life with preschooler
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What 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 frustrated because he can’t get his ship to stay together, and soon he will totally freak out because he can’t find Spiderman’s body or Zane’s head. And then I will find them stuck in the leaves of the big houseplant we have downstairs. He is a force of nature. Yesterday, he and Elan were over at the house of a teenage neighbor who babysits for us. They love this boy. I was upstairs in our house when I heard the screaming start. I listened as it slowly worked its way from the neighbor's yard, out to the sidewalk, over two houses, and ... more -
Rebecca - - No responses5 minutes after the kids got home This is where the kids get clean. This is where they get dirty again. This is where I say to Emry for the thousandth time, "No drinking the bath water" in tones either patient or not-at-all patient, depending on the day. This is where I cook. This is where I stand, checking email on my phone, or looking out at the hummingbird, checking whether she is in her nest or whether she has taken herself off for a meal. She is never gone long. This is where spring ... more -
Rebecca - - No responsesIt was like this, but in the dark Today I felt like a crappy mom. It happens sometimes. We're just back from a week away, spent in San Diego with my family. Time to get back into schedules, routines, all that fun stuff that everyone in my family loves. Don't get me wrong - we have a great "regular" life. But Legoland and the beach are more fun. So today was one of my days when I've got Emry all day, no preschool in the morning. We have two of those a week. I ... more -
Rebecca - - No responsesThis one hitched a ride, Turtle Back Zoo, New Jersey, June 2012 That feeling - the butterflies flitting around in my stomach - is not indigestion. It is not actually butterflies. It is anxiety. As mother of a 5-year-old who's prone to screaming fits in the privacy of our home, I spend a lot of time encouraging him to use his words to describe his emotional state. So perhaps having decoded the butterfly feeling in the pit of my stomach will help ... more -
Rebecca - - One responseEmry, before the hivesThe title of this post is ironic.Over the past week, I feel as if I am being engulfed in fuss. Elan tends toward fuss naturally. Although his pre-K teacher and others who see him in a school context have a hard time believing it, the kid melts down faster than a popsicle left on a blacktop parking lot. In Palm Springs. In the summer. When it's 112 degrees.Emry is usually more even-keel, and is much more the type ... more -
Rebecca - - No responsesWe stayed firmly on the beaten track in Costa Rica. We went to typical tourist sites. This was intentional. Mikhail and I - and Mike and Maud, the friends we were traveling with - have done a lot of traveling off the beaten track. At times way off. But for this, our first international travel with kids, we decided that typical tourist amenities were right up our alley. In Monteverde, we went full-on nature-tourist. We visited a butterfly/insect exhibit, ... more -
Rebecca - - One responseWe went to Costa Rica. * I think Tabacon Hot Springs is my new version of Eden. * Hot rivers and massage-style waterfalls. * Black-bottomed pools of varying sizes and temperatures set into the jungle. * At the base of a volcano. There was a ... more -
Rebecca - - No responsesOkay, so these aren't fireflies. Have you ever tried to take pictures of fireflies? Butterflies, Turtle Back Zoo, New Jersey We went to Costa Rica. We came home. Mikhail went on a business trip. We went on an overnight camping trip with Elan's preschool camping trip. A giant owl buzzed my windshield. Mikhail went on another business trip. My mother-in-law came to rescue me from the horrors of double-bedtime-alone duty. Mikhail came home. Elan graduated from preschool. I cried. Just a little. I got on a plane with my two boys and came to New Jersey ... more -
Rebecca - - One responseMy grandmother's china, 4 a.m.It's 4:48 a.m. and I'm baking banana muffins.Some weeks just go like this. We start off all shiny and new, thinking of the things large and small we're going to accomplish. On Sunday night, we either have visions of success or trepidation. Does it matter which we expect, when the end result just seems to come to fruition on its own, a product of moon phase, cycle phase, life phase, sleep phase, what?On Monday, I was swimming laps, ... more
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Rebecca - - 2 responsesAnother crazy morning with 2, April 2012I want to write about having a full plate. How my current slate of two part-time paid grantwriting jobs, one part-time volunteer job at Elan's preschool, full-time mama/wife/runner of the household, and still trying to do that other writing, that creative work that feeds my soul, is too much for me. How my 2 days of full childcare, while I still feel their luxury, are eaten up in a flash. And yet I have ... more
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Rebecca - - One responseOutside my house, April 2012Hello, April!How did it get to be mid-April already?Hello, blog!I've missed you. I have no good excuses for my absence. Just the normal stuff.Trying to fit too many things into too few hours.A spring trip to San Diego to visit my family (Hello, beach, you are good for my soul!)Starting the process of redesigning and relaunching my blog - thrilling & scary!Keeping everyone dry through weeks of rain. Here in the Bay Area, we had almost no rain ... more
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it’s a boy!We are so thrilled to welcome our baby boy to our family! Emry Isaiah Brams Davis October 22, 2010 7 lbs 15 oz, 20.5 inches Emry is a Welsh name…
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the end of an eraToday my grandfather, Popa Al Alper, passed away. He was 101 and a half. June 2008 Back when he turned 99, many of you sent him postcards in the mail.…
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new story published!New story in print for the first time in a looonnng time I am happy to say that I had a story published in The Stonecoast Review, Issue 8. It’s… -
In DecemberIt is December now, and I notice that for the past several months I have maintained silence here on my blog about how I have continued to deal with the…
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a goalYesterday I spent a lot of time thinking and writing about what kinds of habits or practices I could put in place that will support my vision of myself as…
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All The Rest Is Just Icing30 weeks Warning: this post involves vomit. You might want to put down your sandwich. I might have mentioned before that I am not a puker. I have not vomited…
