Blog Posts by Akemi

The Sprinkler Gods ordered up some backyard rainbows as a last act of summer. It's funny to see kids playing their way through a late summer day, blissfully unaware that chilly days are just ahead.

I see myself looking back at this photo years from now, wistfully remembering my children when they were young.

Do you have a particular photo of your children that makes you wax nostalgic about the past?
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Akemi Bourgeois is a Yahoo! Shine Parenting Guru and mom to twin boys. They live in the Bay Area. She writes at Chalk and Cheese Chronicles and edits the blog, Mad About Multiples. She is an editor at Technorati Women. Follow her on Twitter: svtwinmom.

My twin boys first dipped their twenty toes into a swimming pool at six months. I was excited to introduce my boys to the sensation of water beyond the baby bath tub. We enrolled in a parent-and-me class at our local Y and in we all plunged, mom, dad and two babies. It was a lot of hassle but a whole lot of fun.

Then after a year of doing that, we took a break. When the boys turned three, we resumed swim lessons because at that age, kids can take lessons without mom and dad at their side. My husband was the working parent and could not always be counted on to help out with our twins in the water and lord knows, I couldn't have managed two babies in the pool by myself.

From age three to five, my boys continued their weekly lessons. On and on they swam, rocket arms stretched forward. Though my boys always had a blast in the water, their progress was slow. The swim school had a policy of not teaching its swimmers anything from the next level until everything from the previous level had

Johnny Tremain was the first historical novel I read. It was assigned to our sixth grade class by the stern and demanding Mrs.S who was passionate about literature and who handed out diplomas at the end of the year that read, magna cum laude and summa cum laude. Every morning, little puffs of chalk echoed her smoker's cough as she wrote down vocabulary words we were to memorize, words such as harbinger and metaphor.

In sixth grade, I was a Judy Blume sort of girl. I spent the greater part of that year trying to figure out the mystery of menstruation and I knew the answer was somewhere in one of those books. Were breast buds a harbinger of womanhood?

Suddenly, my literary world was split in two. I went from reading a purple paperback book about a girl named Margaret getting her period to a book set in a silversmith shop in colonial Boston on the eve of the American Revolution.

Goodbye Margaret, hello Cilla.

Yes, Cilla. I wanted her to be my sister. Cilla, betrothed to the young

When I went to sleepaway camp, letters arrived the old-fashioned way, by mail. They were also written the old-fashioned way, either by hand or typed on a typewriter. I was only away at camp for a week, but somehow, I'd managed to send one letter to my mom and she'd managed to send two to the tweenage me. Hi Honey!

Thanks for your letter! We all enjoyed reading it. Your brother got a kick out of your, "Hi little brother!" and smiled and said, "sick!" It really is so QUIET around our home. Sometimes I wish you would be quieter; but right now, I'd welcome your chitter-chatter! I'm going to dust and change your sheets today when I get home. That room is too empty without you... I never knew how much all of us miss you.

I hope you understand that I won't be able to mail your light blue Dittos with your favorite pink top because by the time it gets to you, you will be on your way home. It takes three to four days to mail a package. Well, have to quickly send this off to you!

The force is with the Star Wars Mom.

She knows that all light sabers are not equal, and that double bladed light sabers are double the fun.

The Star Wars Mom outfits her sons in Star Wars tshirts when she prefers Mini Boden.

She briefs her sons as to how best to be chosen for the Jedi Academy.

The Star Wars Mom updates her Facebook status to read May the Fourth be with You.

Book titles like The Strange Case of Origami Yoda catch her eye.

She runs into other moms she knows in the Star Wars aisle at Target.

Happy Mother's Day to the Star Wars Moms!

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Akemi Bourgeois is a Yahoo! Parenting Guru and mom to twin boys. They live in the Bay Area. She writes at Chalk and Cheese Chronicles and edits the blog, Mad About Multiples. She is an editor of at Technorati Women. Follow her on Twitter: svtwinmom.

In the increasingly digitized world of books, nothing can ever replace a good, old-fashioned school librarian, especially one who knows her stuff. While there may be a gazillion book reviews on Goodreads and while there may be thousands of Kindle ebook titles, a flesh and blood librarian has one advantage: She knows your child.

In the first grade class where I volunteer, three little boys will vie for the library's few Star Wars titles. Two children will beg for chapter books. Every level of reader will be happy to carry home a book from the very funny Elephant and Piggie series. Then the frenzy for books will die down and half the class will settle into chairs to read while the indecisive remainder flits to and fro, afraid to commit to any one book.

I see the librarian out of the corner of my eye, hunched over a bookshelf, a little boy by her side. He is a demanding customer and he wants a certain kind of book. Forget the Star Wars Early Reader books, forget the Elephant and Piggy

Our annual spring break road trip from the Bay Area to Oregon is a trial in endurance. While I love the idea of a road trip, 10 hours of driving with kids gets old
around the six hour mark. So we usually break it up into two days of driving, with a overnight stay at a roadside motel.

These motel stays are a thrill to my kids who act as if
they're visiting a palace; they don't quite understand why I yell weird things like, "Keep your shoes on in here!" or "Don't touch the bedspread!"

When we first started making these trips, our kids were babies. So we lugged Pack n Plays and tiny potties and lots of toys! We packed portable DVD players and loaded up the iPod with juvenile audio books. I once even packed a gallon of milk just keep my sippy cup chugging milk-aholics sated. Our minivan was packed full.

This year, something changed. No, we still broke the trip into two parts and I still cringed when my sons ran around the motel room barefooted. What changed is that we didn't bring

I'm running off the field in my maroon soccer uniform, cleats full of mud, heading toward a huddle of my teammates when I spy her out of the corner of my eye, standing along the sideline, next to my parents.

"Hi," I say, running up for a quick hug before rejoining the huddle.

I'm at a quaint little Inn, on a family vacation. I head to the garden to join the others, all of us sipping on cool drinks and she smiles at me, motioning for me to sit next to her.

I'm at her house and it's Thanksgiving and I hear her laughter rise to join the aromas of good things cooking. I plop in front of the TV and enjoy the familiar surroundings.

I'm walking down the aisle with a partner I don't like, but who matches me in height. I grab my diploma and turn briefly to face the audience, feeling victorious. Miraculously, I spot my family and she's there, beside my mom, waving.

I'm waddling around, a belly full of twins, ready to burst and she visits, putting her hand on my belly, then on my uncle's