penn

Life with a Toddler

Today, I had a morning science program from 9-noon at my school that I helped run. I snuck out at 7.45 am while everyone else was sleeping to go set up. By the time I got home at 12.30, I was pretty tired. I tried to get Julie to nap, but she obstinately didn't want to; perhaps that's the reward for letting her sleep in. Our living room is fairly toddler-proof, so I let her play and watch SuperWhy! (her very favorite show on Netflix from PBS kids from which she is learning the alphabet and perhaps even how to read). I relaxed on the couch. I dozed off but thought I was keeping an eye on things.

Tonight, I decided to get the diaper bag all set up for our visit to the Minnesota Children's museum in St. Paul tomorrow. I noticed Julie had been playing with it. Obviously, I slept longer (and deeper) than I had realized. Not only did she play with it; she repacked the diaper bag for me. I was hilariously surprised to find that she had shoved all her diapers into the front pocket (where we keep snacks) and zipped it back up. The entire body of the diaper bag itself was empty, and every other item had been stashed in another pocket somewhere.

All is in order now. We are repacked with items in the correct (for Mama) pockets. Extra snacks, two changes of clothes, and a few distractions are ready to go too. I'm excited to venture up, meet some friends, and have a great time.

Joy

After school sometimes, when Matt has picked up Julie, he'll bring her to my classroom if I've been slow getting out of there as I finish up work. The joy on my little girl's face as she runs into my room and rushes to give me a big hug is unparalleled. This is the best part of motherhood so far.

Today, I had a coworker come check in with me right as I finished class. I had two small tasks to finish, but he needed help, so I stayed to work with him too. Around 4.40, my two loves came into the room. Julie bounced over and jumped into my arms (well, jumped as reasonably well as a non-quite-2 year old can jump). I received a giant hug and a face full of smiles.

Then, after, she happily helped Matt feed my classroom fish. She is mesmerized by them. "Pinch, pinch" she'll say as she gives them a little pinch of food at the top of the tank. I've got three fish with goldfish: a 40 gallon tank with one massive fish ("Goldie"), a 10 gallon tank with three medium-small fish, and a 10 gallon tank with 20 small fish. She makes the rounds and chatters about the different fish sizes: "small!" stated so exuberantly.

I hope she can bring this joy to all the tasks of her life. When I'm not tired and overwhelmed with the amount of work, this is the joy I love to bring to my own daily tasks. Hoping that I can plan some this summer so that my next school year is not quite so grueling (this has been a rough year with some class switches mid-fall, so I've got a new prep and a lot on my plate). But having my little one brings the most joy of all. I feel blessed beyond measure.

We ate dinner in the dining hall and then walked back home. Julie alternate between holding my hand, running ahead, and wanting to be held. We went home and snuggled in for reading books and Facetime with Nana. A wonderful counterpart to a full day of work.

Plus, a semi-related final note I can't add in any better way: I am thrilled to say that Julie has finally popped out her last molar. We've had three months of fussy nights, random bites, and lots of ibuprofen/tylenol before bedtime. Seemingly by magic, last Friday night, I forgot to give the tylenol and it didn't matter. All four of those pain machines are finally out! I am beyond thrilled. I already notice her mood is even more joyful!

Not for use as directed

A few weeks ago, we visited Matt's family for the weekend. He's got a 1.5 year old niece and a 4 year old nephew, and they're both adorable. One of my favorite parts of the weekend was this short conversation:

Niece picks up my sunglasses of the coffee table and hands them to her mom. Her mom puts the sunglasses on normally. "No! Leah hat," niece says.

She takes the sunglasses off her mom and walks over to me. She hands me the sunglasses and insistently says "hat! hat!" until I put them back on my head.

Nice to know that even the young ones notice my patterns.

Of all beautiful things

Of all the beautiful things in the world, I saw one of the more amazing tonight. I was leading my students (a group of 10 eighth graders) on an evening night hike. Having exhausted our planned activities for the forest, we ventured to the beach to watch some stars, enjoy the soothing sounds, and relax in the sand.

Then, we ventured into the wet sand exposed as waves rolled back from the shore. With care, due to the advancing tide, we played in the sand. And, there, we discovered something most amazing:

bioluminescent dinoflagellates

Okay, let's break the Latin down. Bio: living. Luminescent: lights up. Bioluminescent is specifically used to talk about organisms that make their own internal light. Dinos: whirling, flagellum: small whip. This beautiful, glowing light is made by a small, single-celled organism with two whip-like tails (flagella). Relatives of what we saw produce red tide, but this was just sheer beauty. As we dragged our fingers through the sand, the plankton glowed momentarily. In some areas, the concentration of dinoflagellates was so high that my fingers appeared to glow in the sand.

The beauty is simply indescribable. I am now motivated to swim amongst the bioluminescent plankton. What I saw was not nearly so bright, yet it was still amazing. For now, I am happy playing in the sand on my little piece of the coast of Maine.

PS Do yourself a favor and check out this google search for pictures of bioluminescent dinoflagellates. So beautiful!

People are gosh darn cute

alternative title: fun stuff I do for work and domestic things I wish I did

In preparing for our winter festival here at work, I have been a busy bee. I am the intern in charge of all the fancy-pants large events. Among other things, this means that I pick our craft activities. For our winter festival, we will be making paper chains and little tiny snowshoes out of pipe cleaners (oops, I mean chenille sticks! Must avoid those drug references).

I've got some paper chain templates for things like birds and butterflies and whatnot; turns out some of my long-ago Christmas presents have suddenly become quite useful (other useful Christmas presents include books on string games and books about teaching nature to children).

I have found some of the cutest paper chain things online! Check out these neat templates for different shapes. And also cool is this lady's idea about decorating on the cheap for parties: rubber stamped paper chains!.

And the cutest of all: stapleless paper chains! This preschool mom found a way to make paper chains with no staples, tape, or stickers. They take a little more time, but they are so awesome.

Back in the day, I found this fabulous guide for 30 things you can do with kids. It looked so fun that I've kept the tab open forever at work. We haven't yet done any of these projects, but they look like so much fun. Wait, I lie -- at last summer's boating camp, we did Andy Goldsworthy projects every week; we had kids make art out of nature, and then we photographed the results. This was a big hit, and I'm looking forward to replicating it during one of the spring camps here.

On the domestic end, I love Margaret Mason's suggestion for ensuring that you are always ready to entertain. I don't have guests stop by often, but it is nice to encourage that sort of behavior, and I think having little treats readily available is always nice. Plus, if you keep it in a special jar or box (I'd personally pick a tin box or something similarly non-see through), it reduces the urge to graze. Gosh darn cute, and a perfect hostess gift!

Okay, now back to work for me. Just wanted to share some neat projects.

Beyond materialism with children

This whole "celebrating the holidays with kids" thing is on my mind. I'm especially thinking about ways to celebrate the holidays without religious or commercial observances. As part of my job, I help plan and run mini-camps for kids during school breaks. One of our camps happens to be during winter break, and my activities will revolve around how different cultures approach winter and the lack of light.

In doing my research, I keep running across fabulous websites with good suggestions for celebrating the holidays with kids. They likely won't work well for my camp, but I think the suggestions bear redistribution. After my recent post on raising charitable children, other little extras have been catching my eye.

Today, I found an article on making a global wish list as an alternative (or addition) to the santa letter. Seems to me that this would be an excellent way to springboard a family discussion about positive actions toward achieving these global wishes. For example, if your children are particularly concerned about ending world hunger, you might research charities like OXFAM, Heifer Project International, or other organizations. Children concerned with the environment can learn about Sierra Club, the Nature Conservancy, or the World Wildlife Fund. You can even look for charitable giving opportunities in your own backyard, like your local nature center (hint hint) or historical society.

Furthermore, this is a potential opportunity to delve into economics and business sense. Many national charities (and perhaps local ones too) publish information about where dollars go when they are donated. Talk to your kids about how organizations use the money; why can't every cent donated be used directly to buy food for the poor, environmentally sensitive land, or fund patrolling rangers to protect against poaching?

As your children get older, encourage them to begin their own work to raise more money for causes they believe in. Reader's Digest recently profiled a 12 year old girl who raised $50,000 to build a school in Vietnam. Perhaps your own 12 year old is not that ambitious, but perhaps she or he can weed yards, rake leaves, or shovel snow for neighbors with the goal of donating the money to a good cause.

The idea here is to move Christmas/Hanukkah/etc away from a present glut and toward a more thoughtful, reflective holiday. Yes, a present or two is nice for your children. But so is learning to share the season. Family Fun (the website with the global wish list idea) has a bunch of fabulous ideas within the same article, including building a toy workshop to refurbish your old toys before giving them away to charity. What better way to clear some space on the shelves before adding new presents? And, again, this fulfills multiple purposes. You remind your children to share, you encourage them to reuse the items rather than trashing them, and you get a good feeling from passing along something you are no longer using. Overall, by implementing more community- and world-minded implements into your holiday, you begin to raise mindful children who understand that there is a whole world around them.