Thoughts and Words Ill-Sorted

This evening I took the kids to a new playground (the fourth we’ve found here in town), and I realized that Katherine has done some maturing while I wasn’t paying attention.  Even in Oxford this past spring she was staring intently at older girls on swing sets, and now there’s a swing set at her preschool on which she can practice.  Today I realized that not only can she pump her legs and keep my pushes going, but she can actually climb up on her own, take off, and swing high without any help from me.  She has such a look of glee on her face when she does this, her skinny little arms gripping tight and her legs stretched out full-length–they all just make me sigh and smile.  When she sets her mind to something, she’s a force to behold, and apparently mastering the swing was on her list!

Nathaniel, meanwhile, has been developing his conversation skills.  He’s usually up quite a bit before Katherine, and he uses this time to get in a few extra cuddles and keep up a constant patter of conversation with his groggy parents.  This is early enough for Sydney to be somewhat uncommunicative, so it’s amusing to hear Nathaniel chatter on with only the occasional low rumble from Sydney.  Nathaniel likes to comment on other people and sounds.  I got a whole lecture today on why the girl at school was upset today, comments like “I don’t think she should have done that; I don’t like the girl crying,” and his recommendation to her to stop crying so she could go play again.  He also mutters on to himself for quite a long time when Katherine’s getting into trouble.  Apparently all of our parental talking and teaching in times of tantrum and upset, as we try to guide them to better behavior, is rubbing off.  It’s just funny to hear it coming from a tantrum-inclined two-year-old.

Erin

Last weekend we took a really lovely hike with David and Lisa and their kids.  We haven’t done much hiking since we left Ithaca, and with six little kids in tow this time we only went about 1.5 miles, but I came away with a taste of success: we went on a hike, and I wasn’t carrying anyone when we finished!  I have stuck to stroller-friendly paths since the kids outgrew the backpack, but Katherine, in particular, seemed to have plenty of stamina.  Our hike was at the university horse farm just a mile from our house, and it included great paths that lead down to the winding Kentucky River.

In a slightly less rough-and-tumble vein, Sydney recently built us a set of planters for our front step, and, being Sydney, he couldn’t stick to a simple box.  Instead, we have this gorgeous tiered piece, and lots of seeds coming in the mail.  In the spring we’ll sow flowers, but for now we’re thinking of a slightly more practical use: lettuces and other greens for our dinner table.

Erin

Although both kids have been a challenge for Sydney the past two weeks (to put it mildly), we have been seeing some improvement in their behavior as they settle into their new routine.  Occasionally we get a few moments of this:

and even this:

We’ve also spent some time with David and Lisa and their children.  To kick off our long weekend, our two families joined forces to visit an insect fair at the Lexington Arboretum that was put on by the University of Kentucky’s Entomology Department. Along with the other 200 or so kids there, our kids roamed flower beds looking for bugs, walked paths while armed with flashlights as the evening wore on, and looked at insects, both those that were preserved in cases and those that were roaming boxes or all over their handlers.

The four youngest kids showing off their climbing skills, to be rescued by David when they had had enough:

Katherine and Anna (in braids) watched the giant hissing cockroaches, but neither was interested in holding them.

Both girls did, though, opt for cockroach tattoos when they got their pick later:

Sydney, who initiated this particular adventure, doesn’t know how much of an impression the bugs left on the kids (as opposed to, say, the mini-flashlights they were given), but we’re hoping to build on this experience later.  And I will keep trying to express positive emotions when I see a bug, rather than shriek when I see a moth, like I did in college (thanks, Sarah and Lisa, for rescuing me then!).

Erin

Although I’ve been spending a lot of time at the office recently, we’re all really enjoying our new home.  I may have moved our things in, but Sydney is slowly putting his stamp on the kitchen and upstairs office, and the kids have happily taken over both the living room (which has a large closet for their toys) and the master bedroom, which they share.  Although we really liked our quirky house in Oxford, our one in Wilmore is more than twice its size, and we’re all appreciating the room.  I am perhaps most grateful, though, for both the proximity to work (all four of us walk from nursery to my office or home to nursery on a regular basis) and the windows.  I had forgotten what it was like to have a great deal of natural light, and, wow, does that make a difference!  Unfortunately, precisely because there is such nice natural light, my pictures are skewed a bit dark, as my camera struggles to adjust, but I hope you get the idea.

Erin

School started for us on the 19th, and we’re now in the second week of our teaching here at Asbury.  I knew I was running on adrenaline the first week, so I didn’t read too much into our having made it through the first few days, but now, a bit further in, I’m pretty pleased with how we’re getting along.  We have to be on our toes to keep up with the teaching and other duties, but it’s manageable, and I come home with my head full of students, now that they’re starting to distinguish themselves from their classmates and have particular histories and personalities attached to them.  Sydney’s using my office for his office hours, so my department is getting used to seeing two Penners around, and we even have one student who has both of us for his classes. Nobody stands on ceremony around here, so faculty have been coming in to welcome him and tease him about sliding into town late in the game.  All around, a warm, friendly environment.

I will post pictures of our house soon, but, for now, I will leave you with an image of the birthday present that Sydney brought home for me yesterday: a pile of cut roses, a rosemary plant (I’ve been wishing for one for awhile, since it’s one of my favorite herbs and it might last through the winter here), and a grapefruit tree with incredible-smelling blossoms.

Erin

Sydney got in Sunday evening and, though very tired, is in one piece.  Our boxes from Oxford also arrived unexpectedly today, so now we do truly have everyone and everything all under one roof.  The problem now is that everything is happening at once: he arrives, boxes arrive, school begins . . . it’s a bit crazy here at the moment, and I’m resigning myself to a storm-strewn house for awhile.  This morning I taught three classes and participated in the convocation ceremony (full academic gowns and all), and am scrambling to keep track of everything so that I appear cool and confident for my students.  But things are going well, and we can now begin the process of settling into a rhythm and developing a stable life and home for the kids.  We’re excited to get started.

Erin

We’re settling in nicely.  I wish I could provide pictures, but Sydney still has our camera battery with him in Oxford.  So, pictures to come.  But for now we’re glad that:

1) Sydney has his permanent-residency visa in hand and is scheduled to fly into Lexington on Sunday afternoon

2) The kids are settling in nicely at their school, and Katherine has even mentioned that one or two of her classmates have become her friends

3) The kids have already started bonding with David’s and Lisa’s kids, particularly the youngest two.  Lisa took care of K and N this morning while I was teaching, and she said they had a great time.  It probably helps that we’ve each been talking about the great friends who are coming/waiting and how much fun they’re going to have with their new playmates. Nathaniel also loves their train set.

4) I have been teaching an orientation class for freshmen this week, and it’s great to dip my toe in before the fall semester starts on Monday.  My colleagues have been wonderful, and I go home with my head full of students I’m just getting to know and nice people I had lunch with and all of those other things I’ve been looking forward to since I first hoped to teach college literature.

5) Our house is nice.  It’s close to campus, it has new carpet and paint, and it’s roomy enough for the kids to really play inside when the weather doesn’t cooperate.  Mom just flew back home yesterday, and she spent a good chunk of her time here either running after her grandchildren or helping me settle in, and it really does feel like home now.

6) Everything is close together.  I love to walk far more than I like to drive, and it is really wonderful to walk with the kids from our house to my office, have lunch together, and then walk them over to their school.  They like knowing that I’m just across the street, and I love that they are now big enough to navigate their world on their own two feet.

Erin

With much help from David and Lisa, I got a lot done in my first few days of moving, and I took time to step back, vacuum, and enjoy the space.  But then it was time to mess things up again and take care of some nasty snarls.  I pulled the books all out and started sorting in the middle of the living room floor.  And I got on the phone to chase down the Sears people who hadn’t properly installed the washer and dryer, as well as the visa people who decided to change their application procedures one day before Sydney was ready to submit his final materials (yes, we’re still plagued by the visa hunt).  And I called the guy who sent his delivery man out with two twin mattresses but only one box springs for the kids’ room.  Let’s put it this way: by the end of several days full of phone calls, I had exhausted both my cell and home phone batteries, and I had all 2500 books sorted by call number letters.  Now I have to get the books organized within each letter (still a big task) and up on shelves before Mom and Dad come with the kids early next week.  But, after an expensive run to Lexington today to Target and Good Foods (a co-op that reminds me greatly of Ithaca’s Greenstar store full of organic and local goods), I think it’s starting to look more like home.  It might help that I now have something to eat other than oats biscuits and peanut-butter sandwiches.

Erin

I was reading an article that included data on the safety of different modes of travel and I had just seen this nifty website that allows you to easily create graphs online, so I gave it a try. Here are the results:

The bars show how likely you are to die relative to distance travelled. As you can see, some ways of travelling are a lot safer than others. Here’s graph without that massive bar for motorcycles:

I think the bar graphs do a rather nice job of driving home (pun not intended) how much safer public transport is. Sadly, moving to Kentucky means that we will have to rely on a car again, since North Americans are very fond of being able to autonomously smash themselves to bits when and where they please.

Sydney

I’m two days into the move and feeling much better about setting up house in Kentucky.  David and Lisa (the friends you’ll be hearing a lot about, since they now live just a few blocks away) have been wonderful.  They fed me, showed up ready to work Thursday evening, cleaned out boxes all while I was in meetings on Friday morning, put together furniture, and have let me do laundry and use the internet at their house while they’re away this weekend.  I’ve been putting in some late nights cleaning and hauling (ooh, the dirtiness of our stuff in storage . . .), but by now I think things are coming together.  I’ve made a bit of a haven of the bedrooms upstairs, which are clean and relatively put together, and I think I’ll even get most of the junk put away tonight so that I can reclaim the living room, too.  Although the bathrooms and kitchen are a bit questionable in this house, they are more than redeemed by the closet space, new carpet, and cupboard space in the kitchen.  To give you an idea, we have room for all of our canning jars in our kitchen.  It’s wonderful to have everything readily available, clean, and ready to use!

When I ventured out to the sandwich shop in town, the lady behind the counter struck up a conversation with me.  After one or two questions, she said, “I think I know who you are!”  Turns out she’s also friends with David and Lisa, so we had a friendly chat, I got a delicious lunch, and I told her I’d be back.  I did hit the grocery store (and amused the cashier by buying pretty much everything I thought edible and that didn’t need refrigeration.  She, too, was friendly.  I know some people find this whole small-town thing weird, but I think it’s great.  So nice not to feel alone, even if my family is flung across the globe.

The kids have been having a great time in Iowa, though I think I might be hearing a bit of fatigue in the voices of the grandparents when I call home.  The plan is for my parents to arrive, kids in tow, on Friday, so I want to have as much done as possible before then.  While the kids are in Iowa, though, they’ve been playing in a kiddie pool, taking the tractors for a walk, and–keeping my parents on their toes–touching everything in sight.

Erin