Jennifer Briggs

I’ve been thinking about pretending. The girls recently walked around the block riding small broomsticks. Amy started making monkey sounds and saying she was a monkey. Sarah heard this and started doing the same thing. At other times Amy says she is a cat. How easily and often kids pretend! Adults do too, I think,… Read more »

Sarah did an amazing job entering her preschool class last Wednesday. She galloped in easily and independently hung her coat and backpack on her hook. Then she galloped to put her name in the name jar. One of Sarah’s favorite poems has a line about “baby fingers stir stewed pear” so I made pear sauce…. Read more »

We have had Grandma and Grandpa in town and it has been lovely. I love having lots of family around! Grandma gave me sewing lessons and supervised the creation of a new pair of snail pants for Sarah. These new pants will not fall apart every time they go through the wash. Sarah helped with… Read more »

I realized recently that Sarah has acquired or almost acquired a skill that used to seem laughably far away: contributing two spontaneous ideas within a game or play activity. It has been about 5 months since Sonia and I did the developmental model provided by the Son-Rise Program and I’m wondering if instead of seeing… Read more »

I forgot last week to share that while Carl and I were away, Sonia gave the girls a bath and washed their hair. The remarkable thing is that Sarah tipped her head back in the water and didn’t fuss about the whole process! Clearly Sonia will be washing Sarah’s hair from now on. 🙂 Part… Read more »

With regard to figuring out where I am, it has definitely helped to put words to my feelings. Once I do that then they usually start changing. It is sort of like recognizing where my head is in space. Once I do that then some of my neck tension tends to let go. With regard… Read more »

Mom-Mom came to visit and it was wonderful to have such fresh help. She has totally fresh energy for the girls and I let her have almost solo childcare duty for two days while I did lots of other things (and Sonia took two days to work on her move). It was wonderful to hear… Read more »

After my last update I again thought I had everything figured out forever and that I would never be grumpy again, never yell at my kids again, never feel drained again. Not so. This week I have felt tired and grumpy. We have also had many lovely, snuggly moments where I feel so blessed to… Read more »

This has been a phenomenal week for me. I think I am really deeply understanding how important my own self-care is. Am I to let my lettuce or veggies wilt or let myself wilt? Veggies! Is it more important to make yogurt so we don’t run out or to make sure I don’t run out… Read more »

Grandma and Grandpa were visiting recently and they both noticed huge changes in Sarah’s overall language and connection with people. Yay! Sarah has been asking for elephant pajamas for forever because she loved the ones that used to be hers and then were Amy’s and now fit neither of them. To Sarah’s delight, Grandma took… Read more »