PregnancyFamilyEducation Blogs
June 3rd, 2008
Golden times
At the pool this past weekend we met an interesting couple who also live in the neighborhood (thanks to T., who ended up joined at the hips with their two kids--the same ones who were frog hunting with her the other day). We've been meeting a lot of interesting people at the pool lately--people we click with immediately and have engaging conversations with. This couple appeared in deck chairs last weekend, as if blown in by the breeze, leaving us to wonder where on earth they were last summer, these interesting people, because it would have been nice to have known them then. [more]
May 30th, 2008
Out with the old...
L.'s last day of second grade is today. They've had "last days" all week, really. Monday was a holiday, and then Tuesday was "game day" and the kids got to sit around most of the day and play their favorite games with each other. I was especially jealous of "bring a book and read" day on Wednesday. I had just gone to the library and checked out some good books for myself to read for a change, and the thought of being given a whole entire school day to lounge around in my pajamas with a pillow and some good books made me drool. L. [more]
May 29th, 2008
Doing it all
I rode the elevator to class with one of my students yesterday. She missed class on Tuesday--a definite no-no for summer school--and I could tell she was nervous about talking to me. She took a deep breath and plunged right in: Her three-year-old son had food poisoning on Monday night.
"I couldn't leave him with the sitter," she told me. Then she looked away for a second. "I'm...I'm still very attached to him and didn't want to leave him alone."
She seemed apologetic, almost--ashamed to admit this. [more]
May 22nd, 2008
Jekyll and Hyde
I don't know how it is with your children, but I've noticed that my kids often behave in unpredictable Jekyll and Hyde ways when in public. One day they will be as good as can be, causing heads to turn, and strangers to comment in pleased tones about how well-behaved and sweet they are; then the next day heads turn in altogether different ways, and everyone gives you a wide berth, hoping against hope that whatever is wrong with YOUR kids that day won't rub off on theirs. [more]
May 21st, 2008
A post in which I grouch a little about fruit
It's that time of year again--the time for endings and beginnings; for saying good-bye to classrooms and teachers and the old ways of an old school-year. I look at the second-graders at L.'s school and they seem suddenly all arms and legs and missing front teeth. They carry around Harry Potter books and beloved webkinz, and talk about big kid stuff like THIRD grade. At T.'s school the kids are coming into their own, suddenly, dividing themselves up by boys and girls; T. comes home with gossipy-like tales of who did what to her, and why. [more]
May 20th, 2008
Here we go again
I can't shake the feeling that summer will be over in the blink of an eye. Of course, I know that we still have many months of hot, humid, buggy, pool-filled and popsicle-sticky days ahead of us. But I started teaching summer school today, and it was with a heavy and somewhat sad feeling, mixed incongruously with the tinge of excitement I get whenever a new semester begins, that I got up this morning, made coffee, swept up T. with her tousled, sweet-smelling, bed-head, and planted a kiss on her soft cheek. When I left, T.
May 14th, 2008
Lifelong challenges
A favorite blogger friend of mine wrote the other day about a recent study out there claiming that parenthood does not, in fact, bring joy and fulfillment, that children are a source of misery and stress, and that raising them is a "lifelong challenge to your mental health." Where the data for this study came from is anyone's guess, actually, but I thought a lot about it yester [more]
May 13th, 2008
Just call me Mama (fill in the blank)
Monday was my Day Off. All this week I have work-related workshops to attend--all designed for my professional and personal betterment. But on Monday I snatched 25 minutes of extra-warm snuggle time in bed with T., and I got to pack L.'s school lunch while still in my pajamas; I got to pour myself a second cup of coffee, and I got to spend a good hour and a half playing Mama Bird and Baby Bird with T. until it was almost 10:00 and definitely time for a change.
May 12th, 2008
Doing it their way
T. has her own way of doing everything. You can show her the "right" way--or the way YOU think things ought to be done--but then she'll turn around and give the task her own personal trademark spin. If I give her a plastic bag, for instance, and ask her to help me empty the bathroom wastebaskets, she'll dump the trash onto the floor first, then spend her time picking it all up off the floor and placing it into the bag. [more]
May 9th, 2008
Some thoughts on motherhood
For my first Mother's Day, when L. was just 10 months old, my mom sent me a white T-shirt with "Mom" printed on the front. This was an unlikely gift, actually, for both the giver and the recipient (I'm not a T-shirt person), but she'd gotten the T-shirt for free and I was, after all, a "Mom" finally. I still have the shirt. I keep it folded in my drawer and it's moved with me three times now. [more]
