Cancer Survivor, writing about Health and Fitness as you age

My just-turned-9 year old son and I had a very earnest conversation about how to guarantee that you get the best cards from Pokémon booster packs. But first, a little background. Before there was Pokémon Go, there was just the Pokémon cards. You can buy individual cards, packs, or sets in tins. You can play the card game or trade. The tins usually have sealed packs with about 10 cards in each packet. My little one has recently had a renewed interest in Pokémon and as a parent, I celebrate any non-digit al engagement. Over the summer, with too much time on his hands and too little supervision, (clearly), the little one started watching Pokémon-related YouTube videos and one genre of these videos are videos fans have made of themselves opening these booster packs and tins. But back to our conversation. My little one is looking up at me with his big brown eyes and explaining to me how he can guarantee he gets the most awesome cards ("pulls") in a booster pack by fo...

A couple of days ago Lucas told me that I needed to cut Liam's nails because they were sharp and Liam was scraping him. So I told him that I did just cut Liam's nails. Before I had time to qualify by saying that sometimes, the edges can be sharp when they've just been cut, Lucas asked me, "Mama, is there a store or somewhere you can take Liam to get his nails cut?" The implication was clear, I heard it myself - my own son wanted to outsource me! So while I was shaking my head in woe and lamenting on how far I had fallen, I thought about what Lucas said and more importantly what prompted his question. Gunnar calls Lucas our "problem-solving" son. He has a very direct approach to most things and has a simple view of the world. He is also very innocent, I think, for a 7-year old. Case in point, he started dangling pretzel sticks out the side of his mouth, much like a cigarette. Gunnar was a little disturbed, but of course it was just "..tumblewe...