glenrockschwartz

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 wond...

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 ...

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