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Although I am sure my thinking abilities left me on the flight to Tokyo (somewhere over Alaska, I think), I don't want to miss the golden opportunity offered to me by Ultra Bob to tell embarrassing stories about Kristen. This first entry may not be Kristen's most embarrassing moment but it is a telling one.

Kristen was about a year old when we moved to an old stone and stucco house in Suffern, New York. We'd lived in a very small apartment and the added space of this new house was a luxury. The living room was cavernous. Our few pieces of furniture were lost in the large rectangle so we bought two six foot square red carpets and put them at either end. The furniture now had something to sit around and we thought it was just about perfect.

The house also had a large backyard. The yard provided the arena for the beginning of this story. When the weather warmed in the spring, Kristen and I played in the yard every afternoon after her nap until I had to go in to fix dinner (think 1967 and June Cleaver here). For the first couple of weeks, Kristen obediently toddled in at my side. One day, however, she refused to come in and I was forced to tuck her under my arm and haul her, kicking and screaming, into the house. When we got to the kitchen I put her down and still screaming she ran into the living room and began to beat her forehead on the red rugs. She worked her way around the first one and moved on to the next. She seemed determined and was certainly methodical. I was horrified. She could get hurt. I tried to reason with her and when that didn't work I told her that when she was finished with her tantrum, she could come into the kitchen for a cookie.

I fretted in the kitchen, worried that I'd done the wrong thing but in a few minutes she appeared with a pink forehead and puffy face ready for that cookie. For the next week she repeated her rug performance daily but the length and fervor seemed to be diminishing. I even discussed the event with our pediatrician. He assured me that I was doing the right thing.

She stopped her daily rug trick in a few more days. So, if you've ever thought that Kristen has a hard head, I can tell you for a fact that she does.

I found out early.