I GOT A DIVORCE....

So, I moved my blog elsewhere.

Please update your reader with the new feed and re-subscribe. And come see why Im so happy being completely on my own. I feel like a big girl.

XO
Pauline

Two roads diverged in Chicago

Five reasons why you should take the super long way home by accident stopping to take advantage of awesome backdrops. "Left or right?" "Right! Mama!!!" Even if it means getting stuck in rush hour traffic. With one completely exhausted, overwhelmed and ready-to-get-rid-of-us grandmother. And...






... one toddler repeating, her infamous phrase, every two point three minutes...

"Mama?"

"Yes."

"I wanna talk to you."

"Yes, Feenster."

"Where are we going?"

America has taught him well.

He came home from work early. "Today, I teach you."

His heavy ethnic accent (did you catch the accent at the end of this vlog?), the same it was the day he taught me twenty-five years ago, managed to intimidate my son. And me, all over again. "Leave him alone Tata." I whispered as I experienced a flashback of his nightly tutoring sessions with me, of mathematics lessons taught his way.

"No. I teach him."

And with that, my stubborn father lead my son to the garden to gather rocks. I watched them both from afar but close enough to rescue my son. My body stiff with fright that my son would experience the same stale breath, stern glances and negative enforcement that I had once been the recipient of. I allowed myself to exhale pushing away memories in order to convince myself that this truly was his way of connecting with his grandson. Through his love of mathematics.

"He means well. He means well. He means well." As I listened to my shallow breaths, my son's lesson started.

"3 times one row of 3 is..."

"Three!"

"3 times two rows of 3 is..."

"Six!"

"3 times three rows of 3 is..."

The painless lesson continued with enthusiastic high-fives between the two after each answer. A simple gesture missing twenty-five years ago.


After so many years in America the man has learned how to positively reinforce through high-fives. Who said you couldn't teach an old dog new tricks? It might have taken decades but today I was so proud. Of them both.