Christmas and the Boys: Christmas Activities for Toddlers in DC Area December 23, 2011

I put up our little Christmas tree, and it’s tiny–about 2 feet, as you can see in another post not too far back. Both boys managed to pull it down once, but after that, they’ve had little interest in knocking it down. They love the lights on it and they like taking some of the jingly ornaments off the tree. One day I decided to risk some internet time while they were awake. It was really quiet in the other room, and then I discovered that they had unwrapped all the presents (4) that I had put under the tree. So I rewrapped them, and Gil and I have embarked on a multi-day wrapping-unwrapping extravaganza.

(Right now S is behind me on the couch saying, “Here’s little kitty book. We’re going to read it to Gilbert. He likes it.” And Gil’s saying, “Book” and now S is reading to him.)

DC Area Christmas Activities We Did this Year:

• Scottish Parade in Old Town. This was fun, as parades go. Highlights were the bagpipers and big pipe and drum bands, and the dog clubs who would walk by with a bunch of dogs of the same breed. We went with friends who had a place for us to park. Otherwise parking would have been a nightmare. The boys like the music and so did I
• Santa at Tyson’s Corner Mall. This was fun, but G absolutely hated meeting Santa. Correction: he liked meeting Santa, but he did not want to sit with Santa. Seamus did want to sit with Santa, and he had a pretty good time. This was a good excursion for December because the play area for kids in Tyson’s is GREAT. It has a lot of soft climbing and sliding equipment and loads of kids running around in socks. The boys loved it and played there forty minutes before lunch and then an hour after lunch. They took very good naps that afternoon.
• Marymount Christmas Dinner. We went up for the student dinner, and it was very fun. I think I wrote about it earlier.
• Miniature Train Display at Union Station. This was cool, but it was a diaster for us. Aimed for slightly older toddlers 2.5-4.5. There is a pretty good display but a lot of it is at adult height, so difficult for kids to see. There is one that is easy for them to see and S was enthralled with it. The diaster was that we took the Metro to Union Station, and Gil’s ear must have been hurting from the underground, so he pretty much lost it on Metro. Then he fell asleep in the stroller, and thank goodness, because he slept on Metro on the way home, but that meant he did NOT take a nap that afternoon. Lucky for us, we had plans to go see The Descendants, so we left G with a sitter for his no nap afternoon.
• Falls Church Santa Fire Engine. This is awesome! The fire station decks out a fire engine in lights and then has Santa sitting on the top, drives around waving. The first night we saw it, it was 9:30 and we seriously debated getting Seamus up for the excitement. However, he was very much asleep. It went by at 5 and 6 a few days later and the kids thought it was so cool. (So did we!)
• Oxon Hill Farm and Park. Not really a holiday activity, but we decided to take the boys out to the farm, and it was the best activity we’ve done in a while. I’m going to give it its own post.
• Cape May Trolly. We rode the trolly at Cape May (not really a DC activity) to see the Santa lights. Pretty fun. Seamus like the steamed up windows, and it was cold!
• Getting a Christmas tree. S & G accompanied Grandude to get a Christmas tree and poinsettia.  They liked seeing all the trees and helping to pick one out. S really enjoyed decorating it with Grandude a few days later.
• Zoolights. We’ve had plans two separate nights to go do this, but we haven’t managed to! We did go to the zoo during regular time and the lights on the elephant sculpture were pretty cool.
• Christmas lights in the neighborhood. This is fun. We load the boys in the stroller and then walk in any direction and point out the light displays. They like the Mickey, Minnie, and Goofy lights. But they also like inflated Frosty or Santa, and they like reindeer who turn their heads. If we say, “Look Frosty is waving!” both boys immediately start waving energetically at the display.
• Hot chocolate. One night we rode bikes to Whole Foods five miles away and it was cold, so I made the boys some hot chocolate. Neither one of them would drink it even though it was just warm milk with a tiny bit of chocolate syrup. Weirdos.

Moral, if you’re looking for activities with kids in DC, simpler is better. Every time we tried something big, it wasn’t really worth it, except for the ability to get out of the house. It has been a pretty nice December though, so that’s made it nice.

 

First Drafts December 20, 2011

I’ve been wanting to write this post for a while, and now I’m having trouble remembering what I really wanted to say. Here goes, anyway.

I think the idea occurred to me around the time we started talking about the Writing Intensive requirement at my university. Students have to write in these classes, but, perhaps more important, they have to rewrite, revise, and rethink. That extra step of feedback and revision is what makes the class Writing Intensive. I guess I’ve always believed that students need to write in order to think out their ideas, but I’ve been less accustomed to having them rewrite, or revise substantially, but I think that that is a valuable skill for them to do.

I think this more now as I’ve been attempting to revise chapters from my dissertation into articles or book chapters. Part of my writing process involves looking for calls for papers that seem promising and then restructuring my argument and evidence into ideas that work for the specific call for papers. Sometimes that works and sometimes it doesn’t. I’ve also been doing some archival work that might augment my essays on certain writers (Katherine Anne Porter). However, with the revision process is the realization that some of this stuff just doesn’t work in the form it’s in. In that case, does it need to be thrown out? Saved for another project at a later time? Revised into a new form? This is where it’s nice to have multiple readers for your work.

Here’s how I tier it: First reader–me, obviously! I have to get it into shape past the first draft. Second reader–close friend whose feedback is valuable and who I don’t mind seeing some sloppiness or unrealized ideas. This person helps me put those ideas together or scrap them if they need to be scrapped. Third reader–my adviser who gives excellent feedback and also helps with the rhetorical situation of the article. Fourth reader–journal editors. Fifth reader–I hope a large general audience thinking about the issues I raise in my work! At all these stages, I’m doing revision which means the finished product looks very little like the initial piece of work. And it’s all valuable, but I only really learned how to do this when setting my academic work up for a larger public.

With student writing, I think a public project is an interesting idea, because if the work is just to turn in, they might stop working when they’ve decided the final product is good enough. When it’s for a larger audience, they might continue working to make it even better. But then, this more casual forum of my blog (for me–I know others actually plan posts and revise) is public, but the thoughts are often very much first drafts.

Just some thoughts. And if you want to read that public work you can here and here.

I Cut Gilbert’s Hair… December 12, 2011

And here is the evidence:

Before

Note the fine mullet growing up in the back. This may also be around the time the WKU team did not receive a bid to a bowl game.

After

Patrick thinks he looks like a St. Clair here. I don’t know. What do you think?

I also put up the Christmas tree this weekend:

Gil likes his Security Blanket

And I worked six days in a lead up to finals week. Since we went to Christmas dinner at Marymount last night, you might say I worked seven days…

Seamus and the IPod

And Seamus played Cupcakes before bed. He looks like a little boy now. Occasionally he’ll say, I’m not a really big boy yet. It’s all in relation to coming to terms with Gilbert not being a baby anymore, but also not qualifying to be a big boy…

Birthdays December 5, 2011

I’m a big fan of birthdays. In my family, we have elaborate pretend birthday parties for weeks before the actual birthday. In fact, if there’s a cake in the house, whoever has the next birthday is likely to have a pretend birthday party that evening. I’ve gotten some grief over the last few years for slacking off on the birthday parties for my children, rationalizing that he’s only one, so it’s more about me this year, or he’s only two, or whatever. However, when we invited my parents for Seamus’s second birthday (which happened to be close to Easter) he developed a taste for birthdays, if you will.

Now Seamus knows that birthdays mean a few things. One, whoever’s birthday it is gets presents. Two, that person is special and we are nice to them. Three, there is cake involved. This summer we had a positive blitz of birthdays. Nana’s in June, Dada’s and Grandma’s in July, Granddude’s in August, and Gilbert’s in September. That’s a lot of cake! Even though Seamus likes everybody else’s birthday, he still likes his best. He knows it’s in April, and he knows that Granny’s birthday is also in April. April is in the Spring. E.T.C. (We go through this litany a lot!)

When I was a little kid, birthdays were mostly about family time, cake, dinner, and not having to wash the dishes on your birthday. When I was a teenager, I think that I had slumber parties for my birthday wherein we watched movies, ate popcorn, and generally behaved with lots of silliness. Just as I’m anti-organized sports for kids, I’m also kind of anti-organized birthdays (Don’t kill me). I hate admitting it, because I think it only reveals my absolute and utter laziness, which might prompt you to ask, why did you have kids if you didn’t want to celebrate their births? Um, and the rider to this question–kids are a lot of work, didn’t you know? And I get it, there is something so cute about kids playing soccer when they all run for the ball, and there is nothing cuter than a bunch of kids having fun at a birthday party. (Which is actually where this post is going, if I ever get there…)

So on Sunday, we were invited to Seamus’s cousin’s 3rd birthday party at an inflatables place in Manassas. I figured it would be fun, at the very least it would wear Seamus out for his nap, but he had a great time! On Saturday night, we told him he needed to go to bed and get lots of sleep because he had a big day at his cousin’s birthday the next morning. When he woke up, he asked about the birthday, and said, “Do you think there will be cake there?” We had never mentioned cake, but I guess it’s imprinted on his brain.

We read the fine print and realized that Gil wouldn’t be able to play, not being old enough. We’ve all been sick, so neither Patrick nor I wanted to engage in the battle of the wills it would take to keep Gil off the bouncy equipment. We decided to ask P’s dad to play with him for the morning. That turned out to be the best idea ever. Another family had a 17 month old (Gil is 15 months) at the party, and the poor kid just wanted to play and the poor parents were super stressed keeping him off the stuff. (Keep in mind that we weren’t sure Seamus would want to jump as he’s not much of a dare devil, and we knew Gil would want to because he goes up and down the big slide that Seamus won’t touch!)

Anyway, Seamus loved it. He jumped and climbed and went down the big slides, and had so much fun. And by the end, I understood why people do birthday parties (at home or other places): it’s fun to see all the kids have a great time. But he still didn’t play with the other kids. They were peripheral to his existence. Sure, he waits in line and takes turns and all, but he showed little interest in playing with them or talking to them. So I think I have a few more years before he’ll remember interacting with other kids at his birthday. Right?

Also though, I raked up the leaves last night, and Seamus and Gil were running all around the yard, fake falling, and rolling in the leaves, and talking loudly to each other. Seamus has no trouble talking to (bossing?) Gil. I think it’s his personality that urges caution in strange situations.

No Posts December 3, 2011

Because I haven’t posted in a while, somebody out there sent me a list of possible post topics. For that, I thank you.

Between the holiday, the work week, and this cold that came out of nowhere, we’ve been a little slow on the posting.

But tomorrow, we’re going to take Seamus to his cousin’s 3rd birthday party. We just read the specs on the party place and we’ve decided to leave Gilbert with his grand-dude. Why would we not take Gil? Well, it’s a party at a Pump It Up, (with inflatables and stuff) and Gilbert is too young to jump. He’d be devastated and we’d be miserable trying to keep him off the equipment, so why doesn’t he have a special day with Grand-dude? I think it’s a win-win-win-win.

We’ll (try to) let you know what Seamus thinks of the birthday party. Our next family birthday party will be my Granny’s 87th!