Nava is 6 months old today. I’ve breastfed her approximately 1,800 times, she has consumed approximately 5,000 ounces – or 600 cups – or about one bathtub – of breastmilk from me, not including the 300+ ounces I’ve frozen. I’ve used nipple creams, breast gels, frozen cabbage leaves, and nipple shields. I’ve nursed through swollen, bleeding, and cracked …
Five days overdue. Prays baby doesn’t come on Bay to Breakers. Sciatica. Questions acupuncture to induce labor. Season One of Call the Midwife. Joyful; I’m going to be a mom! Six days overdue. Seasons Two and Three of Call the Midwife. Serenity; a natural birth will be a breeze! Seasons Four of Call the Midwife. Lots …
I always imagined that when I was pregnant, I would do everything right. I’d eat super foods, take prenatal vitamins daily, exercise regularly and read all the books (shoots arm up with a mighty fist). For the first 15 weeks of my pregnancy, I drank only sparkling apple juice, forced down bagels and cream cheese, and relentlessly chewed Trident …
So many big, happy changes. Everywhere. A best friend about to move across the country to save lives. A friend who said yes – two actually! Friends became lawyers, doctors, published authors and journalists. Some sang on Broadway and had starring roles in films, others gave up high paying jobs to travel for months, became professional athletes, …
Everybody always thinks I’m a vegetarian. In college (and on really bad hair days in law school, which was every day), I was told it was because my hair was really long and wavy and kind of frizzy, and I wore turquoise, and animals are cute, and I love them, and I don’t eat fish, and …
I have this super random memory from sixth grade. We were all in Mrs. Mc-something’s science class and the end-of-class bell went off early. She shh-shh-ed us all, then it happened again a few minutes later. Out of no where, this kid Chou-Chou threw his arms up and screamed, “Damn you clock! Why must you mock me?!” …
In my early teens, I was obsessed with this magazine called YM – do you remember it? “Young and Modern.” Shortly after, I moved on to the slightly mature Seventeen and then to the ever-trampier Cosmopolitan. Like most young women, I looked at the pimple-free Cover Girl faces and toned-stomach beauties, agonizing over how they could possibly …
Fish. The word sounds like letting air out of a tire. It smells like somewhere I shouldn’t be. Just seeing the word on the page makes me sit back a little farther. When I was two years old, my mom gave me tuna, I broke out in a body rash, and a handful of years …
I’ve heard the story about my dad’s first day of kindergarten at least a dozen times. He was ready for the day. Excited even. But then he talked in class and was banished to the corner. It was cruel. He barely made it out alive. When the final bell rang, he ran to his mom after class …
At a workshop a few weeks ago, a woman asked the group of us to think about the strongest message we received about money when we were young and write it on a sticker. Below it, she said to write down the strongest message we received about “giving.” Then she blind-sided us and said we …
my jerusalem kitchen 