I always thought I was doing my girls a huge favor by not piercing their ears as babies. No judgment upon those who do - I just sit on the other side of that parenting hot bed. "I have no choice - it's our culture," My Puerto Rican friend told me, dumping Siracha sauce on her slab of pork, knowing full well her IBS was going to turn her butt into a jack hammer in 43 minutes ...
To Lillian on Her Sixth Birthday
Dear Lila, A couple of weeks ago I dropped you off at Kindergarten and I cried as walked out the door. I didn't cry because I was worried you were going to need me, but because I knew that you wouldn't. I stood awkwardly next to you in the drop off line, waiting for the doors to open. It was like standing next to a grown woman waiting to be called into a business ...
Therapy Line Item #3734
Lila's hair was increasingly becoming a problem. After taking the necessary steps to wash and comb it through, it came out looking something like this: And this ^... this lie... this one day a week beachy wave hyperbole is what kept me hanging on for so long. Because the other six days out of the week it looked like this: She is a back sleeper, and also part ...
To Lillian on Her Fifth Birthday
Dear Lila, Tomorrow, you turn five. Sandwiched in between a sister sixteen months older and another sister fourteen months younger, I feel like I have spent the better part of those five years making sure I pay enough attention to you. "Oh, I forgot about Lila" I'll say to myself approximately ten billion times a day. And then I'll find you, usually tending to one of your ...
A Better Place
It was weird being alone in the car with my 4-year-old. She's my middle child and we never have one-on-one time. "I really need to make more time for just the two of us," I thought as we drove down the highway. But that would have to be a different day. Today we were going to our first appointment at the children's cancer center. A few weeks prior I had noticed excessive ...