VirtoR's NoTe

Celebrate the
grand opening of
our new showroom

Terms Of
Endearment

/-

here are certain things that we,
as parents, vow we will never
do.
Soon after learning I was pregnant
with my first child I made a promise
that I would not burden
strangers with stories about
cute things my children said,
or make them look at their
photographs, or insist they
hear about all my children's
many, many talents ("Really,
I'm not just saying this
because I'm her mother. You
can ask the teacher! My girl
is the smartest in her class. Why she's
just 4 and already she's working at a
i college level!")
I've broken each and every one of
1 those stupid promises.
I said my children would never eat
candy. I should have stuck to that
one. We've paid — literally — for
all those Almond Joys. Hundreds of
dollars of dental bills later, we now
limit candy to small amounts on holi-
days and special occasions.
One of my other early "I'll never
do..." assertions had to do with baby
talk. I really hate it. "Oh, goo goo
goo, you cutesy wootsey baby
waby! Mama wuvs you!" I have yet
to discuss the Theory of Relativity with
my children, but I try to speak with
them as though they are intelligent
human beings (except when it's bed-
time, of course, because that's when
all small children completely forget
the English language. Tell them
1,000 times, "Go to bed now!" and
they still don't get it.)
It's a short distance from baby talk
to terms of endearment, but I have to
confess I have many, many of the lat-
i ter for my children. I'm not big on
I those good-old-boy ones, like Bubba,
and I've never had the urge to call

my daughter Adina "Dini" or my boy
Yitzhak "Yitzi." But I do indulge, and
often, in "sweetheart" and "honey"
and a phrase I was both charmed
and humbled to see was the favorite
of William Maxwell's mother.
I hold my daughters and
son close and say, "Whose
angel child are you?"
Maxwell is the author of
a wonderful book, They
Came Like Swallows, which
chronicles the life and death
of his mother, when he was
still a small boy. It is, he has
said, the one agony he still cannot
endure.
I think I like these terms because just
saying a child's name isn't enough
sometimes. I feel so overwhelmed by
love when I look at them, so grateful
for their existence, and I am left stum-
bling for ways to express it.
I often hear our children speak the
way my husband and do: there's a
familiar turn of phrase, or an inside
family joke. Phil and I never cease to
be amused.
So, too, do Adina, 6, and Yitz, 4,
pick up on the little love words we
use; Adina catches Talya, 16
months, when she falls and says, "It's
all right, honey."
The other day Yitz and I were listen-
ing to the player piano at my moth-
er's home and my boy turned to me
and said, "Would you like to dance,
sweetheart?" and I said yes, and
then we held hands and brought in
Adina and Talya and we all danced
around and around and around, as
though the music would never end. 0

Elizabeth Applebaum
AppleTree Editor

with our Lowest prices of the year!

Visit us during the grand opening of our

new showroom and present this card to

save up to 50 percent off

manufacturers' retail prices on our new

spring furniture lines. Our grand opening

sale is now through June 30, 1998.

So don't miss out on this fabulous

opportunity to revitalize your home!

Rejuvenate your home. Right here. Right now.

275 East Mapte Road in Birmingham

647-9711

open 1.0 'til 5:30
'tit. 8:00 on Monday and Thursday
Sunday from 1:00 to 5:00

s tairs
up downstairs

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1 A°(

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OXFORD
1060 N. Lapeer
(248)-628-1521

6/12
1998

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