Jo

Add an hour, add a day

by mayberry on November 7, 2010

Yesterday I was supposed to go on a day trip with an organization for which I volunteer. I’d been gone overnight a week earlier, I had a really tedious, time-consuming project to finish this past week, and I have another short trip planned for the end of this week. The thought of being gone for half the weekend was making me queasy, possibly even migrainey, so I begged off. I spent most of Saturday congratulating myself for this decision.

First, though, it was the usual skating+Starbucks with Jo. The barista has mastered three-fifths of our order by now and we are confident that she will get the whole thing down soon. Jo brought home three sample-size paper cups and then set up a Starbucks in her room for her American Girl doll. She used a small wooden chair for a table, two round dollhouse rugs for plates, carefully ripped tissues for napkins, and two toy megaphones (wide end up) for chairs.

Then we attacked the Winter Stuff Drawer. We have a set of huge (about 3′ deep by 4′ wide) built-in drawers in our downstairs hall. The bottom one is full of all our scarves, hats, gloves, mittens, earmuffs, and so forth, plus the odd baseball cap and summer sun hat. We took everything out and started over, getting rid of all the mateless mittens and outgrown hats. We sorted everything by wearer and upgraded our system of inside-the-drawer boxes and bins. When we were done it was a Thing of Beauty. And it better stay that way.

In the afternoon I actually sat and watched a football game for the first time this season (I used to plan my entire weekends around “College Football Gameday”) and got through some of my big backlog of magazines. (I’m coming for you next, Google Reader.)

And then! This morning I used my extra hour to run! This is pretty much unprecedented. All you mamas of little kids: there is hope. I slept 8 hours, worked out, showered, and dressed well before 9 a.m. Another thing of beauty. Maybe I’ll do it again next fall!

Edited to add photo of The Drawer for Kara:

It’s not as good as a locker area or mud-room, but it does house all our winter gear (for the whole family) except coats, snowpants, and boots. The drawers above hold wrapping paper/ribbons; DVDs; and CDs. ALL OF THEM. And then there is a cupboard above with shelves, which holds board games, Wii accessories, some cookbooks and magazines, and some art supplies.

Over on the Reviews tab: a sweeps where you can win books for a school library.

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It makes perfect

by mayberry on October 17, 2010

As part of her Suzuki music instruction, Jo is expected to practice her cello daily; and I am expected to observe that practice, along with her lessons. She loves to perform, but not so much with the practicing. We talked about this at length before agreeing to the lessons: that she’d have to practice, and she’d have to not whine about it.

How do you think that’s going so far?

Well, yeah. There is whining. But two things are helping.

The first is a tip I got from another parent at our school who is a piano keyboard helper like me. Actually, she’s a much better helper than I am because she stays for all the lessons and helps with them, too. So her advice was to let Jo choose, at the beginning of each practice session, what to focus on that day. Bow grip? Fingering? Moving the bow from the elbow, not the shoulder? And then we work on that, just that. So I don’t spend the whole practice session saying “elbow up!” “Open A!” “Your bow is too high!” We are both much happier.

The second is that I realized I might as well get something out of all the time I am putting in observing lessons. So now I practice too (me and the 1/4 size cello!). And Jo stands in front of me saying “elbow up!” “Open A, not open D!” “Your bow is too high!”

Yup, both much happier. Twinkle, twinkle.

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Sk8er gurl

by mayberry on September 28, 2010

This is the year that Jo gets serious about figure skating. While she isn’t at the point of taking tests and having to schedule ice time for 5 a.m., she has come a long way from rental skates, sweatpants, and a bike helmet. Now she is all about the tights and the fancy light-up blade guards, and the begging for a fancy skate bag like the other girls have (to the tune of $200+, ZOMG).

She has a semi-private (because only two kids signed up!) lesson once a week and team practice once a week, and will participate in several competitions and ice shows this season. Despite my initial reservations (some of which turned out to be unfounded), we have a good little routine going for the early Saturday practices. I find it easier to get to bed early on Friday nights since pressing work tasks can always be put off a bit on the weekend. So we two get up early together and hit the road. On the way, we listen to Jo’s Suzuki cello CD. During practice, I catch up on email, Twitter, and Facebook plus a magazine or two. After practice, we hit Starbucks for a mother-daughter breakfast. On the way home, we listen to Harry Potter on audiobook. We’re back by 10:30 a.m. with most of our Saturday still free.

While I am ever on my guard lest I become a wacko stage mother, it’s exciting to see her making progress and enjoying a sport. That didn’t happen for me until I hit my late 20s! I don’t know if she’ll stick with the team or even the sport past this year, but for now I’m enjoying the ride with her.

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Father’s Day Fondue

by mayberry on June 20, 2010

Because “good last report card of the year fondue” doesn’t trip off the tongue quite as well. But it was a double celebration. Our crunchy school doesn’t give letter grades (actually, the level of detail on the report cards is amazing and I can’t begin to imagine how long it takes the teachers to do them). But everything that had been a “needs improvement” became “improving” and several “improvings” became “significant strengths.” It definitely called for some cheesy, chocolaty goodness.

I know, picture of the wrong kid. Oops!

Happy Father’s Day to all.

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Child labor

by mayberry on June 9, 2010

I am ashamed to admit that my children don’t do chores. At least not on a regular basis. If I ask them to set the table or pick up crumbs with the handheld vacuum or shuttle something upstairs or down, they comply (with varying degrees of cheerfulness). But they don’t have assigned daily or weekly chores, mostly out of sheer parental laziness (and unwillingness to cede control).

They also don’t get an allowance. They take in so much cash from greeting cards (seriously) that they honestly don’t need much more. If we gave them a few dollars a week they would just spend it on mass quantities of gum and Nintendo points.

But they still like to earn money from time to time (like the times when I refuse to buy them any gum or Nintendo points). And I want them to develop a sense of responsibility for the household, as well as the basic skills they need to take care of themselves and their living space.

After a few random attempts where my husband or I promised totally divergent amounts for similar jobs, we’ve come up with a plan that I think might work. We’re making a list of prerequisite jobs, everyday tasks that don’t come with a paycheck: keeping their bedrooms picked up, putting away their shoes on the shelves expressly installed for that purpose by the back door, clearing their dinner dishes, and so on.

Then we’re making another list of money-earners: folding and putting away laundry, weeding, watering outdoor plants, unloading the dishwasher, etc. These will each have a predetermined fee. The catch is that all prerequisite tasks must be done before the child may take on an extra chore for extra cash.

What do you think? How do you handle chores/allowance/spending money with your kids?

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Brace yourself

by mayberry on May 27, 2010

It’s the time of the year where I resort to bullet points.

Although I’m sure it was really apparent from the video, the piano concert went well. Somehow it kept me busy from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., though.
Jo got braces, with blue and purple brackets. She hasn’t complained at all of any pain or discomfort (she’s tough, this one). I think the advantage of having them when you’re 8 is that it still feels special to be different. She’s not–yet–worried about trying to look like everyone else.
Someone nominated me for “best parenting blog” at ParentsConnect, which was awfully sweet.
We’re saying goodbye to a lot of lovely teachers: the librarian, music and kindergarten teachers at the elementary school, and the assistant director and another teacher at the child care center. The teacher who is retiring was Opie’s very first caregiver in the nursery when he was all of three months old and kind of a cranky little pill. I’m feeling rather maudlin about it all, especially the thought of my boy starting kindergarten in just a few months. The other day it occurred to me that when he loses his first tooth I might collapse into a heap.
In happier news, I wrote about my sister-in-law’s totally sweet potty-training books over at the Full Mommy.

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Tickling the ivories

by mayberry on May 14, 2010

My daughter’s school has a piano keyboarding program. Twice a week for 30 minutes, a heroic teacher instructs an entire class on basic piano skills. Each child plays a full-size electronic keyboard, with headphones so the teacher can listen in. Kids advance at varying speeds depending on their ability, so they are not all playing the same song or even using the same music book at the same time.

We also, space being at a premium, do not have a dedicated music room. So every Tuesday and Thursday morning before school, parent volunteers (I’m one of them) set up 25 stands, keyboards, stools, music stands, and headphones, plus a complicated network of extension cords. And every Tuesday and Thursday morning before lunch, we come back to put it all away. We are a small, but dedicated bunch. We’ve contemplated “Keyboard Roadie” t-shirts and theme songs. We pretty much danced in the streets when we got some new cabinets that allowed us to store the keyboards horizontally instead of vertically.

Of course, twice a year the kids put on a show for their classmates and parents. For the upcoming spring concert, the teacher asked a few of us setter-uppers and taker-downers to perform with our children. And so next Thursday night, I will be plinking and plunking along with the Group 1 kids–that’s one step up from kindergarten, y’all–as their accompanist for two songs (those beloved classics, “Pumpkin Party” and “The Tooth Fairy”).

I am very nervous.

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What’s grosser than gross?

by mayberry on April 13, 2010

Digging through four bags of garbage (chicken-nuggety, milk-cartony, banana-peely garbage) to find something. Something that you are then going to put in your child’s mouth.

So, yeah! The retainer! Went in the cafeteria trash can on the second day back from spring break. Awesome.

There we were after school, next to the Dumpster, picking through the lunch remains, wearing rubber gloves. And pretty much every adult that passed us gave a sympathetic, knowing look and said “Retainer? Been there. Sorry.”

I feel like I checked another one off the Mom Life List, right there.

Emergency room: check, check.
Peed on, pooped on, puked on: check, check, check.
Said goodbye to kids at day care, at grandma’s, at kindergarten: check, check, check. (Not college, yet.)
Pulled diapers, pacifiers, breast pads, matchbox cars, and Barbies out of my purse at inopportune moments: check.
Subsisted on less sleep than a CIA detainee (for years on end): check.

What else?

And yes. We–I–found the retainer.

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On the topic of eight

by mayberry on April 9, 2010

We just came back from a brief spring break trip/extended birthday celebration. Not only am I way behind on everything, there is snow on the ground. Is there no justice??

So I stole this post wholesale from Slouchy. Well, except I put in my kid’s answers instead of her son’s. I may be lazy, but I am not quite that lazy.

Are you happy that there’s no school today?

Yes.

What are you planning to do with your day off?

Sleep [ha! This child still has not developed the ability to sleep in]. Watch TV. Play.

How’s second grade going for you? What do you like most about it?

Lunch! In 2^nd grade you get more work.

What’s it like to be a big sister?

Painful. ‘Cause Opie fights me.

What movie have you seen recently that you’d recommend to other eight-year-olds?

The Lightning Thief. Because it’s very interesting. It wasn’t scary to me.

What about books?

Eloise. It’s funny.

What do you think your teacher will have to say about you in tomorrow’s conference?

I am very good in school but I need to work on not talking.

What’s your favorite food?

I don’t have a favorite food. I like turkey pot pie. And cheeseburgers. And broccoli and salmon.

What city, state, or country would you most like to visit, and why?

Slovakia. Because I’m studying it. What would you eat there? Potatoes and bacon.

Do you think kids these days play too many video games?

Is there anything you miss about being younger?

Not having to do as much homework.

If you could go back in time, what time period would you choose, and why?

I would go to when – right before Opie peed on my head.

Actually, I would go to Ancient Greece. Because of the Greek gods. I would want to be one. I would like knowledge.

What do you want to be when you grow up?

A famous ice skater.

What’s your favorite color?

Every color in the rainbow.

What do you like to do when you’re outside?

Go on monkey bars.

What do you look forward to?

Driving a car.

What’s going to be the best thing about being eight?

Third grade.

I’m still learning… What do you most want to learn that you haven’t learned yet?

How to play the trumpet.

If you had a superpower, which one would you want it to be?

Controlling siblings.

Vanilla, or chocolate?

Vanilla.

Summer, or winter?

Summer.

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Elite Eight

by mayberry on April 3, 2010

I don’t think too many (white, Midwestern) 8-year-old girls sit down to a homecooked Indian meal on their birthday and eat it with gusto.

I don’t think too many eight-year-old girls accidentally open their younger brother’s birthday present and really wish they could have those boys’ size 5 plaid Bermuda shorts for their own.

I don’t think too many eight-year-old girls give away 99% of their Easter candy, cheerfully, because they can’t eat it thanks to their recently installed orthodontic devices.

I don’t think too many eight-year-old girls want to spend part of their birthday building a Lego spaceship with their uncle.

Then again, I don’t think too many eight-year-old girls are as great as you are.