the Mother Runner

I crossed the finish line of my third marathon exhausted, sick, and defeated. I’d run a personal record, but I’d failed to achieve my goal. It had not been a good race. I’d walked much of the last six miles and had grown more and more discouraged as people on the course tried to encourage [...]

The Little Miss turned 9 months yesterday and is growing up so fast. Just like every child. She stands! Unassisted! For several seconds at a time! This is a development I never would have guessed from this little being who is so quiet and content and unassuming most of the time. She reminds me of [...]

I don’t know if I’ve mentioned that I am running a marathon on Monday. Maybe once or twice? I am excited and nervous, even though this is not my first rodeo. It is my fifth and I know how these things go. Lots of anxiety, anticipation, excitement. And then, finally, the first steps. I can [...]

I think it’s safe to say we’ve had an . . . interesting couple of weeks. New job. Flu. Strep. Marathon training. Teething. Weekend getaway. Part of me wants to say, Just wait a couple of weeks. It’ll all calm down and be normal then. And the other part of me says, This is normal. This is what [...]

I’m starting to think we’re doing Easter wrong. We had no baskets, no bunnies. It wasn’t until Friday night that I thought I should probably invite my sister to dinner. Granted, we were grappling scarlet fever/strep throat, but certainly if we had traditions we would have been able to make them work. Thankfully, all was not [...]

Oh dear. It was one of those weeks. So allow me to put on my rose colored glasses and pretend that I haven’t been contemplating shaving my head and/or running away to go live in the woods. Here we go: Hooray! Little Miss has her first tooth! This, of course, means that she will no [...]

Why must something be either good or bad? Why can’t it just be? Why don’t I just wait and see? What do I fear? What do I really fear? Danger? Failure? Disappointment? Success? Do I give my family all of my burnt cookies? Do I let my children know they are wanted? Every day? What [...]

My favorite piece of parenting advice for expectant mothers is this: Enjoy whatever stage they are in because they grow out of it so quickly. And if they are in an annoying stage just know that it won’t last forever because they grow out of it so quickly. Up until now, I’ve been in the [...]

What do you do on a Friday afternoon when you’ve been housebound for days, when one of your kids keeps smearing her own snot all over her face and waking up from naps after 20 minutes? When another of your kids is taking his second nap of the day? When the third kid is fixated [...]

I don’t like rats. I don’t like to see or talk or think about them. I don’t like to acknowledge they exist, even though I am doing just that when I see one on the subway platform and immediately turn around and walk the other way. I can find very few redeeming qualities about them. [...]