December 2011
31 posts
My favorite milestone thus far: the development of dancing, especially when we’re on the road and Mini’s kicking his feet, thrusting his belly and shaking his head to the beat in his car seat.
Heading to the North Georgia Mountains to greet the New Year with friends in a rented cabin. I love Vermont, but it’s cold cold cold. Hoping for a warmer winter experience in GA!
Happy Birthday to my husband, who makes everything easier and more fun. I am so grateful for this man.
We're merrier than usual this Christmas, because...
Shipping from: Mini’s Mama
Shipping to: XX Hospital, Miami
Estimated delivery date: June 24, 2012
Special instructions: Contents fragile; handle with care
!!
It is 10:40 p.m. Ever since Mini was born I’ve tried to be asleep by 10, especially when Mister is traveling, because mornings are my enemy, particularly when they come at 6 and require attending to another person. A recent bout of refusing to play games with Mini at nap and bedtime has resulted in many sleep-related heavens part/angels sing changes, including him sleeping until 7:30 or 8,...
I didn’t fall into motherhood with grace. I am still adjusting. No matter the routines, no matter what happened yesterday—I never know what to expect when I wake up in the morning. Relishing good slices of time is easy, and I do. I’m learning to relish challenging slices, too, by imagining a time when my son won’t be little and full of the wonder of littleness, when we...
Too much?
atreb:
$50 Dior pacifier, according to refinery29.com these have sold out online. Really?!?
Oh. My.
I was so excited about online shopping this Christmas. It was easy! I found deals! I googled free shipping! I had everything sent to my parents’ house, where we’re spending the holiday, so that I wouldn’t have to travel with it!
A lot of my stuff hadn’t arrived, so I began to dig. It turns out that most of my packages are being re-routed to Miami because our mail was...
The Ability to Love Takes Root in Earliest Infancy →
psychotherapy:
via The Association for Psychological Science:
“The ability to trust, love, and resolve conflict with loved ones starts in childhood—way earlier than you may think. That is one message of a new review of the literature in Current Directions in Psychological Science, a journal published by the Association for Psychological Science. “Your interpersonal experiences with your mother...
I’ve been wearing someone else’s wedding ring for years. It is thin and gold and fits my right ring finger exactly. It belonged to my paternal great grandmother, who lived more than a hundred years and whom I knew well. My father gave me the ring after she died, and together we peered at the inside, where her and my great grandfather’s initials are carved.
My engagement ring...
Anxiety: Three Messages to Avoid Giving Kids... →
psychotherapy:
Kids don’t generally develop anxiety disorders all on their own. Oh sure, genes and biology have some influence, but these factors largely just predispose kids in the direction of acquiring problems with anxiety. The wrong messages can push both anxiously disposed kids as well as otherwise normal kids in the direction of struggling with anxiety for the rest of their lives.
If...
Every time I read a quote about following your dreams or not getting stuck doing a job you hate, I think about how such a mindset is a luxury.
We are settling in, albeit a slow settling. When we packed up our house in LA, Mini was in an independent, happy to play with the curtains and open and close drawers phase. We contentedly co-occupied rooms while I packed boxes and he did his thing, high on cognitive development. Even while we were nomads for two months and he reverted to sleeping like a newborn, he was easy.
But now. Now. I...
Flip-flops on a December afternoon = multiple points for Miami.
Adjusting seems to feel harder the older I get. I used to move somewhere new and jump into it with abandon, adapting before my feet even landed on the ground. Responsibilities have slowed my rate of adaptation, I suppose. I’ve also realized that while, when younger, I gravitated towards aloneness, I now prefer the opposite. On Sunday night we had friends over for dinner. I made tapas and lit...
A note to Mini on these days
These days you whine one second and laugh the next, beg to be held one minute and refuse to hold my hand while walking the next. When you see cats you say “taca taca taca” over and over. You either sleep through the night or have night terrors—awful sections of time that I dread. This morning you opened my still-empty jewelry box, took out the drawers one by one, and brought each...