Emily Brisse

Hi all, First, I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving. It's my favorite holiday: gratitude, good food, and family. I hope you spent it with those you care about most. This fall has given me a lot to be thankful for. My darling boy is just a few months away from turning two years old, and th is autumn ha s been so f ull of his mind lat ching onto every thing and finding ways to communicate that it's been , well, magical. How does a child just sudden ly string a six -word sentence together? And his personality , this mini-man, who is forming in front of me? Tonight he was all about "running hugs, " the kind where he takes off from across the room and propel s himself into my arms, all while laughing his little boy laugh. Which is loud. Which is music. Amen. Wo rk has also been incredibly fulfilling. I love my li fe as a mother. But I also look forward to doing what I do inside of my classroom . I find such satisfaction i n sharing liter ature with kids who wa...

We have been having conversations lately, my son and I. Last night while I was putting on his pajamas, it was about the man on the road walking his dog. A week ago it was about porcupines, and how, for him, they have somehow come to mean "ouch." This afternoon, we looked at the leaves. They were so red--this one line of maples--and when I said, "Aren't they beautiful, El, all bright like that?" he said yes. "Yesss," he said, drawing out the sibilance, nodding his head. He looked up at me. He was wearing a winter hat. He was holding my hand. His father and I worry sometimes about him. More accurately, we worry about my leaving in the morning, followed by G's leaving from the daycare door, followed many several hours later with one of us returning, sometimes both (but often not before he's in bed), and how he interprets our comings and goings, how he feels about the drive away from home, if there is a part of him, come 3:30, 4:00 in the aft...