Allison takes advantage of the new therapist

Two days, one week, long list:

Why yes, I get to do my homework in pen!

Of course my teacher likes it when I smudge the ink of the homework that I totally always get to do in PEN!

When I play tea party, I can fill up the pitcher as many times as I want, and my mom always lets me set the saucers down on the ground to fill them with water for my pets.  How many pets?  Um, how many saucers do we have?

I know that this is a WHOLE DRAWER of stamping stuff down in the basement by the tile floor, but my mom absolutely lets me carry the whole thing to my room to play.  Wait, this it too heavy, can you carry it?

I get to take frequent puzzle breaks during homework time, which, remember, I get to do in PEN.

No, it's totally fine for me to bring all my stuffed animals into the living room.

Books and Authors and Chaos

We like books.  I think we're a book family.  There isn't a room in our house that is book free.  And we even like to read the books.  Sometimes we read them twice (or in Allison's case - over and over and over and over).

So I have been pretty excited this year about the Fox Cities Book Festival.  I've read the community book the last few years, but this year I've gone to several of the presentations too.  There was the Heads versus Feds drug policy debate on campus (I don't know about the "book" that this had anything to do with).  It was - let me say - skewed toward the legalization point of view.  And today I saw Bill Strickland, author of "Make the Impossible Possible," which may be worthy of it's own blog post.  Sadly, I missed Zorba Paster, Friday (also, I'm not sure of the book connection there).

But on Sunday there was a visit by Jane O'Connor, a.k.a. the Fancy Nancy author, at the Appleton Library.  I was actually excited to learn recently that Fancy Nancy is also moving into the chapter book arena.  The Level 1 readers we have on the bookshelf have gotten their fair share of love.  Excited by the opportunity to introduce the kids to a "real-life author," Allison and I set off, Fancy Nancy book in hand, to the APL. 

Let me say, that I believe that the organizers may have grossly underestimated the interest in the Fancy Nancy author.  I think perhaps these people don't have their own little girls - because - if you advertise "Dress your fanciest, come for a story, followed by a book signing and a fashion parade, Bring your camera" I think you've hit both the interest of young girls AND their parents (photo-op!).  Of course, you had Allison at "Dress your fanciest" the rest was really irrelevant.

The room was PACKED.  The first 1/2 hour was the children's librarian who tried to teach the kids a French song about planting cabbages, followed by a story, followed by an attempt to teach the kids "Heads, Shoulders, Knees and Toes" also in French.  We were actually close to the front of the throngs of people, and I could hear OK, but Brian and Jacob also stopped by and they were near the back and they heard nothing above the dim of irritated parents who couldn't get close enough to hear anything.

True-to-form, Allison participated in the first 1/2 hour presentation like a trouper, but then right when the author came out - she wandered back to my chair and proclaimed "I'm ready to go home now."  If I would have even decided that was an option - there is no way we would have been able to make it back through the crowd.  iPhone to the rescue!  My whipping out the iPhone was probably much to the dismay of the woman sitting next to me who felt the need to excitedly exclaim every "fancy" and/or French word with an over-the-top amount of gusto - right in the ear of the decidedly bored young daughter on her lap.

Jane O'Connor reads : mon cheri

Woman : "Oh! mon cheri, mon cheri!!" 

Girl - tries unsuccessfully to squirm out of her mother's grasp and/or hide under her chair from embarrassment (I don't blame her - I hoped that no one sitting around us thought it was me shouting words out like I was being saved by Jesus at a Southern Baptist Revival.)

Jane O'Connor read a story (which Allison put the iPhone down for), had a few kids walk around with bananas on their heads, and then went into the hallway for the book signing.  I believe there was something else going on at the front of the room, but we never did figure that out.  We ran into our friends milling about afterward:

And the girls showed off their Fancy Nancy books and fancy attire.  We went to go find the book signing line - note that we exited the door in the back (pictured), to worm our way down the hallway, around the corner, down another hallway, and back into the room that we'd just exited to find the end of the line (at which point we gave up and took this picture - note the proximity to where we began). 

Deciding that the line was too, too long; we headed up to hang out in the library and check out some books.  Even after browsing, followed by reading time in the train, followed by checking out - the line was still in exactly the same place as it was when we snapped this picture.  Allison was ready to go and I was NOT going to argue.

I did learn this much - Girls love Fancy Nancy.  Girls love dressing up.  Moms love that their girls love books.  Wait, I knew all that already....

High Flying Adventures

 On Monday, Jacob wanted to fly a kite.  Of course, we couldn't fly it at home, we needed to go to the park.  So I unpacked two kites that we bought on clearance at Target probably 2 years ago.  There were actually 4 cheap-o plastic kites, so I got out one for each kid.

Off to the park we went.  It was pretty windy.  Probably too windy for the cheap-o plastic kites.

 Note that there is a WIDE OPEN field at the park.  I think they can play a soccer game and a baseball game at the same time without problem.  Tons of space!  So where are the kids - 10 feet from each other.  Where are the kites?  Tangled together and in a tree.

I managed to get Allison's kite down and was working on Jacob's when.... whoops!.... Jacob let go of the handle, which then got caught in the tree as the kite was headed off to Neverland.  We waited for the kite to come down, when it was jarred loose from the smaller tree and subsequently trapped in a much bigger tree.

Of course, this was high drama once Jacob realized there was very little chance of the kite coming down out of the tree.  So after much wailing (and a finally broken cheap-o plastic kite of Allison's - way too windy), we headed home.  Hopefully others at the park enjoyed the kite-flying tree.

the Clueless Dentist

It's been a while since I had a good dentist story.

This one starts with a crown from a tooth that I cracked at Christmas.  Apparently, there was an imperfection in the crown they put on in February.  They offered to replace it "free of charge."  By "free of charge" they clearly are not counting the 90 minute appointment to remove the new-ly placed, but faulty original crown and the 45 minutes to seat the new newly fixed crown, or the added radiation exposure caused by the new x-rays to make sure the new newly fixed crown doesn't have the same problem as the faulty original.  Oh well - we're done having kids anyway, right?

So, last week they called me with GREAT NEWS!!  My new crown had come in early.  Wow!  Awesome!  But really - so what?  My appointment is still on the 10th. 

I don't think they really called me to tell me that - they called to say: "The doctor has time to see you right now, would that work?"

Yeah - sure - let me drop everything that I'm doing and run over to have a crown put on RIGHT NOW!  Who is like "sure, sounds great!  I was really craving a little dental work today?"  ??

So I go to my original appointment today.  I get the new crown put on, and just as I'm finishing up, my phone starts to ring.  Who is it? 

It's the dentist's office.  They are calling to let me know that Allison is overdue of a checkup.  Hello - I'm RIGHT DOWN THE HALL.  This would bother me less if I wasn't in there so often that they don't even ask anything when I come in.  It's like "hey Jamie!  How's it going?"  I'm the 'Norm Peterson' of Midwest Dental.

Also, I believe that they were the ones to fill out the referral for Allison to see a pediatric dentist (at thier request).  Update your records, people.

3-Eared Easter Bunny

I've been trying all week to get a picture of the three-eared bunny that lives under our deck.  I first spotted it last weekend, and again on Monday - but it's been MIA since.

And no - I haven't been drinking in excess with the kids out of town.

I think either (a) it has a congenital defect that created a third ear, or (b) it's ear got shredded by a cat in infancy and now it has what appears to be three ears.

Personally, I think (a) would be kindof cooler, I mean, how many bunnies have three ears??  On the other hand, I think, what kind of toxic crap is in our yard that causes a bunny to have three ears!!!  So, I guess I'm truly hoping it was (b).

GRFP Revisited

Graduate Research Fellowship Program - oh how you haunt me! 

Yes, I logged on today to fill out your survey.  "Research purposes" and all that.... Want to see how the program has benefited me - do you?  You are clearly misguided in your attempt to use me as a barometer.

Have you published any peer reviewed journal articles upon completing your degree? - ah, no.

...book chapters? - no

...non-peer reviewed articles? - NO

How many patents have you applied for? - NONE!

Are you involved in public policy and/or shaping the future of science in our nation?  Are you fully devoting yourself to living up to the high standards for which the NSF prides itself on?  Have you single-handedly changed the course of human existence?

NO - I HAVE DONE NONE OF THOSE THINGS!

Now - leave me be - I need some wine.



 

1 in a million

There is an old Nike Ad, that says this:

"A woman is often measured by the things she cannot control.  She is measured by the way her body curves or doesn't curve, by where she is flat or straight or round.  She is measured by 36-24-36 and inches and ages and numbers, by all the out-side things that don't ever add up to who she is on the inside.  And so if a woman is to be measured, let her be measured by the things she can control, by who she is and who she is trying to become."

It's one of my all-time favorite advertisements, I may have even posted it before.  I'm posting it again because it's National Autism Awareness month, which means people are posting, blogging, writing about autism.  New statistics released last week  show that the rates of autism have increased to 1:88 (as of the most "recent" 2008).  Also, a news article yesterday reported that more than half of kids with high-functioning autism report being bullied in school. 

I'm a person who likes data - but this data is depressing.  However, if I think about it a little, I realize that the worries I have about Allison growing up are really no more than those I have about Jacob.  At the end of the day, kids are kids.  And numbers can never paint a clear picture of what makes each kid such a great kid.  Everyone has a unique personality and a unique path in life.  I wouldn't call Allison 1:88 - more like 1 in a million.