Professor Mom

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

archives

June 30, 2010
Cousins
My brother and his two kids are visiting us this week. My kids couldn't be any more excited about it all, especially T., who said having her cousin H. over to stay is like having an endless sleep-over party. But L. was pretty thrilled, too. When my brother pulled up in the driveway on Sunday evening, L. was the first one down the stairs. Unlike his sister, who wears her emotions on her sleeve, L. often wears his happiness behind his eyes, in a glow that's there, if you look closely. Growing up, we didn't have any cousins on my mother's side until much later, when I was maybe 9 or 10, and then...
Childhood, Children, Family, Lessons from Little Ones, Memories, Parenting, Summer
June 29, 2010
Found
T. and I did some summer cleaning of the screened-in porch the other day. With rubber gloves and a bottle of cleaning spray and several trash bags we swept and dusted away summer cobwebs and upended dead bugs and moved furniture and sorted through the plastic craft bin I keep in one corner. We always find things when we clean the porch: several dried-up paint brushes, an unopened container of play-doh, some beads, a few pom-poms ("let's save them for our doll," T. shouted when she found them). And, surprisingly, under one corner of the futon we keep on the porch we found an old doll--not just...
Childhood, Children, Greece, Memories, Parenting
June 28, 2010
Family Pets
My 17 year old dog passed away this past weekend. She died peacefully in her sleep, thankfully, and my family was spared the agonizing decision of whether or not to have her put to sleep. 17 is old for a dog, I know, but that doesn't make her death any less sad for me. I bought her in 1993 when I was 10 and she was 8 weeks old. When I think about how much time has passed and how long she has been a part of my family, it takes my breath away. She was there for it all- The transition from middle school to high school. My first boyfriend. Getting my driver's license. Proms. High school...
Death, Family pets, grieving
June 28, 2010
Savory summer
My Greek grandmother used to make the most wonderful little savory pies. Sometimes they were stuffed with olives (my favorite), or cheese, or ground meat, cooked with chopped onion and a pinch of cinnamon. These were special day pies--not something she would bake regularly. But I still remember coming in from a morning of playing outside in the hot, lemon-scented sunshine and smelling my grandmother's dough baking--like a sweet and salty cloud it would rise from the kitchen and permeate every room, making my mouth water. For lunch that day there'd be a small feast: savory pies, slabs of...
Baking, Food for Thought, Greece, Parenting, Recipes, Summer
June 25, 2010
The scar
I always fantasize in the summer months about some type of conveyor-belt contraption that will automatically apply safe amounts of sunscreen on my kids while I busy myself packing up the pool bag and assembling snacks, etc. Applying sunscreen is a tedious, thankless job, really, since kids don't seem to appreciate all the time you spend working the lotion into all those wiggly spots, and on the ears, too. L. hates sunscreen, hates having to stand still, hates being rubbed (hates being sprayed even more), hates the smell of every brand, and somehow always manages to get some into his mouth,...
Children, Lessons to Live By, Metopic Craniosynostosis, Parenting, Social & Emotional Issues, Surgery
June 24, 2010
Crafty summer
Last summer, the kids and I launched Summer Science. We made a list of science experiments/activities to explore once a week. Sometimes we invited friends over to experiment with us, other times the kids and I worked on them ourselves. This summer, neither T. nor L. seem particularly interested in Summer Science. Instead, T. suggested Summer Crafts. She and I both miss doing crafts together, the way we used to do before she started kindergarten. This year we've managed to squeeze in a few crafts here and there, but there generally just hasn't been time for anything too organized. Now, T. is...
Activities for children, Arts & Crafts, Children, Parenting
June 23, 2010
Five postcards (from the past)
It's always the case that just as soon as you are settling into your family vacation, and your mind and body begin to give way to the new rhythms of your life, you have to pack up and head home again. We traveled yesterday and then took the kids off to another swim meet, so I didn't have time to write anything new for today. So, in the spirit of yesterday's post, I'm reposting a piece from two summers ago--somehow the memories in it seems a little extra bittersweet to me this summer. ************* July, 2008 Yesterday L. told me out of the blue that one of the things he likes most about...
Children, Growing Up Is Hard to Do, Parenting, Summer, Time Machine, Travel With Kids
June 22, 2010
Dawning
Our first morning at the lake, T. woke at 5:45 a.m. I surfaced from a deep, almost drugged sleep to the sound of her voice: "Mama, can you fix me lemonade?" Of course, at 5:45 in the morning, the answer can only be an ungracious "no!" because, while I will do many things for my kids, I will not mix up a pitcher of lemonade at that hour of the morning. I lay in bed and willed T. to go back to sleep (she did, and didn't wake up again until 9:30), and as I listened to her chatter about this and that, I thought about how many vacation mornings I logged the first eight years of my parenting life...
Children, Growing Up Is Hard to Do, Lessons from Little Ones, Lessons to Live By, Parenting, Social & Emotional Issues
June 21, 2010
Father's Day, 2010
We're enjoying our long weekend at the lake! There's been lots of this, and this, and I even banished all thoughts of leeches and snapping turtles and who knows what else and lowered myself into the murky water. I also forgot that lakes come with boats, and my kids were besides themselves with joy when we went for a late night-pre-bedtime boat ride. There are definitely some perks that come with this whole vacation-at-the-lake business. Even if our windows don't overlook the Atlantic, there's something peaceful and soul-filling about gazing out at a flat, shimmery lake, in the morning. The...
Children, Dads, Family, Family Vacation, Lessons to Live By, Love, Marriage, Parenting
June 18, 2010
I'd rather be at the beach
We're heading to a lake this weekend, for a long family reunion weekend. Last year I confessed to you that I was afraid of flying. I also revealed some deep-rooted DMV phobia as well. This year, I'll share another fear with you: I'm afraid of lakes. Maybe I've seen one too many sub-par creepy lake monster movies or read too many books featuring hidden monsters and horrors lying at the bottom of still, brown lake water. In theory, I like lakes. I like the idea of rising with the sun and watching the lake come to life with wildlife. When we lived in Rochester, New York, I loved Lake Ontario,...
Children, Family Vacation, Holidays, Parenting, Summer, Travel With Kids
June 17, 2010
Sink or swim
I liked sports when I was growing up. I used to watch (of all things) boxing with my dad and, while I could never cultivate an appreciation for football, I did like to watch a good college basketball game. And I loved tennis. For a few years I was convinced I could become the next famous tennis pro. I talked my parents into getting me lessons, I practiced for hours in the basement, hitting a ball against the cement wall. I'm not sure what happened in the end--my interest fizzled, eventually. The spark died. In high school I played junior varsity basketball and although I didn't care much for...
Children, Family Activities, Lessons to Live By, Parenting, Social & Emotional Issues, Special Needs, Sports, Summer, Swim Team
June 16, 2010
Water wings
Tuesday night was our first swim meet of the season. On our way home from practice yesterday morning, we talked over what to expect, and strategized about what L. could do, if he felt overwhelmed at the meet. "Don't worry about it," he said, waving his hand and dismissing our discussion. "I'm just going to think about swimming. Swimming and winning," he added. Then it became his mantra for the rest of the walk home. "Swimming and winning. Swimming and winning!" T. joined him in the chant and they walked on ahead, side-by side, swim bags swinging from their shoulders. Scott and I followed and...
Children, Family Activities, Parenting, Special Needs, Sports, Summer
June 15, 2010
Being
One of the treasures from this past school year that T. brought home was her school journal. Almost each day of the week this past year, T. drew a picture detailing what was on her mind, or something she had done that past weekend or, simply, what she liked to do in general. At the beginning of the year, the teacher wrote the captions under the drawings. Sometimes T. tried to write her own captions, in indecipherable large, loopy letters. Halfway through the year, though, the teacher stopped writing and T. took over. Suddenly the indecipherable lettering takes form in T.’s journal, like...
Children, Growing Up Is Hard to Do, Parenting, Social & Emotional Issues, Unbearable Lightness
June 14, 2010
All mocked up
One of our most favorite things about summer, in this neighborhood we love so much, is our neighborhood pool. We love to swim, of course, and we love centering our lives around swim team, but more than anything we love how the pool becomes a gathering place for all of us. Fridays in our neighborhood mean dinner at the pool. Come about 5:00 the path through the woods becomes dotted with neighbors dragging coolers or toting bags of food. Sometimes we order pizza. We pool together our food, too, so a veritable moveable feast ends up laid out across the beach chairs. This past Friday, for...
Cooking, Family, Food for Thought, Neighbors, Summer, Vegetarian Recipes, Vegetarianism
June 11, 2010
Leaps and Bounds
My baby isn’t a kindergartener anymore. This summer, she will occupy that nebulous in-between zone, between kindergarten and first grade--she'll be a rising first-grader. Last summer she was brimming with a mixture of excitement and nervousness about this new big step. She loved preschool; I loved it, too. I know she missed her preschool friends this past year. In September, we drove past the brick preschool building and waved to it. I glanced into the rearview mirror and saw her lip trembling, just a little bit, but it trembled. My heart trembled, too. Kindergarten was a big world for her, a...
Children, Growing Up Is Hard to Do, Kindergarten, Parenting, School Daze
June 10, 2010
Minou
On Tuesday I had the chance to hang out in T.'s classroom for an end-of-year ice cream party. It still hasn't hit me that she'll be done with kindergarten today, and that the kindergarten year, so precious in many ways, is quickly becoming a thing rooted in the past. After the party, the kids, hyped up on ice cream and toppings, played around in the classroom. Plenty of girls gravitated to the computer section, but about 5 or 6 girls made a beeline for the "house" section--a little kitchen with a wooden stove, refrigerator, and cabinets, a dress-up corner, and a cradle for baby dolls. I...
Books, Children, Daughters, Growing Up Is Hard to Do, Moms, Parenting, Social & Emotional Issues
June 9, 2010
BP boycott?
One day last week (the afternoons can be a blur) I picked up T. from school, and took the kids to run an errand during the narrow margin of time we have before swim team practice. I realized that the van’s gas light was on. Maybe it had been on for some time, I didn’t know. It definitely was ON, though, in that insistent way that doesn’t bode well. But we were approaching our neighborhood and there are only two gas stations on the way to our house—both on opposite sides of the road, and both BP stations. “How am I going to get gas? I wondered out loud. “There’s a gas station!” T. pointed out...
Children, Environment, Environmental Health, Family, Parenting
June 8, 2010
Love lessons
On Friday, as I was heading from the car to my office, I passed a dead baby bird lying right smack in the middle of the concrete path. It was already in a somewhat sad state of decay, its bony wings spread out, as if it were still trying to flap its way off the ground, and I didn't know what to do. On Tuesday it was still there, and on Wednesday, too, except by then the carcass appeared to be rapidly melting in the heat. That afternoon L. and I walked together from my office, to the car. "Watch out for that poor dead bird," I told L. He looked at it, and sidestepped around, making a face. "...
Children, Lessons from Little Ones, Lessons to Live By, Loss, Parenting, Pets, Social & Emotional Issues, Special Needs
June 7, 2010
Me and you
Every day now, for the past two weeks, Scott has been dropping L. off on campus on his way to work. I meet the van in the parking lot by the college chapel, and L. springs out, happy, and usually ready to start telling me about his latest idea/obsession/book he read. We walk the path to my office, and he waits in there, surfing the internet, or reading, while I make photocopies and do odds and ends to get ready for the next morning's classes. T. finishes school this week, and the juggling act that we've been doing these past two weeks will vanish, just as quickly as it began. Scott and I both...
Children, Dads, Moms, Parenting, Siblings, Social & Emotional Issues
June 3, 2010
Memory keeper
Yesterday afternoon T. and I sorted through the big plastic bin where I keep all the bin-worthy school work and art projects from the school year. You do know, of course, that it's impossible to keep everything your child makes, no matter how much the hoarder in you wants to. At the start of each school year I buy a large, flat, plastic bin--long enough to hold large posters and oddly-sized artwork. When I pull a particularly charming or wonderful or brilliant piece of school work from her book bag, I put it into the bin. At the end of the school year I mark the lid of the bin with big...
Children, Dads, Growing Up Is Hard to Do, Moms, Parenting, Students, Teaching
June 2, 2010
Roots
In the middle of our three-day weekend, L. woke up one morning and told me his throat hurt. "Oh no!" I said, the strep throat alarms going off in full swing. I am terrified of strep throat. While it has never affected my kids too badly, it knocks me flat out. "Well," L. said matter-of-factly, "my throat has been hurting for weeks now." After prying more information from him, it did seem clear that he's had a sore throat for at least two weeks. It also seemed clear it probably wasn't strep, so I felt reassured. But we did take him to the doctor yesterday and found out he's got a fairly well-...
Babies, Children, Growing Up Is Hard to Do, Moms, Parenting, Special Needs
June 1, 2010
R & R
Memorial Weekend is all about travel for some families. Around here, lots of people pack up on Thursday or Friday and flee to the beach--where everybody else is, of course. And while I always feel that tug to dig my heels into the sand every day of the summer, I didn't feel it at all this weekend. I craved, body and soul, a quiet weekend at home. I craved sleeping in, and two cups of coffee on the back porch. I craved the gift of time--time to enjoy my kids, time to reconnect with Scott, time to just breathe a little after the crazy busy past two weeks. Lucky for me, my parents came to see us...
Food for Thought, Holidays, Parenting, Recipes, Summer, Summer Cooking