Baird First published in the Tri Town Transcript, Oct 31, 2019 We recently spent a family weekend in Stowe, Vermont, in a house that allowed dogs. I scanned the rental agreement looking for any fine print about vast quantities of fur but found none. So Blue Ears and Moose, our two Bernese…
Dinner with no backstory
Esther C. Baird First published in the Tri Town Transcript Oct 17, 2019 Mid-fall is the time of year when I begin to feel an underlying anxiety about dinners. You know, the fact that the family wants to eat one every night for, best I can tell, at least 18 years. Here’s a heart stopper:…
Memory of Middle School
By Esther C. Baird First published in the TriTown Transcript Oct 3, 2019 at 3:01 AM It began the first week of school. Our youngest daughter, a freshly minted middle schooler, headed off with backpacks and bags wearing gleaming new white Vans she had begged for. I relented even though white canvas shoes seemed like…
Back to Bad Fashion
By Esther C. Baird First published in the Tri Town Transcript Sep 17, 2019 Fine, it’s back to school season. I’ve written for years about the school supply death spiral and the lunch box march to nowhere. I’ve railed against the sexist box stores that only sell speciality sports shoes in mens and boys and…
Best Summer Ever
First published in the Tri-Town Transcript July 25, 2019 By Esther C. Baird Well it’s mid-summer. We spend most of our time over on Lake George in the Adirondacks at our family camp and neighboring YMCA conference center down the road where we work, volunteer, swim, boat and repeat. And so when, on the very…
Making summer accessible
First published in the Tri-Town Transcript Jun 19, 2019 By Esther C. Baird I’m typing this in the last gasp of May and you’re reading it in early June, which frankly is not much better. Volumes have been written about the horrors of May for parents of school-aged kids. Other columnists, bloggers and YouTube singing…
Sprinting up the Learning Curve
First published in the TriTown Transcript May 17, 2019 By Esther C. Baird Regular Readers know that I like to think of myself as a fitness enthusiast. But there is a gap, possibly a chasm, between my aspirations and the actual reality of being 45 in a body that isn’t always on board with my…
Bracing for a double dose
Originally published in the Tri-Town Transcript, May 3, 2019 By Esther C. Baird I’ve made many mistakes as a parent. For example, I thought if we installed hooks in the bathroom, I wouldn’t find towels all over the bathroom floor. My mistake, live and learn. But some mistakes you have to live with a little…