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[Dec. 3rd, 2009|01:27 pm] |
Amelia: Boo-ub, boo-ub, boo-ub!
Me: Would you like some milk?
Amelia: HAHAHAHAHA heh heh heh
Me: I'll take that as a yes.
I think my daughter has learned to say "boob." I would have preferred any number of other words, but at least "book" came sooner. |
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| (no subject) |
[Nov. 21st, 2009|06:12 pm] |
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We left the house today for the first time in nearly a week. I have been so hesitant to get anyone else sick, and to expose my kids to all kinds of shit while our immune systems are still compromised, that we've been total homebodies. But Aiden had his birthday party today, so we went. Ruxton takes the car on Saturdays because he's teaching lessons now in addition to his managerial duties, so he has to bring his guitar, bass, and other teaching materials which are not easily transported via bicycle. The kids and I took the bus and walked to Papa's. On the way back, the only empty seats that were together were next to this nice guy, a grandfatherly type. He was mostly bald, but had a white beard and wire-rimmed glasses. He struck up conversation with David, and was perfectly jovial. Right before we got off, he whispered to David that he was Santa Claus. David said, "But it's not snowing!" and Santa said, "Well, I have to be SOMEWHERE, even when it's not snowing. Why not here?" I'm not entirely convinced that he wasn't telling the truth. |
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| Kids these days |
[Oct. 15th, 2009|03:34 pm] |
Twenty-one years and a few weeks ago, I had my first day of Kindergarten. I wore a white blouse and plaid jumper with the saddle shoes that were required of my private Catholic school. There were about 20 kids in my class, and I was the only one who could already read. I happened to have an older sister for whom teaching was an innate part of her learning process. As she learned to read, so did I.
I was the exception. So much so that that school requested that I skip a grade. My mother declined. This, however, is not the point. The point is that my knowing how to read upon entering school was the exception. Not so many years later, it is now the rule. My kids' pediatrician informed me yesterday that when his eldest entered kindergarten 8 years ago, he was expected to already know how to read. He recommended a book that had exercises to do with your child to teach them to read so that they'd already be proficient when they entered school. I appreciate his commitment to literacy (he gives the kids a book at each appointment, even!), but I do not think this is the way to go about it.
I love books. I really, really love books. I revere them, even. But I absolutely do not think that doing exercises with my child is the way to teach him that reading is valuable and an essential part of his education. I keep getting the impression that schools think that kids will read if they know how, and that teaching the mechanics of reading is the way to get them to do it. It is common knowledge that children who read do better in school. Is the pleasure part being completely ignored here? The children who read do so because they enjoy it. Should we not instead be focusing on the enjoyment part? I do not think that teaching my child HOW to read is going to make him WANT to read. I think that demonstrating a love of books and of reading is the way to make him want to LEARN to read.
So thank you, Doc, I really do like you, and I sincerely appreciate your trying to help, but I'm not even sure yet that my kid will be going to Kindergarten in a couple of years. I'm certainly not going to start drilling him on vowel sounds (especially not in a language that isn't particularly phonetic). I will, however, keep reading with him, and telling stories, and having him participate in making up stories at bedtime. Because really, isn't that what it's about? Enjoyment? |
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| (no subject) |
[Sep. 16th, 2009|12:26 pm] |
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*sigh* The kid wants to go to Papa's for his birthday this year. I'm a little proud that he's old enough to assert an opinion, but damn I wish he'd requested the park. |
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| (no subject) |
[Aug. 5th, 2009|03:39 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  angry | ] |
An old friend of mine just had her first baby about a week ago. Her birth story is pretty typical. It's the middle of the summer, she's miserable, so when offered, she set an induction date. This date was set for a couple of days prior to her due date. On that day, she and her husband, all smiles and anticipation, brought their belongings to the hospital and settled into a room that had been decorated by friends. She got her IV and fetal monitor in place, and began the pitocin drip. She likely had some pain medication at some point. Hours later, she wasn't progressing in an ideal fashion, so she was wheeled to the OR. (She would later say that her daughter was "already misbehaving.") Her daughter was born via c-section to a room full of smiling strangers, blue robes, and sterile equipment. The first thing she found to suck on was her own finger.
I am irrationally angry. This old friend is a Labor and Delivery nurse, and this is how she chose to birth her daughter. |
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| (no subject) |
[Jun. 25th, 2009|08:50 pm] |
I'm thinking about breaking one of my resolutions. I resolved to be a monogamous knitter this year, but I think it's actually hurting my knitting mojo. I've been working on the February Baby Sweater since the beginning of March. It's only a damn baby sweater. Between not having time to knit and some situations not being ideal conditions for lace knitting (regardless of how easy it is), it's just not getting a whole lot of work done on it. I want something smaller and simpler on the needles, too. Okay, not necessarily smaller, as the sweater is already pretty compact, but definitely simpler. I think I want to start knitting socks, and that would be pretty ideal, methinks. I'd start with a pair for David and move onto me-sized socks. I'm just tired of making stupid errors on the sweater that are a direct result of not paying enough attention to the project. Not much attention must be paid to stockinette socks except for at a few key points. Plus, I have all this awesome sock yarn lying around. Maybe I'm just trying to talk myself out of the monotonygamy, but it makes sense to me, damn it. I'll take until July 1 to decide since that will have been a full six months of knitting monogamy. |
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| Be the Match |
[Jun. 18th, 2009|07:33 pm] |
I'm pretty sure that only a few people still read this, and that most (if not all) of you are also my Facebook friends. Regardless, here's a re-post of a note that I posted there:
A few days ago, I posted a status update (on Facebook) letting everyone who saw it know that the National Marrow Donor Program is waiving the fee for the test kit until June 22nd. Well, my kit arrived today and I thought I'd document the process for anyone who might be interested in joining the registry. ( Read more... ) |
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| Warning: Bragging Ahead |
[Jun. 16th, 2009|12:58 pm] |
This is an excerpt from my professor's comments on my final project:
Stephanie, Great job! This paper is very well edited. You used a heavy hand when needed, but the paper is not overedited. You really have a good ear for language, and you are a talented editor.
!!! I had some issues with the midterm, so I ended the class just a percent shy of an A, but what-the-fuck-ever. The whole point of this was getting the necessary endorsement to professionally edit (and really, finding out whether or not I'm good enough), and I clearly managed that. WOO HOO!
/bragging |
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| (no subject) |
[May. 15th, 2009|05:55 pm] |
Over the past ten years, I have all but given up caffeine. I rely on it when I need to, like when I have a migraine, or when I absolutely must stay awake. Luckily, my general avoidance of caffeine has aided in its effectiveness in those circumstances. Lately, I have picked up the habit again because my exhaustion has been overwhelming. I fall asleep every time I nurse the baby down for a nap; I muddle my words more often than usual; I suffer from the complete paralysis of productivity. I am also just over halfway through my final copyediting course and less than halfway through the painful document that I must edit for the course. For the past week, I have had an invalid three-year-old boy who, if not typical, is just a touch (ahem) more active than is typical. He's caged, and is reacting exactly as should be expected.
I am losing my calm. A shred of it is still clinging to my ankle, holding on with all its might as I drag it along the floor while chasing a child who runs with safety scissors, but it is tiring from its battle. So, I try to feed it tea. The tea helps with the physical exhaustion, but also manages to restore a bit of the calm (or, at least, it strengthens what little remains).
I guess this is all just my way of thanking the universe for leaf water. I'd be lost without it. |
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| from the paper I'm editing for class... |
[May. 3rd, 2009|07:34 pm] |
"As regards the latest four decades, the involvement of the UN in a number of referendums on independence that took place from the end of the 1950s should be mentioned."
WHO WOULD EVEN THINK TO WRITE THIS FUCKING NONSENSE?! Would you? No! Because you have a brain! Kill me. I'm on page two, and I'm supposed to have fifteen pages of THIS anal leakage edited by midnight. |
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| (no subject) |
[Apr. 22nd, 2009|10:56 am] |
Once again, our plans to go to Knott's were postponed. We're going tomorrow. It was just too damn hot to go yesterday. It was, however, a great day for the beach. Despite reapplying sunscreen multiple times, I have a horrific (and uneven) burn. It actually doesn't hurt that badly, but I'll be damned if it doesn't look awful. The beach day was absolutely perfect, though. David and I made sandcastles and jumped waves while he was on piggyback, and there were dolphins and pelicans just 40 yards offshore. I could have easily swum out to where the pod was hanging out. By the end of the day, David's teeth were chattering and he was still begging to stay. I would not have minded at all if this whole trip were filled with days like yesterday.
( ETA pictures, per pipu's request ) |
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| 4/17 |
[Apr. 17th, 2009|09:21 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  exhausted | ] |
( +3 ) |
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| Fever in the morning, fever all through the night... |
[Feb. 24th, 2009|11:12 pm] |
At my eighth grade graduation, I was surprised by receiving an award for perfect attendance that year. I hadn't realized that I'd made it to school every single day that year, but once I thought about it, it made sense. I had friends there, and even though I failed pretty much everything except math, school was preferable to home. I was frequently late, but I guess that they counted you there if you showed up at all. I remember one day that I went home early, too.
I was friends with everyone that year, and didn't consider myself part of any one group. There were definitely the popular kids and the nerds (who played Magic behind the wall by the science rooms), but being somewhere in the middle, I got along with everyone fairly well. I was pretty notorious for mooching food off my friends in an effort to save my lunch money for more important things like CDs or going to the movies with my boyfriend. One day, at nutrition (which was the fifteen-ish minute period in mid-morning that we were given to eat a snack), a friend asked me if I wanted to finish his burrito. I said, "No, I'm not really hungry." He looked at me, moderately alarmed, and said, "You need to go to the nurse. NOW." He half dragged me there, and gave me a smug I-told-you-so look when the nurse read off my 104 degree temperature from the thermometer. I was sent home that day. That's the last time I remember having a fever. That is, until tonight. Luckily, it's only at about 101 right now, and I don't expect it to get higher.
(I've been on a kick of remembering really stupid stuff lately. Forgive me.) |
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| 36 and 37/365 |
[Feb. 14th, 2009|12:08 am] |
He's (clearly) resisting sleep.
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| 34 and 35/365 |
[Feb. 14th, 2009|12:05 am] |
David posed this picture. I swear.
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| 33/365 |
[Feb. 12th, 2009|11:11 am] |
(2/11) |
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