Posts Tagged Under Dilyara Breyer
Recession Be Damned — Kid Entrepreneurs Rule!
It began innocently.
“I feel like a smoothie,” my seven-year old announced when he came home from school. “A strawberry banana smoothie.” I happily oblige. I like whipping up something quick and nutritious.
“How about we have a smoothie stand?” he asked.
“Uh, we do not have that many bananas.” I am looking for excuses while trying to figure out how bad it would be to get involved in another messy afternoon project. I came from work and I am tired.
“Strawberry smoothies?”
By Dilyara BreyerA Jewish Mom Adopts Me During Holiday Traffic
She honked while I chatted up a driver in the opposite lane.
“I just spend half an hour getting from Costco to here.” The driver was complaining; Costco sign still in vicinity.
“Me, too,” I sigh.
“They have a serious problem.”
“Seems so. It happens every year around this time,” I concur.
“You have a good memory.” I am not sure if the driver is joking.
“I would use it, too, if not for the pet.” I am pointing at the white box with red lettering where a little brown critter is sleeping in the corner. “I could have not bought a pet weeks in advance.”
She honks again. She has a perfect hairstyle and I am sure well-manicured fingers that are lying on the steering wheel now. We are both stuck in a traffic jam around our local mall. I call her Jewish Mom. She seems to have adopted me. There is a little bit more space in front of me so she makes sure I fill it. Continue… »
By Dilyara BreyerSay a Little Prayer
Despite my numerous warnings about its scary and rather unscientific nature, Carl really wanted to see “Jurassic Park III” because it features his favorite dinosaur — Spinosaurus, a prehistoric predator bigger than T-Rex.
He waited impatiently for the copy I reserved to arrive at the public library next to us.
He watches it halfway from the hallway ready to dart behind the wall when a dinosaur approaches. Afterwards, he decides to sleep with us. I don’t mind. I would be scared, too, to be by myself.
“Are you scared?” I ask when he snags close to me.
“No. The nightmare will come later,” he explains. Continue… »
By Dilyara BreyerEverybody hates Kombucha
How ’bout that for a TV show name!
Bribes are the Junk Food of Honesty
My four-year old refuses to put on his pants.
If not for the the flu he is having or the slime building in his sinuses turning his eyes into puffy, narrow slits — dressing him would not become a major goal of my life.
I need to keep him warm even if it means putting certain pants on without his consent.
He wiggles out of my arms and the pants. I’m beyond frustrated. I’m now waking up several times nightly to check on his temperature, give him medicine, rub vapors on his chest, and generally checking that he is still alive and breathing.
By Dilyara BreyerInjury
Now that we have a high-deductible insurance, I am more than easily chagrined at every act of stupidity and self-destruction that my boys tend to conduct.
Like jumping off the table into the bed. The four-year old knew that when he just held his toe lying on the bed wailing quietly. I was no comfort: jumping off the desk is stupid! I wanted to have a look. He refused to show.
I started calculating the likelihood that the injury is serious and we have to go to the doctor. Or even worse, the Emergency Room. For today is Friday. And if we will not resolve it by the afternoon, we will have very few choices.
By Dilyara BreyerTatiana
In our house talks about animals that escape from a zoo occur regularly. Usually the escapee is tranquilized and returned into the enclosures of one of the zoos that our seven- year old son created in a computer game. I try to explain how each escape negatively influences the zoo attendance, the zoo’s reputation and thus the bottom line, and in the end, the viability of the zoo.
His answer is usually switching to unlimited money mode.
I am sure Manuel Mollinedo, the director of the San Francisco Zoo wishes he could switch to that mode after a tiger jumped out of an enclosure and attacked three visitors, killing one of them on Christmas Day last week.
By Dilyara BreyerRamadan
Today is the 26th day of Ramadan, a lunar month when every Muslim is suppose to fast from sunrise to sunset. Wars are stopped, quarrels are set aside and peace is celebrated.
Neighbors visit each other after dark to break the fast together. They start with sweet things like dried figs or dates and proceed to the feast that lasts into the night. I can imagine it vividly even though I’ve never been to an Arabic country and missed most of the magic of neighborly feasting while growing up in a place intolerant to any religion – the Soviet Union.
My aunt, whose mother prayed five times daily till the last day of her life, told of the times when they hid while praying so as not to be discovered by patrols who checked every window in their village. Their family hid under the dinning table to read the special Ramadan Taraweeh prayers and break their fast.
By Dilyara BreyerPerch
My friend is remodeling her backyard and wants to add a lot of “funky,” kid-friendly places.
This morning I pause on top of the ladder after cutting a dead branch, thinking this is the perfect spot to catch a hummingbird in flight with my digital camera.
Here, up high, I can see in the trees. I hear neighbors walking by and stopping to greet each other. I spot a lizard speeding across the yard. I feel like an eagle. Swooping at him with my camera. Zooming in and adjusting the focus. Shot! Shoot! Fast little beast!
I am having so much fun, I do not want to climb down. Then it dawns on me: Perch!
Perch is one of childhood’s treasured hidden places.
By Dilyara Breyer
