growing up
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Rebecca - - One responseMarch 2016 It's not that the kids refused to try Judo, but they were hesitant. Elan was anxious ahead of time. We were in the car, and I found myself saying to him, "Listen up. I'm going to tell you the secret to life." Once that came out of my mouth, it seemed necessary to pull over. I parked under a tree and turned around to face them, my two beautiful boys, their perfect skin, their eyes - brown and blue - pools reflecting liquid light. "The secret to life," I said, ... more -
Rebecca - - No responsesMy then-shaggy boys in the Mojave desert where I grew up, December 2014 Sometimes I fear that I'm doing my kids' childhood all wrong. Not enough forts, for instance. When I was a kid, we had a corner of the living room devoted frequently to forts. There was a living and a family room. Plenty of space for forts. Our house here in Berkeley is little. We make forts, though we haven't made one in a while. The giant camo blanket, lightweight with strings sewn into the edges, is perfect for fort-making. We tie ... more -
Rebecca - - No responsesBoys in redwood roots, Big Basin, September 2015 This is the first year I have taken Elan with me to Yom Kippur day services by choice. I decided he's old enough to come with me, and for me to still be able to pay attention and get something out of the service. He wore shorts and crocs, and we went (him by scooter, me walking) to the "super-reform" service held outdoors alongside the playground at the JCC. But even during the times that he took a break from listening by swinging ... more -
Rebecca - - No responsesEarlier this week, I posted here on the blog about our decision to let Emry make his own choices about his hair (to read it, click here). When we did that, we were simultaneously setting a family policy that, if you have strong feelings about your own hair, then you get to make decisions around it. (This doesn’t include hygiene, because neither of my children would ever choose to wash or brush their hair if it were up to them.) (Check back to see if the policy ... more -
Rebecca - - No responsesEmry & me, Kauai, February 2015 We started getting the questions when Emry was two and a half: "when are you going to cut his hair?" We cut Elan's hair when he was a little over two. He had beautiful blonde-brown hair, often scraggly but still beautiful. But it started bothering him when it got in his face, and he showed signs of wanting to have it shorter. Emry, on the other hand, was always quite sure that he didn't want his hair cut. He wanted it long. He liked it long. ... more -
Rebecca - - No responsesEmry, July 2014 For the last several months, Nubbins has been dropping his nap. (Everyone who has parented a nap-dropping child now sighs.) I'm knocking wood as I type this, but so far, this transition hasn't been nearly as gnarly as Elan's nap-dropping chaos was. Part of this is probably because I have not attempted to force him into nap or enforce a set rest-time. I'm still scarred from the screaming fits that happened when I tried to convince Elan that a good alternative for a nap would be to have quiet time ... more -
Rebecca - - No responsesWhat happens when Mama tries to multitask, January 2014 Someone wise once said the only constant is change, and never is that truer than when you have small children. Emry was the sweetest, mellowest baby. He would just put himself to sleep in his bouncy chair if he was tired. But man, is he a rascally 3.5-year-old! He’s great at entertaining himself. He will play with Legos for hours in a day, making up elaborate stories in which Zane the white ninja changes identities with Spiderman. But then he will start to get ... more -
Rebecca - - No responsesHere's a post I wrote two years ago - March 2012 - but never published. Ironically, I still feel pretty much this same way. I have a hard time writing about my kids these days because the moments feel so precious, and so fleeting. But I want to be writing about them. Isn't that the whole point - the writing them down allows me to hold on to them? So here's this post, two years later. Emry in March 2012, 17 months old I haven't written specifically about Emry in a ... more -
Rebecca - - No responsesThe yard as backdrop to Emry's first birthday, October 2011 Sometimes I call it the patio, which is fairly accurate, and sometimes the garden, which is wishful thinking. Mostly I call it the yard, which is what we called outdoor space where I grew up. In the desert, on one acre, in the '80s, we had a front and a back yard: lawns, a wooden deck, a playhouse made by my dad and grandpa with square, circle, rectangle and triangle windows, swings, a plywood slide which would leave splinters in your ... more
