Fast times and wild living with (the former) Baby Whozit…
Posted in Friends, Jessica, Little Boy on May 24th, 2010
So how does a sensitive 31/2-year-old boy handle interpersonal conflict? I’ve been wondering about this for ages. Actually, no. I’ve been worrying about this for ages. Many times I’ve seen a much younger child grab something from Simon only to look on as my stunned son stood frozen in place and cried. As many times […]
The summer I was eleven, my mother took me to visit Highland Middle School so I could familiarize myself with the building before starting school. We were greeted by an office worker who looked at my mother carefully and asked, “Are you Hanna Rita Wolfson?” My mom would have just turned 42 when this happened, […]
Posted in Jessica, Little Boy on May 21st, 2010
For two days in a row, Simon has had a very specific lunch request: cheese slices. At least one of his (American), and at least one of “Mommy’s” (sharp white cheddar) crackers, but not with soft cheese spread on them. Plain, please, with the cheese on the side. sliced apple As I looked at his […]
Posted in Jessica, Little Boy, Simon says... on May 19th, 2010
I have always appreciated Simon’s sensitivity, as I have always assumed it is a marker of a kind and gentle person. From the beginning, I’ve had to be very careful in how I talk to Simon and especially in how I discipline him. A few times I got really worked up over something, yelled at […]
Posted in Jessica, Little Boy on May 16th, 2010
Simon had his first out-of-control, screaming hissy fit on Halloween, 2006. He held up his head for the first time on Thanksgiving, 2006. He took his first unassisted steps on Father’s Day, 2007. He called his grandmother “Grandma” for the first time on Christmas Eve, 2008. He climbed into his car seat for the first […]
I used to rather smugly consider myself something of a historian. I did, after all, spend five years in graduate school studying the languages and cultures of the Ancient Levant and Mesopotamia. Read enough about historiography, translate enough cuneiform, and spend a couple of seasons in the field, and you start to feel like you […]
Posted in Jessica, Little Boy on May 11th, 2010
Simon’s best friend without a doubt is Baron. It’s a funny pairing, because Baron is the walking expression of pure physicality, while Simon lives a life of the mind. Theirs is an opposites-attract relationship, with Baron playing Yang to Simon’s Yin. I know I’m oversimplifying, but I also feel sure that Baron has never told […]
Posted in Jessica, Little Boy, Simon says... on May 9th, 2010
Two quick anecdotes before I forget. One: While irregular past tense verbs still mostly elude him, and while yesterday and last week are still more or less interchangeable, we are getting more reliable reports these days. A few mornings ago, Matt and I were awakened by a loud pop at around 6:00 a.m. It sounded […]
The New York Times is running a fascinating and entertaining article today on Chinglish, the uniquely Chinese mangling of English, particularly as it pertains to signs in Shanghai. I love reading about this stuff, and when I lived in San Francisco I regularly enjoyed not only Chinglish, but also Ingrish, the uniquely Japanese mangling of […]
Posted in Jessica, Little Boy, Simon says... on May 5th, 2010
When I was a kid, “please” was the magic word. Whenever I asked for something and forgot to use it, I was immediately reminded by an adult who said “What’s the magic word?” For Simon, the magic word is “tomorrow”, and it’s not anything we pushed on him. He seems to have realized all on […]