About

I’m Harriet M. Welsch (like all names in my blog, a pseudonym), a mother, a musicologist, a Ph.D. student trying to finish an endless dissertation, a musician and former girl spy. I live in a Chicago suburb with my husband Mr. Spy (a writer) my six-year-old son AJ (a self-proclaimed Space Expert) and a cat named Mrs. Stein. You can read the backstory at my previous address, also called spynotes.

A few recurring characters include:

Yoga Mom: My next door neighbor who also teaches one of my yoga classes

The Girl Next Door [TGND]: Yoga Mom’s daughter and AJ’s friend since they started preschool at age 2. They moved next door to us a couple of years ago. She’s the quintessential girl with the curl: When she is good, she is very, very good. But when she is bad, she is horrid. AJ’s kindergarten teacher said of them that “TGND and AJ are just like an old married couple.” If by that she means they are inseparable but they almost never stop squabbling, then she pretty much summed it up.

TGND’s brother: Her brother, four years older.

The Boy Across the Street [TBATS]: Another first grader, in a different class. A slightly odd and somewhat destructive child, whom AJ plays next to but never really with

TBATS’s sister: A four-year-old smiley kid who wears pink cowboy boots wherever she goes.

M.: Another of AJ’s school friends from the neighborhood. He’s athletic and easygoing except when TGND fights AJ for him

Ben Franklin Boy [BFB]: Another of AJ’s school friends from the neighborhood. He got his name because the first time we had a conversation with us, he told us all kinds of facts about Ben Franklin, including the fact that he and Ben had the same birthday. He’s a little obsessed. He was the only kindergartner at the Halloween parade dressed as Abraham Lincoln. An interesting and quirky kid.