I love the way apartment lights pierce gold through navy sky at dusk in Manhattan. I love the way the Bridger mountains turn purple at dusk in Montana.
I love the nights when the sunset creates a rainbow in the windows of the building kiddy corner from us.
I love the way my name sounds when my parents or grandparents say it. It sounds like I love you.
I love the sound of my kids laughing together.
I love walking instead of taking a cab.
Read MoreConor ran into my grandparent’s house and immediately found my grandpa sitting in his rocking chair. He sprinted into the arms of the man he’s named after and declared, “I missed you!!” As my grandpa stood up, Conor noticed the string of a red cellophane balloon above him.
“I pway wif bawoon?!?!”
They brought the balloon to the living room and we took turns lifting Conor to reach the white string as he kept letting the balloon drift to the ceiling.
“Whose balloon is that?” Norah asked.
Read MoreThe line is a familiar one if you’re a parent or a teacher. It’s from a sweet book about a brown bear and purple cat and yellow duck and a blue horse. It has singsong phrasing and can be memorized after only a couple readings. Yesterday I pulled it out to read with my 4-month-old before his afternoon nap. He was cooing on my lap as I read the question about each animal, Brown bear, brown bear what do you see? and so on. But that last question caught in my throat. My mind was not on the book filled with colorful animals and creative pictures. It was instead on our world filled with hurting people and hateful ideologies.
Children, children, what do you see?
Read MoreCan I tell you a secret? I’m kind of scared to have a son. I always thought I would have two daughters. Obviously, there is no reason for this. It wasn’t even a longing, a hope, or a wish; although there is some comfort in being a “girl mom” that would bring a bit of familiarity to having two children of the same gender. Mostly though, it was just a thought that cemented itself more and more firmly in my mind over the past four years raising a daughter until I started to envision a future with two little girls in tow. I didn’t really believe that first ultrasound picture that clearly (at least to Brett – I still think all ultrasound pictures look like creepy aliens) showed that a boy was growing in my womb, not a girl as I had thought.
Read MoreA family of rhinos took my attention away from my daughter. The parents were coaxing the two young ones to move along towards the next treat station. They had to maneuver past several princesses, a clunky Thomas the Train, and our very own two-year-old little Statue of Liberty to reach the prized bowl of Twix bars. The plaza at Lincoln Center offered only five candy stations, but the costume watching made it worth spending Halloween morning in the company of hundreds of other New York families.
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