Happy Birthday, Jessica!
For my beautiful daughter —
Thank you for teaching me the meaning of joy.
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Reading Harry Potter
Last fall, Jessica stopped being very interested in reading. Although she’s a slow reader and behind her grade level, this was the first time her reading had started to seem like a struggle to her, and the first time her learning difficulties were winning. The problem, like most problems, was multifaceted. But mostly she just…
On teaching life lessons
We’re watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer and I’m explaining to Jessica that a vampire can’t come into a person’s house unless he or she is invited in. “Of course there’s no such thing as vampires. And in some stories about vampires, that’s not true,” I say, in the interests for providing full disclosure. “But it…
One of my favorite things
A few years ago, as I was tucking Jessica into bed, she kissed me on both cheeks and said, “I love you and think you are beautiful.” I have no idea why she thought I needed to hear those two sentiments at once, but I am glad she did, because it has become my favorite…
On growing up in hospitals
I wrote this during Jessica’s recent hospital stay, so don’t worry, she’s not back in the hospital. We are in Jessica’s hospital room and she is in pain, but it’s an hour before she can have any more meds, a fact that I don’t argue with the nurses over although honest to zeus you…
The nature of remembering
I don’t know how my daughter’s memory works. She doesn’t remember much about the winter she was seven, which experience has been scarred into my soul (“How can you not remember that!” is how it feels to me). She doesn’t remember the day camp teacher who saw her every day of every summer for four years,…
