happy weekend, happy tuesday

Last weekend was a good one, and it was followed by an even better week. Tuesday night... I can't tell you how ecstatic I was to hear the words "President Elect Obama." And you know what? It Still Feels Good. (This Judith Warner piece, especially the picture, is really fantastic too.)

I really should be in bed right now--just 20 more minutes while I wait for the laundry to finish. Here are some pictures of last weekend. On Saturday we raked leaves (still far too many left, though) and our boy danced among them wearing many stripes.


Then, on Sunday, we headed back to PA to visit our old neighbors L and S, who will be moving themselves next month to South Carolina to be with their sons. Friday was S's birthday, so j helped me bake some pumpkin bread with cream cheese frosting. There was a lot of pouring water to and from measuring cups, and he insisted that I put powdered sugar on his face.


Then it was off to PA. As we neared the end of Jersey, we saw some beautiful hot air balloons, and I was able to grab a few shots while racing along the highway.


(Click on the images to make them larger.)

halloween

This week I got to see Cornel West on campus--what a fantastic speaker. It was more than his referring to private conversations with “Brother Barack.” He puts things into perspective and despite all of his excitement and preacher-like cadences (or perhaps because of them?), he's a very calming presence... actually, I need to finish this blog entry soon because he’ll be on Bill Maher in a few minutes.

We had a great Halloween this year. In the afternoon my mom and I headed over to j’s school, where they had a Halloween “parade” with the kids in their costumes. j wore the same spider costume he had last year (glad I listened to P’s advice about getting the larger size!), and it was fun to see all the little ones dressed up. My favorite was the kid dressed as a slice of mushroom pizza.

Our presence having completely distracted j from any hope of a normal day, we took him home about 45 minutes early. Though we planned to have dinner before trick-or-treating, kids began at around 4:30, so P and j headed out early. The trick-or-treaters kept coming on and off until about 8.

I know it’s not everyone’s thing, but I like Halloween quite a bit, and am ecstatic that we finally live somewhere where a fair amount of kids come trick-or-treating. I’m already planning for changes I’ll make next year. The first is that I should buy some kind of luminaries to light the way to our door since it’s somewhat dark. Kids had to travel up two flights of stairs to get to our kitchen door, and the luminaries would make it safer. Also, I want to start collecting some more decorations, and get j in on the act sooner. (Over the last few weeks in school, he made the few things I put on the window here.) Oh, and more creepy stuff--we have some funky spaces in the front of the house that could lend themselves well to more Halloween decorating.

I took some fun pictures tonight... if you’d like to see them and I haven’t already sent them to you, send me an email. I’m not sure if j is getting too old for me to keep sending tons of unrequested photos. :)

playing catch-up

This may have been the longest blog hiatus I’ve had. It’s been a crazy month, what with all this administrative work, P being in rehearsal, and my mom moving a mere 10 minutes away from us. As of yesterday, however, P’s show is over, my mom is moved, and the administrative work is at least slowing down a bit. Lately work, especially this extra job, has been incredibly stressful and kind of depressing and I’m not sure how it will--or even should--fit into the rest of my life, but I’m trying to do my best for now.

School is going well for j. Because of the bus, he has long days, leaving at 8 and not getting home until 4:30, but we’ve definitely seen an improvement in his communication skills and behavior. According to his teacher, he’s an enthusiastic participant in all the activities--especially the singing. He still has trouble focusing on one thing at a time. All this isn’t a surprise, but it is nice to hear overall positive things right now.

And the election! Only one more week to go and I cannot tell you how much I long for next Wednesday when it’s all over. We’ve been talking politics in this house every day for over a year. j can immediately identify the candidates by sight:

“Barack Obama—-yea! John McCain—-ugh”
...though he sometimes, much to his parents’ chagrin, gets the commentary reversed.

He can also identify Michelle Obama and “Joey Biden!” and McCain’s running mate, “Tina Fey.” (I’m desperately hoping that come next week, he won’t need to ever know the actual name of the Republican VP nominee.)

It's funny, this writing thing. Getting down just the few above thoughts was a little rough since I haven't been doing it for a while. Must. write. more. often.

chopsticks!

Let me preface this video by explaining that today was the first day j used chopsticks. It was not intentional. There’s a new restaurant in town that serves Chinese food and sushi, and P decided to get some sushi for lunch.

I knew that there was a brief mention of chopsticks on a Sesame Street video that j watches, but I had no idea how well he had it memorized until he saw P’s chopsticks.

“Chopsticks!” j grabbed the chopsticks from his dad, forcing P to wander the kitchen in search of a new pair and ending up with some fancy ones I purchased a few years back. Then, while trying to spear a piece of avocado, j said (I am not making this up), “This is how I eat chopsticks. I hold it like a pencil, then you take it, and eat it!” And for his first attempt, he didn’t do half bad.

Then he got a bit more adventurous, and, well, this happened...

ahoy

Did you all know that today is International Talk Like a Pirate Day?

Seriously, it is. And there's an event going on at a local bar here in celebration. Really.

school (seems to be) way cool

Well, we’re near the end of the week and the bus is going well. j rides in the morning with one aide and a driver, and in the afternoon with another aide and driver. He loves the aide who rides with him on the way home--her name is Aggie, and this week has been All. About. Aggie. (The wheels on the bus go Aggie, Aggie, Aggie... etc.) I think his reluctance to get on the bus in the morning has been more about the fact that Aggie isn’t there rather than general dislike of the bus.

And school seems to be going well, too. He brings home tons of artwork each day, including this masterpiece, which cracked me up. I can imagine him leafing through a toy catalogue with someone at daycare, pointing to things excitedly. Ball! Letter! Baby!

fey as palin

In case you haven't seen it, here is Tina Fey as Sarah Palin and Amy Poehler as Hillary Clinton on SNL last night.



Best line? Poehler/Clinton saying she doesn't "want to hear you compare your road to the White House to my road to the White House. I scratched and clawed through mud and barbed wire and you just glided in on a dog sled wearing your pageant sash and your Tina Fey glasses."

palin is crap

Yeah, I said it. There are so many reasons that this woman gives me agita, sometimes I just freeze when I hear her name. It’s like 10 times worse than thinking about Bratz.

My agita is not all about her (though I find her policies atrocious); it’s because her VP candidacy has once again focused this election on personality rather than the issues. Not to mention the fact that reactions to and defenses of her--from both the Left and the Right--reek of sexism.

Since my Palin-agita typically renders me incoherent, I'm going to need to use bullets. Here are just some of the many reasons I despise her candidacy:

• Her policy on the environment (This one is a must-read.)


• Her views on abortion (If you feel like laughing while being pissed off at Republican hypocrisy, see Samantha Bee's take on Bristol Palin's "choice.")


• Her policy on sex education


• Her stance on same sex marriage


• Her take on civil liberties in general


• Her lack of knowledge about issues (see Bush Doctrine, etc.)... not to mention how insulting it is that it is this woman we're discussing over intelligent, accomplished politicians like Hillary Clinton. Oh, and while we’re on the topic...


• The difference in treatment between Palin and Clinton (I hope to read more commentary on this, because I haven't seen a whole lot yet. For now, there’s Warner’s "Mirrored Ceiling" piece that gestures towards what I would call Palin’s “palatable feminism” in relation to Clinton’s. There’s also Collins’s commentary here in which she argues that in comparison to Clinton’s achievement, Palin’s nomination “feels like a step back.” Uh, yeah. More like a mile back.)


• The sexist treatment of Palin by some Obama supporters! Come on now, people! Set aside the fact that it’s offensive: there’s no way to win using that strategy now that conservatives have discovered sexism. I’ve had a hard time with NOW this year (there was, you know, the whole primary season), but I think that their recent statement on the treatment of Palin is spot-on: “...we should defeat anti-women's rights candidates like Sarah Palin based on their merits and their positions, not their gender.”

In “The Mirrored Ceiling,” Judith Warner states that “real people” find Palin

acceptably “real,” because Palin’s not intimidating, and makes it clear that she’s subordinate to a great man.

That’s the worst thing a woman can be in this world, isn’t it? Intimidating, which appears to be synonymous with competent. It’s the kiss of death, personally and politically.

But shouldn’t a woman who is prepared to be commander in chief be intimidating? Because of the intelligence, experience, talent and drive that got her there? If she isn’t, at least on some level, off-putting, if her presence inspires national commentary on breast-pumping and babysitting rather than health care reform and social security, then something is seriously wrong. If she doesn’t elicit at least some degree of awe, then something is missing.

Yes, yes, and yes.

school is cool

j started school today. It’s a school that specializes in kids with special needs--according to his IEP, he’ll get speech therapy and occupational therapy several times a week there. The “school” part only lasts from 1-3:30, but they have a daycare there as well, so we decided to have him in the daycare in the morning so he can have more daily interaction with other kids, which he really needs. The daycare is an integrated program, but the classroom is right across the hall from his afternoon class.

He seemed to have a really good time. j’s been having a very tough time with transitions lately, but he has always seemed to adapt pretty easily to other people. The place--playground, teachers, classroom, services--is wonderful, and P and I feel very comfortable with it. Between all our moving around, we’ve seen many daycares/preschools and this is one of the nicest.

So he’ll be there 5 days a week, and I am excited for him to (1) be on a regular schedule and (2) be playing with other kids regularly. And they won’t kick him out if there’s an incident.

The immediate concern, though, is the bus. j’s services include transportation to and from school. He hasn’t gone on the bus yet, since P and I decided to take him for these few two days so he knows where he’s going. The ride takes 45 minutes, and he’ll start Monday. I’m terrified that he’ll scream for the entire bus ride and that it will take 3 people to strap him into the car seat. I think he’ll be fine once he actually gets to school (since there's that transitions-are-bad-but-new-people-are-fine thing).

I’m back to school too, doing a bunch of administrative work in addition to teaching. P is directing a play at his college that goes up in October; he’ll been gone a lot in the next month. So we’re all pretty darn busy, and truth be told, I love it. I feel better overall when I can focus on work and we have a schedule going.

getting ready

I’ve been organizing and getting ready for school. I just donated a bunch of clothes that I don’t wear, which means that my closet is virtually empty. (Peter Walsh claims that the average person only wears about 20% of what s/he owns--or something like that--and I have found that to be true in my own closet. So I have purged, though I’m still not satisfied that I will indeed wear all that I’ve kept.) This purge has made me realize I need some more work clothes, especially since I will likely be going in much more than I previously thought. The administrative work that was supposed to happen, but then didn’t, is now once again happening.

Other things... since we don’t yet have money to fully renovate the bathroom (nor the stomach for it--kitchen renovations were pretty tough earlier this year), P did great work painting the woodwork and cabinets white and it looks much cleaner and more open in there.

Our next house improvement is to get a bed. As some of you know, we’ve been sleeping on a mattress on the floor since we moved into our house in PA over two years ago. On move-in day, we realized that the boxspring wouldn’t fit up the stairs, so out to the curb it went. (I tried to Freecycle it for a while, but no one seemed to want a boxspring with no mattress.) Anyway, we’ve been sleeping on the floor since. I don’t really mind it, but I do miss being able to, say, sit on the bed to put on my socks. I think it would also cut down on the abrupt wake-ups from j, who just this morning ran and jumped on me, saying, “I made some coffee.” Though I was hopeful, this was unfortunately not true. However, j *has* been “helping” make coffee with me lately, which used to involve just pushing the button on the coffeemaker and shouting “Here it comes!” as the coffee began to drip. Lately, though, he wants to actually scoop the coffee into the maker, and this experience has become more and more harrowing since he doesn’t want me to touch him as he wields an overflowing scoop of ground coffee, some of which lands in the intended filter, while some gets sprinkled all over the counter, the floor, and the chair on which he stands. I try to help, but he admonishes me to “go see Daddy,” which is--as I should know--code for “I need some space, dude.”

j and I went to a lovely playdate yesterday hosted by a mom in our village who has access to a private beach on the lake. All the kids were younger than j, but he had a great time, focusing on all the sand toys. This is somewhat unusual for him, but I have seen some more focus in the last few weeks, even in the art room.
These are a few pictures of his obsession with putting eyes on bagels. I think I did this once to make him laugh and then he insisted all clay bagels must have eyes.

phelps returns

Only a few more days of the Olympics left: you can tell because Michael Phelps is on his way home.

birthday boy

The Olympics are exhausting me. Others get injuries from participating in sports; I get injured from watching them. Today I woke up with the worst kink in my neck from falling asleep on the couch trying to get my Olympics fix.

j has been making me play his birthday video over and over. It’s the one where we’re all in Northern MI and everyone sings “Happy Birthday” to him and then he blows out the candles on his birthday pie--which, as you can see, he does quite nicely. This picture was taken before the candles were even lit, so this was essentially taken during a trial run, but I assure you that he blew out the candles like a pro. I credit the training provided by aunts and cousins during extreme bubble sessions. :)

That Michigan cherry one was his first of two birthday pies. The second one was an apple one I made using a Bittman recipe I hadn’t tried before. It was nice: really subtle and not too sugary. For j, it was pie, so it was good. The next day I reminded p and my mom (visiting for a few days) that we “have some leftover P.I.E.” j perked up and said, “Mama, I love P.I.E.” I’m going to need to bake desserts with longer names.


We’re giving in to his musical side. For a while there I had banned j’s “dance playlist” because he was growling “Good Morning Starshine” over and over. However, we’re realizing that the music can calm him, too. It’s a hard balance, but essentially if music is not playing, he’ll make it play himself, growling and stomping whatever his favorite song happens to be. In the last few days he’s done this wearing a new winter hat he got for his birthday. He seems to love this hat, which is strange since he usually hates wearing hats... but he actually napped wearing it the other day. I took this picture just after he woke up; he's wearing the hat and holding a new bat he also got for his birthday.

No official word on where he’ll be for preschool this September. I would love it if he could go back to the child development center at my work, but I just don’t think he’s ready--ok, I don’t think the other kids are ready--for that yet. I am hopefully that after he’s in this early intervention program for a bit (maybe a semester? Maybe a year?), he can return to the other school. I’d like to write more about all the hand-wringing and inconsistent evaluations that have gone into this process, but I’m a little too fragile right now. More later...

laptops, books, bubbles

Hooray! After a few days, the wonderful techie-dudes at work located my lost files and pictures and hooked me up with a new laptop. I like this new PC is nice, which is good since I don’t have a choice anyway. Going Mac isn’t an option unless we buy one for personal use once our home desktop finally dies... but I have to admit feeling a bit of computer-envy when I look over at P’s Mac from work.

Over vacation I only got to 3 books this year: The Yiddish Policemen’s Union (good), Bel Canto (good), and Saturday (great). I’m updating my Shelfari now, but M’s post and my conversation with N last month are making me think I should also check out Goodreads. Is the interface better than Shelfari?

We’ve had a pretty good week over here. j and I have been playing with the birthday presents. From Grandma and Grandpa: a fantastic dollhouse with people who, according to j, like to eat a red flower for every sit-down meal. From the cousins and aunts: a birthday bubble set, complete with food coloring, soap, glycerin, and mixer. Those neon colors are sweet, guys. Thanks--j and his mama love them.

s'mores club

My laptop has exploded. After our return from two great weeks in Michigan, I attempted to turn on my laptop Sunday night only to find that it refuses to load Windows. Screens in DOS never looked scary when I used them to type college papers, but now they are most unwelcome.

The good news is that I'll finally be getting the much-needed new laptop I've been requesting for months. However, I am now at the mercy of the great guys in our IT department, who have given only vague promises that they can reclaim the 15+ hours worth of course prep I did and about half of the pictures I took in Northern Michigan (sob!). As most of you know, I love taking and sorting pictures, so the possibility that I've lost many of them is pretty devastating to me. We'll see what kind of magic they can work this week.

It may therefore be a while before I can post a vacation picture. In the meantime, I encourage anyone reading this to go and vote for the first caption for this cartoon in The New Yorker's weekly contest. How can that first one not win?


"The first rule of s'mores club is you do not talk about s'mores club."

vacation part 1

Ack! So long since blogging. We took what is becoming an annual trip to the shore this past week, one of us went to a family wedding, and P finished up the months-long saga of his (most excellent) show. Now we have four relaxing days at home before heading off again to Michigan. I plan to relax by doing what I often do in the summer when September seems uncomfortably close for comfort—course redesign and planning.

In short, there may not be much blogging, but as I often do to make up for writing, here are some pictures of j as worthy substitutes. We had a great time at the shore. j loves running into the ocean with no fear (except for that of his parents). He also loves lemon water ice, which he was reluctant to share. One night after he finished some water ice walking down the boardwalk, I looked down to see that he began to gnaw on the cup itself.

people in your neighborhood

Today all three of us were home—such a treat, since P’s been rehearsing in the city a lot. P took j for a grocery store run and a quick visit to the lake (as captured here on P’s phone) while I began to attack the horror that is the basement. I like to think of it as decluttering, but once we started moving things around down there, I realized it was unpacking. We’d never really recovered from two moves in a year and then renovating the kitchen immediately after the move... so we had stuff in kitchen boxes that we’d packed over a year ago and never opened until today. There are other things in the basement that have been moved from each of our six (!) homes in the past five years.

After today, my immediate goal has changed from throwing out 80% of what we own to just being able to walk easily through the basement. I actually took pictures of this godforsakenbasementmess that I will post only when I have some beautiful “after” shots with which to contrast them. But I’m happy with today’s progress, if only because I yanked down the curtain in the laundry area that must have been there for at least 40 years and replaced it with a curtain we had lying around. Things are getting there.

This evening, after a relatively calm dinner, we decided to take j for a walk in his tricycle (we push from behind as he hasn’t yet mastered pedaling) to get some ice cream at the shop closest to our house, which is about a 5 minute walk. This short walk turned into a 90 minute journey, however, since j ran into a little boy his age with whom he’s swapped tricycles a few times. After some fun playtime, we got our ice cream, then ran into j’s buddy again on the way home, along with a few other kids and parents on the block. Everyone was incredibly friendly and I was so happy to actually be outside, (gasp!) talking to people.

j’s buddy is large for his age, too, though he’s about 6 months older. The little girl who lives down the street (a year older than j) is also large for her age. This is comforting: her mother and I mused that on this street, at least, all three of them can feel completely “normal.” I think we’ll be ok here.

colbert and cookie monster

Stephen Colbert blames Cookie Monster for fruit usurping the cookie's rightful place as the number one snack for children under six. Favorite line delivery? CM calls Elmo's car fuel-efficient because it runs on "imagination."



I like the Colbert/Sesame Street combination. j went through a whole phase last year during which Z was his favorite letter because of Colbert's appearance on this DVD.

your groove i do deeply dig

We've been working on art and generally airing out the basement room the last few days. Also, there's been a whole lotta dancing. I created "j's Dance Playlist" on my MP3 player and apparently it is now the only music suitable for j to dance to. I hope to add more songs in and delete some so the adults in the house don't get bored. His favorite song right now is "Good Morning Starshine" from Hair, which he sings loudly in a scary sort of growl:

gliddy glub gloopy nibby nabby noopy
la la la - lo lo
sabba sibbi sabba nooby aba naba
lee lee - lo lo
tooby ooby wala
nooby aba naba
early morning singing song

He'll dance to this at home, but he'll also growl it loudly, rocker-style, in the grocery store, prompting mostly startled looks. The only way I have so far discovered to get him to settle a bit is to sing the song to him softly. If I sing with him he'll sing it sans growl.

The other song he loves is "Groove is in the Heart," which does indeed include the line "Horton Hears a Who" (see, P?).

wearable feedbags

Love this video...


New Wearable Feedbags Let Americans Eat More, Move Less

art & letters (& shoes)

P finished painting and I finished arranging the artroom today. Hooray! If I can get locate some batteries, I can take some pictures. It isn’t completely finished yet (I’m trying to figure out a way to drape cloth over the ceiling beams), but j and I have had a good time already making paintings and play-dough “salads.” I may have to remove the gigantic letter puzzle that we have on one corner of the floor (it was a holiday present we hadn’t yet gotten around to unpacking). The letters are great, but their presence means he is easily distracted from all the art. The man loves his letters.

He’s also become obsessed with shoes the last few weeks. Usually this means he wants to put shoes on you. He will bring you your shoes and say Mama, a-shoes? Or Daddy, want-a shoes? Sometimes he will put on other people’s shoes and walk around. In today’s case, it was both shoes (my sandals) and gardening gloves. Nice look.