We’ve been visiting our families last week and this week, giving our 2-year-old some dedicated, quality time with his grandparents, great-grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins. First we saw Randy’s family in South Florida, and now we are with my family in South Georgia. To get from there to here yesterday, we took a six-hour road trip with a toddler. Continue reading “We’re Working On It”
“Or Else I’ll Forget” Friday: Part 1
I’ve been plugging away at the birthday list and am pleased to report I am on target for accomplishing just shy of an eighth of the list before I turn 38. The crux of my “writing to remember or else I’ll forget” practice is the writing and remembering or else part, and so here we are. Welcome to “Or Else I’ll Forget” Fridays, a not-at-all regular series wherein I try to remember what the hell I’m doing with my life.
A Word on Co-parenting
“I can’t wait to read about this experience after it comes out of the spin cycle.”
That’s the last thing I heard Randy say as he disappeared into the lab, wrestling both a toddler and the giant bag of tricks I brought with us to distract Moses from the sword being aimed menacingly in his direction. I cowered in the corner of an adjacent file room, near Moses but out of his sight, plotting our escape. Continue reading “A Word on Co-parenting”
This Week Can Go Fuck Itself, Some Thoughts on Grief — or, Some Words About My Sister-Friend Jessica
Yesterday started out like any other day, as bad days sometimes do. I woke up after a full night’s sleep already tired. I nursed a toddler. I changed a dirty diaper. I went to work. I drank half a pot of coffee. Then my mom called, and I answered. Continue reading “This Week Can Go Fuck Itself, Some Thoughts on Grief — or, Some Words About My Sister-Friend Jessica”
Let’s Talk About Me
Since I became a mom, I have fallen prey to the one tragic thing I heard happens to some moms but never believed would happen to me, and that is the almost compulsive urge to put someone else’s needs first, before my own, all day err day. This is antithetical to my whole existence and it’s frankly a pretty cruel characteristic of parenting. Continue reading “Let’s Talk About Me”
10 Things You Will Learn in Your First Year as a Parent, If You Are Me
Although my son is a mere 9 months old, I am writing about what we as new parents learn in the first year because then I get to pat myself on the back for posting this ahead of schedule, which I would have done anyway because I’m a mom and I can do whatever I want. I reserve the right to amend any and all lessons learned this time next year when we’re on the backside of toddlerhood, but for now, on the backside of infancy, this is what we know. Continue reading “10 Things You Will Learn in Your First Year as a Parent, If You Are Me”
A Baby Story — Part 3
Monday, November 3, 2014, 9 a.m.
Labor Hour 9
The passage of time during childbirth is completely confounding, especially to someone who lives with her head in the clouds and who may also be prone to exaggeration. Continue reading “A Baby Story — Part 3”
A Baby Story — Part 2
Monday, November 3, 2014, 3 a.m.
Labor Hour 3
Fortunately for Randy and the lifelong health of our young marriage, he eventually realized “I need you” was code for “this is happening with or without you, so pick a side.” Continue reading “A Baby Story — Part 2”
A Baby Story — Part 1
For the past four-plus months, whenever I’ve had 15 minutes during which a human was not attached to my upper torso, I had a choice to make: finally get around to finishing our birth story…or shower. Invariably, I chose to shower every time, sometimes multiple times a day, because it’s quiet and warm and private and mellow and requires next to no brainpower. But then one night my kid slept six hours in a row, uninterrupted, and I woke up feeling like a complete human person with mostly functioning vital organs. And then he did it again the next night. By the third night I was pretty sure what we had on our hands was a pattern, something I could rely on to happen again and again (so naïve am I), night-time hours during which I could sink deep into REM sleep for the first time since the end of my second trimester of pregnancy, such that when 15 minutes presented themselves to me after that, my first thought was not, how do I turn off and recharge, but rather, what do I do with all this free time on my hands?
So, at long last, this is my birth story. There are many like it, but this one is mine. Continue reading “A Baby Story — Part 1”
I’m a Mom
“I’M A MOM.”
That’s my defense for anything amiss in my new life. It’s a seamless and natural way of excusing my inadequate short-term memory and hygiene. Continue reading “I’m a Mom”
