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Barbara Falconer Newhall

Veteran journalist Barbara Falconer Newhall riffs on life as she knows it.

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What Makes Me Happy? Having a Happy Kid, of Course

July 2, 2022 By Barbara Falconer Newhall

what makes me happy? -- a happy kid
Here’s what happy looks like — a brand new father and a newborn baby. Photo by Barbara Newhall

What makes me happy? Noticing that one of my kids is happy.

For example, meeting Peter at the hospital on the day his first child is born — and taking a picture of his beatific, Mona Lisa smile.

I’m working super hard on a couple of projects this week — namely, playing with my granddaughters and spending some quality time with my son and daughter-in-law — so I’m going to let this photo of happy Peter with his swaddled newborn say it all for me.

What else is making me happy these days? I’ve got two — count ’em, two — books in the works. More about that soon.

This is not the first picture of Peter I’ve posted.  I’ve been photographing and writing about my kids for decades. Here’s a story about mothering Peter when he was a teenager, “How Selective Service Made a Man of My Son — Without Even Trying.”   And here’s one about Christina being Christina, “What’s Rhetoric? Let My Two-Year-Old Tell You.”

Filed Under: My Ever-Changing Family

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LET’S CONNECT

ON THE FUNNY SIDE

Actor Robert Morse – Sweaty at 36, Sublime at 83

A black and white photo of actor Robert Morse as a young comedian gawking for the camera.

The last time I saw Robert Morse there were beads of sweat on his forehead. It was 1967 and he was working the crowd on the set of a local TV comedy show. Robert Morse was on. He was going for laughs and he was going for them with the intensity of a rocket launch. He was doing what mid-life folks do – he was striving.

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TO MY READERS

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