glenrockschwartz

Dear Alex, It has come to my attention recently that you have moved from generally noticing all girls, to perhaps being more specific in noticing and quietly liking one girl in particular.  I should have guessed that this would happen soon, given that this summer the boys in your camp group were a bit in awe about your friendships with girls and openly teased you for being a 'flirt'.  Even so, upon first thought, I thought that you were WAY too young and then realized that it is actually me who is WAY not ready.  In fact, you are at a perfect age.  When I was in fourth grade a boy named Rob Chaseman used to ride his bike home next to me and a group of my friends.  He used to sing Rolling Stones songs and I think I had a crush on him for doing this. I think you are a rockstar, just like he was. I love you so much, Mommy

Dear Alex, On October 25, 2013, just five months shy of your tenth birthday, this is what I know: Alex likes Adele and Adele likes Alex.  And I love you! Love, Mom PS this picture is from a Halloween parade - this isn't the way you guys dressed in 2013

Hi Alex and Avery, When you get older and have kids of your own, you will contemplate leaving the city for the space and greenery of the suburbs.  You will do this because the giant sized kid toys will be taking over your apartment and you will have convinced yourselves that your children need freedom to have fresh air whenever they want it, although in reality your kids will want to stay inside and watch tv, play video games or use the computer rather than go in the backyard.  You will also justify the decision to go suburban because of the schools, the excellent schools!  Before, during and after you make the suburban transition, you will bring up these justifications ad nauseum to your friends who have chosen to remain city dwellers, but in reality, you will be repeating these mantras to quell the fear in your own hearts. "Will I begin to wear mom jeans?" you wonder (or for Alex, whatever the male equivalent is to 'mom jeans').  Will I feel completely isolated

Dear kids, Wow! I don't know why, I should expect it by now, but the fall and its routines really pack a punch that leave me gasping for air. I have always said that autumn is my favorite season: I love the changing colors of the leaves, the weather getting cooler so that you need to grab a sweater in the morning that you will shed midday, new clothes to wear and getting to snuggle in under the covers and night. Fast forward to being a mom of school age kids and that list changes to: football practice and games four days a week, School of Rock twice a week, Hebrew School twice a week, tap & jazz, soccer, cheerleading, packing lunches, making sure homework is done, making sure forms are filled out and returned, no time to cook or eat shabbat dinner together and in general no time to take a deep breath and just be. It's also emotional in the fall because there is a return to interaction with sports coaches and teachers and a fierce mama bear (that's me) will do ju

Dear kids, Last night our family had dinner together.  This is not something that we do together every night, but most Sundays we'll try to sit together. While we were eating, your dad said, "You know, I have to admit, I really like having dinner like this, all of us together." Kids, if you want to know what makes a man really manly and attractive to women, it is comments like this. Love, Mom

Avery cuddling next to me in my bed, "I have a wedgie." Me "that's nice" A "do want to see how it's tucked in?" Me hiding a smile and enjoying how her little voice enunciated the hard CK sound in tucked, "Uh, no." A "c'mon, you know you want to see my little tushie buns!

Dear Avery, After your cousin Ben's birthday party last weekend, you were out walking around the Upper East Side with your Auntie Dawn.  When I came to pick you up, the three of us stopped into a mani/pedi place.  All the ladies in the place, both those working and those enjoying a treatment, celebrated that this was you first time getting a big girl pedicure.  We sat in pedicure chairs next to each other and you squeezed my hand tight at the beginning of each new step in the process.  When Lucy (the lady who gave you your pedicure) started to scrub your legs and feet you squeezed my hand extra hard because it really tickled and because as you leaned over and whispered in my ear, "Mommy, what if she scrubs off my freckle?"  The sweetness and innocence of this statement was not lost on me and nearly made my heart burst with love; I know how much you love that freckle on the bottom of your foot and how much you think this makes you who you are. I love the wonderment tha

Dear Avery, You are my sweet five year old girl and I love you! Now that you have turned five, I can safely say that some things that I may have associated with a phase are truly just aspects of your personality, of who you are: blinding sunshine, booming claps of thunder, intense sweetness and intense fury all wrapped up into one (not so) tiny package. Your daddy has lots of nicknames for you, the latest being "Cutie Pebbles" and while you complain and resist and stamp your feet, eventually you choose to own and exemplify those names, all in your own time.  Thank goodness we've moved past the nick name "difficult" :) Your Grandma Ruth says you feel intensely and she is right.  What she hasn't articulated is how much you are just like your daddy (who has a nickname of Triple E - Easily Excitable Eric). I love that you share his ability to exude passion and joy for even the most simple things - this is a gift.  The flip side of this passion i

Dear Alex, You are now officially a fourth grader.  Well, that's not quite true, but you are no longer a third grader and schoooooool's out.......for summer! As I wrote to you when you turned nine, you are in a far more relaxed and happy place than you were at the beginning of the school year. One of the things we talked about the entire year after you had seen the movie was signing you up for "School of Rock".  As the year progressed, there always seemed a reason to delay; you were just starting a new sport for the season, or Hebrew school, or after school science (which you hated, by the way!). And the end of the school year seems no different because you are about to start camp (and then it will be football and school again........).  So we just realized that there is not good time to start and you just started. And you loved it.  I mean you really loved it.  You came home from your lesson and had such energy and excitement in your voice.  Who knows if it

Creativity Flexibility Freedom Find it! It has to exist!

Dear Alex, Happy 9th birthday!  I am more than a bunch of days late, but that is because I've been thinking about what I want to share with you about the last year of your life.  It's not easy to boil everything down to one blog post.  And honestly, because your personality has been so strong and clear from an early age, I know I might come across as repetitive - and I don't want it to seem like you haven't grown over the past year, because indeed, you have! So as you might expect, you continue to be an emotionally smart, kind and funny kid who is a voracious collector of stories in both the film, written and spoken version.  That will never change.  I could just copy this paragraph and paste it for every year that you continue to grow. As for the differences, from seven to eight years old, you had a year of positive growth, an easy happy year. This past year has been a bit different.  It will for sure all be positive in the long run, but while you and I are in it

Dear Alex, I just got off the phone with Mrs. Dextraze.  When I see the school number show up on my caller ID, I cringe wondering what part of your body you injured, what the nurse has to say about you. But instead it was your teacher.  She called to talk to me about some class parent stuff - Wendy and I just finished executing the Third Grade International Luncheon.  This is an event that you kids particularly loved.  Basically, it was the culmination of a whole unit on genealogy.  You guys studied the countries from which your ancestors immigrated and then your parents brought in food cooked from those countries.  As usual, you stuck to what you knew and liked, but I was pleased that you did try some new things.  A spark of hope that one day you will be more adventurous! Midway through the conversation  Mrs. Dextraze changed the subject to talk about you.  My "uh oh" alarms went off again, not because you are an evil person, but because sometimes you can be a bit misc

Hiked all the way to the top of the mountain and got pushed off before I could enjoy the view.  # politics   # businessasusual

Today we went to the beach for a little bit and stopped for some Ben & Jerry's. I didn't have any lactaid pills, but Alex had ice cream anyway. He said "When I refluxed it was so awesome because it felt so cold coming up."

Dear Alex, You are not quite nine years old. I was updating and cleaning through your itouch and found this email that you sent. It makes my heart smile. Love, Mom

Will You Marry Me So much to prepare Proposal The ring The time The place Finally, will you marry me

I started to think about what Pearl's life lessons for me would be had she taken the time to write them down. And if I think back over the almost forty years I got to spend with her, there are really four or so: 1. Take care of your family before you take care of yourself. This may not seem like modern thinking, but if I really look to why she would do this it begins to come clear. If you do this, you will make everyone including yourself happy. If I think about each and every meal, I am not sure that she ever sat down with us, but rather served us. And who doesn't remember how each and every meal began, with your choice of a half grapefruit sprinkled with sugar (what I always chose) or a small glass of tomato juice (what Dawn always chose). 2. Stand up for what you believe in. Pearl was absolutely famous for this. She demanded amazing customer service, and I would sometimes feel sad for the people on the other end of the phone, letter, etc. because they had no idea what h

Neshama  ( Hebrew :  נשמה ) is a Hebrew word which can mean "soul" or "spirit".  Avery was warm and snuggly and in a very deep sleep when I awoke her this morning to get ready for school.  She looked at me with a sleepy grin and then we had this conversation: "Mommy, do you know what I'm saying right now?  Well not with my mouth but in my head." (meaning, do you know what I'm thinking right now) "What?" "I'm just thanking G-d that I woke up feeling so happy and that you were here to give me a hug."

Last week I said to Avery, "You scared me half to death!"  I have no idea what she did that scared me, but I do remember her response to my colloquialism, "Death is when you can't hear and you have to wear these little machines on your ears to help you hear."

Being a parent is hard.  Essay written by Alex this weekend. The Day I brought a pocket knife to school One day I put my hands in my pocket. I found that I had a knife in my pocket so I walked up to Isabella, Nickolas and Joseph and I said "look isn't it cool" and they said "yeah!"  I felt wrong but cool so I didn't tell anyone else.  Later at recess I played soccer. It kept falling out of my pocket. I felt scared that I was going to get caught. Later I dropped it but I did not know I did so during read a Loud Quinn found it and showed it to Mrs. Dex. Then she called Mrs. capadna and she got Mrs. falknstern. They talked to me and then I talked to mom on the phone. Mrs. Capadona told me to NOT talk about it and I did not. THE END What I learned 1. not to lie 2. to check my pockets before I leave for school 3. If you find something dangerous show a teacher Thing I like about my self 1. I am good at video games 2. I have friends 3. I am nice 4.