Motherhood

I’m curled up in the sunroom of our vacation rental that is perched on a low bluff of San Juan Island, gazing at the sun glinting on the water below and the breeze rustling the leaves of the madrona trees growing into the steep rocky bank. While Theo naps in the bedroom, the white noise […]

Before Theo was born, I did zero research on baby clothes. I was too focused on the birth to think much about what came afterwards, other than having the nursery set up. Plus, since I didn't know if we were having a boy or a girl, I didn't want to waste a lot of time […]

It may be Spring, but here in the Pacific Northwest, the weather is still mostly cool and gray and rainy. To keep us from going crazy, we have to get creative about how to have fun indoors when the wind is whipping and it's too cold to bundle up for the park (or I'm too […]

According to my mom, I started reading when I was three years old. She must be right, because I attended Montessori school from age three to five, and most of my memories are being curled up in the reading loft with a pile of books. When I was very little, at bedtime Mom would squeeze into […]

When I received my February edition of Bon Appétit Magazine, I cheered. I love that a food magazine is promoting a healthyish way of eating, not as a diet or deprivation, but as a balanced pursuit of enjoying delicious food and feeling good. As anyone who reads this blog knows, I love food. And while I am trying to consciously […]

My sweet little Theo has spent the first week of his second year with a wicked cold, complete with coughing, sneezing and an incessant runny nose. He got it from me, because I got sick right after his first birthday party. 

One year! The night before Theo's first birthday, Elie and I watched the video from his birth. It was the first time I had seen it, and it seemed like the right amount of time to go back and re-live that night. The battery on the camera died right before Theo was born, but we […]

This morning we had a friend come over for coffee. We all sat in the family room, Elie and me on the floor with Theo, playing. He was toddling back and forth between Elie and me, laughing and crinkling up his nose, squinting his eyes and snorting in the way he does now when he […]

For those of you who read these monthly posts and enjoy following along with Theo's first year, thank you. I can't believe he's been in this world for almost twelve months. These posts have been so precious to write, to reflect each month on how much he changes and how quickly.

I’ve been thinking about how monumental this first year is, this year of so many firsts. Everything is brand new and every new experience has the potential to be one that shapes the rest of Theo’s life. Am I being melodramatic? Maybe. But I have this compelling drive to make every ‘first’ the best one […]