Two days ago was Yom Yerushalayim, or Jerusalem Day - the celebration of the reunification of Jerusalem in 1967, where Jews were finally allowed to roam freely in the Old City due to their own sovereignty. It's a day I really only tend to think about in the context of traffic to my former Jerusalem... Continue Reading →
To my bar mitzvah.
I'm in awe of Torah reading… getting up close to it… having a physical connection with the parchment… It's not something I had access to from behind the kind of barrier they called a mechitza where I grew up. (I just realized this week I never even saw tefillin up close until now.) Watching you... Continue Reading →
Zooey update: six years
I've spent six years looking at your pretty face, and marveling that there is nothing at all physically resembling mine - you're a carbon copy, visually, of your dad. Well, there's one thing - your freckles. We share that. But what I've spent the last year realizing is you have something else we share. Or... Continue Reading →
Nettles update: eight years
You were born a bullet train, and eight years later, this is still an express line. If I hem and haw on a decision, you take it into your own hands (and footstool, and cellotape, and whatever you need to get it done when my back's turned). You'll get it done, if you want it... Continue Reading →
Let’s have a wordle
I introduced my 12-year-old son to Wordle. At the same time, I introduced him to וורדעל. I love that both prospects are exciting, and we're chatting with each other throughout the day about it (I still shudder at the fact he has a smartphone even if whatsapping together is a huge comms improvement). You know... Continue Reading →
Fellow working moms – it gets better.
I came home from the office one day last week and had this realization. It's gotten better. Or... it becomes *different* as the kids get older, and so much becomes more tolerable, doable, and you know what? Also better. Do my pre-teens still mime at me from behind my laptop while I'm on a Zoom, thinking I can... Continue Reading →
Koala update: twelve years
To the boy who is ~5 inches from towering over me, It's getting real. Twelve years of you, of figuring all this out, it's always been real, yes, but now it's puberty real. It's preteen real. It's who is this giant boy in my house real. So we're both navigating it. You have questions, and... Continue Reading →
Zooey update: five years
My youngest turns five today. Zooey, we're full-on into that tug-o-war over getting bigger and staying baby... It's not even day on, day off; it's sometimes in five minute intervals. But I don't begrudge you that; it's been a year of fading boundaries, loose definitions, lost assumptions. Out of everyone, this year might have done... Continue Reading →
Bebe update: ten years
I'd say that over the last decade, this feeling I'm about to describe has always been present in amounts, more often taken for granted - the swath of peace that came with you as a newborn, the displays of empathy that radiated from you as a toddler, the abundance of friendliness you have displayed as... Continue Reading →
Nettles update: seven years
If last year's birthday felt totally eye-glazed and desolate... the year that followed was like being trapped in a box but actually, the box helped you break out while stuck inside. I'm not sure where to begin as far as how you've forged ahead, and continued growing, refusing to fall behind or be let down.... Continue Reading →
Koala update: eleven years
Memes and friends and global outlooks warned me that as my son would get older, you'd become less affectionate or more wary of showing emotion. You wouldn't know it by looking around our house...
Zooey update: four years
You might think, Zooey, that as the fourth or last to do something, it would be less exciting. We've seen the others take steps, we've seen the others ride bikes, we've seen the others draw a face for the first time. But that's not what makes you, or any of you, special or interesting; the... Continue Reading →