Category: koala update
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Koala update: Sixteen years
It’s a time of learning to let go. The trick, as a parent, is to know when to release… to release my grip, a reverse squeeze, relax my fingers and watch your teenage palm slip out. To let you figure it out and to trust you and to be ok with your mistakes, that your…
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Zooey update: nine years
“Sometimes, I say the F word in my lev… when I’m thinking about Hamas.” We don’t even know the half of it, I’m sure. The half of what is in your heart, the other half of what is in your heart, your daydreams, your nightmares. But what I do know, what I can see, is…
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Bebe update: fourteen years
There’s just this very very delicate thing. It’s a girl, between girlhood and womanhood, opening her eyes and slowly learning what it’s going to take to navigate adulthood. As this thing unwraps, crinkling like cellophane around a new mascara, you get to see how many layers there are. How to dress, how to perform, how…
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Nettles update: eleven years
Standing over me, as I help with something on your computer, and I turn to you and ask you a question, all business you are, and you pull your hair back and twist it around, the way I do when I’m thinking, and you hold it there, and focus on the screen, thinking, your face…
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Role modeling thrives in the discomfort
Here’s a story about parenting. We’re at the celebration for returned Israeli hostage Eliya Cohen in his hometown (and mine) of Tzur Hadassah, and a junior reporter wielding a red microphone from Israel Hayom locks eyes with me from across the crowd. I know what he wants, I was him once. My daughters are standing…
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Koala update: fifteen years
It’s an understatement to say this was a year that, half-way through, has been impacted by the biggest national crisis of your 15 years; this is a developing story so we will watch the developments roll… for years to come… In the meantime, though, it’s safe to say… One thing I never ever want to…
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Zooey update: eight years
I don’t know what to say, Bean. It’s a lot to pack in to so few years. Since you were four years old, the world has been upside down for the rest of us; for you and your cohort – it is what it is. I assume. We’ll find out someday. In the meantime… Keep…
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Bebe update: thirteen years
It’s official. Day 1 of surviving teenage daughter. 275938753948 days and daughters to go. An exchange during one of my more melancholy moments early on: “I should be playing D&D tonight.” “So why aren’t you?” “My friends are all in the army.” “So *they* are playing D&D… just without the dice.” Ice knife. But yeah.…
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Nettles update: ten years
Double digit Nettles. Something you claim makes you an adult already, somehow. Or at least deserving of the privileges of your teenage sister. WHATever girl. Hold your horses. Slow down. (That’s a good joke…) It’s growth, I suppose. Like the aches you complain about – the growing pains as you steadily race to soar taller…
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Koala update: fourteen years
Someone told me the summer between ages 14 and 15 is the one where things really kick off for a teenage boy. I’ll let you know if it’s true, but here’s what I already know: Body image… is a thing. A big one. In boys. I should have known; I should have remembered (I have…
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Zooey update: seven years
The highlight of my last year with you is watching you take what you want and leave behind what you don’t. That’s not to be taken for granted with everything that comes with starting school, developing new friends, navigating new skills, and of course… being the youngest of four. The highlight of my highlight was…
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Bebe update: twelve years
A lot of people don’t know how to make choices. I don’t mean the right choices. I mean, how to go about choosing. Not only do you relish in making choices, you know how. Or it’s innate, at least. It comes easy to you. Whatever is going on in there is an actual thinking process.…