I'm writing a blog post from my office. Unusual. It's the weird beginning-of-the-semester time of year when classes are going but I don't have anything to grade. In a few minutes I'll check in to my online class, but am avoiding that due to the extremely annoying student I have in Statics, who addresses me by "Madam" and posts approximately 3-4 questions a DAY. It's like he thinks I'm his private tutor. I've done more extra examples this week than I did in a month of dynamics. And dynamics is harder. This is review!
I'm also waiting for a phone call from Allison's pediatrician, so I brought my cell and the home cell into work with me. We're trying to adjust her ADHD medication. Ack, it's not going well. What I need is an Allison Avatar, where I can test different therapies and/or medications and see what the outcome will be before giving them to the real life Allison. Instead, we have broad-based statistical studies that say "this will increase behavior x in 9 out of 10 attempts for 60% of children over a 6 month timeframe." Life is full of trade-offs.
Here's one thing I love about Allison. She made me a "git well" poster while she was with Leslie after school and I was having surgery. Jacob, upon realizing that HE didn't do anything, went home and made a "get well son" decoration. Allison, upon seeing Jacob's poster, gave him a super hard time about misspelling "soon." Ha, she cracks me up.
Jacob passed his N-level reading test, which is what you need to pass by the end of second grade. (Thank you - "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" series). He has declared himself done with second grade now. Jacob was also intrigued by the penguin postcard that arrived from Grandma and Grandpa while they were in Norway. He wanted to know what kind of penguin it was, so we looked it up - Rockhopper. Then he noticed the map of where they live - the Antarctic. But how did it get to Norway? According to Jacob, it must have taken a plane or a boat to Norway so that a photographer would take it's picture and put it on postcards. Clearly, the most logical explanation. I believe that it's proof that we look for explanations that fit with our previous assumptions, even when young. Belief - there was a Rockhopper penguin in Norway. Contradiction - Rockhopper penguins live in the southern hemisphere. Reconciliation - the penguin must also be on vacation in Norway.
I've also noticed that when we sit down for dinner, for example, we ask the kids about their day and they have virtually nothing to say. "It was fine." But when we are late for school and I'm trying to get them to get their snow pants on and get out the door - suddenly they have a whole crap-load of things to tell me that are so important we must stop everything and listen to the story about how classmate A plays the guitar and in school yesterday yadda yadda yadda yadda. Sigh.
Thursday, January 31, 2013
Thursday, January 24, 2013
Gone teeth
So, the teeth that have been dangling out of Jacob's mouth lately.... gone! He had to go into the dentist today for a filling and they happened to be numbing that part of his mouth. I was like "hey, while you're in there...." and though they did charge a fee (two for one - fingers crossed that insurance will pay) Jacob is now missing two more teeth.
Then he wrote a note to the tooth fairy because he wanted to keep one tooth to show his friend (I don't know why only one, and I tried to just convince him to leave them both under his pillow tomorrow - no dice).
Jacob stands firm in his belief that notes under a pillow are direct mail to the magic world of fairies, leprechauns, and elves.
Then he wrote a note to the tooth fairy because he wanted to keep one tooth to show his friend (I don't know why only one, and I tried to just convince him to leave them both under his pillow tomorrow - no dice).
Jacob stands firm in his belief that notes under a pillow are direct mail to the magic world of fairies, leprechauns, and elves.
Wednesday, January 23, 2013
Piano
Allison and Jacob's piano teacher has a cup with the Suzuki songs written on slips of paper. Allison likes to pull the song titles out of the cup and play them in "random" order. We've created a similar cup at home, and it has gotten Allison excited about practicing. Well, excited Monday-Wednesdays - she insists she doesn't have to practice Friday or weekends.
Jacob practices every day, mostly without being told. He likes to master the songs, make up his own songs, gets upset if you correct him, but manages to learn at least one hand's part to one full song per week.
At first, I wasn't too happy that Jacob was on the "waiting list" for almost a year before starting lessons. Allison started in first grade, Jacob in second grade. This puts Allison at a three year head start. That being said, Jacob is going to pass Allison more quickly than I anticipated. For example, Allison began putting together the right and left hands of the song "Cuckoo" about 2 years into lessons. Jacob is almost ready to learn that after 7 months. Even now, she hasn't totally mastered Cuckoo, and since then has learned two more "together songs" - for a total of 6. Jacob knows three of the six already.
One reason is probably that he's been hearing the songs for several years, so they are familiar already. Also, as mentioned before, he practices twice as much. Another reason is that as Allison's songs have gotten harder, it's taken her longer to move on (and we've also added sight reading, which is harder for her than we thought).
So, I'm plotting ways to get the kids in different books, or on different series, so they can't compete with one another quite as obviously. Jacob seems to be pretty good at the piano, but it's the one thing we've managed to get Allison to "stick with" even though she's learning slowly and frequently (very, very frequently) grumps about it.
Jacob practices every day, mostly without being told. He likes to master the songs, make up his own songs, gets upset if you correct him, but manages to learn at least one hand's part to one full song per week.
At first, I wasn't too happy that Jacob was on the "waiting list" for almost a year before starting lessons. Allison started in first grade, Jacob in second grade. This puts Allison at a three year head start. That being said, Jacob is going to pass Allison more quickly than I anticipated. For example, Allison began putting together the right and left hands of the song "Cuckoo" about 2 years into lessons. Jacob is almost ready to learn that after 7 months. Even now, she hasn't totally mastered Cuckoo, and since then has learned two more "together songs" - for a total of 6. Jacob knows three of the six already.
One reason is probably that he's been hearing the songs for several years, so they are familiar already. Also, as mentioned before, he practices twice as much. Another reason is that as Allison's songs have gotten harder, it's taken her longer to move on (and we've also added sight reading, which is harder for her than we thought).
So, I'm plotting ways to get the kids in different books, or on different series, so they can't compete with one another quite as obviously. Jacob seems to be pretty good at the piano, but it's the one thing we've managed to get Allison to "stick with" even though she's learning slowly and frequently (very, very frequently) grumps about it.
Saturday, January 19, 2013
Coffee anyone?
So, it was an interesting week. I won't recount the whole thing because I have a general aversion to all things regarding the inner workings of the human body. So, I'll summarize with this: two trips to the ER last weekend (me), resulting in admission, surgery, two fewer ovarian cysts and one less ovary. No worries, they were all benign. In hindsight, I should have had them cut the cord on the remaining ovary and solved any future birth control issues while they were in there.... I guess that was a missed opportunity.
But the point here is that I was forced into unplanned caffeine withdrawl. Luckily, tylenol administered directly into one's veins is moderately effective in the pounding headache department. However, now I'm faced with a quandry.... to begin again, or not? After 5 days with no coffee, coke, or black tea, I have to ask if I want to restart the habit. And I don't really know. I did have two baby cups on Thursday and Friday, and a full cup this morning - so maybe that question really is already answered.
I enjoy taking a mug of coffee with me to school each day. I can sip it in the morning (rather than being tempted to snack), it wakes me up, keeps me away from the tooth-dissolving sodas, and I love the smell. However, it stains teeth, gives pounding headaches when you skip it for a day, and possibly disrupts my sleep. Ack.
Maybe with Brian's new tea's I can switch over to that. Or maybe I can limit to a small cup a day (which is supposed to be good for you, right?). Or maybe I should just use this as an opportunity to go without for a month and then decide (once the habit is fully broken). Choices, choices.
(Also, thanks to my friend Leslie who was a great emergency kid-watcher, and Bruce and Sue who were great emergency visitors/cleaners/laundry doers/drivers).
But the point here is that I was forced into unplanned caffeine withdrawl. Luckily, tylenol administered directly into one's veins is moderately effective in the pounding headache department. However, now I'm faced with a quandry.... to begin again, or not? After 5 days with no coffee, coke, or black tea, I have to ask if I want to restart the habit. And I don't really know. I did have two baby cups on Thursday and Friday, and a full cup this morning - so maybe that question really is already answered.
I enjoy taking a mug of coffee with me to school each day. I can sip it in the morning (rather than being tempted to snack), it wakes me up, keeps me away from the tooth-dissolving sodas, and I love the smell. However, it stains teeth, gives pounding headaches when you skip it for a day, and possibly disrupts my sleep. Ack.
Maybe with Brian's new tea's I can switch over to that. Or maybe I can limit to a small cup a day (which is supposed to be good for you, right?). Or maybe I should just use this as an opportunity to go without for a month and then decide (once the habit is fully broken). Choices, choices.
(Also, thanks to my friend Leslie who was a great emergency kid-watcher, and Bruce and Sue who were great emergency visitors/cleaners/laundry doers/drivers).
Friday, January 11, 2013
O Christmas Tree
completely and totally disassembled.
From the ashes and spare parts of the tree grew: four working strands of lights, a nifty light extension cord, two metal pole weapons which must be hidden/thrown out before the kids find them and...
one prelit baby tree for the kids to decorate next year, and one...
new door wreath.
Plus, wreath supplies for my friend and helper Leslie and a bin of garland to be re-purposed next year.
Monday, January 7, 2013
The Land of Teeth
I cannot wait for Jacob to lose that silly front tooth. Every night: I'm going to lose the tooth tonight. Want us to pull it? No.
I could go on, but this post is about Allison and my wish that SHE would lose those silly teeth. So more could come in. So that we could spend less money fixing teeth. And spare her some discomfort too.
Allison needs to have 5 baby teeth pulled. She will also have to have 4-8 permanent teeth pulled, but that's a roadblock for another day. She needs to grow them before we yank 'em out. But we've been waiting patiently (somewhat) for the 6 year molars to come in (almost there!!) so that they can make room for all the other teeth.
So, she's scheduled for minor surgery on March 1st. They plan to knock her out because of her general intolerance for any sort of goings on in her mouth - dental-wise. I can't quite figure out the undersensitivity when it comes to eating but oversensitivity when it comes to dentists - another post for another time. While they have her out under general anesthesia they are also going to fill a couple cavities (again in baby teeth, but given the rate she loses them, these molars might be around for 10 more years).
After approval from the insurance company (because surgery would be a health issue - though thankfully they said yes), and scheduling with the dentist (shall we say "two available dates" before the insurance fairy renegues our cost-covering blessing), the next call was to Brian because I'm fairly certain I'm not the one to accompany a child to surgery. Yikes. But I think overall it should be OK.
I wish, at times, that her journey didn't include quite so many specialists, therapy hours, and accommodations. Sometimes, I want to go to a checkup with no questions or concerns or stacks of paperwork. Maybe I should schedule an appointment with a doctor or dentist just for that purpose. :) But, I realize it could be worse, and for that I'm grateful too.
I could go on, but this post is about Allison and my wish that SHE would lose those silly teeth. So more could come in. So that we could spend less money fixing teeth. And spare her some discomfort too.
Allison needs to have 5 baby teeth pulled. She will also have to have 4-8 permanent teeth pulled, but that's a roadblock for another day. She needs to grow them before we yank 'em out. But we've been waiting patiently (somewhat) for the 6 year molars to come in (almost there!!) so that they can make room for all the other teeth.
So, she's scheduled for minor surgery on March 1st. They plan to knock her out because of her general intolerance for any sort of goings on in her mouth - dental-wise. I can't quite figure out the undersensitivity when it comes to eating but oversensitivity when it comes to dentists - another post for another time. While they have her out under general anesthesia they are also going to fill a couple cavities (again in baby teeth, but given the rate she loses them, these molars might be around for 10 more years).
After approval from the insurance company (because surgery would be a health issue - though thankfully they said yes), and scheduling with the dentist (shall we say "two available dates" before the insurance fairy renegues our cost-covering blessing), the next call was to Brian because I'm fairly certain I'm not the one to accompany a child to surgery. Yikes. But I think overall it should be OK.
I wish, at times, that her journey didn't include quite so many specialists, therapy hours, and accommodations. Sometimes, I want to go to a checkup with no questions or concerns or stacks of paperwork. Maybe I should schedule an appointment with a doctor or dentist just for that purpose. :) But, I realize it could be worse, and for that I'm grateful too.
Saturday, January 5, 2013
Holidays, Holidays
Somewhere, I have pictures from Christmas.... other than those that I took with the awesome new camera I got for Christmas (and therefore are mostly after Christmas). So, I'll find those sometime, post them, and write about Christmas. It'll be a wonderful post.
Sometime, I'll write about 125 page tenure dossiers, cancelled winterim classes, anemic activity reports, and the fact that my salary was published on the newspaper's website. Maybe after a few bottles of wine, which I could clearly afford more of if I worked for the technical college system teaching truck driving.
Somehow, we made it through a late night New Year's Eve party with our children and - even more amazingly - people later stopped me in the hallway to say how nice and well-behaved our children were. This was clearly linked to the very serious directive I gave them that went something like "you guys don't usually get invited to the adult's party - so you'd better be on your best behavior or else." Without the Santa's naughty/nice list to lord over them, I'm surprised they listened to me. I've probably gone and used the annual "Ok, I guess I'll listen to mom" instance, and I used it on the first day of the year.
Ah, but it's time for me to go be an honorary "Whoever is Playing the Packers" fan - in this case, the Vikings. Because last week, I actually rooted for the Packers, and they sucked. So, that was a bust and won't happen again.
Sometime, I'll write about 125 page tenure dossiers, cancelled winterim classes, anemic activity reports, and the fact that my salary was published on the newspaper's website. Maybe after a few bottles of wine, which I could clearly afford more of if I worked for the technical college system teaching truck driving.
Somehow, we made it through a late night New Year's Eve party with our children and - even more amazingly - people later stopped me in the hallway to say how nice and well-behaved our children were. This was clearly linked to the very serious directive I gave them that went something like "you guys don't usually get invited to the adult's party - so you'd better be on your best behavior or else." Without the Santa's naughty/nice list to lord over them, I'm surprised they listened to me. I've probably gone and used the annual "Ok, I guess I'll listen to mom" instance, and I used it on the first day of the year.
Ah, but it's time for me to go be an honorary "Whoever is Playing the Packers" fan - in this case, the Vikings. Because last week, I actually rooted for the Packers, and they sucked. So, that was a bust and won't happen again.
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