One of the things that makes having kids a little easier is their unsolicited displays of affection. For example, I'm headed out the door for work this morning and Charlotte says, "Wait, Mom, I have to give you something." I stop and she comes up to me and gives me a kiss. Cristina loves to give kisses as well and they generally come in sets of ten or twenty at a time. You almost have to extract yourself from her. If puking is a sign of affection, then Ella is one sweet baby. Emma on the other hand is more likely to show her affection through word or pictures.
Yesterday, Emma came up to me while I was cooking lunch and read me a love note that she wrote for me complete with a picture of us on a sunny beach. Here is the note:
"Mom I love you more than eny thing in the world more than a peach more than a oeshin liner more than a garden of flowers more than a field of grass and more the ten skys of stars."
Isn't that sweet? She clearly takes after her daddy.
Monday, July 11, 2011
Thursday, July 7, 2011
My Sister's Keeper
I read My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult the other day. I'm pretty sure that this is my first and last Jodi Picoult book. I actually thought it was well written and engaging, but it was about a family dealing with cancer in a child. A co-worker assures me that all Picoult books are about illness and someone dying. I cannot read books like this for two reasons:
1) I have an active imagination
2) I have children
Before I had kids, I loved to watch CSI and Without A Trace. After Emma was born, I couldn't watch these shows any longer because I would start imagining the awful storylines happening in my life. Then, I'd feel sick to my stomach and be paranoid for a least a day or two. Similarly, I can't read books about illness or tragic things happening to children because it makes me freak out and worry about my own kids.
Okay, now that I have confessed why I can no longer read Picoult, I will tell you what I liked about the book. The story is about a family who has a child with leukemia and makes the decision to have another child who can be a donor match for the sick child. Fast forward thirteen years and the test tube baby (Anna) no longer wants to be used as donor cells for her sister. Anna decides to sue her parents for medical emancipation, so she can make her own decisions about procedures she will participate in.
Picoult does such a great job developing all the characters. At first, you want to root for Anna to win her case because it seems her mother doesn't have her best interest in mind. Then, you read her mother's heart wrenching perspective on having a child that is dying and you understand why she would ask Anna to be a donor - anything to keep your other child alive. There is no real winner in the case. I won't give away the end, but I will admit to needing a tissue when I finished the book. Still, as much as I enjoyed it, there is no way I can read another book like it without fearing for my children's lives.
1) I have an active imagination
2) I have children
Before I had kids, I loved to watch CSI and Without A Trace. After Emma was born, I couldn't watch these shows any longer because I would start imagining the awful storylines happening in my life. Then, I'd feel sick to my stomach and be paranoid for a least a day or two. Similarly, I can't read books about illness or tragic things happening to children because it makes me freak out and worry about my own kids.
Okay, now that I have confessed why I can no longer read Picoult, I will tell you what I liked about the book. The story is about a family who has a child with leukemia and makes the decision to have another child who can be a donor match for the sick child. Fast forward thirteen years and the test tube baby (Anna) no longer wants to be used as donor cells for her sister. Anna decides to sue her parents for medical emancipation, so she can make her own decisions about procedures she will participate in.
Picoult does such a great job developing all the characters. At first, you want to root for Anna to win her case because it seems her mother doesn't have her best interest in mind. Then, you read her mother's heart wrenching perspective on having a child that is dying and you understand why she would ask Anna to be a donor - anything to keep your other child alive. There is no real winner in the case. I won't give away the end, but I will admit to needing a tissue when I finished the book. Still, as much as I enjoyed it, there is no way I can read another book like it without fearing for my children's lives.
Wednesday, July 6, 2011
Slate
On Monday night, Emma was laying in my bed reading to me from Anne of Green Gables. She is reading the part where Anne hits Gilbert Blythe over the head with a slate. She seems kind of confused about this whole incident. Here is a peek at our conversation.
Me: Do you know what a slate is?
Emma: No.
Me: It's like your own personal chalkboard.
Emma: OOOhhhh! Like the things they used to use before white boards. You write on it with that stuff that gets really powdery....you know, chalk.
I wish I could convey her expressions. She was talking to me like chalkboards were an ancient artifact. I guess when you have iPads in your classroom, chalkboards are a little prehistoric.
Me: Do you know what a slate is?
Emma: No.
Me: It's like your own personal chalkboard.
Emma: OOOhhhh! Like the things they used to use before white boards. You write on it with that stuff that gets really powdery....you know, chalk.
I wish I could convey her expressions. She was talking to me like chalkboards were an ancient artifact. I guess when you have iPads in your classroom, chalkboards are a little prehistoric.
Sunday, July 3, 2011
The Truth and Nothing But The Truth
One of the things that I love about kids is their brutal honesty. You rarely have to guess what kids are thinking because they are more than willing to put it all out there. Of course, there are times that I wish the girls had filters to make the truth a little less harsh - just so they didn't come across as rude.
This morning, we went to church with my parents. The girls are not overly fond of my parents' church as it isn't particularly kid friendly. Emma swears that every time they go to church with Papaw and Nana they don't get home until midnight. She thinks the services last too long and the preacher is too loud.
Today, I was sitting next to Charlotte, who leaned over and told me, "I brought these things that aren't boring, so I don't have to listen to him." She spent some time looking at a book she'd brought with her and doodling on some paper. After awhile, she pulled her legs up against her chest, pulled her skirt over her legs, put her head back, and fell asleep for awhile. Then, when the service was almost over she says, "This is the part where we get to leave, but not until Nana lets us." She didn't leave a lot of doubt in my mind about how she felt about church this morning.
This morning, we went to church with my parents. The girls are not overly fond of my parents' church as it isn't particularly kid friendly. Emma swears that every time they go to church with Papaw and Nana they don't get home until midnight. She thinks the services last too long and the preacher is too loud.
Today, I was sitting next to Charlotte, who leaned over and told me, "I brought these things that aren't boring, so I don't have to listen to him." She spent some time looking at a book she'd brought with her and doodling on some paper. After awhile, she pulled her legs up against her chest, pulled her skirt over her legs, put her head back, and fell asleep for awhile. Then, when the service was almost over she says, "This is the part where we get to leave, but not until Nana lets us." She didn't leave a lot of doubt in my mind about how she felt about church this morning.
Saturday, July 2, 2011
The Tooth Fairy
Emma: I'm going to ask the Tooth Fairy for a magic wand, so I can wish for a thousand dollars and we can be the richest family ever. Then, we can eat at Qdoba every day.
Emma came home from school one day and was telling us all about the Tooth Fairy at dinner. At first I thought it was odd that she was talking about the Tooth Fairy, since we had never mentioned it at home and she still had all her teeth. I caught on quickly when she started talking about her friends that got money from the Tooth Fairy. That's when she told us that she was going to ask the Tooth Fairy for a magic wand, so she could wish for lots of money. This is why I love Emma - she is so smart. Why settle for a dollar, when you can wish for a magic wand and have money whenever you want it?
It was a few months after this that Emma finally lost her first tooth. She was taking her evening bath with her sisters and they were goofing off. Somehow Charlotte kneed Emma in the mouth and her tooth popped right out. She was so happy! She came running out of the bathroom to tell me what happened. She couldn't wait to see what the Tooth Fairy would bring her. Sadly, the Tooth Fairy must have been out of wands because Emma had to settle for a new toothbrush and a dollar.
Emma came home from school one day and was telling us all about the Tooth Fairy at dinner. At first I thought it was odd that she was talking about the Tooth Fairy, since we had never mentioned it at home and she still had all her teeth. I caught on quickly when she started talking about her friends that got money from the Tooth Fairy. That's when she told us that she was going to ask the Tooth Fairy for a magic wand, so she could wish for lots of money. This is why I love Emma - she is so smart. Why settle for a dollar, when you can wish for a magic wand and have money whenever you want it?
It was a few months after this that Emma finally lost her first tooth. She was taking her evening bath with her sisters and they were goofing off. Somehow Charlotte kneed Emma in the mouth and her tooth popped right out. She was so happy! She came running out of the bathroom to tell me what happened. She couldn't wait to see what the Tooth Fairy would bring her. Sadly, the Tooth Fairy must have been out of wands because Emma had to settle for a new toothbrush and a dollar.
The Lost Art of Reading
I read a little book this weekend called The Lost Art of Reading: Why Books Matter in a Distracted Time by David Ulin. In this little book, Ulin sums up a lot of the problems with society. We move from one news story to the next without contemplating the story in the bigger picture of things. We are easily distracted by all the various forms of media. In the rush to stay up with the latest and greatest, our memory of history is effected. I love this section from the book:
"to read, we need a certain kind of silence, an ability to filter out noise. That seems increasingly elusive in our overnetworked society, where every buzz and rumor is instantly blogged and tweeted, and it is not contemplation we desire but an odd sort of distraction, distraction masquerading as being in the know. In such a landscape, knowledge can't help but fall prey to illusion, albeit an illusion that is deeply seductive, with its promise that speed can lead us to illumination, that it is more important to react than to think deeply, that something must be attached to every bit of time. Here, we have my reading problem in a nutshell, for books insist we take the opposite position, that we immerse, slow down." (p. 34)
Ulin's 151 page book brings up a lot of interesting points in regards to how our consumption of information has fragmented the thinking of the general public. He gives the example of how reading on websites engages the part of our brain that has to do with judgment (which link to click next) and diminishes activity in the part of the brain that has to do with comprehension. Not to mention that when we click on links from one page to another, we are often reinforcing our own opinion. Looking for other evidence to support our point of view rather than expand it.
The last point that I thought was interesting had to do with how information presented online is seen as fact, when much of what is posted on blogs and even news sites is very subjective writing that is not always based in fact. He includes an excerpt from a graduation speech delivered by Barack Obama to make this point.
"Meanwhile you are coming to age in a 24/7 media environment that bombards us with all kinds of content and exposes us to all kinds of arguments, some of which don't always rank that high on the truth meter. And with iPods and iPads; Xboxes and Playstations - none of which I know how to work- information becomes a distraction , a diversion, a form of entertainment, rather than a tool of empowerment,rather than the means of emancipation." (p. 62)
"to read, we need a certain kind of silence, an ability to filter out noise. That seems increasingly elusive in our overnetworked society, where every buzz and rumor is instantly blogged and tweeted, and it is not contemplation we desire but an odd sort of distraction, distraction masquerading as being in the know. In such a landscape, knowledge can't help but fall prey to illusion, albeit an illusion that is deeply seductive, with its promise that speed can lead us to illumination, that it is more important to react than to think deeply, that something must be attached to every bit of time. Here, we have my reading problem in a nutshell, for books insist we take the opposite position, that we immerse, slow down." (p. 34)
Ulin's 151 page book brings up a lot of interesting points in regards to how our consumption of information has fragmented the thinking of the general public. He gives the example of how reading on websites engages the part of our brain that has to do with judgment (which link to click next) and diminishes activity in the part of the brain that has to do with comprehension. Not to mention that when we click on links from one page to another, we are often reinforcing our own opinion. Looking for other evidence to support our point of view rather than expand it.
The last point that I thought was interesting had to do with how information presented online is seen as fact, when much of what is posted on blogs and even news sites is very subjective writing that is not always based in fact. He includes an excerpt from a graduation speech delivered by Barack Obama to make this point.
"Meanwhile you are coming to age in a 24/7 media environment that bombards us with all kinds of content and exposes us to all kinds of arguments, some of which don't always rank that high on the truth meter. And with iPods and iPads; Xboxes and Playstations - none of which I know how to work- information becomes a distraction , a diversion, a form of entertainment, rather than a tool of empowerment,rather than the means of emancipation." (p. 62)
Friday, July 1, 2011
The Shame of the Nation
This week, I finished reading The Shame of the Nation: The Restoration of Apartheid Schooling in America by Jonathan Kozol. If you haven't read anything by Kozol, you really should go to your local library and check out one of his books. He is an educator that has written extensively about the plight of children in urban schools. A few weeks ago, I read Savage Inequalities, which is a book he wrote in the late 80s/early 90s to expose the inequality in educational experience between children in the suburbs versus the cities. The sad truth is that not much has changed for these children in the twenty years between these books.
There are so many issues raised in his books about the educational system in the United States that I could write pages about them. Issues like the financing of school systems, the segregation of minority children, the high dropout rates for minority children, and the role of politics and business in educational decision making. In my attempt to keep this post short, I just want to comment on one little piece from the book that really stuck with me. Here is a quote:
"Merit, no matter how it may have been attained, is somehow self-confirming. They early advantages one may have had become irrelevant to most of us once a plateau of high achievement has been reached. The years we may have spent when we were three or four years old in a superb developmental preschool, the strategies our parents may have used to win us entrance to a first-rate elementary school, and all the other preferential opportunities that may have introduced us to the channels in which academic competence has been attained - all this falls out of view once we arrive in a position in which we can demonstrate to others, and ourselves, that our proficiences are indisputably superior to those of other students of our age who may not have had these opportunities." (p. 140-141)
Just before this particular quote, Kozol was talking to students in an privileged high school in New York City. The students were basically saying that they deserved to have all the benefits afforded to them in their high school - great teachers, cultural experiences, top notch facilities, and a variety of high level courses - because they were the best students. They failed to realize they were the best students because of all the extra benefits they had received throughout their life. It was easy for them to look down on the students in other schools who were not as academically successful, but they didn't acknowledge that these students have been educated in subpar buildings with overcrowded classrooms, in many cases without textbooks or regular teachers.
These are the same people that will grow up in many cases to be our nation's leaders. How can we expect them to have empathy for people who are not as privileged as them, when, as young people, they have no empathy for those less fortunate?
There are so many issues raised in his books about the educational system in the United States that I could write pages about them. Issues like the financing of school systems, the segregation of minority children, the high dropout rates for minority children, and the role of politics and business in educational decision making. In my attempt to keep this post short, I just want to comment on one little piece from the book that really stuck with me. Here is a quote:
"Merit, no matter how it may have been attained, is somehow self-confirming. They early advantages one may have had become irrelevant to most of us once a plateau of high achievement has been reached. The years we may have spent when we were three or four years old in a superb developmental preschool, the strategies our parents may have used to win us entrance to a first-rate elementary school, and all the other preferential opportunities that may have introduced us to the channels in which academic competence has been attained - all this falls out of view once we arrive in a position in which we can demonstrate to others, and ourselves, that our proficiences are indisputably superior to those of other students of our age who may not have had these opportunities." (p. 140-141)
Just before this particular quote, Kozol was talking to students in an privileged high school in New York City. The students were basically saying that they deserved to have all the benefits afforded to them in their high school - great teachers, cultural experiences, top notch facilities, and a variety of high level courses - because they were the best students. They failed to realize they were the best students because of all the extra benefits they had received throughout their life. It was easy for them to look down on the students in other schools who were not as academically successful, but they didn't acknowledge that these students have been educated in subpar buildings with overcrowded classrooms, in many cases without textbooks or regular teachers.
These are the same people that will grow up in many cases to be our nation's leaders. How can we expect them to have empathy for people who are not as privileged as them, when, as young people, they have no empathy for those less fortunate?
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