An easily accessible list of all my favorite funny pieces. Probably shouldn’t call it a “hit list,” though. — I intend to update this periodically as I come up with new material, so feel free to check back now and then! I’ll pin this list to the top of my profile, since no one is actually going to come back and check for new stuff of their own volition…

The tantrums? Nope. The snuggles? Sure. But you’ll know that when you see it. — Imagine this: a toddler melts down in the middle of a grocery aisle. The toddler’s mother is taking deep breaths, staying as calm as she can, wrestling her screaming child back into the cart while silently praying that no one will notice. But of course someone does notice, and it’s…

a reflection on the changes a few years have brought — Five years ago I gulped a breakfast I no longer remember and could not taste, while 30 miles away he took his car to be washed so no grime would brush against my white dress. Today, we staggered showers and sips of coffee, turn-about, while our baby slept and our…

He’s going to want 400 unrelated things to go with it — If you give a toddler a book about a cookie, he will ask for a cookie before you have finished reading the first page. Then he will ask for a cookie after the second page. Then he will begin screaming COOKIE COOKIE COOKIE COOKIE so loudly that you cannot finish…

Some thoughts on platforming, encouragement, and what we can learn from the Secret Service’s money memorization. — I thought about calling this piece “For The Love of Everything That is Good In This World, Stop Quote-Tweeting Marjorie Taylor Greene” but I felt that using MTG’s name in the title kind of defeated the purpose of my thesis. Instead of invoking names of conspiracy theorists, then, let me…

Why is gratitude sometimes so hard to grasp in moments of great blessing? — Shortly after midnight on a May day which I cannot describe in any further detail (being inside the hospital for its duration; it may have been cloudy, or rainy, or blazing hot and I simply do not know) my second son entered this world. He was neither early, nor, I…

On hearing the drums echoing tonight, waking up to a beautiful day in the neighborhood, and throwing off inhibition. — Somehow I managed to live twenty-eight years on this planet without once hearing the song “Africa” by Toto. Maybe I caught a few snatches from a grocery store sound system or heard a line or two in a video somewhere, but until recently, my only exposure to the song was…

A single memory can fuel a lifetime of wonder. — I wish I could remember more of the memory that has been my fun fact at parties for the last twenty years. “I once rode a police horse on Pennsylvania Avenue, in front of the White House,” I’ll say, and then add, like a punchline, “but I was eight, and…

Oh, you thought there were only 5 stages of grief? Well, I thought there were only 9 months in a pregnancy, and here we are. — The starred day on the calendar has come and gone. Your freezer is stocked. The house is as clean as it’s going to get. The onesies are folded in the dresser with care. Every Facebook friend on your list has texted you to “just check in!” Your OB-GYN has cheerfully…