McKinley Elementary has a neat tradition every year: International Night. They celebrate diversity of different cultures by having the students bring in different foods representing their culture, they put on various performances, and there are activities around the school that celebrate diversity. The event tonight lasted from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.
I, of course, made life as difficult as I could for myself by bringing in homemade babka. (PopPop and Mammaw are very familiar with this dish:)). I made it yesterday and today while feeling sick and trying to work on a story for the Globe. I shortened a couple of steps and forgot an ingredient or two, but Drew insisted the babka was delicious (and, indeed, there were only crumbs left when I went to collect the pan. So, that's a good sign, right?).
I saw that one (or more) other families had brought rugelach and halvah, so apparently there are some Jewish families in the school. There was even one other babka, which, to my dismay, tasted much better than mine -- even thought it was store-bought! Sigh. Drew and Rachel watched the performances while I stayed in the one of the kindergarten classrooms (not Rachel's) and watched over the activities. I also picked up some tips from a few moms about summer camp sign-up (something we'll have to jump on as soon as possibilities become available. I miss year-round preschool).
Now it's time to head to bed and knock this yuckiness out of my system. I miss feeling healthy.
Friday, January 31, 2014
Rachel's first graph
Rachel has been learning about charts and graphs in kindergarten, as well as surveys and polling. Her class does surveys as a regular part of homework.
The other day while we were waiting for Drew to come home, Rachel took a noisemaker she had gotten in extended day and started blowing it, loudly. We hit upon the idea of seeing where it would be loudest in different parts of the house -- at the top of the stairs, in her closet, in the guest room closet, in the study, in the kitchen and the playroom.
She made me make a list of all the places, and then we decided to rank them in terms of how loudly I heard the noisemaker, and THEN we decided to do a "dot chart," as she called it.
So I explained the concept of the x/y axis, then we labeled each one (loudness level, from 1 to 100, was on the x axis, and name of room was on the y axis). And then I told her how loud each blast of the noisemaker had been in each room, and we plotted the dots on the graph. Then we drew a line and connected them.
You could not believe how cool she thought that was, and I can't believe my kid understands how to chart and graph different events. The things they learn in kindergarten these days...
The other day while we were waiting for Drew to come home, Rachel took a noisemaker she had gotten in extended day and started blowing it, loudly. We hit upon the idea of seeing where it would be loudest in different parts of the house -- at the top of the stairs, in her closet, in the guest room closet, in the study, in the kitchen and the playroom.
She made me make a list of all the places, and then we decided to rank them in terms of how loudly I heard the noisemaker, and THEN we decided to do a "dot chart," as she called it.
So I explained the concept of the x/y axis, then we labeled each one (loudness level, from 1 to 100, was on the x axis, and name of room was on the y axis). And then I told her how loud each blast of the noisemaker had been in each room, and we plotted the dots on the graph. Then we drew a line and connected them.
You could not believe how cool she thought that was, and I can't believe my kid understands how to chart and graph different events. The things they learn in kindergarten these days...
Wednesday, January 29, 2014
Daisy Scouts!
Rachel had her first Daisy Scouts meeting last night! The meetings are the last Tuesday of every month. The troop leaders pick the girls up from extended day and take them to the art room, where they have their meeting, do activities and then are served pizza for dinner. Parents pick them up at 7. It's a great system.
I surprised Rachel yesterday morning by putting a necklace on her than I had gotten at the Girl Scout store downtown -- a necklace of daisy petals to symbolize being a Daisy Scout. "I hope you get a lot out of it," I said, and she thanked me profusely for the necklace; she really liked it a lot.
After I picked her up, I was helping Kelly, the troop leader, carry stuff out when I heard a scream and sobbing down the hall. Rachel was running toward me. "Libby THREW MY SNACK ON THE FLOOR!" she shrieked. "Come on, Rachel, she didn't do it on purpose," I said. "SHE DID!" Rachel insisted, and unfortunately it was true. Libby is Kelly's daughter, and sometimes she's just mean or wild for no reason -- the first time she came to our house for a playdate she clearly didn't want to be there and ended up ripping some of Rachel's artwork off the walls, which shocked all of us because she seems like a nice kid.
Anyway, Kelly was highly embarrassed, since she had just led a meeting at which she emphasized how Girl Scouts ought to behave, and she insisted Libby apologize. "I'm sorry," Libby simpered, not sounding at all sorry, and Kelly insisted Libby give Rachel the rest of her snack as payment. Libby refused and got on the floor, so Kelly had to wrest it from her backpack. "It's ok, you don't have to," Rachel said sincerely, and I was so proud of her. I was even prouder when she and Libby raced to the playground to wait for us (it was dark and there was still snow on the ground), and when we got there Rachel announced she had given Libby's snack back to her. Later she told us that she had followed Libby outside because she was worried "that someone would take her" and she wanted to make sure she was OK.
That right there showed us that Rachel is wise and kind beyond her years, a true Girl Scout. By the time the meeting had ended, she had memorized the Girl Scout Promise and, apparently told Kelly (who is overwhelmed as troop leader) that she'd be perfectly fine with leading the troop herself, if Kelly needed help.
I surprised Rachel yesterday morning by putting a necklace on her than I had gotten at the Girl Scout store downtown -- a necklace of daisy petals to symbolize being a Daisy Scout. "I hope you get a lot out of it," I said, and she thanked me profusely for the necklace; she really liked it a lot.
After I picked her up, I was helping Kelly, the troop leader, carry stuff out when I heard a scream and sobbing down the hall. Rachel was running toward me. "Libby THREW MY SNACK ON THE FLOOR!" she shrieked. "Come on, Rachel, she didn't do it on purpose," I said. "SHE DID!" Rachel insisted, and unfortunately it was true. Libby is Kelly's daughter, and sometimes she's just mean or wild for no reason -- the first time she came to our house for a playdate she clearly didn't want to be there and ended up ripping some of Rachel's artwork off the walls, which shocked all of us because she seems like a nice kid.
Anyway, Kelly was highly embarrassed, since she had just led a meeting at which she emphasized how Girl Scouts ought to behave, and she insisted Libby apologize. "I'm sorry," Libby simpered, not sounding at all sorry, and Kelly insisted Libby give Rachel the rest of her snack as payment. Libby refused and got on the floor, so Kelly had to wrest it from her backpack. "It's ok, you don't have to," Rachel said sincerely, and I was so proud of her. I was even prouder when she and Libby raced to the playground to wait for us (it was dark and there was still snow on the ground), and when we got there Rachel announced she had given Libby's snack back to her. Later she told us that she had followed Libby outside because she was worried "that someone would take her" and she wanted to make sure she was OK.
That right there showed us that Rachel is wise and kind beyond her years, a true Girl Scout. By the time the meeting had ended, she had memorized the Girl Scout Promise and, apparently told Kelly (who is overwhelmed as troop leader) that she'd be perfectly fine with leading the troop herself, if Kelly needed help.
Supreme Court
This time last week I was sitting in the Supreme Court chambers waiting to listen to an argument in a case I was tangentially involved with. Warren Binford, a professor at Willamette University College of Law, asked me late last year to edit an amicus brief she was filing on behalf of the Dutch government as part of a child pornography case that was about to go before the justices. The issue they were deciding was whether victims of child pornography have to prove that they are harmed each time someone downloads their image and how much restitution the viewers should be expected to pay.
(I'm sure I mangled the above, but that's the gist of it).
Anyway, Warren had a bunch of her students work on the brief and brought them to D.C. to listen to the case. She also brought former Oregon Supreme Court Chief Justice Paul De Muniz, whom I've known for a long time, to listen to the arguments, too. Warren stayed one night with us; the rest of the time she was at a swanky hotel in the District. She invited me to stay with her the night before the arguments so I wouldn't have to get up absurdly early, so I did. As it happened, that was the night we got the ungodly amount of snow we did and I had to cut a trail from our house to the Metro station. So, I was glad to have a place to crash.
The next day we got up early (Warren had stayed up late the night before to go through her emails from her students, so we ended up going on 5 1/2 hours of sleep, and thank heavens I didn't have to actually file a story about the proceedings) and took a cab to the court. She and Paul whisked me inside and, luckily, my neighbor Carol, the FBI agent in charge of monitoring terrorism in the D.C. area, had set me up to be met by one of her employees. He found me immediately, instructed me to wait for him in the cafeteria, then he came and got me at the appointed time and escorted me upstairs. He even gave me a quarter for the lockers where I had to deposit my backpack! I had to go through TWO security checks before I was finally allowed into the courtroom. Big bonus: No standing in line out front in the bitter cold.
The justices were surprisingly human and asked questions that I could actually follow. The room was really magnificent -- crimson curtains edged by mustard-colored fringe, marble everywhere -- I almost pinched myself to reassure myself that I was really at the Supreme Court, listening to arguments about a case I was somewhat involved in. After it was over, we left, and I hung around the building to look at the displays on the walls outlining the history of the court. (One cool thing about D.C. is that even the mildly historic buildings have displays inside that are the equivalent of mini-museums). Then I grabbed lunch and waited to meet Warren at the National Gallery, where we looked at Impressionist art for an hour. We headed to a lecture at Georgetown she'd helped arrange, then Paul took us all over to Old Ebbit Grill, which I've been dying to try. It's a D.C. institution and the food was actually a lot less expensive than I'd expected.
Then Warren and I took a taxi back home and stayed up with poor Drew until 2 a.m., talking. End result was that the next day I had to get both Warren and Rachel out of the house (Rachel had a two-hour late start) by 10 and 11, respectively, then start building a story memo for The Boston Globe, where I'm freelancing for a while. Instead, I tried to fight off a cold by sleeping (didn't work, I was too wound up), so I ended up catching a really nasty bug that knocked me out for Friday and most of the weekend.
And that is why I haven't been writing on the blog. Now you finally know how the Supreme Court thing went. It was AWESOME.
(I'm sure I mangled the above, but that's the gist of it).
Anyway, Warren had a bunch of her students work on the brief and brought them to D.C. to listen to the case. She also brought former Oregon Supreme Court Chief Justice Paul De Muniz, whom I've known for a long time, to listen to the arguments, too. Warren stayed one night with us; the rest of the time she was at a swanky hotel in the District. She invited me to stay with her the night before the arguments so I wouldn't have to get up absurdly early, so I did. As it happened, that was the night we got the ungodly amount of snow we did and I had to cut a trail from our house to the Metro station. So, I was glad to have a place to crash.
The next day we got up early (Warren had stayed up late the night before to go through her emails from her students, so we ended up going on 5 1/2 hours of sleep, and thank heavens I didn't have to actually file a story about the proceedings) and took a cab to the court. She and Paul whisked me inside and, luckily, my neighbor Carol, the FBI agent in charge of monitoring terrorism in the D.C. area, had set me up to be met by one of her employees. He found me immediately, instructed me to wait for him in the cafeteria, then he came and got me at the appointed time and escorted me upstairs. He even gave me a quarter for the lockers where I had to deposit my backpack! I had to go through TWO security checks before I was finally allowed into the courtroom. Big bonus: No standing in line out front in the bitter cold.
The justices were surprisingly human and asked questions that I could actually follow. The room was really magnificent -- crimson curtains edged by mustard-colored fringe, marble everywhere -- I almost pinched myself to reassure myself that I was really at the Supreme Court, listening to arguments about a case I was somewhat involved in. After it was over, we left, and I hung around the building to look at the displays on the walls outlining the history of the court. (One cool thing about D.C. is that even the mildly historic buildings have displays inside that are the equivalent of mini-museums). Then I grabbed lunch and waited to meet Warren at the National Gallery, where we looked at Impressionist art for an hour. We headed to a lecture at Georgetown she'd helped arrange, then Paul took us all over to Old Ebbit Grill, which I've been dying to try. It's a D.C. institution and the food was actually a lot less expensive than I'd expected.
Then Warren and I took a taxi back home and stayed up with poor Drew until 2 a.m., talking. End result was that the next day I had to get both Warren and Rachel out of the house (Rachel had a two-hour late start) by 10 and 11, respectively, then start building a story memo for The Boston Globe, where I'm freelancing for a while. Instead, I tried to fight off a cold by sleeping (didn't work, I was too wound up), so I ended up catching a really nasty bug that knocked me out for Friday and most of the weekend.
And that is why I haven't been writing on the blog. Now you finally know how the Supreme Court thing went. It was AWESOME.
Monday, January 20, 2014
Quiet MLK Day
...Feeling a need to get back into the kitchen, I rolled up my sleeves this morning and cut up all the ingredients for a short rib stew, then put them in the crock pot for an 8-hour slow cook. Rachel went to her friend Ivy's for a playdate, but came home early because, while swinging in the backyard, she started feeling queasy.
Drew ran a few errands, then came back and hung out with Rachel while I worked most of the day on some writing I need to get done by tomorrow (finished it and sent it in ahead of deadline, yay!). It was so mild -- 57 degrees! -- that they biked to the playground near our house, then biked back in utter darkness. Then they did a "craft" for me together (a big book with drawings) before dinner. By the time they were done the ribs were ready and we sat down to eat. Unfortunately Rachel didn't like them but she was too scared to tell me because she didn't want to hurt my feelings. Sigh...I had really hoped to diversify her tastes a little more, but as I told Drew later, I didn't much like stews or roasts until I was long out of the house. Right, Mom? Right?
I should have poured more of the fat off the stew, but that's OK, I'll do it after it sits in the fridge overnight. After dinner I went back to work and said goodnight to Rachel after her bath. Good news: We just got word that she got into a "Physics for Curious Kids" after-school class! Yay! She is well on to her way to becoming a scientist, and, hey, we just got word that Uncle David is coming to visit at the beginning of February so Rachel can show him everything she's learned by then.
Drew ran a few errands, then came back and hung out with Rachel while I worked most of the day on some writing I need to get done by tomorrow (finished it and sent it in ahead of deadline, yay!). It was so mild -- 57 degrees! -- that they biked to the playground near our house, then biked back in utter darkness. Then they did a "craft" for me together (a big book with drawings) before dinner. By the time they were done the ribs were ready and we sat down to eat. Unfortunately Rachel didn't like them but she was too scared to tell me because she didn't want to hurt my feelings. Sigh...I had really hoped to diversify her tastes a little more, but as I told Drew later, I didn't much like stews or roasts until I was long out of the house. Right, Mom? Right?
I should have poured more of the fat off the stew, but that's OK, I'll do it after it sits in the fridge overnight. After dinner I went back to work and said goodnight to Rachel after her bath. Good news: We just got word that she got into a "Physics for Curious Kids" after-school class! Yay! She is well on to her way to becoming a scientist, and, hey, we just got word that Uncle David is coming to visit at the beginning of February so Rachel can show him everything she's learned by then.
Star gazing
Rachel spent most of today at her friend Libby's house while I finished up a magazine story and Drew re-caulked the shower, which badly needed it (a law professor from Willamette is staying with us Wednesday night). I also got a chance to clear out my side of the study and get rid of A LOT of stuff that has been hanging around way too long. Yay!!
When I picked Rachel up from her playdate, we lay on the grass on the front yard, looking at the pretty patterns the sunset was making in the sky. She pointed out the contrails to me. I believe Rachel is the only 5 year old I know who can identify a contrail (thank you, Drew). She announced that tonight she would put on her nightgown, throw a coat over herself and then go in the backyard to "stargaze." (I didn't really think this would happen, but I humored her and went along with it).
After a late dinner of roast duck, wild rice and salad (thank you again, Drew), I went downstairs to watch "Downton Abbey." At 9:40, Rachel came downstairs and said, "Wanna go stargazing with me? You could pause your program." OF COURSE I said yes. How could I deny what my little girl wanted? Pretty soon she won't want me around to do anything, so I figure I should seize every opportunity to be with her when she asks.
So I bundled up, we took the summer picnic blanket from the car and went to the backyard, spread out the blanket and lay down. I had warned Rachel that we probably wouldn't see very many starts because the lights from the urban area we live in would mask them, but I was pleasantly surprised -- there were really a lot there, including Orion's Belt. Rachel went inside to get a flashlight and some pictures she had drawn of the night sky that showed the constellations. We stayed on the ground for a while, then she swung on the swing set, and I told her I wanted to go inside -- I was cold, and it was late (although there's no school tomorrow for MLK Day). While we were outside she hugged me and lay her head on my chest. She was so happy I had come outside, as was I.
Now Drew is making duck soup from the duck's carcass and some vegetables and the lovely smell is wafting through the house. We're about to go downstairs and watch the return of "Sherlock."
When I picked Rachel up from her playdate, we lay on the grass on the front yard, looking at the pretty patterns the sunset was making in the sky. She pointed out the contrails to me. I believe Rachel is the only 5 year old I know who can identify a contrail (thank you, Drew). She announced that tonight she would put on her nightgown, throw a coat over herself and then go in the backyard to "stargaze." (I didn't really think this would happen, but I humored her and went along with it).
After a late dinner of roast duck, wild rice and salad (thank you again, Drew), I went downstairs to watch "Downton Abbey." At 9:40, Rachel came downstairs and said, "Wanna go stargazing with me? You could pause your program." OF COURSE I said yes. How could I deny what my little girl wanted? Pretty soon she won't want me around to do anything, so I figure I should seize every opportunity to be with her when she asks.
So I bundled up, we took the summer picnic blanket from the car and went to the backyard, spread out the blanket and lay down. I had warned Rachel that we probably wouldn't see very many starts because the lights from the urban area we live in would mask them, but I was pleasantly surprised -- there were really a lot there, including Orion's Belt. Rachel went inside to get a flashlight and some pictures she had drawn of the night sky that showed the constellations. We stayed on the ground for a while, then she swung on the swing set, and I told her I wanted to go inside -- I was cold, and it was late (although there's no school tomorrow for MLK Day). While we were outside she hugged me and lay her head on my chest. She was so happy I had come outside, as was I.
Now Drew is making duck soup from the duck's carcass and some vegetables and the lovely smell is wafting through the house. We're about to go downstairs and watch the return of "Sherlock."
Sunday, January 19, 2014
A glimpse of the future
Rachel brought her stuffed lion Nemo downstairs to breakfast this morning (I had gotten up hours earlier to swim with a neighbor, who forgot I was going to go with her and left. Instead of going back to sleep, I decided to re-write a magazine story I'm working on that's due Monday. Good think I did, it took most of this morning and early afternoon, longer than I'd planned).
Rachel put Nemo on top of the buffet and asked me to keep an eye on him while she ate. Sure, I said.
"Thanks. That's a big help," she replied.
"In a couple of years, you'll be saying, 'Mom, can you watch the baby while I take a shower?' And I'll say, 'Sure, sweetie. I can watch the baby all day,'" I answered wistfully.
"Make it better," she shot back. "Two days!"
Rachel put Nemo on top of the buffet and asked me to keep an eye on him while she ate. Sure, I said.
"Thanks. That's a big help," she replied.
"In a couple of years, you'll be saying, 'Mom, can you watch the baby while I take a shower?' And I'll say, 'Sure, sweetie. I can watch the baby all day,'" I answered wistfully.
"Make it better," she shot back. "Two days!"
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