Parenting Genius Award
(If I knew how to do anything fancy I would insert sparkling graphics or perhaps a cartoon dancing kitten here.)

I would just like to take a moment to present myself with the long-sought, most glorious Parenting Genius Award. This award marks one of the few opportunities in parenting to rest on your laurels, pat yourself on the back and say, “Job well done!”*

Unfortunately I cannot tell you what the award is for. To do so would be to violate the privacy of the Biggie. Suffice it to say that, together, she and I are in the process of conquering one of her deepest and longest-held Big Bad Issues, one I was concerned would plague her into adulthood; something I considered one of my greatest, dismal failures as a parent.

Whooha, or “Yehoo!” as the Wee One would say! A lifetime supply of chocolate for me!

*Be aware that this action will immediately call into effect Murphy’s Law, which will bring you to your knees.

A comment made on the last post (thanks, Amy) made me realize I should explain something. The vocabulary of the day posts (all two of them) come from actual words or phrases I come across in the research related to my work, and my imagined meanings for them. The definitions rise from my criss-crossed Latin language/Biology Major*/random non-professional medical worker/M.Ed. background, heavily influenced by the brain degradation I’ve experienced since I had children. I’ll try to remember to post the actual meaning (if I can figure it out) in the comments section.

Speaking of brain degradation, I’m wondering—can anyone actually spell “ophthalmological” without double-checking themselves?

* Adding to the confusion, though I majored in Biological Sciences, my undergraduate degree is actually a Bachelor of Arts (or Artium Bacheloris, as Cornell prefers to call it--the piddling Latin I took allows me to translate that as "Bachelor of Arts").

Vocabulary of the Day:

Intraoperative pachymetry-The systematic measurement of anesthetized elephants.