Thoughts and Words Ill-Sorted

This afternoon I stretched my limbs a bit after curling around Nathaniel, and I realized that I can touch the ceiling of our livingroom.

While standing with feet flat on the ground.

And with palms fully touching the ceiling.

I definitely can’t do that in any American home I’ve lived in.  We’re clearly going for “cozy” around here . . .

Erin

Now the kids are both sick.  Nothing more than a cold, but quite enough to keep us all up at night.  Sydney and I split up kid duties, each taking one, and then found out in the morning that we could have had a pajama party, since we weren’t sleeping anyway.  Maybe I should pick up fixings for s’mores before tonight . . .

Erin

Sydney and I are sick, out with some cold or other.  The kids are perfectly healthy thus far, but this is one of those times that I wish we could just put them in the toy closet and let them out when we’re ready to play again!

Erin

I took the kids to the playground this evening and got to enjoy watching Katherine socialize with other kids.  Adventures ensued:

I don’t really know what she makes of other children, but she alternates between hanging back, looking out from underneath her eyelashes at them, and shadowing them.  Today she decided to shadow a little boy who surprised her by turning around and grabbing her hand.  He hauled her all over the playground, and they played tag, ran up and down the equipment, and she looked like she was having a blast.  I think it’s her version of having a friend.  The boy was about a year older than Katherine, so he showed her how to manage some of the playground equipment she hadn’t quite braved yet.  Good, yes?

Well, when the little boy left, Katherine tried the older-kids’ equipment again, just as I was settling in to feed Nathaniel on the grass.  And she fell, busting her lip on the bar on the way down.  She ran toward me with a mouth full of blood, very upset.  Thankfully, it was just a bloody lip, but she was quite intrigued by the mess.  Just before she fell I had been thinking, “Wow, she looks really cute.  I’ll have to get the camera out the next time she wears that shirt.”  Now we’ll see if the shirt survives the bloodstains.

I have been happily surprised by the other parents I’ve seen at the playground.  They’re quick to lend a hand if they see trouble or if a parent is busy with one child while the other wanders.  I’ve had offers to push Katherine on the swing while I fed Nathaniel, and today another mom immediately hopped up to bring Katherine over when she got hurt.  Nice people.

We resumed playground activity when I found a ladybug.  Katherine was quite impressed that I managed to get it to crawl up my arm, and she followed it around on the ground for a good ten minutes.  A good chance to practice being gentle with small creatures!

And, finally, when Katherine picked up a piece of trash I pointed to the rubbish bin nearby.  She promptly threw the item away . . . and then spent the rest of the time picking up all sorts of trash to put in the bin.  I was definitely regretting the lesson by the end of the day, glad as I was that she is so into putting things away!

Erin

Does he look like he’s done this before, or what?

Nathaniel wanted a lot of holding the day David arrived, so we were very glad for the extra hands. We put our visitors to work!

After a leisurely morning on Wednesday, we took David to Blenheim Palace. While the guys toured the inside, Katherine, Nathaniel, and I enjoyed the grounds–by which I mean Katherine played with the rocks, and thus clearly fully appreciated the finer points of the palace.

David apparently believes it’s important to take pictures of people, as well as buildings and trees, so he got us together for a family picture. This looks a bit like one of those “How many people do you see?” games. Or “Where’s Katherine?”

We really, really, really enjoyed being able to talk with David, and we were sad to see him go. I think his wife would like him back, though, since the current parent-child ratio in her house is 1:4!

Erin

Despite the gouging of eyes, we have been experiencing a number of very happy things around here:

– Nathaniel has been sleeping a seven-hour stretch each night for the past several nights.  I am delighted, and hope that I’ll keep from waking up during those stretches sometime soon.  Also, since his sleep after that stretch is much shorter, I’ve been able to get up and get a bit of work done in the early mornings as I watch him sleep.  A double win!

– Our friend David Swartz is currently visiting us, and it’s great having him here.  He’s in the UK for a conference, once again reminding us that there is some benefit to knowing so many traveling academics.  Sydney’s known him for something like ten years (or more?) and he has four children of his own at home, so he’s a perfect fit for our house.  Now, if only he could have brought his wife with him!

– Rather than let my dissertation defense loom as a shapeless cloud on the horizon, I finally took a deep breath and pitched a date to my committee.  There’s a conference in Buffalo in October that I’d really like to make, so I asked if somewhere immediately before or after the conference would be a good date.  My committee agreed, so, once I get the paperwork rolling, we’re on!  It feels wonderful to have a clear goal for finishing the dissertation, and it’s one that gives me some time for revisions, for family crises and travel, and will keep me on Cornell’s books as I go on the job market.  As an added bonus, my advisor took my emails as a good reminder to get back to me about the chapters I’ve already submitted, and is sending her comments on them by mail.  Her initial comments, however, are very encouraging!

Sydney found me a blog to read whenever I despair at living with a philosopher: http://philosiology.blogspot.com/

My favorite part:”Explain to them that this type of questioning annoys you sometimes, but you really appreciate that they take you seriously enough to question you. Perhaps it might even be beneficial to set up alternate times to talk about something else in philosophy to help them feel better (I often make promises to do this on our date night).”

Erin

I was typing away on the top floor when Sydney came up, a hand over his eye.  Katherine just poked her finger into his eye and she managed to get him before he closed his eyelid.  He now looks like a bit of a maniac, the white of one eye completely pink and red, and by all reports it really hurts.  We’re wondering when we’ll be able to get her to stop hitting, poking, or scratching.  We’ve only been working on it for about a year . . .

Erin