PregnancyFamilyEducation Blogs
June 17th, 2008
Just like that
Father's Day last year found me driving to a grocery store to buy a phone card, which I then used--unsuccessfully, actually--to reach my dad, who was in Greece. I felt sad and down about it all day long. My grandmother had passed away only a few days before Father's Day, and it was hard to be disconnected from my family at that time. My father has always been that rock of safety for me, the fixer of all things, and surrounded by that empty feeling of loss over my grandmother's death, I just wanted to hear his voice, plain and simple. [more]
May 30th, 2008
Out with the old...
L.'s last day of second grade is today. They've had "last days" all week, really. Monday was a holiday, and then Tuesday was "game day" and the kids got to sit around most of the day and play their favorite games with each other. I was especially jealous of "bring a book and read" day on Wednesday. I had just gone to the library and checked out some good books for myself to read for a change, and the thought of being given a whole entire school day to lounge around in my pajamas with a pillow and some good books made me drool. L. [more]
May 22nd, 2008
Jekyll and Hyde
I don't know how it is with your children, but I've noticed that my kids often behave in unpredictable Jekyll and Hyde ways when in public. One day they will be as good as can be, causing heads to turn, and strangers to comment in pleased tones about how well-behaved and sweet they are; then the next day heads turn in altogether different ways, and everyone gives you a wide berth, hoping against hope that whatever is wrong with YOUR kids that day won't rub off on theirs. [more]
May 21st, 2008
A post in which I grouch a little about fruit
It's that time of year again--the time for endings and beginnings; for saying good-bye to classrooms and teachers and the old ways of an old school-year. I look at the second-graders at L.'s school and they seem suddenly all arms and legs and missing front teeth. They carry around Harry Potter books and beloved webkinz, and talk about big kid stuff like THIRD grade. At T.'s school the kids are coming into their own, suddenly, dividing themselves up by boys and girls; T. comes home with gossipy-like tales of who did what to her, and why. [more]
May 14th, 2008
Lifelong challenges
A favorite blogger friend of mine wrote the other day about a recent study out there claiming that parenthood does not, in fact, bring joy and fulfillment, that children are a source of misery and stress, and that raising them is a "lifelong challenge to your mental health." Where the data for this study came from is anyone's guess, actually, but I thought a lot about it yester [more]
May 7th, 2008
Anatomy of a lost day
It happened yesterday afternoon--again. Right before I was going to head out to pick up L. from school, Scott put on some music and T. and I danced. She was filled with delightful energy and we held hands and twirled and jiggled together. Earlier, after lunch, we'd snuggled in the hammock, soaking up some together time after a busy start to the week.
April 25th, 2008
Why T. still sleeps with us
We are trying, gently and carefully, to help T. learn to stay in her own bed all night long. She always wakes up every night, sometimes at 11:00, or 1:00, or 4:00--the times vary--but the results are the same. I rouse myself from my sleep to find her standing next to our bed, a small, breathless, frightened figure. I get up, take her to the potty, then bring her to bed with us, where she snuggles against my back with a deep sigh, arms closed tightly around my neck. [more]
April 24th, 2008
If dreams are the windows to our souls...
Last night I had a long and involved and very detailed dream about being pregnant again. In my dream I was not only pregnant, but pregnant with twin boys. My dream took me through the positive pregnancy test and the discovery, via ultrasound, of the fact that I was carrying twins. It was all so realistic--right down to the numb shock, mixed with creeping delight, at the thought of a new pregnancy. I think, though, that the numb shock won out in the end. [more]
April 15th, 2008
Location, location
We moved into our current home and neighborhood just over a year ago. We truly love it here, and nothing brings this fact home to me more than when I walk the dog around the now familiar streets and down through the woods and back up again, past the houses lit up at dusk, cozy and warm and inviting. [more]
March 25th, 2008
It's not just a job
I brought my son to work on Thursday last week. He was just with me for three hours--tops. I wasn't teaching that day, so we ran some errands around campus, and headed over to the library to set up a film for my students. I seated him in one of the old squishy orange chairs outside the glass windowed media room, and while I cued up the film, I watched him hunched into the bulk of the chair, a little figure with crazy sticking-up hair and glasses, head bent over one of his train books.
