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. […]
“Ima, I want to call Grandma.” That’s how it’s been for days since we left New York, rushed, unplanned, in the style of not letting dough rise. We basically fled the city, across the ocean, back to the Middle East, straight into quarantine. Straight into days of looking into your eyes, which have been glazed […]
To the Nettles who’s been asking me for 8 months when she’ll be ‘this many’… Your love of fun is infectious, easily spreadable like your daily Vegemite… Your curiosity makes me want to learn the world all over again from your point of view… Your jokes are somehow hilarious every time… Your eyes could sway […]
This is cheekiness uprising. This is sound effects for every action. This is slapstick comedy. This is curiosity. This is telling dogs to go away. This is a love affair with a mosaic snail. This is finding the word ‘batata’ hilarious. This is pretend-nursing a baby. This is tormenting the younger sibling. This is torturing […]
There are three things I know to be true: There are types of self confidence that cannot be bought or therapy’d into you. A kid who is comfortable being choosy about cake is going places. This is going to be one hell of a year. So here we go. The hills are alive… with the […]
Nettles. When you’re not around, I think about you. Randomly. You pop up in my thoughts. I was thinking the other day if you had this much character a year ago. I guess you did but in smaller bites? These days, the bites are getting chunkier (and I don’t mean because of your dinosaur teeth). […]
Nettles, It feels like there has never been any life without you in it. You are a puzzle piece that simply fit right in. But there is nothing simple or obvious about you. “Third child” is a phrase I’ve tried to stop saying in the last few months – it doesn’t do you justice to label […]
If I had to sum up 23-month Nettles in one picture… Here’s the story: One night last week, we hear a loud thump and screaming. We dash upstairs and Nettles had climbed out of the crib and fallen, presumably on her head. The next day, it happens she’s home from gan and I put her […]
Nettles, One of my favorite things, on the days I pick you up from maon (daycare), I love walking up the stairs to the second floor and before there’s any way you know it’s me you come running. Or do I have distinctive footsteps? Or do you do that to everyone until you finally get […]