My sister taught me how to read. Sure, there were a long line of teacher lessons, flash cards and episodes of “Sesame Street” that primed me for the big moment, but those memories are vague and faded - mere baby steps on the grand journey to literacy.

So this sealed envelope was sent home from Ava’s school the other day.

Barbie (of Mattel fame) has a habit of coming to my rescue. For one, she’s a go-to birthday gift. With an army of 10,000 dolls in production, it’s rare that you’ll ever give a duplicate, and she’s relatively inexpensive if you opt for the dolls with hollow legs.

A few days after Valentine’s Day, I told Ava about my childhood valentine.

I imagine every girl must remember her first - that moment when the holiday evolved from the pleasure of eating stale, molar-cracking SweetTarts to something closer to love.

It’s hard to watch the news when you have kids.

I stopped “growing up” years ago. Now I’m in the process of shrinking toward my 40's. However, I still remember growing pains. Not the emotional pain of growing up - the BFFs who barely lasted a week or the boy who didn’t like you back because you were too tall.

Come January, most people I know make fitness resolutions and vow to hit the gym. My husband has his gym code taped to the fridge “just in case” he gets the urge. It has hung there like an albatross around his neck for six years.

The day after Christmas, I was reading my daughter a bedtime story. It was Zen Shorts by Jon J. Muth, a book about three siblings who each learn a Zen principle in an encounter with a giant panda named Stillwater.

When the folks here at ModernMom.com and Mattel sent my daughter the Disney Princess Ultimate Dream Castle, I have to admit I was a little excited. Okay, a lot excited. Without a doubt, my 5-year-old daughter would love it (in fact, it already topped her Christmas list). But I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t excited for selfish reasons, too: I wanted to play with it. No more sitting on my daughter’s floor pretending that the paper towel represented Cinderella’s bedroom and the paper plate was Aurora’s.

Bumper stickers are like tattoos for cars - they seem like a good idea at first, but are never as cool the next day.