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Here we are in April again, friends. The temperature is warming up (shhhh, this week doesn't count!), birds are nesting on my front porch and the Silberberg family calendar is bursting at the seams. Some entries are mine or my husband's but the majority belong to the 4-feet-and-under contingent of our crew. First there's education. Pretty standard, as times and locations have been unchanged since August. Add baseball, T-ball, soccer and basketball, all with games and...
It might be an unpopular opinion, but I genuinely like snow. I'm not referring to the icy, slushy nonsense we've experienced thus far - I'm talking about that snowman-making, sled-racing, will-the-pool-parking-lot-be-usable-by-opening-day kind of snow. It's been noticeably absent this season and honestly, I'm kind of bummed. A winter without the white stuff is straight-up weird to me. I'm an East Coast kid, one who woke up at the crack of dawn and stared at the television...
I was making dinner a few nights ago when I heard my boys having a serious conversation - or as serious as serious gets for a 4- and 6-year-old. "Hey E," said C, the older one. "Do you think you're on Santa's nice list or naughty list this year?" They were in the middle of destroying the living room for the fourth time since school let out. Race cars and Magna-Tiles littered the floor, a couch cushion fort lay half-toppled next to the Christmas tree and a Pisa-esque tower of...
My youngest son emerged from preschool recently sporting a huge grin. It wasn't an uncommon sight at pickup - he loves his school and is a smiley dude in general - but when he shouted, "MOM! GUESS WHY I HAD THE BEST DAY EVER!" before buckling himself into his carseat, I knew I was in for a treat. I inquired immediately. Did he get to be the line leader or the lunch helper? No. Was he fresh off constructing the largest Magna-Tile tower in the western suburbs? Nope. Could it be...
Like many kids, I loved horses. They were my favorite thing to draw, my favorite thing to talk about and my favorite thing to collect - in My Little Pony form, of course. I would have owned 10 real ones if I had my way, but Santa always seemed to forget that item each and every year. When I finally got the chance to horseback ride for real, I jumped - first up and down and shrieking at a pitch only my dog could hear and then at the opportunity itself. Clad in pigtails and my...
It was bound to happen. It does every year. I shudder and deadpan, "Summer is coming," like some bizarro "Game of Thrones" extra. The pages of the calendar turn and suddenly, summer is not just coming but here, taking off its Crocs and making itself comfortable for the next 90 some-odd days. From a child's perspective, life couldn't be better but for us parents? Send thoughts, prayers and popsicles. On deadline day, we're rounding Week 2 of summer vacation in our house...
It might be hard to determine from my headshot, but what you see in that photo accounts for a fair amount of my total height. In my youth, I was usually the sign holder in class photos and a bookend in dance recital routines. Softball pitchers despised my lack of strike zone and back-to-school shopping always included the hemming of multiple pairs of pants. Catching a glimpse of the band at a SRO concert was dicey, as was changing the sheets on my lofted dorm room bed. The...
If you are anything like me - a parent who spends countless hours in the car because your kids have a more robust social calendar than you do - your driving playlist has been one thing and one thing only as of late: the "Encanto" soundtrack. Hard to believe, but even after hearing it on repeat for the last month-plus, I still love it. When the tunes aren't streaming through our car speakers or the Echo, it's blaring from the television. My college roommate and I regularly exch...
As I write this article, I'm in the throes of "the most wonderful time of the year." My kitchen island is littered with barely-legible to-do lists, package deliveries are coming in so fast and furious Vin Diesel would blush and my browser has so many open tabs that I fear my laptop is about to overheat. The same goes for my brain: Ho-ho-holy crap, there's still so much to do. When I was younger, I didn't truly understand what went into making the holidays special. Write a...
Word nerd. Grammar geek. Vocabulary vigilante. Take your pick. They've all applied to me since, well, forever. As a toddler, my parents regularly found me cuddling Golden Books instead of stuffed animals when they peeked into my room at night. "Reading Rainbow" was must-see TV and had me begging for a library visit as soon as the credits rolled. I have a particularly vivid recollection of filling a sketchpad with hot neon scribbles (hey, it was the '80s!) and claiming I was wr...
As I'm sure was the case for many, this summer marked my family's maiden voyage from Hinsdale in 18 months. It was our first plane ride, first meal in a restaurant and first time seeing relatives in person. I was ready to travel - but completely unprepared to question my own identity. The trip was equal parts frustrating and enjoyable: We experienced the rainiest July in Massachusetts in 80ish years (yay, lots of unexpected time indoors) but also tons of face time minus...
