Lizrael Update: babbling about the expat life since 2004
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Zooey update: thirteen months
Let’s hear it for the world-traveling babies! The babies who try new things! The babies who aren’t afraid to fly! (Literally!) The worldly babies who won’t wait around, will grab your plate, will have what they’re having. The babies who climb up the stone stairs when you’re not paying attention, when your back is turned…
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Koala update: eight years
Recently we were laying in my bed, reading together. Well, you, the Jedi Academy books; me, A Man Called Ove. At some point I looked up from my pages and thought – huh. I’ve been waiting for this for a long time. An eight-year-old boy who is journeying through his own diverse world as it comes……
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Answer any question, honestly.
If we’re being cynical, the propaganda machine is running in full force at my house. If we’re being honest, I’m just trying to protect my offspring. If we’re being optimistic, the hope is knowledge will lead to creative, original and practical solutions. This Yom Hashoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day, hit me hard. Harder than in years…
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Zooey update: twelve months
Don’t we know it, Zooey. It’s not easy snagging attention around here. I guess you have a hometown advantage of being the easiest to carry on my back. Just a bunch of koalas after all. It’s not hard to believe a year has gone by – it’s been such a packed year, what with me…
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Bebe update: six years
This is the year, Bebe. The year I start to feel the weight of what it is to raise a daughter. There’s something about this year – kindergarten, the oldest of the gan years, first grade prep, heightened self awareness, heightened emotional intelligence, deeper self expression. Taking more responsibility. Finding love in different places. Volunteering…
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We have a problem.
“Ima, why do adults always look at their phones?” “Oh, I… um… it’s…” Because if you think kids have no self control, you’re kidding yourself. Because adults have no self control. Because it gets lost over time. Because we’re so misguided. Because we’re just awful. Because we adults get addicted to things. Because we are…
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Nettles update: three years
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…
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Zooey update: eleven months
(See? I told you I’d be up in your face making you crazy-laugh again…) The sun and warmth and faint smell of spring have started to creep up around us and so your winter sniffles and spotty sleep schedule have started to melt away. Literally, right now, we’re on the floor together, you’re up on…
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Zooey update: ten months
There are months when I take a million and a half pictures of you, where I’m up in your face covering you in kisses, where I tickle torture you until you snort. Zooey this was not one of those months because there’s so much going on. But I’ve missed you during late nights at work…
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It’s time to normalize pumping at work.
I work full time, and there are days when I’m in back-to-back meetings all day. There’s never enough time to get my work done, because if I’m not at work, I’m picking up my kids and starting the second half of my day. And when that’s over, preparing for the next one. The reality is…
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Zooey update: nine months
On the one hand, you make your opinions known. My baby ate my homework. On the other hand, you have to constantly watch your back. Good sport. And that’s a lesson in how to survive in your family of six.
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I cry over spilled milk and closing chapters.
I had an unexpected emotional trigger when, as I walked toward the office fridge to grab my pumped milk at 18:45, I saw the fridge door already open, with its glistening empty shelves, and the cleaner standing in front, putting new garbage bags in the trash cans. The office manager had emailed earlier that everything…
Questions? Comments? Advice?