You probably don’t remember me, but we crossed paths at the mall the other day. I was walking to my car with my kids, and you were also in the parking lot. You were shouting for your son to stop before he stepped into the crosswalk. “Derek! Wait! Stop!” You looked at me and snapped, […]
When I was pregnant with my oldest son, Joey, I worried about a million things; car seats and strollers, sudden infant death syndrome and folic acid. I worried he might be born a hermaphrodite, or with cleft a palate, or a pointy head. (I worried about the pointy-head thing because my brother had a pointy […]
My kids go back to school in a couple of weeks, and in preparation for my son Jack’s move to 6th grade, I took out the folder. You know, the folder. The one that holds every single piece of paper and prescription and description, dating back to the day he was officially diagnosed in November […]
A lot of times, when people talk about backpacks, they share bright, perky stories about Bento boxes and handwritten notes, report cards and sneakers for gym class. I’ve never carried a Bento box. I don’t even know what one looks like. I’ve been with the same boy for eight years now—ever since he was a […]
Dear Adam, I saw you in concert about seven years ago outside of Boston, when Maroon Five opened the show for the Counting Crows. Ever since then I’ve really enjoyed watching your rise to meteoric stardom. I actually have a lot in common with your lovely wife, Behati Prinsloo. We both have unusual names, for […]
For my children, Remember the other day when we were driving to the pool, and Jack was playing all of those songs by the Beatles, one right after the other? And when the song Yellow Submarine came on I told you guys how I used to listen to that song when I drove in the […]
Dear Jack, Remember when I told you I was going out of town to talk to a group of bus drivers at a conference? In you robotic tone, you asked the question you always ask, “What will you tell them?” And I gave you the answer I always give, “I don’t know yet.” I mean, […]
Last week we had my 11-year old son Jack’s check-up, and my stomach sank when the doctor quietly pointed out his higher-than-average body mass index on his chart. You wouldn’t know this to look at him; he’s pretty tall for his age with the longest, skinniest legs in the world. But he’s solid, and like […]
I tend to be fairly slow on the technological uptake, so it took me a while to understand what hashtags meant. At first I thought it had something to do with search engines. Then whenever I read a hashtag, I thought of hash brown, and I got hungry. Eventually I figured out that they are […]
To my middle child, There is a lot of debate about how birth order affects your life; everything from your personality, your temperament, even what you choose to do for a living. See, the middle child is not the oldest, and not the baby. They don’t get the freedom of the first-born, or the love […]