"I had to come up with something."

MRIs provide hard proof.

We were about a third of the way through The Hobbit when my 9-year-old asked skeptically, "Mommy, where are the girl characters?"

After weeks, months and years of parent sleep-deprivation accumulate, an educational experience that merely requires snuggling up on the couch or in bed, reading words from a page with a kid or two tucked in each armpit, feels like a revelation.