October 13, 2009

Declaration of independence

When I teach the first semester of Freshman Composition, I usually assign a particular reading to my students--one dealing with the question of public space, what it is, how it can be altered, and who alters it.

August 4, 2009

Labels to live by

Late last week I came across this short film, nominated for "Best Documentary Short" at the 2009 Woods Hole Film Festival, and made by a brother about his own brother, who dealt with undiagnosed Asperger's and accompanying depression for 30 years of his life. I watched the video on the same day I found out about a bullying incident at school with L. and I was in an emotional, Mama Bear state.

May 19, 2009

Projection

As I mentioned in yesterday's post, on Saturday we made some feeble attempts to clean out the crawl space. The crawl space (ours is a walk-in, so no actual crawling is involved) is where we keep the bins of holiday ornaments and decorations, and the bins of baby clothes that are too precious to hand on, and the bins of toys that are too special to donate. I spent a great deal of that time fending off T. who wanted to bring up all the toys she came across. Then, in one of the bins, I spied a familiar shape: something brown and cream-colored, the fur worn down to flat nubs all over its body.

February 13, 2009

You really don't know?

A week ago I received a letter from the City of Boston's Office of Human Services, inviting me to attend a community meeting to discuss a project. I RSVP'd.

The meeting was in the basement of a church. There were only a few people there when I arrived. I sat down, socialized, and waited. But even after waiting, there were still only a few people.

December 22, 2008

What to do about you-know-who

I had a disturbing and utterly frightening dream last night; the kind of dream that sends chills down a parent’s spine this time of the year. I dreamed that it was Christmas morning and that we’d all—everyone in my family—completely forgotten to fill the Christmas stockings, or—horror of all horrors!—leave cookies and milk out for Santa. Of course, I have to add here that even the horror of this dream did not compare to the reality of having actually left behind, two states away, some of T.'s critical Santa presents last year—but that's another story.

November 20, 2008

Weighty decisions

I know it's only the middle of November, but we're already beginning to think about the fact that T. will be starting kindergarten next year. We're thinking about where she should go, and yes, we have a creeping wondering about whether she should go. We're not planning on keeping her back another year. She'll turn five this January, and by the time she starts kindergarten she'll have at least six or seven months of being five under her belt. We honestly never thought twice about sending her to school next year.

September 22, 2008

Rituals to sleep by

T. and I have a special ritual at bedtime each night. After teeth-brushing and the bath and the pajamas, and the hair-combing and the two stories (or one, if we stayed up too late) and the good-night kisses to her papa and her brother, we snuggle in the dark in her bed.

August 7, 2008

Perspective

Yesterday afternoon I stopped by L.'s school to eat lunch with him. While I was signing in, I overheard the school counselor talking with a mom and a child in the front lobby. The child, a new fourth grader at the school, wanted to call it quits on the school and go home. For good. The mom and counselor were trying to talk the girl into giving the school through the end of the week--she was so new she hadn't, apparently, even had the chance to eat lunch yet with her class (although I'm not sure THAT experience would be enough to sell her on any new school).

August 5, 2008

Bag of tricks: the sleep edition

Over the summer, L.'s sleep habits have gone from bad to worse, and he's now crawling into bed with us in the middle of the night--something he hasn't done for four years. This is, in some ways, an improvement over the nervous shadowy figure standing by our bedside at 2:00 a.m. and frantically whispering to us, and a definite improvement over the terrified yelling at 3:00 a.m., but it's still not good. At L.'s eight-year appointment, his doctor told us that eight is a prime year for anxiety and night terrors. Eight, it appears, is a tough year.

July 29, 2008

Yin and Yang

We've suddenly slipped into a different pace around here. It's a quieter house, and the hours stretch ahead, marked definitively on each end of the day by school drop-off and pick-up at 3:00. T. missed her brother yesterday, but she has an extra spring in her step, we think; that glow that kids get when they can play at being an only child for a while. We're already enjoying the one-on-one time with her, but with pangs of guilt now and again. Should we be having fun? I ask myself at the pool, while we toss T. into the air between us and watch her dive and laugh.

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