Baby-Led Weaning is Pretty Much the Best Thing Ever
I love to cook and I love to feed people. At the theatre commune where I interned during college, I was the one who baked the vegan cookies for the Tuesday night “Shapenote Sings.” The happy stress of...
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I’m Rocking My Mom Hair & You Can Too
My hair never looked so good as when I was pregnant. It had grown out from the bad-breakup-short-haircut-I-gave-myself, and it hung to my waist. My halo of frizz was gone; each curl was shiny and...
View ArticleWhat My Baby & Her Great-Grandmother Have In Common
After lighting the menorah at home, we went to California for Christmas with my husband’s family. My in-laws and their extended family all live within a few miles of each other in San Diego County, and...
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Interviews With Interesting Jews: Rebecca Melsky, Co-Founder of Princess Awesome
When Rebecca Melsky, a Jewish Day School teacher in Washington, D.C., found out she was having a girl five years ago, she and her husband were determined not to put her in pink. But when her daughter...
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Going Back to Work Made Me Appreciate Being a Stay-at-Home-Mom
For eight-and-a-half months postpartum, I was more or less a stay-at-home mom. Penrose went to a babysitter for an hour a few days a week so I could go in to the bakery I open in the summer, and once a...
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The Upside to My Daughter’s Growing Independence
A small miracle happened here. We went away for the last weekend of February break, visiting friends who live further down the coast. We had a great time, went to a restaurant where Penrose ate lemon...
View ArticleIn Praise of Non-Mom Friends
As a new-ish mom, I appreciate my mom friends. They taught me about cloth diapering and baby-led weaning, commiserated about wacky sleep patterns, and talked endlessly about everything baby. But after...
View ArticleA Bad Case of Mastitis Reminded Me to Slow Down
The writing was on the wall as I bolted awake at 2 in the morning. My left breast, always a little troublesome and prone to blockages, was hard as a rock and hot to the touch. I rolled over on my front...
View ArticleWhat It Means to Be a Jewish Family in Rural Maine
For many Jewish parents, the challenges they face raising their children include choosing between Jewish and public schools, planning bar and bat mitzvahs, and staying sane while planning big Shabbat...
View ArticleIt Feels So Good, Yet So Wrong, To Have ‘Me Time’
In one hour and 13 minutes, I need to go pick Penrose up from daycare. So far today I have attended a one-hour Kripalu yoga session, tidied up a bit, taken care of some loose ends with my now-shuttered...
View ArticleWhat Happened When My Toddler Learned How to Say ‘No’
While we were on vacation at the end of the summer, my 16-month-old daughter suddenly started saying no. She’d been shaking her head for a while, but now when we read her favorite book (“Are You a...
View ArticleHow and Why I Gradually Weaned My Daughter
“Ah yes,” I thought to myself, “this is why we’re weaning.” I nursed Penrose for the last time when she was 17 months old on October 7. It was early evening–between dinner and bedtime. She asked for...
View ArticleI Thought I Was Ready to Wean My Daughter, But My Body Painfully Protested
When I wrote my last Kveller piece about gradually weaning my daughter, Penrose, I felt peaceful and optimistic. My body didn’t seem to be protesting the changes, and I knew I was making the right...
View ArticleThe Upside to Being the Only Jewish Kid in Class
The kitchen table I grew up with, which is now my dining room table, is pocked with scorch marks from Hanukkah candles. My sisters and I each had a brass menorah and we lined them up on a foil-covered...
View ArticleMy Hamsa Started the Interfaith Conversation with My Daughter
Flying makes me nervous. It never used to, but a few years ago on a bumpy trip back from England, I lost my faith in the Bernoulli principle. I used to pop a Xanax and snooze my way through the...
View ArticleI Accidentally Became a Stage Mom
Like most parents, I think my daughter Penrose is the cutest of all. I wasn’t surprised, therefore, when a friend who owns a t-shirt printing and design company on the island where we live asked if she...
View ArticleIt Would Be So Easy for Me Not to Be Jewish, But This Is Why I Am
This article is part of our essay series, “Why Be Jewish?,” based off of “Why Be Jewish?”—a new book by the late Edgar M. Bronfman. Read the rest in the series here. It would be so easy, on my Maine...
View ArticleI Took a Vacation By Myself And It Wasn’t What I Expected
When my grandmother-in-law died in March, it made perfect sense for my husband to travel to San Diego to be with his family. He spent nine days with them planning her joyful, food-filled memorial...
View ArticleThis Is What I Want My Daughter to Know By the Time She’s in High School
My 2-year-old daughter Penrose divides the world by parenting role and gender. If she sees a picture of a big and a smaller caterpillar, the big one is the mommy and the smaller one is the baby. If...
View ArticleThe ’90s Japanese Animated Film Your Kids Need to be Watching
My daughter’s favorite movie is about two sisters in a land populated by magical creatures. It explores themes of familial love, elemental powers, and honoring tradition. No, it’s not “Frozen.” My...
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