We’ve tackled a bunch of reader questions, and today we have one for the group: “My friend just had a baby, and I’m going to visit her next week,” says Jamie. “Of course, I’m planning to bring food and hold the baby, but I’d love to bring something special just for her. Any suggestions?” Here are five ideas, and please weigh in, below…
Early this morning, my friend Gemma texted a couple friends of ours. “I am thinking of writing a poem about life with small boys,” she wrote. “It is titled, There Are Trucks in My Toilet.”
I laughed and wrote mine back: “Just Going to Close My Eyes for One Quick Sec, But I’m Still Playing.”
My friend, who was getting ready this morning with her husband and baby, wrote: “Mine would be, Everyone Here Wants to Touch My Boobs. Subtitle: For different reasons, but kind of all the same reason.”
The whole exchange made me laugh out loud.
What would yours be? What would be the title of your life poem right now?
P.S. The crazy things you do as a parent, and my motherhood mantra.
(Photos of Toby and Anton.)
What are you up to this weekend? Now that it’s finally warm, we’re hoping to get our bikes out! Can’t wait to feel the wind in our hair. Hope you have a good one, and here are a few links from around the web…
A beautiful comic by Roz Chast about finding a place for her parents’ remains. (NYorker)
The world’s largest ice carousel.
I was never great at blowdrying my hair, but these changed everything.
Nine teary moments from real weddings.
Who else wants to see this movie???
Behind the scenes of the royal wedding. (What a fun interactive NYT story!)
A recipe tester’s favorite $10 meals.
“The stylists’ tip that changed the way I dressed.”
Why teenagers become allergic to their parents. (NYT)
Plus, three great reader comments on a small kindness I’ll never forget:
Says Megan: “As the poet Naomi Shihab Nye wrote in her wonderful poem ‘Famous‘:
‘I want to be famous to shuffling men
who smile while crossing streets,
sticky children in grocery lines,
famous as the one who smiled back.
I want to be famous in the way a pulley is famous,
or a buttonhole, not because it did anything spectacular,
but because it never forgot what it could do.'”
Says Erin: “I was flying alone with my two-year-old, who screamed and wailed the entire flight. As we exited the plane, a woman came up, hugged me and said, ‘You are doing a great job,’ despite what must have been such an annoyance for every passenger on that plane. I was so flustered, and that kind comment is one I will never forget.
Says Sarah: “#COJdeskcry is real.”
(Photo by Jeanne Damas. Epilogue via Kottke. Dog video via Swissmiss.)
Anything you would add?
P.S. Seasonal dressing, and random turn-ons.
(Illustration by the lovely Mari Andrew.)
I used to be bad at nighttime. Every night would go something like this: eat dinner much too late, watch 45 episodes of something mildly terrifying, stare at my phone until the neon glow would render my vision blurry, then finally — surprise! — have trouble falling asleep. Gone are those days. (Thank goodness.) Now, with help from Kiehl’s, my routine looks like this…
When I was pregnant with my first child, my doctor discovered a grapefruit-sized cyst in my right ovary…
Is there anything sweeter than a homemade crosshatch cookie (made by flattening dough with the back of a fork)? Today, we continue our month of easy desserts with this sunflower seed butter recipe from the new Sweet Laurel cookbook. Here’s how to whip them up…
