I have many wonderful memories of birthday parties my parents made for me in my childhood. I remember party hats folded by my father out of computer paper, which my friends and I then decorated with crayons and markers. I remember cakes baked and decorated by my mother based on designs that I requested. It is very possible that my mother had never considered making some of these designs, such as a drum or a cat, before I requested them. During the week or so before every birthday party, my mother, my sister, and I would sit around the dining room table coming up with lists of games we should …

Last week an event occurred that will resonate for years in the minds of parents everywhere. No, I’m not talking about Father’s Day or even the Brookline Flag Day Parade. On Tuesday June 14, Akashic Books, a Brooklyn-based small press publisher, officially released the children’s book parody "Go the (Expletive) to Sleep" by Adam Mansbach with illustrations by Ricardo Cortés. At first glance, the book looks like a pastoral children’s book. But it is filled with four-line verses that start off sweet, “The cats nestle close to their kittens now. / The lambs have laid down with the sheep.” and …

I come from a family that likes to sing. When I was growing up, we had songs for all sorts of occasions, including eating bananas, climbing the stairs to go to bed, and locating the measuring cups in the kitchen. Michael, too, comes from a musically inclined family. This leads to us creating all sorts of situations where music is an appropriate solution to Muffin and Squeaker's issues. We sing them songs that are familiar: "The Wheels on the Bus," for which Squeaker does the appropriate hand motions for the bus wheels; "Ring Around a Rosie," for which both girls love spinning in circles and …

Clutter. We all deal with it, I imagine. Even if you don’t have kids, you still have stuff. When you have kids, you sometimes acquire even more stuff. But what do you do about all the stuff you had beforehand? When we moved into our condominium late in 2008, Nomi was already pregnant with the kids. When friends came over to help us pack boxes, Nomi mostly sat and supervised. We labeled the boxes to go into specific rooms, so the movers would know where to bring everything in the new apartment. Every box had a logical label, like “Bedroom” or “Living Room.” But we also had a lot of, well, …

In 2001, Michael was elected to his first political office in Brookline, filling the Town Meeting seat vacated by Representative Frank Smizik upon his election to the State House. At the time, we were living on Fuller St., in Precinct 9, and we didn't yet have Muffin and Squeaker. Michael attended meetings that sometimes started early in the evening, and during the weeks of Town Meeting he was frequently out past 11 PM. Seven years later, we moved from Fuller St. to Garrison Rd., which politically meant a new precinct and a new constituency. Again Michael got elected to Town Meeting and again…

Nomi and I are big fans of the family television show "Doctor Who." (What does this have to do with parenting? Patience, please.) For those of you who are unfamiliar with the show, "Doctor Who" is a British science-fiction program traditionally aimed at pre-teens and teens about a human-looking alien who can travel anywhere in time and space, frequently with a human traveling companion. He routinely finds himself protecting Earth and humanity from alien threats. The show led to two current spin-off shows. The first spin-off, "Torchwood," is a show for adults about a group of human beings in …

Next Monday night, Michael and I will start observing Passover with our family and friends. As part of that observance, we will be having a seder, the ritual meal and telling of the story, in our home on the first two nights of the holiday. Many of the elements of the seder, such as the songs we sing and the symbols we place on the table, are included to entice and interest the children at the table. In fact, the centerpiece of the introduction to the story of the Exodus from Egypt are the Four Questions traditionally asked by the youngest at the table. The Four Questions are actually …

When I was growing up, there was a public service announcement that ran frequently during kids' television shows. The ad was sponsored by Reading Is Fundamental (RIF), a nonprofit children's literacy organization that works to get books into the hands of children. Every year, they give away 15 million books to the children who most need them. In the ad I recall, the actor Ed Asner sat on some steps with a group of kids, promoting the mission of RIF and reading in general. I still remember the tag line of the ad, where Asner said something like, "Hey, you're pretty smart! How'd you get to be …

On Saturday night and Sunday, Michael and I will be celebrating the Jewish holiday of Purim, commemorating the victory against the plot of Haman as told in the biblical book of Esther. One tradition for this holiday is the wearing of costumes. Last year, we dressed the girls as astronauts. But this year, we wanted to do something different. (For one thing, Muffin and Squeaker have outgrown their astronaut uniforms.) Most years I don't think about Purim until about a month before the holiday, as I am not much of a costume wearer. Usually I just wear some sort of silly hat and call it …

With the final launch of the space shuttle Discovery last week, I got to thinking yet again about a troubling incident that took place when Muffin and Squeaker were only a few months old. To celebrate the birth of the twin girls, my co-workers had given us two NASA astronaut jumpsuits sized for babies. It made sense, given my interest in science and the space program. The timing worked out so that the girls were just the right size to wear the jumpsuits for the Jewish holiday of Purim. They were the perfect costumes. Until then, though, the girls were of course still too small for the …

For me, one of the most frustrating things about newborns is not knowing what they want. They cry, and you go through the checklist: are they wet? (No.) Are they hungry? (No.) Are they tired? (No.) Therefore the crying must be something else I cannot identify. I had numerous "If only she could tell me what she wants..." outbursts in Muffin and Squeaker's early days. At just about 14 months, Squeaker said her first word, followed a week later by Muffin saying her first word. In a development I found fascinating (as I mentioned last month, I'm a linguist by training), they both had the same …

Back in December, I wrote about how Nomi and I decided to get rid of our car even though we have to ferry Muffin and Squeaker around every now and then. Brookline is a walkable enough town, though, that in general we don't miss it. But not having a car did shape our parental decisions in some ways. For example, when we chose a pediatrician for the kids, we considered a variety of factors. Some were the usual ones, such as recommendations from friends, availability and reputation. But we also took into account T-accessibility, which is how we ended up with a pediatrician literally across the …

Michael and I moved into our condo outside Washington Square not long after I found out I was pregnant with Muffin and Squeaker. I was pleased to find that, despite living just a couple of blocks from Beacon Street within earshot of the T, I didn't hear significant street noise. I was confident that the babies would be able to sleep without being bothered by the outside world. And then the babies came, and I learned just why there are so many books on the market about getting your baby to sleep. See, I had one of each of the two stereotypical types of babies when it came to sleep: Muffin …

Unless you were fortunate enough to be out of town over the holidays, you probably followed the news from the national weather service very closely. A snowstorm was predicted for right after Christmas, and sure enough, Brookline got hit. The day after Christmas Brookline declared a parking ban, and for the last week of the year the town resembled a winter wonderland. During the snowstorm, Nomi and I were curled up at home with Muffin and Squeaker, and they enjoyed staring out the living room window as the snow fell. Nomi and I shoveled our sidewalk on Sunday evening, even though the snow was …

When Michael and I first brought Muffin and Squeaker home, we had the bare minimum that we needed for their basic needs: a couple of changes of clothing, a box of diapers, and some formula the hospital had sent home with us. That was about it. Two days later, we took them out to our synagogue for the ceremony in which they received their names. We brought with us a double stroller, a diaper bag, a bag of toys, and some food for me and for them, just in case. Notice a disconnect? I didn't at the time. I have since discovered that, through some perhaps magical means, two small girls are able to…

Most of our fellow Brookline residents are astonished when they learn that we, despite being new parents of toddlers, got rid of our car this year. Their reactions have ranged from surprise to astonishment to shock. I've even been mildly chastised by one fellow Town Meeting Member for getting rid of the car; after all, how can I possibly bring the kids to any activities such as ballet or music lessons if we don't have a car? To which I answer: That's why we live in Brookline. Because almost anything we'd want to bring the kids to, we can do without a car. Many people choose to live in …

People reading this column might think that Michael and I are very strange, calling our children "Muffin" and "Squeaker." Not that there is anything wrong with unusual names. In fact, our children's actual names are not at all mainstream in the United States. But these particular names have significance, in terms of the girls' identities and their privacy. When I was first pregnant, Michael and I struggled with how to refer to the children I was carrying. As Orthodox Jews, like many other Brookline residents, we have a tradition not to use the child's name until the name is given at a boy's …

Before Muffin and Squeaker were born, Michael and I followed the Orthodox Jewish tradition of not preparing ahead of the birth for the coming child–or, in our case, children. I had vague plans to put in some orders online during the three weekdays that I would not be working before the girls' birth, but that plan was scuttled by the girls being born five days earlier than planned. So while I was in the hospital, my mother went out and bought us the bare minimum that we would need to clothe the girls in their first few days of life. We had enough clothing to bring them home from the hospital …

A little over a year ago, Nomi and I, proud Brookline residents for fifteen years, became the parents of two beautiful twin baby girls. I'm an editor of science textbooks and science fiction writer, and Nomi is a technical writer and freelance editor. Given our professions—did you notice that we're both writers and editors?—it seemed logical for us to share stories of Brookline parenthood with the rest of the town. The girls, whom we will call Muffin and Squeaker from now on, are about 15 months old, and I had hoped that the major trials and tribulations of parenthood would be over by now.  …