Transitions & Milestones

When it finally gets cold enough to use the heat for the first time in a long time, I fire it up to take the chill out of the living room early in the morning. Even though the central heat I have now that I control from my phone with my Nest thermostat is a huge upgrade from the old...

We’re in the car, and Jonah is asking me for our “old playlist,” as he calls it. There’s a shared, almost secret language that exists when you have a child where they talk about and ask for things and only you and your small circle know what they’re talking about. Imaginary friends, certain songs, the way they like their food...

You are one year old today. Daycare starts in three days. You are standing up, almost ready for yourfirst steps. You want to talk, you are talking already. Your own language only you understand.You are one year old today, and I am back to work. After a whole year of parental leave, I only get to seeyou in the morning...

Today is the day that all parents envision, when they bring their little’s into this world. A day that felt so far away and is already here. I have to be honest, this day came so much faster  than I could have ever imagined. Seems like just yesterday, I was comforting the parents of my Kindergarten students, giving them courage,...

As I find myself in the very last weeks of my third pregnancy, I am getting to this weird stage of excitement/fear/laziness/motivation. I feel tired yet I have million things on my mind. I feel full of energy to order, replace, and redecorate every single thing in our apartment, yet after an hour of restless cleaning up, I usually give...

Written 7/18/22 There was a stretch of five minutes this morning where I didn’t know yet that I had a body. I didn’t feel or think anything yet. I didn’t yet call into consciousness that I’ve been lying in bed with horrible COVID symptoms for the last however many days (what day is it?) or that my husband had it...

I love my vibrant, impulsive, brave, incredibly intelligent and fiercely independent little human. But tonight…tonight, I miss my baby. I miss the little squeals and growls and silly sounds. I miss watching her scurry around the living room on hand and knee. I miss trying to figure out what she wants from the toy box as she stands there propped...

How many more nights will I get to nurse you to sleep? To hold you across my lap with your head resting heavy on my arm? How many more times will I get to feel your entire body relax into mine as you drift to sleep? To feel your gentle suckling every so often as you sink deeper into rest? ...

Our son William was 20 months old when playdates, birthday parties, and Mommy and Me classes ground to a halt due to the pandemic. I'm not sure William qualifies as a true "covid kid" because he wasn't born during the pandemic, but to be sure, his childhood and our parenting has been shaped by it. Despite the pandemic, he's very interested...

(*Written March 1, 2020, two days before my son turned one year old.) I’m struggling so much around Jonah turning one. I feel intense dread in my body and sick to my stomach. I can barely eat. I cry just writing or thinking about it. It feels like I need to cry and scream and rage outwardly, but there isn’t the...