So, after arriving at the doctor's office where I waited half an hour to spend 3 minutes with the nurse, waited another half an hour to spend 5 minutes with the pediatrician, and then waited another 15 minutes to spend 2 minutes with the gal (whatever her title is) that jammed three needles into my baby, I ran to Ivy's house (who once again saved my life by taking the kids to the sitter's [thanks Chanel]), nursed James, changed clothes, buckled the kids up, drove (almost) under the speed limit to campus, parked in a miraculously available spot, and RAN to my class, arriving two minutes before it was scheduled to start.
Did I mention that all of that was preceded by getting up early to make dinner so all Ben would have to do is put it on the stove, packing up for the day out, showering me and Bee and bathing J, going to ballet for half an hour, having a picnic at the park, and planning the first In-Class Writing assignment for S250 that's due on Wednesday?
I now have large blisters on both feet. The only thing that I forgot to pack for our all-day, various-destinationed excursion, was stockings. At least students don't notice that, I guess.
It's not every day that I'll go from nursing a baby while wearing slob clothes to teaching a class looking pretty darn stellar (if I do say so myself) within a half hour span.
And thank goodness for that.
Monday, August 31, 2009
Monday, August 24, 2009
"Stop acting like your sister!"
Well. I've meant to blog about an observation I made in the park this weekend and have only now managed to get to it. So here goes.
We recently discovered a new park...don't know how I didn't know about it, we're going into our third year here. But anyway. I'm convinced it's one of the coolest parks I've ever seen. There's a playground that's probably 2.5-3 stories high (I'm not exaggerating, Ben backs me up on that) with bridges and tall twisty slides, and all sorts of climbing devices. Then there's a littler playground for toddler-sized kids. Add in a 10 foot pole with spiderweb-like climbing ropes and a ford where the water drains down, and it's just plain cool. So we went there to hang out after we went to the farmer's market on Saturday (where I bought raspberries AND flowers for myself, along with many things to make into Baby J's first foods).
While we were at the park I took to observing this family...I promise I wasn't being weird. The little girl was wearing an awesome hoodie, and I wanted to watch them interact to decide if the mom was the sort I could comfortably approach to ask where she got it (I decided that one was a no...you'll see why in just a sec). There was an 18-month-old or so little girl (the cute hoodie observation instigator), a 5-year-old boy (sporting a blue Batman shirt), a mom in her early 30s (very blonde and wearing exercise pants of the 'let me show you my exact figure' sort), and a dad about her same age (wearing 'I'm a cool guy' sunglasses and looking very much like he wanted to come across as a bad a**). They looked like a cute and happy family by all accounts. I don't want the story I'm going to write to come across as a sweeping judgment of their entire existence. It's just one incident. The dad was "helping" (here read literally forcing and physically manipulating the limbs of) his little boy up a climbing apparatus. The whole time, the cute, very sweet-seeming little boy (who I had watched kiss his little sister with no encouragement a couple of times) screamed "I want MOM, dad, let me DOWN, GET ME DOWN!!!" and similar things. Eventually dad hopped him down from the climbing wall and said "Stop acting like your sister!!"
I was so upset by the whole thing. Again, I don't think that this family is messed up, or that the parents do a bad job. I just think that whether he criticized the little boy's fear as being either effeminate or baby-ish, it's an inappropriate criticism. I get a little bit frustrated with this whole idea of needing to make boys be bold, fearless, physical...whatever you want to call it. And the idea of making little girls dependent. I think we just have to let kids be the way they are (unless, no matter the gender of the kid, it's destructive or dangerous) and help them be happy with it!
We recently discovered a new park...don't know how I didn't know about it, we're going into our third year here. But anyway. I'm convinced it's one of the coolest parks I've ever seen. There's a playground that's probably 2.5-3 stories high (I'm not exaggerating, Ben backs me up on that) with bridges and tall twisty slides, and all sorts of climbing devices. Then there's a littler playground for toddler-sized kids. Add in a 10 foot pole with spiderweb-like climbing ropes and a ford where the water drains down, and it's just plain cool. So we went there to hang out after we went to the farmer's market on Saturday (where I bought raspberries AND flowers for myself, along with many things to make into Baby J's first foods).
While we were at the park I took to observing this family...I promise I wasn't being weird. The little girl was wearing an awesome hoodie, and I wanted to watch them interact to decide if the mom was the sort I could comfortably approach to ask where she got it (I decided that one was a no...you'll see why in just a sec). There was an 18-month-old or so little girl (the cute hoodie observation instigator), a 5-year-old boy (sporting a blue Batman shirt), a mom in her early 30s (very blonde and wearing exercise pants of the 'let me show you my exact figure' sort), and a dad about her same age (wearing 'I'm a cool guy' sunglasses and looking very much like he wanted to come across as a bad a**). They looked like a cute and happy family by all accounts. I don't want the story I'm going to write to come across as a sweeping judgment of their entire existence. It's just one incident. The dad was "helping" (here read literally forcing and physically manipulating the limbs of) his little boy up a climbing apparatus. The whole time, the cute, very sweet-seeming little boy (who I had watched kiss his little sister with no encouragement a couple of times) screamed "I want MOM, dad, let me DOWN, GET ME DOWN!!!" and similar things. Eventually dad hopped him down from the climbing wall and said "Stop acting like your sister!!"
I was so upset by the whole thing. Again, I don't think that this family is messed up, or that the parents do a bad job. I just think that whether he criticized the little boy's fear as being either effeminate or baby-ish, it's an inappropriate criticism. I get a little bit frustrated with this whole idea of needing to make boys be bold, fearless, physical...whatever you want to call it. And the idea of making little girls dependent. I think we just have to let kids be the way they are (unless, no matter the gender of the kid, it's destructive or dangerous) and help them be happy with it!
Sunday, August 23, 2009
Friday, August 14, 2009
Back to school, me and Bee
I'm SO glad that I'm done with coursework. I just have to worry about teaching, and I finally got my schedule. I'm only going to have to leave my babies for an hour on Monday, Wednesday and Thursday! Thanks to some good colleagues/friends who are willing to switch with me, I'll be teaching in the evening. I'm so excited that their desire to not teach in the evening coincided with my desire to not leave my kids during the day! I won't see Ben a whole lot those days, but the kids will be with one of us. Not that I'm terribly worried about leaving them...one of my great friends in the ward here is going to take care of my little ones. I'm so GLAD! There's something about being able to get my escape without feeling like I'm deserting my family.
And Bee is going to start ballet classes! She has been rather obsessed with ballet ever since she read the copy of Angelina Ballerina that my great grandma (Mamaw) gave me when I was a little girl. We found a place for her to go that does sort of basic movement things. I'm hoping it will help her with her jumping, running...big motor things. She can cut with big scissors and take DVDs out of the case without scratching them, but she can't kick a ball!
While I have those goals, her highlight of the whole thing is her new dance wardrobe: a black leotard that (shocker to a lot of you, I'll bet) was mine when I was little. (Courtesy of my Aunt T, who had it since her girls used it for their dance classes (thanks T!).) And I also bought her a pink one...which, once she didn't have Legos to be interested in, became her new favorite thing. When I asked if she would take it off to put on her pjs for bed, she said "I don't think so Momma. I'll just wear it." We did finally reach an agreement, but it took some doing.
I'm so glad that she's stand-uppy enough to tell me what she wants!!!
And Bee is going to start ballet classes! She has been rather obsessed with ballet ever since she read the copy of Angelina Ballerina that my great grandma (Mamaw) gave me when I was a little girl. We found a place for her to go that does sort of basic movement things. I'm hoping it will help her with her jumping, running...big motor things. She can cut with big scissors and take DVDs out of the case without scratching them, but she can't kick a ball!
While I have those goals, her highlight of the whole thing is her new dance wardrobe: a black leotard that (shocker to a lot of you, I'll bet) was mine when I was little. (Courtesy of my Aunt T, who had it since her girls used it for their dance classes (thanks T!).) And I also bought her a pink one...which, once she didn't have Legos to be interested in, became her new favorite thing. When I asked if she would take it off to put on her pjs for bed, she said "I don't think so Momma. I'll just wear it." We did finally reach an agreement, but it took some doing.
I'm so glad that she's stand-uppy enough to tell me what she wants!!!
Sunday, August 2, 2009
I'm officially a stay-at-home mom
And I know this at least in part because I have numerous things to blog about, none of which will be particularly interesting to anyone else, but I find at least amusing, if not exciting.
The first is (I hope) an actually exciting thing. We blessed baby today. (I still can't think of a nickname for him here) Ben did a great job, I thought the blessing was beautiful. Both granddads and a friend stood in the circle. And baby J was good and happy for the whole thing! Gran made him a blessing outfit (if I ever get to a good internet connection I'll post a pic) that was darling. So now we have a boy and a girl version of blessing garb. Hooray!
The next is (I'm sure) not even mildly exciting to anyone but me (with my compulsion for order in my existence). This week while my kids were taking SIMULTANEOUS NAPS (can't begin to express my happiness about THAT one, and yes, I know my days are numbered) I managed to clean out both Ben's and my clothes closet, the linen closet, the kids' closet, and the downstairs coat closet. And yes, that is ALL of my closets! And I'm talking a serious, really go through and throw stuff out version of cleaning them out. My little house is as ordered as it can possibly be. And that makes my brain function a lot better than it might otherwise.
The last is (I would swear to it) hilarious. We were listening to "The Ballad of Davy Crockett" from a Disney excerpts CD. After it was over, Bee hollered out "I want Baby Pocket, mom!" It was definitely the highlight of the day.
So I'm thinking about how it's odd that mundane things can be so fulfilling. I mean, during the school year there's no way I'd be excited about clean closets. I really think that I'm adaptable to my circumstances...and it's a good thing, or I'd be going absolutely nuts.
The first is (I hope) an actually exciting thing. We blessed baby today. (I still can't think of a nickname for him here) Ben did a great job, I thought the blessing was beautiful. Both granddads and a friend stood in the circle. And baby J was good and happy for the whole thing! Gran made him a blessing outfit (if I ever get to a good internet connection I'll post a pic) that was darling. So now we have a boy and a girl version of blessing garb. Hooray!
The next is (I'm sure) not even mildly exciting to anyone but me (with my compulsion for order in my existence). This week while my kids were taking SIMULTANEOUS NAPS (can't begin to express my happiness about THAT one, and yes, I know my days are numbered) I managed to clean out both Ben's and my clothes closet, the linen closet, the kids' closet, and the downstairs coat closet. And yes, that is ALL of my closets! And I'm talking a serious, really go through and throw stuff out version of cleaning them out. My little house is as ordered as it can possibly be. And that makes my brain function a lot better than it might otherwise.
The last is (I would swear to it) hilarious. We were listening to "The Ballad of Davy Crockett" from a Disney excerpts CD. After it was over, Bee hollered out "I want Baby Pocket, mom!" It was definitely the highlight of the day.
So I'm thinking about how it's odd that mundane things can be so fulfilling. I mean, during the school year there's no way I'd be excited about clean closets. I really think that I'm adaptable to my circumstances...and it's a good thing, or I'd be going absolutely nuts.
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