PregnancyFamilyEducation Blogs
June 2008 Archive
June 30, 2008
Getting back is hard to do
It was hard to believe, when my alarm went off at 6:15 this morning, that only yesterday morning we were undertaking that overburdened-by-beach-bags, heat-drenched, glorious clamber up the dune path--legs pushed against the slipping sand, bag handles dug into flesh. And then, just when we couldn't bear it a minute longer, the sand fell away and there was the sea in front of us, now gray, then green, then a tease of blue. [more]
June 27, 2008
Have stuff, will travel
On Saturday we're escaping to the beach for a quick, overnight stay at our favorite tiny, unpretentious (read: bare bones) motel. This motel could be The Ritz, as far as the kids are concerned, even if Scott and I have been around enough to know the difference. For my kids, there is something magical about spending the night away from home, all crammed into one room, in a place where the soaps come in little wrappers, and if you wake up in the middle of the night with a panic attack--hey!--there's your mom and dad an arm's reach away! [more]
June 26, 2008
Winners
There was a big swim meet at our pool the other night. Not long ago, I was talking with the mother of one little boy, who was going to participate in the six and under group. He's four.
"We really think he can win!" The mom told me, excitement in her eyes. [more]
June 25, 2008
Don't be an island
Hold onto your seats, everyone--this will be another woeful post about being tired and sleep-deprived, at least in part. Last night, between 1:00 and 3:30 a.m., both kids managed--in their own special ways--to send me back into the days of interrupted sleep; those painful nights where all you are allowed to do is doze, fitfully, between bouts of waking up and tending to needs. And if I ever entertained any nostalgic, fleeting ideas of a third baby, that visit back into time last night was enough to quash them all. [more]
June 24, 2008
Doing things differently
I did an interesting exercise with my students yesterday. We had just finished reading a short essay by Amy Tan--a memoir piece recounting a childhood experience about feeling different, out of place. As the daughter of immigrant parents from China, Tan writes often of her childhood experiences growing up and feeling different from her peers. I asked my students to think a little about a time in which they too felt different, and to write about it. One student claimed she couldn't think of a single time in her childhood or adolescence when she had felt different from her peers. [more]
June 23, 2008
No easy way out
We have cycled into a rut of poor sleep around here lately. Not too long ago, it seems, we were enjoying some lazy mornings and relatively seamless nights, but now we're back to middle-of-the night sleep issues rearing their ugly heads all over again. The other night I was awakened by bloodcurdling screams coming from L.'s room, and then heard the rushing of his feet. He burst into our bedroom, with the dog right behind him (wondering, I'm sure, what middle-of-the-night games were afoot). [more]
June 20, 2008
Arms and the boy
Ever since my son discovered Avi a few weeks ago, and Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys, and The Famous Five, it's been all spies and good guys vs. bad guys, and intricate scenes of smuggling and treasure-snatching being enacted all across his bedroom floor. [more]
June 19, 2008
Summer legacies
We are two and a half weeks into summer with the kids, and L. has about five and a half weeks left before school starts up again at the end of July. Our Professor Mom Family Summer Camp is in full swing, now. This past weekend we took our first "field trip" to D.C., and the kids were able to see museums, the U.S. [more]
June 18, 2008
Surviving the IEP
A friend of mine, who lives in another state, emailed me recently to ask me some questions about the IEP process. With schools letting out for the summer, many parents are bracing themselves for the big yearly IEP meetings to set up school accommodations and modifications for next year. It's a stressful time, regardless of whether your IEP is lengthy and involved, or short and fairly simple. As a parent, it's daunting and frightening to imagine that you have two or three hours in which to pave the way for your child's success for the upcoming school year. [more]
June 17, 2008
Just like that
Father's Day last year found me driving to a grocery store to buy a phone card, which I then used--unsuccessfully, actually--to reach my dad, who was in Greece. I felt sad and down about it all day long. My grandmother had passed away only a few days before Father's Day, and it was hard to be disconnected from my family at that time. My father has always been that rock of safety for me, the fixer of all things, and surrounded by that empty feeling of loss over my grandmother's death, I just wanted to hear his voice, plain and simple. [more]
