A Little Life

For the Win Maybe it’s his age, (I hope it’s his age), but according to Jonah, everything we do is soooo boring and not cool. He “barely gets to (insert ANYTHING a 10-year old would like to do),” and he never, I repeat NEVER gets to stay up late or have a sleepover in our bed. Also, I should mention EVERTHING I cook “is soooo gross and is always organic or made with stevia.” (Okay, I admit, that’s like half true. One point for Jonah). At seems like lately, on a daily basis, I become THAT mom: “Do you realize how lucky you are? How privileged you are?” I list all the ...Read More
House of Home and Family What do two babies under 2, a new house, a 4mm kidney stone, and a beautiful French Au Pair all have in common? C’est Moi, mes amis! C’est Moi! The good news is life has been anything less than boring. The bad news is that I’ve been so distracted that I haven’t written a blog post since May. And before that since April. And before that since February. That’s 3 blog posts for 2017 for those of you counting at home. For someone that prides herself on feeling productive, this has not been a very productive year on the writing and creativity front. But if you count productivity ...Read More
“No parent should ever have to decide if they can afford to save their child’s life.” – Jimmy Kimmel By now, you have probably seen Jimmy Kimmel’s emotional monologue detailing the birth of his son Billy and the heart condition that he was born with. Within minutes of watching (okay, seconds), Peter and I were in tears. As Jimmy shared the harrowing and terrifying first few hours of Billy’s birth, we were fluttered by the memories of our own terrifying experience during Oliver’s birth. In September of 2015, our son Oliver was born with a very large and undetected (in utero) Lymphatic Malformation-a vascular anomaly that affects roughly 1 in 50,000 children.  (Read ...Read More
04.05.17
3
21 Weeks… I think… Remember This Life is moving quickly these days. I’m more than halfway through my pregnancy, we’re in escrow on our house (and on the hunt for a new one), Oliver knows that “P” is for “poo poo!” and Jonah has questions about Brexit . I truly can’t keep up. The other day, as I watched Oliver literally throw himself on the floor because I wouldn’t hand over my phone so he could look at photos and probably surf for porn, (Kids are very advanced these days), I realized I haven’t been documenting his milestones (including the ones that make me want to throw myself on the floor too). With ...Read More
02.27.17
2
My Shot Me circa 1984… When parenting was easy… Ever since finding out that I was pregnant in November, I’ve sort of had the iconic “Hamilton” song “My Shot,” in my head. It’s sort of become my mantra. In about an hour, I will be jumping on the phone with a sleep consultant (again) to try to figure out how to eradicate the sleep terror in our house that has existed for the last 17 months… Actually, if you’re including the little dude’s leader, (insert mugshot of older brother Jonah here), the issue of sleep, or lack thereof, is an issue I’ve had to deal with for 9 1/2 years. Needless to say, I’m fucking EXHAUSTED. Before co-sleeping ...Read More
Aquaphor Baby: From the First Bath On Oliver’s First Bath, September 2015 Let’s face it: There are very few things in the world that are both as exciting and stressful as bringing home your newborn from the hospital. Even though I had already “been there done that” with Jonah, when we brought Oliver home from the hospital, I still had that feeling that all new moms get that first week at home… terror, joy, exhaustion, and concern… Am I doing this right? Is he okay? Is he hungry? From feeding to sleeping and to everything in between, there is so much information out there it’s hard to know what to trust let ...Read More
11.24.16
0
WE ARE GRATEFUL If I could go back and tell my 12-year old self that life that one day, the real version of “let’s play house” would be a reality, and I would be sitting in a beautiful kitchen preparing to have 30 people at my house for Thanksgiving with a new puppy in my lap, a baby asleep in a crib, a 9-year old kicking a ball outside (okay, playing on the iPad, but dreams are fun), and an amazing partner/husband at work, and I’d be happy, like really, really happy, I wouldn’t believe you. At 12, things suuuuuck. You can’t see past tomorrow. You have no idea how things are ...Read More
11.01.16
3
I have been sitting on this post for a long time. But because of the sensitive topic, and because I could not tolerate anyone casting any judgment but that of love and understanding, I have kept it private. But with just 7 days until the election, I can no longer contain it. Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about my childhood and trying to remember at what point I learned what certain words meant… As a mom to a 9-year old boy, it’s hard for me to remember what I knew at his age and what I may have known just by virtue of being a girl/daughter to a single ...Read More
My “Particular” Guy Almost every night, without fail, about 45 seconds after I walk out of Jonah’s room and finally sit down on my bed with the loudest internal “Ahhh,” he calls me. “Mommmmmmmy.” Trying to summon every ounce of patience I have left, I tiptoe down the hallway quickly so as to not waking his sleeping baby brother right next door. Except as you may recall from several other posts, our floors seemed to have been transported from the Little House on the Prairie and they creak as if Pa is a’comin. “Yes, bud. What is it?” Usually, it’s a “can I have water, it’s too hot, why is the sky blue, can you ...Read More
Oliver’s Brown Bear, Brown Bear Birthday Party What Oliver wants, Oliver gets. Since day UNO. When he was a newborn…You want my boob at 1am, 4am and 6 times between 5:45 and 8:45pm? Here you go, baby. (Insert cartoon of a woman – hi, that’s me- throwing hoisting her boob over a nursing bra like a large net in the Bering sea). When he started to crawl… You want to push mommy’s new sunglasses around on the floor? Have at it. (They’re knock-offs anyway. Because, you.) When he started eating… You want to eat your weight in puffs and cheerios? Fine. Just, fine. (At least they are loaded with spinach and kale anti-oxidant chia flax omega 3 DHA super green beet juice. Who needs ...Read More