Professor Mom

Aliki
Chronicles the life of a mom, teacher, and writer trying to stay sane amid the chaos of daily life.

archives

February 27, 2009
I never said I was Martha
I've had a love/hate relationship with February for most of my life now. Up until I met Scott, my feelings tilted strongly toward the hate side of things. February, the shortest month of the year, just feels like the longest one. I tend to spend most of February torn between wishing for a snow day and longing for the first breath of spring. February has always felt like a month to trudge through, face braced against the wind. Even the daffodils that spring up around here prematurely every February seem sad rather than cheery--it's all a big tease, and it's long. Did I mention it's a long...
Birthdays, Cooking, Family, Food for Thought, Recipes
February 26, 2009
Love letters
On Tuesday T. and I spent an hour in a waiting room, while L. finished a therapy appointment. Not long after we had sat down, a little floppy-haired boy ran tumbling in, with his dad close behind. The boy was two, his dad told me, and at that wonderful age when everything out of his mouth was a string of unintelligible sounds--no distinct words, but the sounds were clearly recognizable as questions, statements, exclamations. He pointed, he smiled, he gestured in delightful and easily identifiable ways. He was clearly communicating, and thrilled about it all. I remember that age--the age when...
Early Learning, Kindergarten Readiness, Preschoolers, Reading and Language Arts
February 25, 2009
Memory keeper
When L. was first born, a dear older friend (and mom of five children!) gave me a blank notebook with calendar pages and told me I should write down all the funny/interesting/important happenings in our new child's life. It would be especially important, she instructed me, to write down his first words--those first declarations of self out into the world. And I did try to commit as many of these as I could to paper, that first year and a half of his life. But of course, like the children's baby books, the documentation was a little hit-or-miss, so what I have is just a sampling of all the...
Children, Growing-up Is Hard to Do, Memory, Parenting, Parenting Advice
February 24, 2009
A Good Day Indeed
So this whole cooking on live television deal turns out to be a whole lot of fun, at least for this amateur chef… I arrived at the station about an hour before the cooking segment was to air. The producer met me and took me immediately to the set. The broadcast was in progress, and I was a bit wide-eyed as I carried my items to the set kitchen. I was quickly clued in: “The stove, microwave, and refrigerator work…the sink does not. You can talk softly while we are ‘live,’ but clanging pots, jars, and such will need to be set up during commercial break.” And finally, “Pronounce your last name...
TV
February 23, 2009
Family collage
If your family is anything like my family, then you probably have many well-meaning relatives who generously send you lots of photos. Yet they are always relegated (the photos, not the relatives) to the insides of envelopes or, worse yet, end up stuffed in the catch-all box by the telephone (like ours). Sometimes we get gifts of photo albums along with the pictures, and this is much appreciated--because even though it should be pretty simple, theoretically, for us to buy an album now and again when we're out and about shopping, somehow this never happens. Who can remember to buy an album...
Activities for children, Arts & Crafts, Family, Family Activities
February 23, 2009
Absolute truths
In one of my classes last week, we talked about the concept of universal truths--known also as absolute truths--and about the need human beings have for each other. An absolute truth, by the way, is an unalterable and permanent fact, and we all have different understandings of what absolute truths are in our own lives. In my class we talked about how humans need connections, and that it's impossible for a person to exist in isolation and flourish and survive. We were talking specifically about how people overcome (through the written word) tragedy, war, destruction, assaults on human dignity...
Babies, Colic, Coping, Family, Parenting, Social & Emotional Issues
February 23, 2009
Good Day, Here I Come...
I’ve always liked performing--the thrill of getting in front of people and seeing their reaction. Since I can’t act to save my life and even my own children tell me, “Stop!” when I sing, I had to find another venue to satisfy my inner ham. I did figure skating when I was young, and I loved performing in the annual ice show and competing in small local competitions. As I grew older, I took up dance, and again, ate up performing for a crowd. In high school, I tried out and was cast as a reporter for a local teen television show called 2010: Taking You into the Future (at the time, 2010 sounded...
TV
February 20, 2009
TGIF
We made it to the end of the week--all of us (yes, even you). It was one of those weeks that drags on and on and on Groundhog Day-style, and by the time we hit Wednesday, I honestly felt it should have been Wednesday two weeks from that day, the week seemed so long. I craved getting home so badly on that day, and so did both kids. All the rainy afternoon long T. kept asking, can we go home now? and I kept having to tell her--not yet, after we pick up L., or after homework, and in the distance Going Home glittered ahead, a beckoning, comforting oasis we wanted so much. I didn't even have it...
Cooking, Family, Food, Food for Thought, Life, Recipes
February 19, 2009
That Place
I ran to the store for the third time in three days yesterday. I hate weeks like this week, when time constraints prevent us from making one big shopping run on the weekend, because I spend the week shopping in bits and spurts and spending too much money in the process, I'm sure--no, I know. The other day I joked with the cashier at Harris Teeter about a giveaway she was plugging--log onto the website and enter my name to win $1,000 in groceries. "Wow," I said. "That won't buy much." And she agreed, and we laughed, but it's really not funny, when you think about it. Yesterday T. and I did a...
Character Sketches, Children, Coping, Moms, Parenting
February 18, 2009
Sunday at the park
This past Sunday we finally broke free from the house and took the kids on a family trip to the library (more Junie B. Jones books--help us!) and then to this store to replace the little jeweled box of chocolates we got for L. for Valentine's Day. The dog swiped the box off his side table a few hours after he got it, and only minutes after he'd arranged all the chocolates just so in the box. He's not one to be emotional over possessions, but he came downstairs later that night with a sad expression and a smoothed out red wrapper--from the only chocolate he'd managed to eat before the dog got...
Children, Family, Friends, L., Life, Moms, Parenting, Social & Emotional Issues, Sons, Unbearable Lightness
February 17, 2009
Independence
I'm going to make a dramatic departure from my usual wordy (too wordy?) posts and give you these photos instead, not only because yesterday was a long day indeed, as most Mondays are, with too many things to think about and too much thrown into the mix, but also because I think the photos speak so perfectly for themselves. I'm sure they will strike a chord with parents of feisty, I-just-turned-FIVE-and-can-do-it-on-my-own-thank-you-very-much children everywhere: I call these photos "Independence," and while I did have to stifle some impatience over all the messes I had to clean up...
Parenting, Preschoolers, Somebody Pinch Me
February 16, 2009
The House Rules
I've been thinking a lot lately about House Rules--or, namely, about how they are often not followed at our house, despite having many of them. We had a lot more success with House Rules when the kids were toddlers. Rules like don't touch the outlets, or no climbing on the tables, or don't walk out the front door without a grown-up, or no chewing on toys that don't fit into the end of a toilet paper tube. Those rules were all easier to enforce in the old days, when the kids wore diapers and listened to us. The rules were all concrete and there were pretty clear cause-and-effect outcomes to...
Children, Early Learning, Family, Growing-up Is Hard to Do, Parenting, Parenting Advice
February 13, 2009
The other side of being five
Having a new five-year-old means lots of things: worrying about kindergarten, monitoring early-learning skills, watching your preschooler bloom into a elementary-school kid right before your eyes, and slowly but surely loosening your grip on those early childhood years and getting used to a new "normal"--new relationships with your child, new challenges, new triumphs. But it also means that it's time for that dreaded five-year checkup. I vividly remember L.'s 18-month checkup and rejoicing in the news that he was done with shots until he turned five. This was glorious news indeed, because no...
Children, Health, Kindergarten, Kindergarten Readiness, Parenting, Parenting Advice
February 12, 2009
Hearts
Every year I set out at the beginning of February planning to help my kids make the world's cutest, sweetest, most creative Valentines, and every year I find myself two or three days away from the kids' school parties with no Valentines in sight. Then we rush desperately to the craft store to find out that there's been a run on lace doilies and red paper, and we end up at our local super-evil mega store, where we purchase some slightly tacky, mass-produced Valentines for way too much money. This year I vowed would be different. I had big plans for taking the kids to the craft store on Tuesday...
Activities with Children, Arts & Crafts, Children, Family, Holidays, Parenting
February 12, 2009
Corn Spoonbread
One of the great things about being married to a Southerner is the rich food traditions he brought to our marriage. He is by far the better cook between us, growing up with a dad who did much cooking and working his way through college in restaurants. Sweet tea, fried okra, Carolina pork barbecue, Low Country Boil, and banana pudding are just some of amazing culinary creations of the South. Another favorite southern fare is Corn Spoonbread. While I normally like to cook all my food from scratch, this recipe uses an easy shortcut--a box of cornbread mix--to help make this dish a snap. But...
Recipes, side dishes
February 11, 2009
Lost years
I had a big post planned for today on family meetings and making house rules, and on how to motivate your child to follow house rules. And I had three hours in my office set aside to write and work, and to complete some piles of teaching-related paperwork that have been shifted to one side of my desk. And then I ended up buried under a few a textbooks that a publisher sent me to preview. None of those other things got done--not a one (although I did push some papers around a bit when I was trying to find a pencil). I'm still working on the house rules post--don't worry, those of you who...
Early Learning, Education, No Child Gets Ahead, Parenting, School Daze
February 10, 2009
Sweet surprise
Every now and then I stumble upon a recipe that sounds oh-so-appealing, but I'm just not sure how it will turn out. I actually feel this way about most of the crock-pot recipes I try out. When I'm cooking the conventional way, I can usually tell as I go along how the thing is going to turn out. As I mix and chop and knead and the different cooking smells rise up around me, I can almost taste the final product with the ends of my fingertips. There's something about the process of cooking that is almost as good as eating the results. Anyway, crock-pot cooking somewhat reduces this process for...
Cooking, Food for Thought, Recipes
February 9, 2009
The Robin Tree
This past weekend was perfect--beautiful, cloudless blue skies and temperatures in the 60s all weekend long. On Friday, as Scott and I flopped, semi-comatose, on the couch, trying valiantly to stay up later than usual (because it was, after all, Friday), we decided that we'd set Saturday aside as a day of no worrying about things we can't change, no talking about where to send T. for kindergarten, no thinking about health insurance benefits (or lack thereof) for this and that, or workload woes. We would just enjoy the day--Saturday in all its unassuming perfection, a day for setting the house...
Children, Family, Food for Thought, Home, Parenting, Recipes, Spring, Tradition, Unbearable Lightness
February 6, 2009
Kindergarten readiness 101
Kindergarten registration began yesterday. Last week Scott took T. to visit our neighborhood school--a different school from the one our son goes to. When L. started kindergarten, we lived in another neighborhood. The school there--large and business-like, didn't seem the right fit for our little guy. But T. is a different child--unique and special in her own way. More and more I hear about parents who are sending their kids to different schools and trying hard to tailor their child's education opportunities. Gone are the days when all the siblings in one family went to the same school, had...
Growing-up Is Hard to Do, Kindergarten, Kindergarten Readiness, Parenting, Parenting Advice
February 5, 2009
It's the simple things...
Everywhere you go these days, there are headlines and stories and anecdotes about "living simply"--the fallout from the tanking economy. In our local newspaper the other day, there was a story about how families are foregoing beach vacations and exotic trips, and shying away from buying large and expensive items, because of job layoffs, downsizing, salary cuts, and, it seems, a growing consciousness of the importance of living more simply. On the one hand, I can't believe this realization has only suddenly hit millions of people; on the other hand, I'm glad it has. Thinking about living more...
Life in General, Parenting, Social & Emotional Issues, Treasures
February 4, 2009
Highs and lows
We finally sold our old minivan yesterday--months and months after a small handful of offers and near-sales fell through. As we ate celebratory pizza at a favorite pizza place (there's something extra special about going out for pizza, I think, instead of ordering it in), we talked about what a nice feeling it was to have a little extra cash. We didn't talk about any grand plans for spending it, because we don't have any--it's all earmarked, more or less, for practical things like medical co-pays. But it was a nice feeling to have it and to know that, in selling the van, we helped another...
Children, Dentist, Health, Parenting, Parenting Advice
February 3, 2009
Numbers
I think I jinxed things royally last week when I wrote about L.'s diary writing. Although I did know it wouldn't last forever, I was hoping he'd found at last a pressure-free way to practice writing, under circumstances he controlled, and at times he--and he alone--picked. We've been struggling for years to help L. break through the barriers he sets up (and faces) about writing. His self-esteem about his ability to write has been eroded away year after year, as he falls further and further behind. And while I know that practice makes perfect, no one can manage to persuade L. that this is true...
Children, Early Learning, Parenting, Reading & Language Arts, School Daze, Special Needs, Writing
February 2, 2009
A feast for the family
While most of the country yesterday was cooking up pots of Super Bowl chili, melting pounds of cheese for nachos, and downing seven-layer dip and other traditional football-watching foods, we used Family Cook Night to produce a massive Chinese feast in honor of the Chinese New Year. L.'s been wanting to celebrate the Chinese New Year for days now, ever since he found out that it started on January 26th, and I've been postponing my promise to cook up a stir-fry for days now, too. "Chinese New Year is my favorite holiday EVER," he stated at dinner exactly one week ago. "Really?" we asked him,...
Activities with Children, Cooking, Family, Family Activities, Food, Holidays, Recipes