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Pregnancy — the four times I enjoyed it — brought a lot of anxiety into my life. I was 27 when I conceived my firstborn. I had lived most of my life fearing report cards and test scores and admission letters and phone calls that told me whether or not I received The Job, just…

[I asked my friend and college classmate, Jessica, to write a guest post for me about talking to our children about what the word “gay” means. I asked her because I have, in the past year, needed to explain it to all three of my boys, and because I know that at least one of…

“It’s okay, Mom, it’s only a test,” my 9 year old says almost convincingly as he brushes off my attempts to give him a pep talk. His eyes won’t meet mine, and I know his bravado is thin. For the past week, both my older boys have had the chance to indulge in that new…

1. When placed in an adult bed, small children can only sleep horizontally, preferably with feet in one adult rib cage and head wedged in another, different adult ribcage. WHY? Are there magnets in their heads? Must they always point due North? 2. If placed in a room the size of a football field, a…

Around here, we know how to enjoy our cake.  

Today, my baby girl is one year old.   A year and a day ago, I went to my weekly perinatologist appointment at the hospital. I had recently contracted Fifth Disease for the first time — after all three of my boys had it within the span of a month — and because I had…

Several weeks ago, I was driving my kids to the weekly tennis lesson when my kindergartner piped up from the backseat, “Mom, how old do you have to be to die?” I paused. I made a split-second decision. “People of all ages die, buddy,” I answered matter-of-factly, holding my breath. “What?” he asked, as if…

Years ago, when I was still trying to decide whether or not to add a third child to our family (never mind a fourth), I attended the wedding of two dear friends in Chicago. The bride was the baby of her large family, the groom the middle of three brothers. It was the speeches that…

I’m still not used to using the words, “my daughter.” After three boys, I thought that the universe and I had come to the agreement that I was to be solely a boy mom, my future bound with light sabers and shiny athletic shorts and Legos from here to eternity. But then there was Lucy:…

I read a newspaper article once that analyzed why, in a world run by evolution and survival of the fittest, musicians survived. After all, in the time of cavemen, survival depended upon physical strength and the ability to feed yourself and others, not the ability to play “Piano Man” to a group of swooning cavewomen….