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My First WordsMy mother wanted to undo everything that my grandparents, Yudel, Fern, and Jerry had done. Not that she knew what they had done. For days she stared at me with an acute and critical eye in the hope that I would reveal some aberrant behavior. New mothers often ask their mothers for advice, but she did not have that option. How could she ask for advice without arousing suspicion? And my behavior was not reassuring. It bothered her that I did not throw temper tantrums or display defiance, as two-year-olds are wont to do, or as the child-rearing books state. She intentionally tried to goad me into a snit, just to see if I had the proper range of emotions. She placed my food in front of me and then snatched it back. And then repeated it. I reacted more like a cat swatting a ba
