Enjoy the Silence

The toddler room at school sent out an email last night announcing a three day experiment of Silent Drop-off. They asked that, for the rest of the week, when dropping of our children parents not speak. They suggested using gestures, sign language, and (when absolutely necessary) whispers.

It was framed as a pedagogical tool to "allow the voices of the children to be heard". But I think they are just trying to tell us parents we are loud and obnoxious and hang around chatting too long each morning. And I'm not going to contradict that notion.

Anyway, we did as told this morning. We prepared both kids for this new system and they both did amazingly well. Tai spoke not a single word and in fact held a lengthy conversation with one of the teachers using sign language. Quynh started off whispering, "be quiet" and washed her hands in silence. With nothing to talk about, we were in and out of there in about 4 minutes. I hugged Quynh (already engaged in some activity at a table) and signed "I love you." She whispered it back to me before turning her attention back to what she was doing.

And that was it. I think it worked well. The kids all seemed happy and the parents didn't linger too long. But I wonder when the novelty will wear off.....and whether this system will continue past these next couple days?



PS - First blog post from the iPad. please forgive any typos.

Wine Club

All my fears about joining a book club have been realized.  Specifically, the fear that I am not motivated enough to actually read the books in time for the meetings.  I actually like reading, and some (though not all) of the books have seemed quite interesting.  It's just that I don't have much time during which I could read.  See below for graphical evidence:

A Day in My Life:

See that purple slice?  Not very big, is it?  Additionally, I have other things I'd like to do with my free time.  So when that precious sliver of time rolls around each evening, Reading a Book Someone Else Chose has to compete with television, movies, the hot tub, and precious sleep.  Not to mention paying the bills, folding the laundry, or even blogging.  Most nights the book loses.  And this is why I am only 60 pages into the book we are slated to discuss tomorrow night.  

Having been the student who always completed every assignment in school it is kind of liberating to be blatantly ignoring the main premise of a book club.  Luckily, I don't have to feel too guilty, as several of the other members of the club have the same problem.  At the last meeting exactly none of us had read the book.  Somehow, we still managed to chat for over two hours.

This is why I proposed dispensing with the pretext and just renaming it Wine Club.  But I guess some folks actually read the book this month, so maybe that won't work.  It's time for us to select a new bunch of books to read and I'm still holding out hope that if we choose fluffier, easier, more compelling books that I might actually get through them.  Yes, I need Book Club dumbed-down, apparently.     

Tonight, during my 2-ish hours of Free Time after the kids go to bed and before I fall asleep, I will feel zero pressure to read, as finishing the book  in time is now a lost cause.

Looooong Weekend

Playground
Visitors
Cupcakes
Movie
Sleepover
Bounce House
Birthday Cake
French Fries
TV
More cupcakes
More TV
Another sleepover
More TV
Another playground
Ice Cream
Another Movie

And we wonder why the kids were acting like over-tired-picky-eater-spoiled-brats by 5pm this evening.  Tomorrow we bring them back to school so the teachers can whip them back into shape.  Good luck to them.

Time Change

The best part of our recent "fall back" clock change is that it's light out early so I can walk the dog at 6:15am and even get back and sneak into the shower before anyone else is awake.  (Because the nature of the Morning Game is sleep-as-late-as-i-can-but-get-into-the-shower-before-the-kids-wake-so-that-when-they-do-wake-they-are-Minh's-problem).  Anyway, the light in the morning motivates me to drag my ass out of bed a tad earlier and walk the dog first thing.  I get fresh air and a little bit of exercise, as does she.  Win-win.

The worst thing about the clock change is that I can no longer leave work at 4pm with my sunglasses atop my head and pretend that they are there because of, you know, the sun.  (When really they are just there to hold my hair out of my face).  Somehow (as much as I want to) I can't bring myself to walk around at dusk with sunglasses on my head.  Apparently, even I have standards.

Three Years of Lions

Tai, October 2009

Tai, October 2010

Quynh, November 2011

Powerless

After three full days without power (well, actually with some spotty generator power, but no REAL power) we have done All The Things.  There is simply nothing left to do with a toddler and a preschooler that we have not done.

We went sledding, drank hot cocoa, made beaded necklaces, colored pictures, sculpted with play-dough, constructed a marble run, made puppets and held puppet shows, had playdates with neighbors and school friends, used precious bits of the ipad's batteries to play games and read stories, read actual paper books, and more books, and then some more books, drew on the windows with markers, goofed around with flashlights and lanterns, played hide-and-seek in total darkness, and adorned ourselves with Halloween-themed temporary tattoos (that are currently proving very difficult to wash off).

Thankfully, school was open today.  And the power is back on, so we can go back to being more reliant on electronic entertainment for the kids than I ever realized we were.