wave hello, everybody
There’s a new addition to the blogroll: say Hi to Margaret and Helen! These ladies say it like it is. Stick around long enough, and I’ll turn into them. If I’m lucky.
Archive for October, 2008
Filed under: UncategorizedPosted: October / 30 / 2008
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Filed under: little peoplePosted: October / 30 / 2008
traiiins…. traiiins…
My boy, the railway zombie.
Well, tonight the Little Guy suited up in his Halloween costume — an engineer — and went to church. We had Wednesday night dinner and the Little Guy had choir practice. Afterward, there was a little Fall Festival for the kids. Miss Baby went along, wearing her Elmo shirt. She enjoyed the pasta dinner, and then, during the evening presentation, I took her to the nursery to play. My DH traded places with me for a while, and then I joined them just before the kids came down from the choir room. Miss Baby happily decorated a pumpkin with animal stickers and stuck her hands in some paint. She then found a room that had been darkened, with a few lights, and music playing. As creepy as pretty much everyone else thought it was, she returned to the room again and again, dancing to the music. She figured she was clubbing. So that was all fun.
What made the evening exciting for the Little Guy happened before we even got to church. We saw not one, but two trains downtown. Other people try to avoid getting stuck at railroad crossings — we seek it out. He saw trains, and he was dressed as an engineer, and he had to talk about it to everyone at the church dinner.
Filed under: little peoplePosted: October / 28 / 2008
speaking of pasta
Miss Baby inhaled her dinner — she’s a regular Sophia Loren, this one — and I still had some left in my bowl, so I slid it over to her. She looked up at the full-sized pasta bowl with eyes that said, “Now that’s what I’m talking about,” and pounced on it, pushing her little bowl aside.
Didn’t quite clean it up, but made quite a dent in it.
Filed under: little peoplePosted: October / 28 / 2008
news from home
Today, we got a letter from CA which prompted a conversation among the grownups. A couple from our church in CA is getting divorced, and we were discussing it as we prepared dinner. The Little Guy knew one of the children from that family, and wanted to know what we were talking about, so we had to explain. We explained that the parents might not love one another any longer, but they still loved his friend. The Little Guy looked straight at me and demanded, “Show him love,” meaning my DH. So I kissed him, which pleased the Little Guy, who, reassured, smiled and began to eat his pasta.
Filed under: faith, little peoplePosted: October / 27 / 2008
today’s reading
Well, the Little Guy came across a small pamphlet full of Bible verses, and proceeded to read it out loud to us at lunch. It was a bit of a quandry for us: do you tell your kid to stop reading the Bible so he can eat his sandwich? So we let him read. He stumbled over a few words — “iniquity” was rough — but did pretty well with all the King James language otherwise.
Since it was Sunday, he was feeling theological anyway, I guess.
Filed under: literaturePosted: October / 26 / 2008
night school
I’m teaching an evening class now, from 8 to nearly 11, two nights a week. It’s late, and I come home all worked up from talking about literature for three hours. It’s tiring, but it’s sure nice to teach literature again. It’s a big class, 23 students.
The first night, we read Moliere together. Nearly all the students had brought their books, which was helpful. I assigned parts, and we read through the major scenes, discussing them as we went. There’s an older black woman in the class, who expresses herself in the cadences stereotypical of that group. Give her a Moliere play, and she lays into it! There’s a lot of exaggeration and vivid language in Moliere, and the rhyming couplets are even a little reminiscent of rap. What this world needs is an all-black production of Tartuffe!
Filed under: little peoplePosted: October / 26 / 2008
fun with little people
My DH had been sick all week, so I’ve spent more time with the Little People this week than I usually do. This afternoon, the three of us were out back throwing a frisbee around. The Little Guy was very excited every time he caught it, and Miss Baby ran back and forth between us like a golden retriever. Every so often, we would toss it towards her or let her pick it up, and she would excitedly throw it down at her brother’s feet.
They’ve invented a new game. There are four chairs in our study. Eveyrbody sits in a chair, facing the center of the room. Then, all at once, everyone changes chairs. This is repeated over and over, until everyone is too giggly to continue. It’s like musical chairs, except nobody loses, nobody wins, and it never ends.
The Little Guy has had a rough week. He misbehaved some at school, and he still doesn’t quite understand why he’s in trouble. He raised his voice to his teacher — she wanted him to blow his nose, and he didn’t think he needed to, and he yelled at her about it. He thinks he’s in trouble for not blowing his nose when he’s supposed to.
Filed under: domesticityPosted: October / 20 / 2008
the answer to the ultimate question….
Well, today was my birthday. It was a low-key day with the little people — I had to go to an event on campus in the afternoon, but we went out for dinner afterwards. I received nice presents — gardening tools, a Dar Williams CD, the new book from the Yarn Harlot, LOLspeak magnets (the Little Guy was quite pleased with this gift).
(Kudos to my DH for the title, btw — if you’re geek enough, now you know how old I am).
To complete the celebration, I am going to attempt to go to bed before midnight.
Filed under: mediaPosted: October / 18 / 2008
a little more politics
Some interesting thoughts on the terrifying ways that people are responding to McCain and Palin from Frank Rich in the NYT.
(Hat tip to Englishman in New York, who also links to McCain showing his better self).
Filed under: media, little peoplePosted: October / 18 / 2008
pretty well-informed, considering
The other day, my DH was reading me something about the election, and the Little Guy wanted to know what it was. So my DH backed up, and said, “You know how there are two people trying to be president?” The Little Guy said, “Yeah, McCain and Obama, right?”
He has been paying attention. Then my DH had to explain how McCain’s friends have been saying mean things about Obama, which the Little Guy did not approve of. Being mean is the cardinal sin in the Little Guy’s book.