I learned a new expression from my sister-in-law Stacy yesterday: “It’s easy to heckle from the cheap seats,” meaning roughly that it’s easy to criticize from a distance, be it physical or emotional. She used it in the context of those who judge the parenting of others when they are not parents themselves. I’ve been […]
Category Archive for 'Jessica'
Yesterday was Simon’s first Chanukah party and his two-month birthday. The party was at my mom’s house and included all four nieces and nephews, who each had a present for Simon. He got Spiderman pajamas from his Spiderman-obsessed cousin Ben (age 4), socks knitted by his crafty cousin Olivia (age 8), and a book that […]
Based on results from a small, unscientific poll, I have decided that mothers must have ears that rival those of bats or a post-surgery Jaime Sommers. While Matt can happily snore on, I hear every sound Simon makes at night. I will wake up when he sneezes, wake up when he coughs, wake up when […]
Just a week ago, Simon got his days and nights upside down and kept Matt and me up all night. We were fried the next day, and more than a little scared that this pattern would hold. Starting Sunday night–thank goodness–Simon settled into a new pattern of sleeping from 10:00 or so until 3:00, and […]
I’ve read about moms who invent handy gizmos for other mothers and make a mint from the small businesses that grow around their inventions. My contribution to the genre–which I will never produce–is lullaby karaoke. Simon loves to be sung to. The problem is that I now realize most songs come in a few distinct […]
Since I’ve been out and about with Simon I’ve noticed two distinct phenomena, one pleasant and the other not-so-much. I call it help vs. “help”. Pleasant first. I’ve met more people in my neighborhood since I began taking Simon out for walks than I ever did before. It seems that the minute many people see […]
Today, at eight weeks, was the first time I felt like a tried and true mom. Simon was in his swing when he got fussy this afternoon. He had been fed and changed, he wasn’t over- or under-dressed, and his reflux seemed fine. So why was he crying? I picked him up, suspecting that I […]
Like many babies, Simon sometimes gets his days and nights confused. Unfortunately, last night he and Matt both had upside down schedules and dragged me down with them. It started when I awoke Simon from a three-hour nap to feed him at around 8:15. Frankly, he wasn’t that interested in eating. He got fussy–as he […]
Since I was very young, I’ve always been prone to catastrophic thinking. More than prone: If it were a sport, I’d be in medal contention. For the uninitiated and unencumbered, catastrophic thinking is when you take one negative possibility, extrapolate it to it’s (il)logical extreme, and end up at a worst-case scenario. When I was […]
Today is a special day for me for three reasons: 1. It’s Pearl Harbor Day. That one’s a gimmee. 2. It’s my zadie’s birthday. Lester M. Wolfson was born on December 7, 1911. Even though he died almost 13 years ago, I still think about him often and miss him very much. Simon’s middle name, […]