Mabfan's Musings

One of the hardest things about having two toddlers in the house is that they don't always occupy themselves with activities. Sometimes you have to find things for them to do.

Thank goodness, then, for the concept of a playdate, in which parents of different children can bring them together in hopes that the children will play with each other, learn, and leave us alone. :-)

My The Brookline Parent column for Brookline Patch today, Occupy Playdates, is all about the playdate phenomenon as it applies to Muffin and Squeaker. And it gets philosophical at times. Go read it, and you'll find out:

* How being a middle child led Michael to make a certain decision about his own family;
* How not having a car influences the playdate decision;
* Which YA fantasy writer lives in Brookline, has three children, and is happy to have her kids play with Muffin and Squeaker;
* Which playgroup Muffin and Squeaker rate four thumbs up;
* And why it is that even at this age Muffin and Squeaker may already be spoken for.

Enjoy!

In truth, this week was not necessarily weirder as any other week. But every week I find that things happen that I know are prominent in my mind only because they're recent, and then next week other things will happen that will become just as prominent, and this week's things will fade.

So, for example, in the middle of this week we found out that Trader Joe's semi-sweet chocolate chips are going from pareve to dairy, prompting a huge response (well, relatively speaking) and a petition to have them fix the issue so the chocolate chips can be considered pareve again. Early in the week, Muffin had a tantrum. Today friends of mine are at the Nebulas, and I have a Bat Mitzvah to attend tomorrow. Wednesday night we had a friend over.

The thing is, all this seems trivial compared to other things. Because thrice this week, I was reminded of our mortality. One of my co-workers passed away on Tuesday morning, and I just found out that one of the members of my congregation passed away of a sudden heart attack that hit her on Monday. And on Tuesday night, a few people in a group I'm in gathered to honor a former colleague who left the group due to her health.

So yeah, chocolate chips pale in comparison.

Questions, questions, questions! It seems that kids never stop asking questions.

This week, in our The Brookline Parent column at Brookline Patch, gnomi examines the question of, well, questions. In The Hows and the Whys, she discusses the types of questions asked by Squeaker and Muffin, and how we respond to them.

If you click on the link, you'll find the usual cute pictures of the girls (and if you click on the pictures, you'll find amusing captions.) But you'll also find out how the girls learned the word "incoming," and what happens if you ask someone with a science background (me) why it rains.

In my The Brookline Parent column for Brookline Patch today, I look at the question of caring for toddler's teeth. As I note in the article, there's been an epidemic of tooth decay among toddlers. Fortunately, Muffin and Squeaker seem to be okay. If you read the article, you'll find out what we're doing and why I think it's a struggle for all parents to care for their kids' teeth in this day and age.

So go read Nothing But the Tooth, for the video of Elmo singing about the importance of brushing your teeth, if for nothing else.

For those of you who live in Brookline, Massachusetts... (And for those of you who don't, but are interested anyway.)

Next Tuesday, May 1, 2012, is Town Election Day in Brookline. As many of you know, I hold two elected offices in Brookline. I'm a Town Meeting Member from Precinct 12 and a Library Trustee for the whole town. My current term as a Town Meeting Member expires this year, and I'm in a contested race as we have 17 candidates running for the 15 seats. (Why so many? Due to redistricting because of the Census, all 15 seats are up this year, instead of the usual 5.)

If you happen to live in Precinct 12, I'd appreciate your vote. If you want to know more about my campaign, you can visit my campaign website at Burstein for Brookline for my letter to the voters. And look for my flyer in your mail this week.

I'd also ask for your support for a few other candidates. As a Precinct 12 Town Meeting Member, I'm part of Neighbors Building Brookline, a coalition that came together in 1994 to support better government in the town. There are 13 of us running for re-election this year, and as a group we endorse all 13 candidates.

Town-wide, we have one contested race for a vacant two-year seat on the Board of Library Trustees. Both of the candidates running would be an asset to the Board, and I hope in the future to serve with both of them. For this year's race, however, I am endorsing Puja Mehta. I think she will be a great advocate for the library at the state level given her work with the Massachusetts Legislative Library Caucus.

Finally, there are two Town Meeting seats in other precincts that have candidates I've endorsed. In Precinct 13, I support Joanna Baker, who has done a lot of work to support our local parks, among other things.

In Precinct 11, there is an open Town Meeting seat, as only 14 candidates filed to run for the 15 seats. I'm delighted to support Shanna Giora-Gorfajn in her write-in campaign for that open seat. Shanna writes the column The Bounty Hunter for Brookline Patch, so you can read the column to get to know a little more about her. If you vote in Precinct 11, look for her outside the Driscoll School on Election Day handing out flyers and stickers with her name on them.

http://popfiend.livejournal.com/4492746.html

Last year, for our The Brookline Parent column at Brookline Patch around this time, gnomi discussed Passover. In particular, in her column Four Answers for Two Toddlers, she discussed how we made Passover special for Muffin and Squeaker given that their bedtime was well before the seders began.

Well, this year, the girls are one year older, and this time, we decided that they could deal with the later bedtime that comes with attending seder. For a special treat as we end the chol ha'moed, or intermediate days, of Passover, Brookline Patch is publishing Nomi's column one day early. It Was, In Fact, Just About Enough For Us describes how the girls responded to family seder two nights in a row. Hint: Dayenu is the new Ma Nishtana. (As Tom Lehrer might say, the rest of you can look up when you get home.)

Click on the link, to see a cute picture of the girls eating homemade cookie bars if nothing else. (Click on the picture itself to see the amusing caption...)

Squeaker has recently started to tell us that there are snakes in her crib when she wants to be taken out. Her imagination reminded me of my own at her age, as I too remember being afraid of things that weren't really there.

Unfortunately, as the parent now and not the child, I find that there are some real fears out there, not as benign as imaginary snakes in a crib.

In my The Brookline Parent column at Brookline Patch this week, I discuss some of these things that happened last week and last month, and how they've affected me.

If that's too heavy for you, there's a cute picture of Squeaker and Muffin with a funny caption.

So, go read Snakes in a Crib for the picture and the great quote from osewalrus, if nothing else.

Folks reading here may recall that last month I recommended a novella that had been recommended to me: The Man Who Ended History: A Documentary by Ken Liu. The novella had been recommended to me by Jamie Todd Rubin on his blog, and I found it just as compelling as Jamie did.

I wasn't surprised when it and another Ken Liu story (The Paper Menagerie) showed up on the Nebula ballot this year. (It makes for a tough ballot, as there a lot of stories I would want to vote for this year, and I only get to vote for one in each category.)

The day I read Ken's story, I emailed him, and he emailed me back. We discovered that we were local, and I suggested lunch. He suggested we get together when it got warmer, which it did last week, so naturally we went out for lunch today in the cold.

Ken Liu, Michael A. Burstein Photo ©2012 N. Burstein. All rights reserved.

gnomi actually got to the Milk Street Cafe before I did, so she got to meet Ken first. We talked about science fiction, of course: writing, editing, the community, and all sorts of things. I found Ken to be much more gregarious in person than he appears on line, but perhaps that's typical of many of us.

If haven't had a chance to read his stories yet, go click on the links provided. I think you'll like them.

Sometimes a column just presents itself naturally.

Nomi and I spend many weekends trying to figure out how to occupy or entertain Muffin and Squeaker. This past Sunday, with the clock change, we got started a little later than usual, and we weren't sure what to do with the kids. All we knew was that we wanted to go out.

And then it hit us. The kids love books, but they have never actually been to a bookstore. So we decided to take them on their very first trip to an actual bookstore, in this case Brookline Booksmith.

The girls had a great time browsing for books, but you don't have to take my word for it. Nomi wrote about the visit in our The Brookline Parent column at Brookline Patch this week.

However, I will take credit for the column's title: Book 'Em, Muffin and Squeaker!

Go read the column, and find out exactly what criteria Muffin uses to select her books for purchase. The answer may surprise you.