mathmom's blog

The first, most important thing you should know is that our trip home from Colorado was not a disaster. Considering that we had to leave the condo at 9:15 (which we did, almost to the minute) and we were scheduled to arrive home at 9:50 pm eastern time, it could easily have been. But despite some wrenches thrown in the works, we were able to look at it as an adventure rather than a trial. Here's how it went. When you fly out of Montrose, CO, keep in mind that all the planes arrive at approximately the same time, and they all leave at approximately the same time. Thus everyone who is flying out of Montrose who needs to get a flight to the east coast needs to leave at 12 noon, so they all arrive at 10. When we arrived, the line for checking in to our American flight was out the door of the terminal. Our arrival was made more difficult because we had 9 (yes, nine ) bags to check (including our 3 car seats, Michael's skis and the boxes we had shipped out to Colorado). Fortunately t...

The other day at the grocery store I decided to stop at the Starbucks and get a gingerbread latte. I used to absolutely love these: I'd stop by the Starbucks storefront in the town we lived in, "rent" my table for a few hours by buying coffee, and read math papers or write or whatever. I usually get my lattes with one fewer shots of espresso than normal, I prefer to have some coffee with my cream and sugar, rather than the opposite. I was looking for a trip down memory lane, I guess. Since having 3 small children doesn't lend itself to hanging around in coffee shops, I've been drinking coffee at home, from beans roasted by Counter Culture Coffee . They have what Michael calls "single malt coffees" from single estates, grown using traditional methods. Even better, it is a local business and we get our beans from a local shop, so they are very fresh. I drink mine with rice milk and ice: if you have to drink rice milk (because your baby doesn't t...

Eleanor, in the car after school today: "During 'rest and read' today, Justin took off my socks and threw them in my cubby. That's why I don't have any socks on now." What!?!? She continued: "It's hard to believe that a nice boy like Justin would take off my socks." "Eleanor, did you have your shoes off during rest and read?" "Yes." (Apparently many of the kids take off their shoes.) "Why did you let him take off your socks?" "I was asleep, mom, really." Anyone who knows Eleanor knows that this is very unlikely. Hmmm. Perhaps I don't really want to know. I'm glad she was sitting in the back of the car and couldn't see my face.

Eleanor had a great time skiing. In the 4 days of ski school she had, she went from barely skiing the beginner slopes to doing the same things I am trying to do. Her instructor said that she falls down a lot, because "She skis near the edge." Hmm , wonder where she gets that from (hint: not her mother). This is the reason I am in favor of teaching kids to ski when they are young, instead of waiting until they are taller and creakier and less bouncy. We decided not to give Amanda skiing lessons this year. She really didn't like the cold (she doesn't have an ounce of fat on her to keep her warm) and she doesn't quite understand that to stay warm she has to keep her mittens on and not touch the snow with her skin. There is a playground not far from where we were staying, so we went over to play the first day. Amanda insisted on sticking her mittened hands into the deep puffy snow, even when that caused her mittens to come off. Then she lost one of her boots ...

Yesterday evening I was helping Eleanor make macaroni and cheese, getting dinner for Amanda, and getting dinner for Luke and myself, when I realized that Luke had been way too quiet. I had put him down to answer the telephone earlier, and left him over by the telephone table. Unfortunately, the telephone table is right next to the aquarium, and the fish food was right on top of the telephone table... Luke has learned to open fish food containers. He has also learned that fish food tastes yummy! (or at least not too bad when you are hungry). When I called to him, he crawled around the edge of the stairs with fish flakes all over his face and hands, and a big grin on his face. It's a good thing they are so cute when they are getting into trouble. He smelt vaguely fishy all evening. Michael thankfully vacuumed up the spill , putting all the fish food he could back into the container. I am trying to get used to putting the fish food out of Luke's reach, while still putting ...

The most challenging thing about the place we are staying is having Eleanor and Amanda share a room. I shared a room with my sister until I was 12, so I know it is possible for two little girls to sleep in the same bedroom without waking each other up. However, at about 5 this morning I heard footsteps and went up to them. Amanda had walked over to Eleanor and woken her up so that Eleanor could help Amanda get out of her pajamas. I made them lie down and rest until 6, but each of them kept talking and singing... Amanda was throwing Baa up into the air and catching it, and then asking "Baa, was that fun?" Eleanor was making up a song, I think about skiing. Clearly no sleeping was going on. In most other ways the place we are staying is quite nice. They have heated tile floor heating, a whirlpool bath tub, a refrigerator that is much bigger than the one we have at home. The crowning touch, as far as I am concerned, is the master shower. In addition to the usual shower,...

To all passengers on the flight this morning, my apologies. The baby that was screaming was mine. He was not crying because he was hurting, he was crying because I wouldn't let him get down and crawl around up and down the aisle while we were going through turbulence. Holding Luke anywhere is becoming more and more like the greased pig contests I have read about. I get a good grip, and he wriggles and squirms until he gets free, or I get a better grip, or I get so fed up with wrestling with him I put him down. Upon reaching the ground, often he will cry to have me pick him up again. Mostly, however, he makes a beeline for the most dangerous object in the room: the hard corners, the outlets, the markers, the knives and forks, and so on. We did have some toys for him to chew on in the airplane. However, the best toys were clearly 1) the card telling us that we could pay 3 dollars for a candy bar, 2) the wrapper from his sister's fruit leather, and 3) the plastic beverage cu...

Yesterday we went to Target to pick up a few things for our trip. On the way out we picked up a snack of popcorn, but of course it spilled a little on the way out to the car (aided a bit by some small children...) It was a bit like Hansel and Gretel leaving a trail of breadcrumbs. When we got to the car I brushed the rest of the popcorn out of the cart and spilled a bit more on the ground. I then buckled Luke in and went over to buckle Amanda in. By the time I got to the other side of the car, the seagulls were swooping in to the popcorn on the ground near the drivers side. Luke was fascinated, but I closed the door (thank goodness for automatic sliding doors!). I then wanted to get into my door, but the gulls acted as though I might be wanting to take away their popcorn spill ("Mine! Mine!") I admit to being a bit frightened of birds, dating from watching "The Birds" in high school, and a run in with an aggressive pigeon at a coffee shop (don't ask). I...

We are taking a trip to Colorado next week to go skiing with friends. I have been getting a bit panicky about traveling with 1 baby, 1 newly potty trained food-allergic preschooler, one excitable kindergartner. To compensate, I have started compulsive list making. I enjoy making lists, especially since it reminds me of my grandpa who was quite organized, and always encouraged me to make a list. One day I spent about 45 minutes thinking of everything we could possibly use on the trip. The list was beautiful! I split it out into categories (eating, sleeping, playing, clothing), a separate list for things we need to buy there, things to ship there, and so on. I felt so organized, and much less worried. Unfortunately, I lost the list. I just can't win.

Today I had the chance to visit Eleanor's Spanish class. They sang an alphabet song, learned how to say some letters of the alphabet, reviewed color words, and so on. They also played a highly amusing game. Imagine about 22 kindergartners gathered around a rug. There are 4 letter cards in the center. The Señora announces they are going to play the matamosca game, and the children practically cheer! I don't know what she is talking about until she gets out two fly swatters. She chooses the first players: Eleanor contra Ashley. She announces, "Matamoscas arriba!" She then tells them (in Spanish) to point to the letter G. The first one who points to the correct letter is the winner, although I'm not sure that anyone except the winner paid attention to this. After each round, she announces the next combatants: "Jim contra Amanda!" A murmur goes through the crowd, as they pick their winners (and place their bets). It is almost exactly the scene in th...

Sorry for being gone for so long without blogging! I would like to have some sort of excuse, but the real excuse is that I can't remember what I wanted to write about for more than 5 minutes. A semi-excuse is given by the fact that we have been variously sick over the past few days/weeks. Luke has had a constantly runny nose: it cleared up sunday , but was back running today. Eleanor had a stomach ache on Friday, and an ear ache on Sunday, and she's still not back to her old self unless she has regular doses of motrin ( ahh , better living through chemistry). Michael was sick on Friday with a bug that laid him so low he didn't even feel tempted to get work done (he sometimes gets more done on "sick" days than on days when he goes in to the office). My nose is running and my head hurts, at least until the motrin kicks in. We are all getting to bed early tonight, I hope. Another excuse is that I've been reading other people's blogs, and their comment...

Me: "Eleanor, where is your other shoe?" Eleanor: "What?" Me: "Eleanor, you only have one shoe on. Where is the other one?" Eleanor, looking around blankly: "I don't know." Me: "Eleanor, if you don't have two shoes, you can't go to phy ed tomorrow. We are leaving in five minutes, please find it." Eleanor, keeping climbing: "I think it's by the slide." Me: "Eleanor, was there a problem with your shoe?" Eleanor, wondering why someone would ask such a silly question: "No." Me: "Why did you take it off then?" Eleanor: "I just did." She runs off to play for 5 more minutes with one shoe on and one off, and finally picks up her shoe and puts it on just before we leave.

Baby Luke took a few steps yesterday! Yay! He was standing up by me, and Miss Tanita held out her hand and told him to come, and he did! When he looked like getting down on his hands and knees, she just said no, and he looked back at her and kept walking! Sorry for the exclamation points, I'm excited, for Luke and for all of us! For a while it looked like Luke would walk instead of crawl, he spent so much time practicing and demanding that I hold his hands while he walked around (this can be very painful for the parent's back or for her knees). But then he learned to crawl, and that seemed to dampen his enthusiasm for walking. Recently he's been standing more and more, holding on to flimsier and flimsier things. He stands between two things just further than arms reach apart, and you see him thinking, "It sure is a lot of trouble to get down and up again, maybe I should walk... Nah, not today." He hasn't taken any steps since then. Eleanor took a break...

Eleanor "topped" today at the climbing wall, which means she climbed all the way to the top of the rock wall at the gym, a full 28 feet in the air. Her father was belaying her and encouraging her, but not hauling her up to the top. Well done Eleanor! Luke has learned to put his hands in the air when we say " Sooo big!" He gets a great deal of pleasure out of this, as do I. Amanda is learning to pee in the potty chair---I believe the candy we offer her when she has success has something to do with this. However, she's not reliable when we're out and about. I think I will have to get used to a few accidents... Patience is a virtue. Monday will be her first day in class with underwear on, and I know that her teachers are very patient.

My computer has been acting up recently, freezing and going blank and so on. Michael vowed to fix it, saying "Your computer is less reliable than a windows box." He upgraded it, and then took it apart to see what might be wrong. It was mostly fine, although one memory card wasn't seated properly, the fan was completely coated in dust. The real problem came in disconnecting the keyboard cable: Michael managed to snap a piece of plastic off the connector. First he tried to fix it using electrical tape, a piece of kleenex, and a small piece of wood. That didn't work, and so he tried a piece of tagboard, which did work. The keyboard is slightly curved in the middle from the pressure of the cardboard, which I suppose might be more ergonomic =). This will work for the time being, but we're still looking for a great deal for a new laptop.

On the first day back at school after New Year's, Eleanor's class talked about traditions for celebrating the New Year. "You have to let me stay up until midnight next year. There is a big acorn and when it drops, everyone is happy, because it's the New Year." I told her that it is an acorn because we live in the "City of Oaks". "Then New York must be the City of Balls, since they drop a big ball on New Years." Makes sense to me!

Eleanor has been making "recipes" for a while. She has great creativity, but not too much actual cooking knowledge... For Christmas, she got a kid's cookbook, and we've been itching to try a recipe for a while. Well, today Eleanor made the first recipe in the book, macaroni and cheese from scratch. It went very well. I was supervising closely, of course, but she did well with gathering the equipment and the ingredients. She also grated and measured the cheese. She stirred the cheese sauce for a while, but she claimed that she was getting "tired". She wanted to wear the oven mitt even for gathering the equipment. The recipe is almost exactly the one my mother taught me when I was young. At some point, she would just tell me that I had to make macaroni and cheese for dinner, and I would make it for the family. I am looking forward to the day when Eleanor will say, "I want to cook a recipe" and I say, "OK, go for it!" and look for...