Sublime

This baby’s life would rely on my maternity leave, my savings, my body, my career. I would have to make all the sacrifice while Andy’s life could continue mostly as normal. He disingenuously offered to give up comedy and be a stay-at-home dad. We both knew that would never happen.

Is there any other country in the world that has a frog fair or a snail festival? An official celebration of the sausage? A special day dedicated to garlic? Where else but France could you find cheeses, sea urchins, oysters, chestnuts, plums, and omelettes honored by a blaze of local limelight that in other countries would be reserved for victoriou

In France, being exigeant, or discriminating, is considered a positive quality, as is complaining: both put vendors on alert that you expect the best.

Some parents use food as a pacifier, to keep the little ones quiet. Some withhold treats for bad behavior. Others fret about foods that are too rich or too strange for tiny stomachs, and pass on a generalized anxiety about eating. Trends in food change from decade to decade, yet our default patterns of eating are largely a response to an older gene

What happens then, as we continue to deliver “everything their hearts desire”? For one thing, like well-exercised muscles, their little hearts keep desiring. But also, as all of this largesse pours in the front door, anticipation quietly slips out the back.

One of my dad’s best pieces of parenting advice had been very simple: wait. He