Cold Spaghetti

It’s after midnight. On a Tuesday night. And I can hear the microphone feedback from across the house. Paul has decided to sleep with Will on the other side of the house. Now I can hear Kate stirring.

I am so, so, so, so, so tired of this bullshit.

Now that our “bathroom” and “laundry” are located all over the house while we renovate, the kids are finding all sorts of new play toys.

Will likes bottles of shampoo and cleaning supplies.

Kate likes toothbrushes. Actually, she LOVES toothbrushes.

But it’s the scale that has really captured their imaginations. They could play with it for hours. It’s a complicated model in that you have to put slight weight on it and quickly remove the weight for the scale to take a few seconds to calibrate… THEN you can put your full-self on to get your weight. The two-step system takes a bit of time to get used to, but finally Will has figured out that he doesn’t weigh “E” and that he has to wait until he sees “0.0” before stepping on and getting an accurate read. Kate, on the other hand, is thrilled with whatever the scale displays. Mostly because she is standing on it just to copy whatever Will just did. The squeals of delight, gleeful dancing, and general happiness produced by this on-the-scale, off-the-scale game are mind boggling.

The side benefit is that we have good weights on the kids.

Will is 38.4 pounds. “Thirty-eight FOUR?!?” he says, as if those last four tenths of a pound amount to the weight of twelve kids. I’ve decided to try his strategy and must say that I like focusing on the tenths column much more than the rest. Score one for Little Man!

Kate, who officially turned 22 months on the 9th, is solidly 22 pounds. With a sweater, turtleneck, jeans, and shoes we can eek that weight up to 22.7 pounds, which is pretty respectable for a child who Goes To Eleven. It is nice when we can get the scale to read 22.7 for Kate, because Will reads it as “TWO TWO SEVEN!?!?” — with my brain finishing “is the place to be, with Marla Gibbs and her fam-i-ly” as if on perfect cue. I had such a soft spot for Florence.

Going with Kindergarten:

Pros:
— Will won’t be bored.
— He’ll be with kids the same age.
— He’ll do the summer program and will have had a little French already.
— We’ll be going with the way the system is structured, which we feel is sort of part of committing to the way the learning environment works.
— The kids will be spaced 3 years apart which gives them only one year of overlap in college (okay, that is really not in our considerations.)

Cons:
— Will he be ready to sit at a desk and do math, science, homework, and the like in 18 months (1st grade is serious stuff)…?
— Will he be at a disadvantage without having the extra year of French before 1st grade?
— Are we cutting his childhood playtime short? Does he need more time to play?
— Is he still going to need a nap in 6 months?

Going with PreK

Pros:
— One more year of playtime.
— Naptime continues one more year (Kindergarten-ers don’t have nap.)
— Two years of French immersion before 1st grade.
— If he continues with this grade progression, he’ll be “bigger” physically compared to his peers later, which I understand is a plus for athletics and social issues for boys?

Cons:
— He’ll be the oldest in the class (I’m not sure if this is a pro or a con… but Will doesn’t do the alpha kid thing and I don’t see him being one to set the example… I see him more adopting whatever behavior seen in the other kids. This may not be a good thing.)
— He’ll be in class with 3-year olds who may be in very different places developmentally.
— He may be bored?

Thoughts/suggestions welcome!

From The Guardian Weekly:

“The slums of Nairobi have been the backdrop to some of the worst violence since Kenya’s disputed elections in December 2007. In Kibera, a settlement on the edge of the city, approximately 700,000 people live in extreme poverty. Much of the area has been destroyed, but there are bright spots amid the ash and rubble. Every few meters there are white, hand-painted signs calling for peace and brotherhood. Luhya artist Solomon Muyundo (aka Solo Saba or Solo 7) has been painting peace messages in public places every day since the fighting broke out.

This reminded me so strongly of the beauty within the NOLA Rising messages; the joy those little signs bring to me when I see them. This artist is trying to calm his troubled nation, to stop those in the throws of chaos from harming each other. Here is the artist, in his own words:

“
I’ve been going out and painting messages of peace in Kibera, trying to calm the violence that erupted after the election. I write things like “Peace wanted alive” and “Keep peace and justice” in white paint.

Some people have started urging me to paint in their areas too, in places that I haven’t reached. They are encouraging me to do more, and I’m really happy that they like what I’m doing. I want so much to restore peace in our country.
…

I think the messages contribute to a more positive attitude in the community. Wherever there is a message of peace, someone feels secure. People are resuming their normal activities with less fear.
…

When people were trying to loot the marketplace I ran around the stalls with charcoal, writing “ODM” on as many things as I could. The looters never took any of the goods that I wrote on. That made me think that perhaps signs could speak louder than I could.
…

People want a way in which to protest peacefully. Perhaps we should be printing T-shirts with peace messages and giving them out for free. That way people can advocate peace wherever they are.

I haven’t heard of any other artists in the country promoting peace in this way. But if Kenyans can think of a way to assist the community in this manner, I encourage them to do it, without worrying about who will pay them. They should display peace wherever they are, in all the places I can’t reach. As artists, we are talented, and we have a role to play in the community.

“

I wonder how the ‘Grey Ghost’ would respond to that?

Had to make the $7 CCEX splurge for Will to play dress-up! Extra bonus: he wears the hat now helping Paul around the house.

Putting on pajamas takes a couple of tries.

More official news… Will and Kate were both accepted to Ecole Bilingue de la Nouvelle-Orleans for the 2008-2009 school year! We took the news with bittersweet excitement… it’s time for Will to move on from preschool and we applied for both to have the option of keeping the kids in the same school (sibling discount!) It was a bit of a surprise to us that both kids got in, we’re misty-eyed about our kids moving on from Abeona, but we’re thrilled!

Ecole Bilingue is a French immersion school. It’s taught by French Nationals and approved by the French Government. We love the teachers and the staff. In terms of price, it’s not cheap but with everything added it will be about the same as we’re paying now. The school feels great — like a big family — the same loving environment we’ve come to know at Abeona. The school is very diverse… staff, teachers, students, and families, representing a range of nationalities, socioeconomic backgrounds, and ethnicities. The music and art programs are wonderful; we adore the music teacher! We feel very very lucky to have found a good place to continue our children’s education!

Yesterday, we attended a parent meeting where Will was evaluated by two of the teachers. He did great. The “test” was a series of developmental exercises, the same that Abeona went through with us for our parent/teacher conferences a few weeks back. Things like jumping on one foot, walking in a line, crawling, writing his name, counting, etc. Will answered some questions in English and Spanish (upon request). They were surprised that he still uses both hands interchangeably. I assumed that it was normal for kids to not have a dominate hand yet, but apparently this is not so. The teachers were very surprised and said that they had never seen a child use both hands so freely at this age? He writes, eats, and draws with both hands, sometimes trading the utensil or pen back and forth in one sitting. They had him repeat some words (colors) in French… like his parents, his accent will take some work.

Here’s the issue: in the French system, children’s grade levels are determined according to the school calendar year. So, Will is eligible for Kindergarten, which is the class they accepted him into. He wouldn’t be the youngest in the class, but he wouldn’t be the oldest either. The age isn’t really an issue for us, it’s the language. About 2/3-3/4 of the students will have had a year of French in pre-K. Usually, students are recommended to have 2 years of French immersion before 1st grade (a year to listen, a year to speak). His teachers felt that he would be fine; many students start French at Kindergarten and are completely caught up by the end of the year. He wouldn’t be the only one starting with no French. He will do the summer program at EB, so he’ll have a little French before the school year starts, so that is something. I’m not sure exactly what to do (the school is willing to put him in either Kindergarten or pre-K, whatever we want). I terms of play and school day structure, the preK and Kindergarten are very similar — only the Kindergarten does not take a nap. Both have morning and afternoon outside recess and structured playtime. I’m just unsure of what is best for Will.

The other issue is that Kate must be potty trained — no pull-ups or trainers — by the start of the school year. If she’s not potty trained, we have to pay for her slot until she’s ready. Talk about incentive for success! This goes against my tendency to ‘wait until they’re ready’ and puts pressure on us finding success with potty-ing this summer.

Paul and I are going to start taking classes at the Alliance Francaise — I wish NOLA had a Spanish language center like this!! We’re also wondering if we can find someone there who could teach French from Spanish… so we can practice our Spanish at the same time.

I’ve been holding my breath with excitement and finally today… it’s official! I’ve been hired to TA a short summer course in Peru! It gets better: only part of the job is to TA. The OTHER part of the job is that the Dean’s Office is hiring me as a photographer to document the trip for Tulane’s Global Health Magazine!

The course includes amazing speakers from a variety of areas; mostly focused on the role of environment in health. The first several days are in and around Lima; then approximately 4-5 days are spent in and around Iquitos, including 2 days floating down the Amazon. It’s still being determined what areas in the Andes we’ll visit. (La Oroya is the only location on the current itinerary.) This is the third year the course is being offered and the syllabus has been a little different each time.

Even better, Paul is going to come, too!! We’re beyond thrilled about the whole thing. Did I mention that I’m getting paid to do this?

“Mommy, you should eat some of that apple you are cutting up for Kate.”

“Oh? Why should I eat some?”

“Because there’s lots of vitamins in apples.”

“Really? How do you know?”

(Thinks. Hard.)

“Because… look,” shows me skin of the pink lady apple, “these white dots are vitamins. That means there are vitamins inside.”

“I see. What else has vitamins?”

“Dinner.”

For the insurance claim: