For a mini-Father’s Day trip, we headed to Cincinnati on Saturday. We combined kid and adult interests, visiting the Cincinnati Zoo and also Jungle Jim’s, a huge and quirky grocery store that has four aisles of hot sauce, lots of exotic fruit, and some of our favorite English-import tea. Although the store was definitely worth a few photos, we only got the camera out for the zoo, where Nathaniel fed the giraffe.
Erin
While we were in Iowa, Sydney and I had the chance to take an overnight trip by ourselves, so we headed north. It was great on many fronts: we revisited Stillwater, MN, a town full of used book stores and foodie shops that’s also gorgeous and right on the water, picked up a set of Suarez volumes for Sydney at a fraction of the usual price, ate out (Jamaican, and delicious!), hiked each day we were gone (a huge part of my satisfaction), birdwatched (Sydney’s, of course), visited the Seed Savers Exchange to pick up heirloom pepper and tomato plants, and stayed at an incredibly beautiful inn where we were given our choice of rooms and had the house to ourselves.
It was very relaxing, and reminded us how much we loved trips when we could take them at a more leisurely pace than 1) is common for academic functions or 2) happens with short-legged, short-tempered creatures in tow.
Erin
By this point, finding new bird species for me to see this side of the Rockies is quite difficult. But I had some great birding excursions on our recent trip to Iowa and, among the 149 species I spotted, I found four that were new for me:
Oddly enough, my first Dickcissel came at a tiny roadside park — it basically consisted of two outhouses and a trash can — while I was on my way decidedly elsewhere.
Sydney
While we were visiting my parents in Iowa, we got to take Sydney and the kids to some of my favorite parks and nature preserves in the area. One of them, Hickory Hills, I remember as the place where some friends and I dunked a canoe full of guys who had tipped our canoe during a high-school field trip, and I also remember it from a much earlier time, when Adam and found a snake and salamander for our elementary school’s show-and-tell. Now Nathaniel and Katherine are forming their own opinions. Thus far: they like the many flowers along the path, and they wondered why Dada disappeared into the woods for so long (he was following birds).
Erin
Yesterday I got a bit excited for Katherine to start school in the fall and decided to go ahead and order the kids backpacks. Yes, I know that the current school year is not actually out in many school districts, but I have a very eager five-year-old, I found some sales, and we’ll be going on more long car trips this summer for which cute toddler backpacks are entirely unsatisfactory: they’re not big enough for picture books!
So, once I’d gathered a mom-approved handful of options, I called Katherine over so that she could start off the selection. One thing I’ve learned: never to let my kids pick things out in a store if there’s much money involved. Inevitably, the store will have horrible and expensive options that my kids will seize, and then I’ll have to spend ten minutes prying their fingers off said objects. Everyone will cry or feel like crying. So, online shopping it is.
Katherine knew that Nathaniel would head straight for the red backpack (which he did), so she began to rethink her initial selection of pink. I was fine with pink, though I liked the purple better (she shot it down and never looked back), but saw immediately that she wanted the two backpacks to match, even if the kids aren’t in school together. Fine. Kinda sweet, actually.
Over the course of two more hours, she shifted from pink to neon green to green-flowered to light-blue to cobalt blue. At each choice, I just nodded and waited and watched her re-think. In the end, Katherine, much to my surprise, settled on a solid blue backpack, and it’s one that will, I hope, last her several years. I hope that she’s still happy with her choice once she hits the pink world of girls at school, but she has several preschool friends now who go in for sparkly princess wear, and Katherine is still fine with mixing up sparkles with simpler fare. So, we’ll hope that it lasts. And, of course, Mommy’s happy. Both her father and I will be happier if we find ourselves lugging around (or borrowing) a blue backpack rather than a pink one, even though Sydney looks great in pink.
Erin
We left Kentucky a week ago for a visit to my parents in Iowa. This was our first attempt at a long-distance car trip with the kids, so we decided to break it up into two days, with a number of detours along the way. We first drove up to Columbus to meet the friends that Sydney was living with for much of this spring, and the kids were thrilled to realize that Sydney had been staying in a house with four kids. After lunch, we packed all of the kids into the car and headed up to the Columbus Zoo, where we balanced walks among the exhibits with some playground time.
Erin
Since I’m new to academic robes and I knew I’d only have a few minutes to don mine before the honors ceremony the other day, I tried them on at home. Katherine and Nathaniel were pretty intrigued when they saw that Mommy, too, liked to play dress-up.
Katherine said, looking at me thoughtfully, “You look beautiful, Mommy.” Glad to know that voluminous material in airport-ground-crew-appropriate stripes is what flatters . . .
My department chair teased me by indicating that I should have opted for the runway version of academic regalia, which he sketched for me:
Erin
It hit 80 degrees today, so I think summer is officially here. We’ve also had several big thunderstorms in recent weeks–just enough to remind us that we’re no longer in England, where it rains frequently but almost never breaks out into a real passion. Last weekend we joined friends for a beautiful walk down into the riverbeds of a stream that would make for a cool retreat in the summer. I know that the real heat is coming, so I’m collecting popsicle molds and swimming locations . . .
Erin
Sydney made two trips to Nova Scotia this spring (I joined him for one), he has spent half of each week in Ohio, and this week he’s in England for a conference (having left the car in Columbus). So, how are we managing some of this?
– Sydney: from what I can tell by watching, with desperation and adrenaline. The poor guy is trying to maintain a hold on three different homes at once. Two things I have seen him do: persist in doing some birdwatching even if he can’t “afford” the time for this hobby, and plant a garden in David and Lisa’s backyard. Those two activities help him unwind a bit. Earlier in the spring I had a chance to join in him shoveling dirt for an afternoon, and it was nice to see the playful, barefoot, dirt-covered Sydney I haven’t seen since we left Ithaca.
– The children: they have latched onto their preschool teachers, and they have shifted from being anxious any time I left the house (their Oxford strategy) to cheering on the few occasions I’ve had to bring in babysitters for an evening event. The kids seems to have grasped the social dynamics of their world (I teach students who teach or babysit my kids and who may also attend our church), and they are now quite comfortable saying “Hello!” to people on the street and running up to their teachers and occasional babysitters when we eat in the cafeteria. Fussing and fighting have really receded in recent months, and both kids know that when I say that something is for dinner tonight that that is all that’s on offer. So, they usually eat. They’ve also figured out that good Mommy time is spend with a) books b) songs or c) walks, and they love helping me plan our walks or pore over our book selections.
– Erin: I have resigned myself to having the kids in school for longer days than I would like, knowing that as of next week Sydney and I will be back to caring for them for most of the day until we all start school again in the fall. My cooking has gotten much simpler, aided by the need to work straight up to dinner time and the fact that Sydney’s frequent absences leave me unable to cook things that require unusual ingredients unless I’ve really planned ahead. The local grocery store is good for eggs and milk, but, well, you’re out of luck if you want herbs. I have also taken advantage of the fact that the kids think it’s great fun to eat in the cafeteria to give us an occasional dinner in which I can chat with the kids and help them practice good table manners–rather than shout questions about their day from my post in the kitchen.
I’ve also learned to be grateful when help is offered. In addition to David and Lisa and my colleagues (all of whom have helped with childcare, transportation, and meals), I’ve had help from people I don’t know. A nice guy ran out of the store after me last month, carrying the milk I’d left behind when I was intent on holding little people’s hands through the parking lot. Yesterday, during a heavy thunderstorm, I’d managed to get the kids to school just before it really started to pour, but as I stood at the door, bracing myself for the run over to the university, the father of one of Katherine’s classmates offered me a ride. Like everyone else in town, he’d noticed I always walked everywhere with the kids. With his help, I got to school without dousing my computer or my notes for the class that started 15 minutes later.
Now, it’s less than two weeks until the graduation ceremonies that wrap up my obligations for the school year (Sydney is done at OSU this week), and I think we’re going to make it. Sydney will be back on Friday, and we’re not planning to let him leave our sight for the next three months. I am currently on top of my grading and, with two more big marathon sessions next week, should be able to get each class wrapped up in time. Katherine and Nathaniel now live almost exclusively in sandals and bare feet, and Sydney’s peas are coming up, so it’s time to play.
Erin
We were reading Owl Moon (thanks, Heidi!) this evening, and Katherine seemed game to try sounding out a few words. With a bit of help, she got “song,” and then she remembered that that is part of her name: “Birdsong is cool because we often hear music and we often see birds!” (Nathaniel: vigorous nodding)
“Cool”??? Oh well. At least she likes her middle name and recognizes compound words . . .
Erin
Alan Schmierer