My 4-year-old lives outside the world of Time. She’s the incarnation of the early philosophers who knew Time was an illusion, a human construct. Born into the present moment, Ava wants to keep living in the N0w– if only her mother would let her.
She wakes up and launches herself into a project– a homemade book [...]
Entries Tagged as 'Spilt Milk Column'
Hurry Up and Slow Down
February 28th, 2010 No Comments
Tags: Costa Rica · Mary Poppins · punctuality · The Power of Now · time
Pink Flowers for Mommy
February 16th, 2010 1 Comment
My daughter is obsessed with holidays.
She still plays “Christmas Eve” with her sister, wrapping up dolls and toys in scarves and placing them under a “tree” made of chairs.
Just when I’m grooving in my New Year’s rhythm, the stress of December firmly regulated to the past, I hear a delighted scream: “Look, Santa’s sliding down [...]
Tags: holiday · mothering guilt · pink carnations · princesses · romance · Valentine's Day
Married, With Children
January 26th, 2010 2 Comments
One afternoon my husband and I walked in the door and lay down on the living room rug in our coats. The world dissolved, and we melted into each other, bodies recalling the old spark and stir.
Then the children pounced on us–crying for attention, pulling us apart. They couldn’t bear to see us kiss, focused [...]
Tags: Babyproofing Your Marriage · date night · divorce · marriage · married with children
On Love and Discipline
January 11th, 2010 1 Comment
Do you recall being spanked as a child? My mother claims we were never spanked, but a haze of nostalgia must cloud her memory.
Cut to my grandparents’ log cabin during extended-family vacation, when after-dinner rough-housing pushed my father to his limit. Typically loving and silly, my father roared like a grizzly when angered, thundering upstairs [...]
Tags: behavior problems · discipline · John Rosemund · Parenting · preschooler · spanking
Ho Ho Hoax
December 27th, 2009 2 Comments
I don’t know what to do about Santa.
At age 4, Ava has fully grasped what happens on Christmas. The anticipation of presents has whipped her into a Christmas frenzy, nearly equal to my own holiday stress.
While I worry about shopping, spending, wrapping, decorating, and not baking enough cookies, my daughter writes out party invitations and [...]
Tags: Christmas · preschooler · Santa Claus
Toddler War
December 17th, 2009 No Comments
At a loss what to get the children in your life this holiday season?
Try the latest toy craze— Zhu Zhu pets, fuzzy electronic hamsters that mimic the intelligent responses of live animals. Said hamsters love to play and explore the house, making 40 different noises, purring when you stroke them.
My 4-year-old periodically asks [...]
Tags: discipline · toddlers · two-year-old
Grateful or Not?
November 30th, 2009 No Comments
My brother has “gratitude” tattooed on his inner wrist. The gothic script flows blue-black across his pale flesh, engraved on the pulse-point. At quick glance, the shadow on skin disturbs me– evoking numbers stamped on a concentration camp inmate. We are children of a Jewish father, so this cultural memory carries weight.
My brother got the [...]
Tags: gratification · gratitude · tattoos · Thanksgiving
Welcome Darkness
November 19th, 2009 No Comments
Daylight Saving is over. It’s time to start spending. More electricity, more body heat, more prayer. Time to summon all my resources for the dark season ahead, the long hours indoors with small children. Soon night will begin at 4 pm, that dark like a window slamming shut.
When I was in college, “falling back” meant [...]
Tags: antidepressants · daylight saving time · depression · SAD
Still Got Milk?
November 10th, 2009 1 Comment
There were certain things I thought I’d never do when I became a mother. I wouldn’t yell at my children, share my marital bed, or nurse through toddler-hood. As my husband said with authority when we first discussed breastfeeding: “If you can ask for it, then you’re too old for it.”
Never say never when it [...]
Tags: breastfeeding · c-section · cesarean section · nursing · Parenting · toddlers
My Treat
October 26th, 2009 1 Comment
Call me a pagan, but Halloween is my favorite holiday. The veil between the worlds grows thin in late autumn, and stillness descends on the land. There’s a sense of anticipation in the dusky shadows, the flickering pumpkins. For one night, we can transform ourselves into anything.
I love dressing up. Halloween is the only time [...]
Tags: costume · dressing up · Halloween · trick or treat