NOLA Notes

Category: Parenting

Sun’s Hemangioma, Revisted

I wrote some time ago about Sun’s hemangioma, or strawberry mark.  Several of you have e-mailed me inquiring about how she’s coming along.  I appreciate your concerns and wanted all to follow her progress. This is Sun’s leg now: Today, we had her ninth laser treatment.  The doctor tells me that he is “completely confident” [...]

Because She Lets Me

CS gives Sun her baths; that is their special time together.  Occasionally, I am called on to do it and find I do it wrong—too little water, the wrong toys, I get water in her eyes. But getting Sun down for the night, that is our special time.  I play no musical instrument; my fingers [...]

My Mother’s Hands

Sun likes to hold my hand when she is readying herself for a nap.  Actually, she likes to hold just one finger in her small hands.  She’s done this since she was born.  She’d hold your finger as she bottle fed.  My mother commented once that Sun has my hands.  I looked more closely.  And [...]

Crawfish Bisque Like Your Maw-Maw Makes

I cannot say enough how much I like love crawfish bisque.  It may well be my all-time favorite dish.  Growing up, my mother never made it, not once.  The first time I had it was at my best friend’s aunt’s.  That bowl set the bar very high.  My grandmother would make it every couple of [...]

Roots and Wings

Hodding Carter, who was a progressive journalist and author, and fellow Louisianian, is credited for saying, “[t]here are only two lasting bequests we can hope to give our children. One is roots; the other, wings.” On the first anniversary of Sun’s birthday, I keep thinking to myself, “Roots and wings.” This year has gone by [...]

Rock-a-Bye Baby

Tonight I was on deck to get Sun down for bed.  I took her to her room to give her a bottle and rock her.  In college, I dated a guy who had a really nice rocking chair, and he told me once, “Everyone should own a rocking chair.”  A few years later, I was [...]

My Identity Crisis

I toss and I turn.  I twist and I twitter.  And yet I still can’t get my mind settled.  I don’t know the answer to the age old question:  What is happiness? In my life, I have the quintessential things that would answer this question: The love of a doting husband, sweet baby girl and [...]

The Gift of Perspective

I was 37 when Sun was born.  I am the youngest of five children (my mother was 29 when I was born), and all four of my siblings had their respective two children when they were younger than 37.  My sister, who is just three years older than me, is a new grandmother.  My grandfather [...]

Yes, Virginia, There is a Green Santa

I have been focusing on staying positive through this holiday season.  And that should be easy since we are celebrating Sun’s first.  But as a new-parent, I already feel the pull to do more, buy more, consume more. I have felt pressure to buy fancy clothes for Sun “for the holidays” and am constantly being asked [...]

Long, Too Long

Every Wednesday, I drive across the Mississippi River to bring Sun to my friend’s to watch her. To do this, I cross the Huey P. Long Bridge. This bridge is not for the weak. It is narrow, rickety, and shaky (especially when a train goes along it, too, in its center). My husband has driven [...]