My eldest has some atypical brain things that make her hilarious and challenging. She’s probably going to be like a friend of mine who failed most classes in high school but then got a perfect score on the SATs. One of her less charming issues is sensory processing. Stuff that most kids can shrug off will make her freak out. Like, instead of removing the tag from the shirt that is bugging her she will become enraged and throw a tantrum about her discomfort. With time and trai

The trouble with having such a deep knowledge of my family history is I find I must bite my tongue when my kids speak casually of their interests. I have no desire to bog them down with the weight of our history. When my kid says she’d like to grow up to be a dancer I want to say, “Like your great aunt.” When they learn to ice skate and say they can never do it I want to say, “But your grandmother became quite good at it living outside of Chicago.” When they tell me they love

It’s Holocaust Remembrance Day. You’ll recall I had a grandmother who escaped a concentration camp. In my historical digging I’ve learned of other tantalizing bits of family lore but it seems as though stories are getting mixed together and I am having trouble separating fact from fiction. I learned from my great aunt a while ago that my great-great grandfather’s brother was an owner of Chateau St. Julien. That seems unlikely, as it’s always been owned by famous wine families

My people, going way back, must be a seafaring people. I want to discover pirates in my family tree. No, I probably won’t. I’ve always lived by the ocean and when I travel to a place far from the salty sea breezes I feel a pervasive sense of claustrophobia. Put me on a sailboat if you want to see me happy. Maternal grandmother Helene made many paintings of the seaside towns they visited or lived in during her world travels with her second husband. Every summer was spent at t