Thoughts and Words Ill-Sorted

If we were on the ball we’d round up some of those Americans and Canadians that seem to form a sizable chunk of Oxford and start celebrating.  We’ll see if we can rouse ourselves to be so social.

Erin

Have had a cold for the last few days, so all thoughts are a bit fragmented:

– We survived our first Guy Fawkes Day in England.  Bonfires, fireworks, burning of effigies.  Although part of me was interested in going out and seeing the sights, I’m glad we stayed home.  Student activity is not always a good mix with small children.  There was plenty of activity in our area, and Katherine seemed a bit alarmed at the fireworks we saw from our kitchen window.  Not that I think I would relish explaining why half of Oxford gets set on fire when she gets old enough to ask questions.

– I spent a good chunk of the weekend lying around the house, affording me an opportunity to watch Katherine and Sydney play.  I was reminded that she treats her two parents very differently: plays differently, cries differently, sits and cuddles differently.  I’m glad she has good one-on-one time with both of us, since we seem to bring out very different sides of her personality.  We both roughhouse with her, and we both cuddle up with books with her, but our interactions with her look quite different.  I wonder if it’s dawning on her that Mama is slowly getting less fun: less focused on just Katherine, less agile, and less willing to be jumped on.  That’s just the beginning, kiddo!

– Since we are still quite connected to North American friends, family, and culture, I continually find myself waiting for the world to wake up–and surprised by what is, for me, late-evening activity.  Reading my morning news with breakfast, it seems that the world has slowed down, and then there seems to be a burst of activity when I’m winding down for bedtime.  I know we’ll slowly integrate ourselves into English media, but I’ll still get email from my department chair at 9pm, and we’ll still be coordinating chats with family that are 4 and 6 hours behind!

Erin

Sydney and I have been relatively quiet here in part because I think we might actually be getting some work done.  He has been doing much cooking (borscht, bread, pumpkin pasta, and other delicious things) and I just pulled off a pretty fantastic apple crisp (Christi, you’re right: it’s all about adding orange zest and juice!), but, unless I’m mistaken, we’re also doing a fair amount of writing or rewriting of dissertation material.  I can’t say that writing always makes me a terribly happy camper; it’s the most unruly thing in my life other than human emotions (and yes, I find it more unruly than Katherine; go figure), but it’s really nice to start down the writing road after so much recent reading.

Katherine has started showing more interest in having us name objects around her.  Or, at any rate, she seems to like pointing her finger imperiously and having us respond with the name.  I think she might just like being imperious, but I’m trying to be hopeful here.

After FIVE MONTHS of fighting with UPS over some packages it sent from New York to Nova Scotia in June I seem to have finally won a refund.  A warning: I would give them an F for customer service.  It’s too bad that I’m not paid by the hour (or even, well, paid, currently), since then I would have a good sense for how much I should bill them for the 30-40 hours I spent with them on the phone.

The Oxford public library has a sizable selection of audio/visual materials, as well as books.  Unlike the States, library books are borrowed but library videos are “hired” for a moderate fee.  For a little over a British Pound I walked out with all four seasons of “Jeeves and Wooster” for a week.  In case we need some decompression time after Katherine goes to bed.

Erin

From the University of Oxford Gazette, one of the many oddities in these parts:

One thing I do enjoy about job hunting is the surprise you get upon learning something truly interesting as you research potential colleges and locations.  For example, last year I learned a great deal more about Idaho than I knew before (a move from nearly-nothing to slightly more than nothing), and I added a fantastic novel to my reading list after learning that the author had recently given a reading at a college in upstate New York.  Didn’t get the job in either case, but I did at least get some good reading out of the deal!

This year my location is fixed, but there is still a great deal to learn.  Apparently both Jonathan Swift and John Donne were students here–a mere block from my house–and I am guessing that there is a great deal more Oxford lore to be gleaned as I begin to do some reading.

Erin

Although we’re glad that we are starting to be able to communicate with Katherine we’re less thrilled about the burgeoning toddler temper tantrums.  “Oh noooooo” is a common reaction to new food, familiar food, moving something out of the way, offering an unwanted toy, etc.  Often accompanied by a terrific pout and stamping of feet.  Our very own Rumpelstiltskin.  So we’re trying to set some boundaries, sticking to the food we offer first, rather than retreating to safer waters, if only because we know it won’t get any easier as she gets older (but does it have to start so young???).  Judging by her usual voraciousness, we’re pretty sure she won’t starve before eating the food we offer.  But our lack of sleep isn’t making the job any easier, and we’ve discovered that the plaster and lack of carpet padding in our house makes for a very live space for Katherine’s yells.  I may have to hang fabric panels on the wall just to deaden the sound a bit!  She’s also not keen on us sitting or standing together (oh no, affection and camaraderie between parents!) or us standing next to the kitchen counter (so cooking has gotten a lot less fun).  So, as much as we’re enjoying watching her wake up to the world, we’re hoping it won’t be too long before she learns that we’re more stubborn than she is, if less energetic.

Erin

We think Katherine may finally be starting to realize that she is going to need to talk to us to get us to do what she wants.  Thus far she’s been relying pretty heavily on physical signs: climbing onto the chair when she’s hungry, imperious outstretches of the arm to indicate that she wants her water bottle, or furious shakings of the head to emphasize her point (she seems to think that this works for yes or no, and that the head-shaking just helps to get the point across).  But she’s been doing hilarious “Oh nooooooooo”s and “Oh wowwwwwwww”s for awhile now, and the first “word” seems to be “book.”  Or, rather, “ba” while climbing up on the couch and pointing at the books (and if that isn’t enough, climbing up on the table next to the couch to grab the books herself–always a bit alarming).  She’ll then say “ba ba ba” to try to get us to give her all the books on the shelf.  Sydney’s already worried about her greedy tendencies . . .

Erin

We’ve been experimenting with getting our food from a number of different places recently.  We make regular runs to the grocery store nearby (Tesco: fine, but not fantastic), we’ve gotten a big delivery from another, bigger grocery (Waitrose: quite nice, though we like to pick out our food ourselves), and getting some produce at the covered market (nice apples).  Today we got our first delivery from a CSA-type operation: a farm outfit that delivers boxes of veggies of various kinds to your door on a weekly basis.  We were happy to learn that, unlike all the squeaky-clean veggies we’ve seen in supermarkets around here (scary, really, how clean they get), these veggies come fresh from the field (dirtier, but with less abuse along the way).  You can pick from a variety of veggie boxes, but we decided to be adventurous this time and now find ourselves with a couple of kinds of greens we’ve never seen before.  Finally, inspired to cook again because I’m puzzled about a new thing that showed up in my kitchen!  If we’re feeling decadent they also have fresh herbs, eggs, breads, and desserts you can add to your order.  Something about having veggies show up, dirty and in bulk, forcing us to organize our cooking around those surprises, feels right to us.  Feels Ithaca-normal.  The best we can do without a garden of our own.  Along with a normal load of veggies we ordered a bag of apples and a box of winter squash, which is currently decorating our windowsill.  Food as decoration also makes me feel back to normal.

Now, off to eat about three of those great-looking apples . . .

Erin

He looked up from one form to confirm, “Our current marriage started on the 14th of August, 2005.”

“Our current marriage???”

“That’s what it asked me!  It also wants to know when it ended.”

Erin

The front room (where Katherine and I wave to the people walking and bicycling to work and class)

The kitchen, with all those knobs and buttons within Katherine’s reach.

Up the winding stairs to the bed and bath.  Katherine’s pretty good at those stairs.

I’ve oriented the furniture less for aesthetics than to accommodate the floor, which slopes gently up toward the head of our bed.  A few days of changing her while standing at a slant was enough for me.

Anyway, up the increasingly windy (and slanted, too!) stairs to the study.  See why we don’t want her up these?

The view from the top.

Erin