mathmom's blog

Amanda announced in the car yesterday, "I learned how to eat and how to read. Now I know the most important things!" Eleanor thought that sleeping might make the list, but she had a harder time learning how to sleep. Amanda really is learning how to read---it's hard to tell exactly how much she actually understands, but she can sound out and recognize a few words. Yay Amanda!

Amanda wants me to tell you all a story about her being a princess: Amanda was a princess. She wanted to go to the movies, but she couldn't every time. But one day, she got to go to the movies. Something scary happened in the movie. She snuggled with her mom. She snuggled and she snuggled all when the scary thing was happening. She waited for a long long long long long time, but when it was the end, it wasn't so scary anymore. (Note from Mama: I think this is related to Amanda's first ever movie in the movie theater, Despereaux . I really loved the movie, and Eleanor enjoyed it (it was pretty intense for Eleanor) but I wish for Amanda's sake that Curious George had been coming out instead of Despereaux .)

I had a real conversation with Luke today. It was about his " froggy blanket", a little stuffed frog head attached to a small soft blanket. He started by putting it on his head. I am supposed to ask, "Is froggy a hat?" and he answers " Nooooo ." Here's how it went today. Me: Is froggy a hat? Luke: Yedh . (I think this is the first time he has answered a question "Yes".) Me: Are you sure? Luke: Dee. Dat . (" Froggy . Hat.") Me: Froggy makes a nice hat. Luke: (holding froggy out to me) Mama. Dat . Me: Froggy is a hat for Mama? (putting froggy on head). Luke: (Laughing) Mama. Dat ! Not, perhaps a movie script, but much more fun than the usual 1-way conversations we have.

I have figured out why I hate folding socks---it's a simple problem of mathematics. 7 days x 2 feet x 5 people = 70 socks---not counting all the times that Amanda loses her socks between outings and needs a new pair. The total number of possible pairs of socks is 70x69/2=2415. Given a random sock pick, the chance that you pick out the pair for that sock is 1 in 69. Once you've got that pair, the chance you pick out a pair on the next two grabs is 1/67... Assignment: what is the chance that, reaching randomly into the bin each time, you come up with exactly the right pairing of socks? If I had the time and no toddler, I could figure out the average time it would take you to pair up all the socks (someone has surely already done this). This doesn't even take into account all the lone socks that simply have no mate, no matter how many times you reach into the bin. I realize that in real life the grabs are not random (you won't accidentally grab Eleanor's purple soc...

Michael had long been threatening to buy a ski helmet for me. He had a helmet, we made Eleanor wear a helmet, it would make sense for me to have one too. I resisted: it's more equipment to lug around, it's expensive, it's uncomfortable, it looks dorky, it couldn't be really necessary or more people would have one... On this most recent trip, Michael succeeded in convincing me to buy a black helmet with purple details--very comfortable, soft and fuzzy on the inside, a nice fit. The best things about it, I thought, were that it held my goggles on tight and I didn't have to wear a hat. On my first run of my second day skiing, I went down the easier of the two blue choices (the harder route was very steep, with snow being made and blowing hard right up the hill). There was fresh "snow" on the hill I chose too, a bit thick and slipperier than the groomed parts. I skied carefully down. Suddenly I heard a "Whoa whoa whoa!" and saw a blur behind me a...

The problem with having so many blog posts and a not very good labeling system is that I can't tell if I've posted about this before. However, it is worth talking about again, as I apply ideas and think about what does and doesn't work... A while ago I found the best article I've read about how to praise kids: The Power and Peril of Praising your Kids from New York Magazine. The executive summary is that kids praised in the wrong way will have less confidence, take fewer risks and perform worse than kids praised in more effective ways. You should all go read the article right now, even if it means you won't have time to finish reading my blog---it's a great article. One great line: “Emphasizing effort gives a child a variable that they can control,” she explains. “They come to see themselves as in control of their success. Emphasizing natural intelligence takes it out of the child’s control, and it provides no good recipe for responding to a failure." ...

As I wrote before, we sent Amanda to ski school for the first time this year. After the initial allergy reaction day, we managed to send her for 3 more days. Even after the first day, as she was recovering from being sick, she told me how she got into ski boots and went sliding across the snow on one ski. She moved up to the next group the next day, and actually got on the "magic carpet" (a people mover that takes little skiers up the hill). I saw her skiing on the second full day of lessons. She scooted herself over to the bottom of the magic carpet. It's hard work moving on skis on the flat, but she went inch by inch, until she got to the bottom. I think that an instructor lifted her onto the carpet (it helps that she's so small). Then she rode up to the top, managed to get off, and tried to ski back into the line of about 12 kids at the top of the hill. She veered off into the fence, but turned and used the "snowplow" to stop short of the fence. T...

When we lived in Chapel Hill, I knew I really wanted to have an attached garage. At that point, the cars were parked up the steep driveway, under the trees, and we at least needed something to keep the branches from falling on the cars. But a garage would be useful for taking in groceries, for when it was raining, for leaving sleeping children in when they wouldn't be moved... We got a garage in the new house. I took to leaving the van doors open when I took the kids out---my hands were full going out and coming into the house, so it was handy. The lights were off in the van so that the battery did not become discharged. I never imagined that it would cause trouble... Until one day on the ski trip, when I got out of the van and forgot to check both doors. I closed the door we were using (passenger side door) but forgot to check the other door. The wind came up. They were making snow right outside the house. That night Michael looked out at the car and noticed that the wind...

Eleanor really really wanted to use poles while skiing. Ski instructors don't give them to kids (or anyone just learning, for that matter) because it distracts them from learning and can be dangerous. Worn out by her repeated entreaties, Michael said that if she did “linked turns” with good speed control all the way down the hill without his reminding her, she could use poles. The first trip down he had to remind her a few times, but after that, she worked very hard and remembered all the way down. Of course, using the poles was a distraction, and there were new things to learn about how to use poles safely. But it kept being a great motivator for skiing well, and she kept skiing well all the time she used the poles. She's at least as good a skier as I am, and she definitely has more confidence. I'll see if I can get Michael to write a “guest blog post” about Eleanor skiing. Michael says: It's amazing how quickly Eleanor learned when she was motivated. When we st...

Luke has taken to not drinking milk. He had a few sips of his sister's chocolate milk and then decided not to drink regular milk. He then decided that all sippee cups are bad, and so he won't drink it from a sippee cup unless he's really thirsty. But he loves the word “cocoa,” which he learned from “Snowmen at Night” (“sipping cups of ice cold cocoa made by snowman mothers.”). So I pour his cold chocolate milk into a mug with a straw, and he drinks it right up. He doesn't like anything to be warmer than room temperature, so I don't heat it up at all. He says “cocoa” over and over again while drinking his chocolate milk. It's all a matter of presentation.

I think I am becoming a southerner. We arrived at the ski house at about 7 pm, and it had been below freezing all day, so the house was cold. Not freezing, but very very cold. We turned on the floor heat, which makes the house toasty, but it takes a long time to warm up. All night my feet were so cold that even Michael couldn't warm them up. I was afraid we would have to leave because I was such a wimp about being cold. Of course, in the morning the house was up to 65 degrees. The whole story reminded me of when Laura Ingalls spent the first blizzard of the Long Winter in the claim shanty. It was very cold, but somehow in the middle of the night it got warmer. She realized why in the morning when she had to be shoveled out of her bed. The house eventually got up to 70 degrees, a bit warm if you are dressed for skiing. Then the wind picked up. Radiant floor heat is very very comfortable, but it does not heat the air very fast -- when we woke up this morning, the house was ...

Note: we went skiing over the holiday weekend. I'll be posting a few of the blog entries I wrote on the trip. Amanda was technically old enough to go to ski school on our ski trip last winter, but she was pretty young (I thought) and had only been potty trained for a week or two... at any rate, this year she was definitely old enough to enjoy it, so we sent her. It is always a little interesting sending Amanda out to day programs because of her allergies. She is learning to ask “is it Amanda safe?” but on the other hand, she trusts her teachers a lot to give her things that are safe to eat---no dairy, egg, peanut or tree nut. I usually send a lunch and snacks, and tell the leaders to just feed her from what I send. Sometimes it seems like overkill, but mostly not. On the other hand, programs that see a lot of kids also see a lot of kids with food allergies. Leaders in such programs usually have training about what to do with kids with allergies. The program Amanda was going t...

Amanda was very interested in helping put away all the ornaments from our Christmas tree, and she was actually a big help, rather than a hindrance. We also took down the stockings, the wreaths, the Nativity scene... When we finished moving the Christmas tree out of the house, Amanda looked and said sadly, "Christmas is really all gone!" She was pleased to learn that it would come back next year.

We have too many toys at our house. I realized this as I was looking at toy storage/organization sites, thinking about the chore of sorting all the toys, finding the missing pieces, and keeping them sorted despite the best efforts of the children. So instead of investing in new toy storage options, I decided to cut down on the clutter. I have friends who regularly sort through their kids toys, send some away, rotate old toys out and "new" old toys in from storage. My problem with this is that they aren't my toys. When I have tried to get rid of old toys, before I manage to take them to Goodwill the kids will ask me "Where did the big rabbit go?" and we'll get them out of the box. I don't know which toys they want to get rid of. For example, they have a strange fascination with Mr. Potato head, which would go to the dump if I had my choice. On the other hand, every time I have tried to get the kids to get rid of toys, suddenly they all become precio...

Eleanor announced today that she wanted to have a New Year's party, with just our family. As usual, she was trying to explain this to me while I was doing about 10 other things, so I asked her to write down a list of what she wanted to eat and what she wanted to do, using abbreviations if necessary. In the past she would have demurred, saying that she didn't know how to spell, or write, or something else. This time, however, she agreed. Here is her list, from both sides of a sheet of paper: First side: 2009 cupcakes sandwigis yogret (Amanda) OJ Mlik Second side: race hoop's obstickle sandbox trow Thus we see that Eleanor is getting braver about sounding out words and writing down what she thinks they sound like. We also see that adding extraneous apostrophes starts early. Some notes: she wanted to have cupcakes decorated with the numbers 2009. Since we didn't have frosting, we used some chocolate chips on the chocolate cupcakes. The "trow" refers to eac...