Tae Kwon Monkey

That's him on the far right, row nearest to the camera.  Looking very serious.

Ethan's been taking Taekwondo for several months now.  He's still in the "preschool" level class, which means a shorter class, with younger kids, that meets only one day a week.  In the summer we're thinking of moving him to the older kids class, which meets twice a week for an hour at a time.

Breaking the board.  By far the most exciting part of every belt test.  The kids are always shocked that they can do it.

Last night he tested for his green belt, which in the little kid's class, is actually a white belt with a color stripe on it.  I'm very proud of him.  He seems to have a natural knack for the techniques, listens well despite his endless wiggles, and never complains about going.  In fact, his only complaint so far?  Not getting to play any video games on the nights that he has class.  That's a complaint I can live with!  He says that he wants to go all the way to black belt, and actually seems to understand that doing so is a long term commitment.  He's always happy to show us his new moves.  Lately he even seems to be absorbing it more than the first couple of sessions he took the class.  He'll actually practice, call things by name, and then proceed to make up his own "fighting" moves. 

Green belt boy

Rudy Van Gogh

"I paint with my hands."

Anybody who's been to my house in the last few months is well aware of Raina's current passion for painting.  Santa brought her a nice large set of watercolors for Christmas, after she demolished several smaller sets in the preceding weeks.  If you're looking for a good set, I highly recommend these:  Alex Jumbo Watercolors  They're worth every penny, and still going strong two months after getting them, despite almost daily use. 

While a drop cloth, paint brushes, watercolors, and various papers are nearly always scattered across my kitchen table, I usually reserve "messy paints" for outdoors (and therefore warm weather) only.  Not that my house is ever actually clean, but the constant battle against kid/dog/cat/grown people messes leads me rarely do anything intentionally that might cause unnecessary mess.  So, I surprised myself earlier this week, when Raina found the tempera paints and I actually let her use them.  On the kid's art easel.  In my kitchen. 

Masterpiece underway

My guilt was two-fold.  Raina was miserably sick with a sinus infection.  In fact, after painting that morning, she proceeded to sleep almost the entire day, overcome by fever.  Being a mommy (read: sucker) I wanted anything to make her feel better, and let her carry on through several large sheets of paper till she pooped out.  Secondly, I'd recently dis-enrolled her from her Gymboree art class that she'd been enjoying weekly for about a month.  She loves that class.  It's an hour of hands-on crafting goodness, with a pace that matches her 30 second attention span.  She gets to paint on the walls (on paper) at the beginning of each class, and uses her hands every time.  The first time we went, she hesitated, and I encouraged her to paint with her hands, and do whatever she wanted.  It's art after all, and I sure as heck wasn't going to let her paint with "messy paints" inside my house anytime soon!

Ahem.

Fear not.  I am not depriving her permanently of the wondrous (and pricey) Gymboree class.  I simply plan to re-enroll her in the summer, after her part time preschool ends for the semester.  Somehow, I'm sure she'll still be more than happy to have unbridled access to paints, glitter, glue, feathers, foam stickers, tape, and googly eyes. 

The Endless Winter

If only I were part German Shepherd

Yes, I'm well aware that this has been an unusually harsh winter for most of the country.  Couple that reality with the fact that I moved to a new, more northerly climate zone this past year, and I've been just short of shell shocked by the endless Winter. 

It's not like I've never experienced snow.  It's actually been much more manageable than the conditions typically are in Kentucky, because 1) ice is a less frequent occurrence and 2) they're simply better equipped and more experienced with these types of conditions north of the Ohio river.  It's really more that I've never experienced such a prolonged duration of snow cover.

Since December 1st, the ground was covered with between 1 inch and many many many more.  We got a couple of days of thaw at the end of December, then back with the snow.  Likewise, in January, it warmed up for about 1 day, enough to rain, melt much of the snow, then whammo, back to snow.  Finally, last week, spring began to make an early appearance.  We had a few days in the upper 40s and 50s, and the snow melted from my yard enough to find the two months worth of dog poop that lay beneath.  So, we're in the clear right?

Wrong.

Tonight, we're getting, drum roll please, more friggin' snow.  You'd think after 8 months here, that some of this hardy Midwestern attitude would have rubbed off on me, but you'd wrong again.  If anything, it's merely strengthened my resolve to move closer to a hurricane zone.

Another pitfall of our new location?  We're in the no-man's-land of weather forecasting.


See that purplish line between the distinct teal marked 1-3 inches, and the distinct pink labeled 4-8 inches?  Yeah, that's us.  Unless there's some isolated weather event targeted directly at our community, the weather report goes something like this: "In the Indy metro area, we're expecting 1 to 3 inches of snow.  South and east of the city will get rain.  Our viewing area to the north can expect 4 to 8 inches of snow".  So, where do we fall?   Clearly in the 1 to 8 inch range.

Don't get me wrong, it's been nice to have a new experience.  And the relentless teasing from our friends and family, (who are obviously intellectually superior), is always a source of amusement.  But I'm ready for this part to be over.  Just like everyone else.  Bring on the vitamin D, gardening, sunscreen, swimming pools, and complaints about the heat!

Oh yeah, I started a blog

Hmmm....it's either time to write something on here, or give it up huh?  Shit or get off the pot as they say.

The original intention of this forum was to keep family and friends in the loop about our short people and happenings.  Since most of the world as I know it, is on Facebook, I've done little to keep up with this.  That, and I find the process of digging through our pictures, copying them to a secondary location for upload, then arranging them in this format, ever so slightly tedious.

SIGH.

So, to continue or not?  My level of motivation remains to be seen.  Even with my fairly regular interaction with people I care about on FB, I have a growing sense of distance because the geographic gulf between us.  And while I've met many great people, I'm not accustomed to the process of starting over, reestablishing all of my relationships at once.  I guess that's the price you pay when don't move the first seventeen years of your life, and go straight through one set of elementary, middle, and high schools.  Straight through.  There's plenty of folks on FB that I've known since I was 5 or 6 years old with the same experience.  So, perhaps the benefit of this is that my kids will learn some adaptive skills that I lack?  Yeah, that's the ticket.

So for now, onward I guess.  Until the next slice of "know me!" "hear me" "see me!".

Kinder-monkey

     A lot has happened in our family since my last post.  I've neglected the blog terribly, and have felt really overwhelmed at the idea of trying to update all the many things we've been up to.  Thanks to the magic of Facebook, most of the family and friends are already in the loop for the biggest goings-on.  In a nutshell, we made a big move to a new house, new state, new job for Ben.  And one of the biggest changes of all came for our little Monkey boy.  Ethan started KINDERGARTEN!

 

     It's been a baffling experience for me as a parent.  For starters, how did he get big enough to go to Kindergarten?  Wasn't he just a baby?  Next, I'm left really missing our wonderful experience with Versailles Montessori School (VMS) in Kentucky.  One of the reasons we picked our current city was because it was supposed to home to some of the best public schools in Indiana.  

     While the jury is still out the quality of the education my kid is receiving, I can't help but feeling that some of his learning style needs are being swept under the rug for the sake of educating lots of kids, quickly, in a small space, and with limited staff.  My heart hurts for him every time he comes home disappointed, or confused, or with some weird piece of information.    I want him to LOVE school.  To really enjoy the process of learning and being exposed, but I think he's still trying to adjust to this new structured environment where he's forced to practice his handwriting day in and day out.  

     We've already moved his bedtime back to about 7:30-7:45 from the previous 8:30, to try and help him be better rested.  He's complained a lot in the mornings (at 6:45am) about being too tired, and asking that I let him sleep longer.  It's hard to explain to a five year old that the way you sleep longer is by going to bed earlier.  The goal is to get him in bed by 7:30, but frankly, it's just hard to fit dinner and shower (much less getting to do anything extra or fun) into that little space.  It does seem to have helped him get up easier, but I'm already having nightmarish visions of him having to get up nearly an hour earlier for middle and high school.  

     I'm disappointed with some things about the school already, and am hoping that I too adjust.  For starters, gym is only two days a week, and recess is only about 15 minutes once a day.  Add to it that he's so wiped out when he gets home that it's all I can do to peal him from the couch, and I'm worried about what sort of long term habits he's developing.  Oh, and then there's lunch.  For my slow-as-molasses-boy, a fast paced meal at 10:20 in the morning is not exactly ideal.  The Public Health person in me is screaming, "This is how obesity starts!!!!!  ARGGGGGHHHHHH!"  Heaven forbid that public schools be able to set up good habits.  I know they're strapped for time and money and space, but it makes me want to pull my hair out.  Where are our priorities people?  But I digress...

     Among the weird/not good things that have come home:  Ethan has reported to me that he has to use five different colored crayons on everything he colors because it's some sort of rule, based in the notion that "great artists use five colors".  I have no idea what he's talking about, but in my be-true-to-thyself spirit, I have told him to directly defy this rule and color his pictures any way he pleases, and defer his teachers to me.  Oy.  Yesterday was one of the saddest things he's told us so far.  He said that his teacher told the class that "this was one of their worst days ever".  She apparently said this to the class as a whole, but Ethan was unable to verbalize what exactly she was referring to, and had clearly taken the comment personally, even though he reports he was being good.  Now, if you know Ethan, you know that this is not a kid that has trouble verbalizing ANYTHING.  He verbalizes so much it makes me nuts sometimes.  But what confounds me is how someone who works with kindergarten age kids for a long time doesn't get that they can be sensitive and overly general about such things.  

     For me, it really brings back some of my worst school experiences, like my second grade language arts teacher who called me by the wrong name ALL year long.  Being the very shy seven year old that I was, I don't know that I ever corrected her, or if I did, gave up after the first couple of times.  She was old and stern, and once reprimanded me for tapping my shoes on the floor when I'd dazed off into a daydream.  It reminds me of the rare experience of having my name written on the board after I misunderstood a teacher's order, and mistakenly disobeyed her.  It also reminds me that the good teachers, the really good ones, the ones that see you for who you are, and tap into your talents, and really teach you, and make you love learning, are the rare ones.  And I hope my little boy finds one soon.  

     He's also come home with some new words and phrases and attitudes...yes, already.  One of the funnier ones came yesterday.  He was hungry and ate the unbruised portion of the banana left in his lunchbox.  It ended up being about 3/4 of the banana that he ate, but for some reason, he really had his mind on eating a whole one.  He comes to me sitting at my computer and says flatly, "Whatever, I'm having another banana".  It was such a strange and grown up thing for him to say.  A few days ago, in a much less endearing moment, I heard him using a derogatory word, (that he has most certainly never heard at home) while trash talking a villain on his video game.  That word, which starts with an f and rhymes with "hag", seemed so foreign coming out of his mouth, that I made him repeat it three or four times to understand what he was saying.  I explained that he was never, ever to say that word, and let it go at that.  Seriously, we're about four weeks into school and this is starting already?  Where could he have heard that among elementary school kids?  The bus maybe?  

     On a more positive note, he does seem to be adjusting, though he is living for his days off, and his precious time playing Lego Star Wars on the xbox.  He's made friends with his "bus buddy", though that kid did tell him the end of "Return of the Jedi" the night before Ethan got to finish the movie on his own.  Sigh.  It is hard to know if we're making the right decisions for him, and I sense that this feeling never really goes away.  Maybe once I'm comfortably in the nice nursing home, I'll feel like I've done the right things for him. 

My abililty to write this blog, courtesy of a bunch of awesome teachers

I've been very fortunate in my life to have some really amazing teachers.  Last night while perusing Facebook, I came across one of my favorite and most influential teachers.  I have no doubt that she is a favorite of many of her hundreds of former students.  Nonetheless, I dropped her a friend request, hoping that she'd remember me by name, if not face.  There's certainly benefits to growing up with an unusual name.  People might not remember your name, or ever spell it correctly, but at least they remember that you're the tall, lanky kid with the weird moniker. 

I lay awake bed thinking about what I'd like to tell her; about how well I remember her 8th grade English class; about how important she was to me at a very challenging and formative time in my life; about how her ability to teach me translated into the basis for a love of writing that has benefited me throughout my academic, personal, and professional life.  Writing, (however poorly I do it in this blog or lazily I've done it for school), has always been an important form of expression for me.  I remember being at my grandmother's house, trying to write poetry in my early elementary years.  I later remember that a creative writing assignment I was given in third grade, got me promoted to the upper level language arts class.  But it was Ms. Hoehner's 8th grade English class that taught me to love writing.  Taught me methods for pushing through blocks, how to keep my brain moving.  Just keep writing, even if you have nothing to say, and it will come.  I learned to write poetry, and to journal, and the fundamentals of style and form.  Writing is communication, and the lessons I learned in that class a million years ago are ones I need to continue to grow from, practice and apply.

Really, I could write this post about so many teachers.  Despite my public school education, I've been blessed with many teachers who've inspired me to do more than I thought I could, who've pushed me take risks, and who've given me a solid foundation for critical thinking and self-discipline.   I can remember specific skills, or moments of empowerment bestowed upon me by teachers like Ms. Hoehner, Mrs. Powers, Mr. Roach, Mr. Schenck, Mr. Johnston, Mr. Karsner, and on and on through college and graduate school.

My own ambitions are usually closely tied to academia.  Perhaps because of these teachers, I see myself as a student always.  I'd like to complete a PhD in some field.  Although my undergraduate work showed me the grueling day to day challenge of being a high school teacher, I still see myself also with the potential to be an educator.  I am, after all, actually trained to be a public health educator.  In any event, these experiences have led me to a place where I find it difficult to imagine being outside the realm of education.

I sit here now, as a parent, waiting to send my first-born off to Kindergarten in a few months.  I worry endlessly about whether he will be properly challenged, nurtured, supported.  Whether he'll be at the right school for his needs and intelligence.  Whether he will be as fortunate as I have been in finding leadership among his teachers.  Whether he will one day be looking back, as I am now, finding friendship among some of those who've helped him along the way.  We should all be so lucky.

It's all fun and games till somebody cracks their head on a post

Just some pictures of our recent fun playing outside.  We got about 2 inches early in January, then another 4-5 about a week later.  I surprised the kids with some saucer style sleds, and the fun started!  The first couple of times we stuck to the side yard by our neighbor's driveway, which results in crashing into an overgrown shrub at the bottom.  The kids didn't really care.  The deeper snow afforded us the opportunity to sled down our driveway, which was great fun till Ethan slid off the path he was on, bumped the recycling cart, then hit his head on the deck post!  Poor kid.  He was fine after some dry clothes and hot chocolate.  We had fun, but it can be Spring now.  Enjoy!