2019 was the year I explored Brooklyn. Starting with my prenatal classes, which took me to Prospect Heights; my hairdresser moving to Crown Heights; a bachelorette party in Greenpoint and Williamsburg; mommy-group took me all over Bed-Stuy and Park Slope and everything in between; and swim lessons in Tribeca (that's extra-northern Brooklyn). I even ( Read more... )

My mother had started threatening to take my son to Disney World without me and since I wanted to be there for his first time and I knew my travel would be pretty restricted for the next year at least, I bit the bullet and planned a last minute birthday trip, despite the cost ( Read more... )

Lucky loves cruises and Lexan loves boats, so clearly our major vacation this year had to be a cruise. ( I'm a maximizer )

Last summer, Lexan became obsessed with boats, to the point where on our Cape Cod vacation, he would try to get on to boats and would get really mad when I wouldn't open gates so he could go on them. I bought him a book called Boats Go, which caused him to lead his preschool class in singing "O Sole Mio". Eventually, in one of my greatest parenting ( Read more... )

It's been over 3 months and I still don't know what to say when someone asks what's up with me. It always feels so melodramatic to tell people my father died, but it is the biggest thing that happened to me this year ( Read more... )

Spending so much time at my parents' house meant I saw my father declining up close. In the 9 months since Lexan's birth, I watched my dad go from mostly alert, except in the evenings or when he was having a bad day, to never having good days. He'd complain of dizziness in a way that got terribly dramatic by my last visit. I told my siblings to ( Read more... )

Lexan is 4 months old. There was a huge change about a month ago, where he started smiling a little more and acknowledging me, that I'm embarrassed to say helped me feel far better about motherhood. It also helps that he started, once in a while, sleeping longer stretches. My mother claims he can sleep through the night, but that's because she ( Read more... )

I deeply regret not updating this journal: there have been so many precious moments that can never be caught on film, whether because I don't have a camera at my fingertips, or the light is too dark, or because some things are just ephemeral. I miss his little squeaks from the NICU, which became bleats shortly after he got home. I miss the way he ( Read more... )

Poll Watching on my way to TennesseeI think it's kind of weird that Jon and I have 5 or 6 different stuff-to-watch subscription services -- and if I want to take something on my device and watch away for streaming, I have to pay extra. durr. I'm taking 4 short flights this month and another 4 in November to see my lady love, so I thought it might be nice to have something to watch on ( Read more... )

• Good, quality time with my father's family over the weekend. It's been >5 years since I saw all of them in one room and I'm glad we had a big party for my cousin-who-is-in-terrible-health's 70th birthday. I found new depths in several of them and I WILL see more of some of them.
  
• A great workout with my sister, where I heard about what's up with her ( Read more... )