confessions of a reformed tourist
“You may call me Bean or Honey. And I will call you María.”
He spoke those words to me yesterday, in response to my saying, “Joaquín! Don’t climb on the kitchen table, please!”
A few hours later he told me that he and his grandmother went for a walk to the pond. I asked, “Oh, you [...]
I have a long, clumsy history of screwing up my feet. Like the time I went camping and stepped on a rusty nail. Or the time I walked barefoot into the Hudson River and stepped on a broken bottle. And then there was the Donnie Wahlberg incident, wherein I decided to dismantle the cheap-o frame [...]
This photo of my mother was taken in 1970. She was a year out of college and teaching biology at Cathedral High School in New York City. She was born and raised in South Bend, Indiana. Living in Manhattan was an enormous challenge for her. That first winter, she tells me, she got herself a [...]
Bean loves the library. It’s always difficult to convince him to leave. Today was no exception. I dealt with it by whispering, Bean. Honey, come closer. Mommy wants to whisper a secret in your ear.
So he forgot about his tantrum and allowed me to pick him up. As I was helping him get his [...]
I swear, every time I think he’s gotten as gorgeous as one human being can possibly get, he goes and kicks the bar higher. And yeah, I’m his mother so clearly I’m biased, but I also know empirical beauty when I see it.
Bean and I had a fantastic time taking these. My dad got him [...]
The other day I caught Bean behind the DVD player, mucking about with the power cords.
I freaked.
Jack! What do you think you’re doing!
Fixing the plugs, Mommy.
WHAT? You don’t fix plugs! You don’t TOUCH plugs! You know that’s dangerous! I’ve told you about electricity! You never ever ever touch those cords! Don’t you know how [...]
Although I have no way of knowing for certain, in my heart I believe that bringing my grandmother to Grenada prolonged her life by a year or two.
For a long while we took her to the beach regularly. She’d sit at the edge of the ocean, rubbing the sand on her legs. My mom or [...]
Bean has developed a bad habit.
When I’m speaking and he wants to be speaking he just yells over me.
He did this this morning at the breakfast table. I’ve told him before that this is rude and he should not be rude to his mommy, blah blah blah. But today I decided to ask him “why”.
“Because, [...]
A while back I found out that Bean’s on the inside cover of the new edition of Grenada’s phone book. Today, I finally got a copy.
And here’s the inside cover. This photo was taken in front of his school on Grenadian Independence Day. The holiday is why they’re all dressed in their “national colours”. I [...]
Yesterday around 4PM I decided to have a little rest before I started on my cheesecake mission. I woke up an hour ago.
Bean stood right in front of my face.
“Good morning, Mommy,” he whispered.
“Good morning, honey.”
“I love you.” At this point it becomes obvious that we’ve been working on his waking-up-Mommy skills, which had previously [...]