Friday, October 12, 2012
Contradictions in Cleanliness
Before Nomi and I had children of our own, we knew from visiting friends of ours who were already parents that children lead to clutter. Now, Nomi and I are used to having some clutter around, but in general we manage to control it somewhat. Our general rule is a pile for everything, and everything in its pile. Muffin and Squeaker don’t have a good sense yet of how to control their clutter in the same way. Part of playing with their toys or reading their books seems to be figuring out how to fill every square centimeter of the floor with stuff. I wouldn’t mind so much if I didn’t have to step on the floor occasionally without piercing my feet. And as they’ve gotten older, it’s gotten to be more of a problem. When the kids were babies, we …
Friday, June 8, 2012
The First Cut is the Deepest--at least with hair.
When Muffin and Squeaker were infants, people often commented on one specific feature--their hair. They were born with full heads of hair, and almost everyone who commented assured us that the hair they were born with would fall out. "It won't last," they said. "Infant hair never stays." As the girls got taller, their hair got longer. The infant hair, in fact, never did fall out, and, rather quickly, each girl's hair began to resemble Michael's or mine. Muffin's slightly wavy, lightweight hair resembled Michael's from when he was younger. Squeaker's thick, curly-bordering-on-frizzy hair was almost identical to mine. And as their hair grew, we learned the plusses and minuses of having little girls with long hair. I quickly learned that the …
Friday, January 6, 2012
Keeping Two Toddlers Occupied For Eleven Days
Ever since Muffin and Squeaker were born, our lives have changed in many ways. That may seem like a rather obvious statement, but it didn’t really hit me how much different our lives would become until I found myself living through the changes. It’s one thing to know intellectually that children require constant attention; it’s quite another to see the clock tick eight in the evening and to realize that you haven’t managed to accomplish anything else with your Sunday except keeping the children occupied. This was brought back to me much more intensely during the last week of 2011, when our babysitter went on vacation, and, consequently, so did Nomi and I. Before the kids were born, a vacation meant that we could go somewhere, perhaps to …
Friday, November 11, 2011
Sleep is becoming an issue for the Brookline Parents.
Along with most of the rest of the country, Brookline went off of Daylight Saving Time and back onto Standard Time this past Sunday. I briefly toyed with the idea of keeping Muffin and Squeaker awake until 3 am to watch us turn the clocks back to 2 am, but then I remembered that I am sane. So we did the usual thing of setting the clocks back on Saturday night, and we awoke to the extra hour that people enjoy in the autumn. Nomi and I have opposing opinions on the usefulness of Daylight Saving Time. I don’t like the way it gets dark as early as 4 pm in the winter; if it were up to me, I’d keep us on Daylight Time throughout the year. Nomi, on the other hand, thinks that Daylight Time is nonsensical and doesn’t like how it means it’s dark …
Friday, September 2, 2011
Fighting the good fight for a night's sleep
It's an idyllic scene. The family, having all eaten a calm dinner together, finishes eating within minutes of each other. Mommy and Daddy clean up while the children wait patiently to be released from their high chairs. Once they're out, hands and faces are cleaned, teeth are brushed, and trays are cleared. The girls head to their bedroom, are changed into overnight diapers and pajamas, and then they are ready for the stories and songs that constitute their bedtime ritual. Nice picture, yes? Alas, it's a complete fantasy. In reality, it goes something like this: I strive to have dinner on the table by 6 p.m. This is sometimes tricky, since I am working full time and don't always have dinner ready when I walk in the door. But assuming I've…
Friday, August 5, 2011
Surviving the emergence of determination and self-confidence
When Muffin and Squeaker were infants, things were difficult for Michael and me because we were new parents with no clue what we were doing. We had to adapt to the new challenge of having two babies totally dependent on us and the burden of doing so on minimal sleep. “It will get easier,” everyone told us. And to some extent they were correct. The day-to-day effort of handling the needs of the girls has gotten easier. But as Muffin and Squeaker mature, they discover more that they want to do, and it is up to us to determine what is safe and what is possible and, as necessary, stand our ground when they want to do things we have determined are not permissible. Unsurprising to either Michael or me, Muffin is the more active boundary pusher. …
Friday, July 8, 2011
Making a fun but straightforward birthday party.
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 play. My favorite as an older kid was a story game. Whoever went first — usually me, as the birthday girl – would write a sentence on a piece of paper…
Mark Izeman
1:14 am on Saturday, September 3, 2011
It really seems that you two have things well under control for the age at hand. keep your fingers crossed, always, as you have two teenagers coming up real fast !!! more ›