Thoughts and Words Ill-Sorted

Today I explained to Katherine that she couldn’t have any more bananas.  After she looked to the fruit bowl to confirm that they were indeed all gone, she simply said, “No walk in park.  Go grocery store and buy bananas.”  She has it all figured out: there is limited time before it gets dark, and we don’t have time to take a walk in the parks and buy groceries, so she’s made her priorities clear.  I sometimes wonder what would happen if I handed her a fiver, opened the outer door, and sent her to buy bananas.  I wouldn’t be at all surprised if she reappeared, within the hour, with bananas and change in hand.

Erin

Onward and upward . . . all 24 pounds of him.

Erin

Erin

Erin

Last night, in what has become a common evening affair after Katherine goes to bed, Sydney and I sat on the floor, watching Nathaniel play.  He’s just a delight: smiley, curious, and incredibly round (he doesn’t fall down so much as roll over).  He’s also humongous; we realized yesterday that he’s roughly the same height that Katherine was when we moved into this place last fall (when she was 18 months old).  Sydney turned to me and said, “You know we’re going to miss this stage later on, right?  we’re going to wish we’d taken more pictures?”  I’d hoped to remedy at least the latter with a mini photo shoot this morning, to mark Nathaniel’s turning nine months old tomorrow.  But the usual: there is no sunlight coming through our windows, and kids don’t tend to sit still for long, so all of our pictures are either blurry or filled with startled expressions and shadows when we resorted to using the flash.  I would go outside, but it’s getting pretty chilly by this point in the year, and, like I said, no light to speak of.  I love reading lamps and hot mugs of tea as much as anybody, but it would be nice to have some daylight around here on occasion!

Erin

We’ve been working with Katherine on her letters, but we have very different teaching styles.  I try to speak very slowly and carefully, working with words and objects that Katherine already knows.  “‘V’ is for ‘vacuum!’  ‘I’ is for ‘ice cream!'”  I was working downstairs this morning, however, while Sydney and Katherine played, and I got to hear a bit of their dialogue: “‘V’ is for ‘vascular.’  ‘I’ is for ‘ibis.'”  I can’t tell whether he’s doing it just to make me raise an eyebrow . . . or whether this is how he usually talks to her!  Thankfully, Katherine seems to ignore us both as makes her piles of “tiny” letters and “big” letters.  Sydney has a bunch of letters tucked into his shirt pocket as he lies on the couch.  I have a small pile of “E”s (big and small) sitting next to my computer.  Clearly “‘E’ is for ‘Erin'” got through to her somewhere in there.

Erin

Yesterday, after a search of the house, we finally put the question to Katherine, since she is often very helpful about finding mislaid objects.  “Katherine, have you seen Dada’s watch?”

Instead of running off to check her favorite hiding spots, she just gave me a solemn look and said, “Nope.  Gone.”  Then, when I didn’t seem to get it, she added, “All gone.”  I half wondered whether she was going to follow it up with a clap on the shoulder to comfort me, as in, “Sorry, old chap.  These things happen.”

So the hunt continues for Sydney’s watch, which is also one of the favorite household toys.

Erin

The last several days have been interesting.  On Saturday I took the bus into town to meet my college roommate, Lisa, who was visiting from Switzerland.  I swapped job applications, diaper changes, and grocery runs for a day of reading a novel on the bus, swapping stories with college friends, and going out for afternoon tea and dinner.  Lisa was relieved to be back in a place where speaking in English was the norm, and I felt something similar: I was back in the land of striding down streets, taking stairs over elevators, and speaking and listening in complete sentences.  To top it off, when I got home Sydney looked far less tired than other days when I left him to parent alone; apparently he and the kids had taken the opportunity to catch up on sleep, so everyone was happy!

On Tuesday, Christi came to town, and we took the opportunity to see a lot of Oxford favorites, some for the first time.  We bought interesting cheeses in the Covered Market, spent time in the Ashmolean and Natural History Museums, walked in the University Parks and along the canal, and climbed the steep stairs to the top of the University Church of St. Mary, which afforded us a gorgeous view of Oxford’s spires.  You can read about the church’s history here, one of the few places in which you will come across the breezy phrase, “by the early 13th century . . .”  Christi was a great “aunt” for the kids, hoisting both of them up for lots of hugs and carrying sessions, and reading book after book.  Katherine was particularly taken with her; yesterday morning she came down the stairs and immediately curled up at Christi’s side in bed.

Sydney and I are both in the thick of applications, which means we’re making a lot of difficult decisions about teaching loads and locations.  Next we get to figure out whether/how we’ll be flying to the US for interviews around Christmas.  Can’t say we relish the thought . . .

Erin

In an article on why science and math students often change majors to other disciplines: “The latest research also suggests that there could be more subtle problems at work, like the proliferation of grade inflation in the humanities and social sciences, which provides another incentive for students to leave STEM majors.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/06/education/edlife/why-science-majors-change-their-mind-its-just-so-darn-hard.html?ref=general&src=me&pagewanted=all

Okay, guys, feel free to blame it on us, but don’t do it because we give higher grades.  How about the fact that I was often the only professor my students had who knew their names??  A very big part of my choice of the English major was the emphasis on small class sizes and discussion-oriented seminars.  I know full well that science classes are hard.  But I also know that students will do a lot to master difficult material in the right settings, and a lecture of 400 is not an ideal learning environment.

Sydney’s response: Attrition is a good thing.  Everyone’s told to go into one of three “stable” majors, and that’s all they can see coming into college.  Attrition is the only way that most majors get students to give them a shot.  Philosophy isn’t taught in high school, and it’s not on students’ radars.  But some really smart students realize that applied-science-x is just not for them, give us a shot, and get hooked.

Erin

While Sydney and I get bogged down in job applications and sleep-deprivation, the kids aren’t exactly sitting still.  Nathaniel is making serious strides in solid foods, and just today he got up the first four steps of our (steep!) ground-floor stairs.  Katherine is engaging in something of a prolonged war with potty-training (she does nothing the easy way), and jumped out of her crib at nap time for the first time today.  I don’t think she particularly cared for the landing, though, so she may stay in until her legs get a bit longer.  Life is rather exciting around here!

Adding to the excitement, we’ll get the opportunity to spend time with friends in the next week.  On Saturday I’m leaving Sydney with both kids (he is exhibiting something like resigned trepidation at the prospect) and going into London to meet up with my college roommate, Lisa.  I think there will be tea, cupcakes, and other kinds of girly decadence.  Early next week we’re expecting Christi (our Ithaca housemate) and her brother, as they make a whirlwind trip to the UK.  After my recent flights with the kids, I’m so glad that the company is coming to us!

Erin