The Bauhauswife Blog

  I won't lie to my kids about Santa. They are going to get the straight-up truth.  As a rule, as much as it is humanly possible, I don't lie to my kids at all.   They know it when I'm sad, they know when I feel anxious or stressed out, they know where babies come from, and they are generally in tune with, and aware of the world around them.   Of course, parenting is a balancing act, and I certainly don't expose them to anything I don’t think they're ready for, as much as I can help it....

Looking down at my two-month old baby as he nurses hungrily, and then, hours later, collapses on my breast in a stupor, all I feel is gratitude. I am so lucky.  As a culture, I believe we drastically misunderstand the importance of the breastfeeding relationship as simply a delivery system for what is arguably the nutritional "best". Instead, it’s my profound conviction that the actual food infants receive from their mothers is only a small part of a countless number of aggregate needs that breastfeeding fulfils, including physical warmth, love, care, socialization, relationship, the basis for a healthy sexuality, the...

Last night we trekked to Killarney lake at dusk and stayed till dark, building sand castles and moats and swimming under starlight—drinking in the dregs of summer to the very last. • It was so late and everyone was so tired when we finally arrived back home (a couple of kids fell asleep in the van), that we went to bed grubby, and woke up late this morning, remembering just in time that the boys had early appointments at the barber shop for back to school haircuts, and we had to pick up our vegetable order from the CSA. •...

The end of August feels like change, but of course, everything changes, all the time.  What did you do last summer? I went to the beach, made some art, did a lot of birth work, edited part of what is proving to be an enormous book, and nursed my beautiful baby, Ignatius, who is delightful, sweet, smart, serious, funny, cuddly, and lovely, and astonishingly, two months old already.  We also spent the last week hosting two houseguests—the beloved young children of one of my very best friends, who is on a healing journey and needed a break from full-on mothering. ...