Up to the moon and stars

Once upon a Cambridge spring, The stars did a dance and the moon began to sing. “She’s here,” crooned the wind, the sky gathered around her. “The best mommy’s been born! She’s here! We have found her!” You see, everyone thinks that when babies arrive They’re the most sacred things born from the sky. But the stars and the moon knew ...

Why am I so scared?

Dear friend, I hope this finds you well. Or, you know, as well as possible during this time. I hope you are finding yourself with as much health, both physical and mental, as one can muster. This time is (well, I don’t want to be trite, and refer to this time as “unprecedented” so I will, instead, use ...

11 things I’ve become obsessed with during quarantine.

Friends, you know me. You know that we are still quarantined, or socially distant, or in the red zone, whatever you want to call it. You know that COVID-19 is making me feel like a bad mom. There has been a lot of womp-womp-ing over here, and so, as I sit here in my living room, my favorite room in ...

COVID19 is making me feel like a bad mom.

(What I have done for the last 2 months: yoga every day. What I have not done for the last 2 months: felt, in any way, relaxed, calm, peaceful, or zen.) *** try (verb):  make an attempt or effort to do something; an attempt to achieve or attain.  trying (adjective): difficult or annoying; hard to endure. Has any other homonym been more applicable during ...

My Top Five Tips For Parenting During This Scary Time

I was just straightening the pile of towels that the kids and I had folded this morning when it hit me: my kids folded towels, this morning. They are not folded in the perfect squares that make the control freak in me feel most comfortable, but nothing about our lives today, quite frankly, makes the ...

My children have a different accent than I do

"Now, everyone, take out your R and J," said Mr. Segal, as he paced, slowly but excitedly, at the front of the classroom. It was 2000. Mr. Segal was my high school English teacher, and he emanated passion an inspiration as only supremely gifted high school English teachers do. I was lucky enough to have him for both ...

Baby Ever After

"I know words, and I love words, but I simply do not have the words to express my gratitude for this book and for all of the people who made it possible." When I wrote this in the acknowledgments of Baby Ever After, it was my way of trying to convey the deep and profound appreciation I feel in ...

Dear Kenny

Dear Kenny, As I leave the hospital, the place where both of our babies were born, and handed to us, and first fed by me, and diapered by you, I hit a sea of blue scrubs, all in different shades and tones. When I first pulled up this morning, for an early test, I thought that it would be like living out ...

Dear babies

Dear babies, First off, I know that you are not babies.  But, I also know that when I feel one of you reach for me in the middle of the night, or smile as you greet me with sleepy, almond-eyes first thing in the morning, or kiss your eyelids as you slumber, it's just like you are my little babies all over again. It ...

Being a parent is hard.

"Did you feel the house sway?" I asked, trepidatiously. The people around me all nodded, as we peered outside the sunroom windows, staring at a blowing blanket of white snow. "I know that we all felt the house move when that cyclone passed over us, but our house is over 100 years old, so it must be ...