I had planned to write a tribute for Tristan when he turned 15, but he had other plans, took a sudden dip in health this week that we hardly noticed with all the Percival drama, went into total renal failure today, and had to be put down at age 14 years, 3 months. I wrote […]
Category Archive for 'Jessica'
Lad Lit
Posted in Jessica, Little Boy on Aug 25th, 2010
In which our Anglophile trend continues and takes an unexpected turn. Despite the prevalence of myriad American guitar and bass guitar magazines, Matt, perhaps not too surprisingly, found himself preferring two British titles. They cost a fortune at the newsstand and not much less when you subscribe. Can size A-4 paper really cost that much […]
Many of the parents in the car-pool lane at KIP have to drop off multiple kids to multiple locations. When I look at them, I marvel at their ability to juggle overlapping schedules and feel a little guilty (and a lot grateful) for my own lazy schedule. And rather naturally I suppose, I wonder if […]
The Third Year is the Charm
Posted in Jessica, KIP (Preschool), Little Boy on Aug 20th, 2010
Simon just finished his first week in the 3s class at Keneseth Israel. And whereas previous years were marked by tears, apprehension, and general difficulty acclimating to a new setting, this year has been the exact opposite. The very first day, Simon looked a tad nervous. But we talked about it. And what with his […]
Overregulation
Posted in Jessica, Little Boy, Simon says... on Aug 18th, 2010
An early phase of language acquisition for English speaking children is the overregulation of irregular past tense verbs. In other words, kids learn that “ed” signifies the past tense in English, and before you know it they say things like “Mommy goed to the grocery.” Simon hit that phase a while ago, probably a year […]
Back to School: 3s Edition
Posted in Jessica, KIP (Preschool), Little Boy on Aug 17th, 2010
Today was the first day of school at KIP, and Simon’s first day upstairs with the “big kids”. He awoke a bit nervous and looked shaky getting out of the car, but once he heard his friends at the top of the stairs, all was well. Then Ruby and Greta came and got him. And […]
Sympathy
Posted in Jessica, Little Boy, Simon says... on Aug 16th, 2010
My mom’s cat Barret died from liver failure Saturday, and my own cat, Percival, is in renal failure and may not have much longer himself. It’s been a tough, tough week or so around here. And when I say “tough”, I mean I have cried buckets every day for a week now. (I’ve held off […]
The Big Boy Quotient
Posted in Jessica, KIP (Preschool), Little Boy on Aug 13th, 2010
Simon is upping it in a big, big way, egged on I think by being grouped with younger kids at camp. He hated that designation, resented it mightily in fact, and told us every day about a particular child he disliked because “she cried”. The “she” in question was the youngest of the group, and […]
“When I’m a Grown-Up”
Posted in Jessica, Little Boy, Simon says... on Aug 10th, 2010
Simon has lots of plans for when he’s a grown-up, and they aren’t the dreams of blasting off into space, digging up dinosaur bones, or driving a racing car that I would have expected. Not yet, anyway. Nope, his dreams are a bit more prosaic at present. “When I’m a grown-up,” he tells me, “I’m […]
On Friday, August 6, at about 10:40 a.m., my friend Gabriel (birth name Kwai Akech Kwai) became a family man in the truest sense when his wife Alek and daughter Agotich arrived from Khartoum, Sudan, via Amman, Jordan, and Chicago, Illinois. And what a long, strange, trip it was. They met four years ago through […]