Some memories from last weekend at my father-in-law's

***

My son, upon hearing the grandfather clock chime on the hour, running from wherever he was in the house to the clock, peering inside to see the gears turn. Every time.

***

Talking and making blinkybugs with geeky brother-in-law (Dr. H.'s sister's husband) and our niece.

***

My daughter, showing all of her stuffed animals to her great grandfather (age > 97) one by one. Seeing 20 years fall away from his face when she made him laugh.

***

Dr. H's brother's fabulous impression of their father. A feature of any holiday gathering.

***

Realizing I'm really one of the family now. Paper plates at the big meal and everything.

**

My daughter and my niece, laughing and playing in the big bathtub.

***

My son and my nephew, one or both of whom had decided the big tub was too big and scary, playing together in the smaller bathtub.

***

Dr. H's grandmother (age > 96), exclaiming in delight that my children wanted to take some of her beaded jewelry home with them.

***

My father-in-law's partner, a wonderful woman my children call "Nana", working miracles on my son's eating habits.

***

Meeting the wonderful children Dr. H's brother has custody of. Hearing him speak with pride about taking on this responsibility. (Their mother, his girlfriend, is in rehab.) Adulthood suits him. Having a male in their life take some responsibility for once suits them.

***

My sister-in-law, glowing and brimming with stories and excitement after her 20th high school reunion.

***

My father-in-law, a former elementary school teacher, reading to my children, extremely patient with all their questions.


***

All six children, screaming and ripping open presents in a Hanukkah/Solstice/Secular Holiday/New Year/Christmas gift event.


***

Scenes from Breakfast on the Road

cholesterol (noun): a compound of the steroid type which occurs normally in most body tissues and is believed to promote atherosclerosis. From Greek khole ‘bile’ + stereos ‘stiff’.

sucrose (noun): table sugar, a disaccharide of glucose and fructose found in many plants, including sugar maples. From French sucre "sugar"

.
.
Dalton: Is this maple syrup?

Me: Yes, Dalton.

Dalton: (picks up container) I'm going to put it on my eggs!

Me: Uh...

Dalton: Yeah! (pours on eggs)

Curie: What's this, Mommy? (holds up small container)

Me: That is butter.

Curie: Oh! It's butter to dip my bacon in! (demonstrates)

Peace of Mind

We returned from our sabbaticals in June and our kids quickly integrated back in to their old daycare, situated on Dr. H.'s campus. We are very happy with the place, mainly because the kids seem to enjoy it so much. Though they enjoy the setting in different ways.

Curie has many friends and runs around with them all day long, participating in a lot of cooperative play. Dalton, on the other hand, enjoys playing by himself and figuring things out. He doesn't tend to seek out other children (except for Curie on occasion) and often simply ignores them when they are close by. I've spoken about this before, when the kids were in daycare in Sabbatical Town. (Our sabbatical daycare provider found this behavior odd and somewhat troubling. I attributed it to having two geeky parents.)

Having moved into the preschool room in our old daycare resulted in a new wave of people interacting with both our children, and thus, a fresh perspective. The preschool teachers, it turns out, do not think Dalton has any problematic social issues - mainly because he interacts fine with adults, participates in some activities, and interacts with other children sometimes. The believe (like me) that he is just a kid who is fine being on his own. However, they do think it would not be a bad idea to encourage him to play with his peers on occasion.

They shared with us one of their strategies for encouraging him. During their twice daily outside times, Dalton normally grabs a bike-like toy and rides it around by himself, ignoring other children. Now, a few times a week, they pull the bikes in before letting the kids out. Why? So my son will be encouraged to play with other kids on the playground once in a while. And it works, on those days he does play with other children, without any additional prompting.

But did you catch that? Our daycare rearranges activities just because they think it might be be a good idea for one of the children in the (largish) group.

I love that place.

No wonder

Our house is constantly a mess. At this point, we have given up on actually having a clean house, we just aim to keep it from being too disgusting so our neighbors don't call social services on us. We have been planning to hire a housecleaning service since the twins were born, but there has never been a moment when the house clean enough for long enough for me to be willing to bring them in for a quote.

My mom was here two weekends ago. We all had a great time and I was once again reminded that it is desirable for adults to outnumber children.

On Friday, after a long day of work, airport runs, cooking and kids, we got the kids in bed. My mother went to unpack. Dr. H and I immediately collapsed on the couch with our laptops. Me on my new Macbook, reading NYT articles and blogs; him on his Vaio, playing Kingdom of Loathing. A short time later, my mother begins to pick up the living room. I try to stop her, but she says "Well, I just thought it would be nice, you know, so everything is straightened when we come down in the morning."

Dr. H and I look at each other in amazement. Cleaning is almost never the first thing we think of once the kids are in bed.

"That explains a lot." I say, looking around at the squalor we call our home.

It made me think immediately of Emma Jane's observation that some people run their lives differently than others.

Friday Cat Blogging

My other set of twins:

Nostalgia

One of my students recently began a new relationship. She has begun to come late to class - afternoon labs, specifically. She has always been one to be a little late to her first class in the morning, and she has never been one to be inconspicuous upon entry. But now, things are noticeably different - she enters with a different manner, with wet hair, looking satiated and tired.

I remember those days.

I don't remember it looking so obvious. In hindsight, I'm sure it was.

Um, Thanks but No Thanks

The other day, Dr. H was taking the kids to their preschool on his campus. Dalton was being slow in opening and going through the door, as he often is. He loves doors! He is all about the doors. In, out, in, open, close, open, out, in, close - anyway you get the idea. Dr. H is attempting to hurry him along when another parent comes in and tries to help also.

She says to our son, in a dramatic voice: "You need to go in fast because the bad man is coming!"

What. The. Hell. ?!?

Dr. H was rendered speechless. Fortunately, having never heard such a thing before, Dalton seemed totally oblivious.

Working Late, Trapped by Frat Boys

I'm in my office and cannot leave without calling "Bill" or "Anthony".

A fraternity is doing a "sacred ritual" in my building. My working late tonight is interfering with their plans. I graciously offered to stay in my office until I have to leave. After much consultation, the young men have decided that this is preferable to waiting for me to leave. I have two phone numbers to call when I want to leave, and one of the young men will come and escort me out of the building. So polite, students today.

[Seriously, they were actually very profuse in their thanks for my willingness to be so accommodating.]