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Results For "Month: January 2012"

Counting Up Costs

Monday 9 January 2012

When I was a kid, there was once a toy backhoe that I saw in a department stores — I believe it was Sears back when Sears mattered — that I wanted so badly I could think of nothing else at times. Every single time we were in the store, I had to head over to the toy department and look at it, handle it, play with it as much as was possible in its wrapping.

I can only imagine my torture if someone in my class had said backhoe, brought it to school, and wouldn’t allow me to touch it.

The Girl finds herself in a similar situation. Of course it’s not a backhoe; it’s a Barbie camper. And she did have the awful situation of being able to see but not touch, of being able to watch someone play with it but not join in.

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And so she decided there’s only one way to solve the problem, given the fact that the answer to the questino, “Mama, Tata, can you buy me…” was “No.”

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Check the piggie bank and see how much she was short.

The End of the Season

Sunday 8 January 2012

Poles traditionally don’t put up the Christmas tree until a few days before Christmas, as opposed to Americans, who seem to start getting ready for Christmas before Halloween. This is especially true in shops. On the other hand, Poles tend to leave their trees up until the end of January.

Cleaning Up

This late set-up, late pack-up habit undoubtedly comes from the Catholicism that permeates Polish society. Christmas day is only the beginning of the Christmas season, and accordingly, having the tree and decoration up during the season and not simply before it.

The Lonely Tree

We work something of a compromise in our home: we decorate a couple of weeks before and keep it a couple of weeks after. Eventually, though, the time comes: we put on some carols for one last time and take down the tree.

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The Girl, happy to have her dancing space back, spins in joy.

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Early Sun

Saturday 7 January 2012

Early Sun

A couple of weeks ago, the sun came streaming through rare, early-morning fog to produce the most ethereal view in our neighbor’s backyard.

Helping

Friday 6 January 2012

In Circles

One of the reasons I so like taking L to the park is the adventure she has meeting new people. She always makes a new friend — though they seldom even learn their names — and sharpens her social skills.

The Bath

Wednesday 4 January 2012

During the first days of the Girl’s life, giving her a bath was, in K’s and my new-parent, paranoid mind, a two-person job. So delicate, cradled in a tightly netted support that actually sat above the water in a small, counter-top, plastic wash tub. Eventually, the netted support disappeared, and the Girl merely sat in the tub. After three or so years of that (including an eventual transferring of the plastic tub from the counter top to the adult-size bath tub), the Girl graduated to the main tub itself.

Throughout it all, though, it’s been my job (primarily) to bath her. And as she’s moved from tub to tub, my role has diminished.

Bath

Lately, I’ve been happily reduced to the role of water-pourer, which leaves me with time to do other things.

Tough Lessons

Tuesday 3 January 2012

Because one of my plugins broke with the upgrade to WordPress 3.3, I have to click over to Flickr and manually grab the code for each image I want to insert. In some ways, it would be easier simply to upload them directly to this site, but we use Flickr as a mastery back-up for our best photos — the ones we absolutely don’t want to lose — so in the long run, it’s worth the extra step. But it does mean some clicking: Click on the picture. Click on the “Share” button. Select the text and copy. Click to the new window — you get the point.

Still, as far as sharing goes, this is fairly painless, because one of the hardest things to learn is the gift of sharing. I say “gift of sharing” as if it’s something easy for me to do. It’s not. I doubt it’s easy for anyone in all situations. We all have this or that which we hang on to with clinched fists even when we aren’t aware of how are knuckles are turning white.

For the Girl, it’s Wawel’s candy, “Kasztanki.” L is simply obsessed with them. This is partially because of their rarity: they’re not readily available in the South. (One might find them in Polish stores up north, but not down here.) Babcia sends them to the Girl on a fairly regular basis, but from time to time, she does run out, and then it’s a period of slow heartbreak.

Tonight, we suggested that L share her favorite candy with Nana and Papa so they could see what all the fuss was about. Judging from her expression, one would think we’d asked her to give up a kidney or sacrifice her life. Eventually she relented, though not without a bit of persuasion.

Sharing

I suppose we all take some persuading to share some things.

The Return to Reality

Monday 2 January 2012

The return after a long break is both nerve-wracking and refreshing. The former comes from the unpredictability of fourteen-year-olds. The latter is a simple function of having a long period away from each other. As much as I like my students, it’s good to be away from them from time to time — to be around adults more than kids. (Well, having a five-year-old daughter, I’m not sure how much that’s really possible.)

For everyone today — teachers and students — it seemed the “refreshing” won out. Far from being reluctant to return to studies, many students seemed positively eager to come back — at least that was the feeling I got in my classes.

It was a good Monday, and often can one say that, especially after a long break?

First Ride

Sunday 1 January 2012

The Girl’s first cycling experiences were as a passenger, a constantly-exhorting weight I pulled around in a trailer more or less at the speed she liked. “Faster, Tata!” would soon morph into, “Not so fast, Tata!” While I love her boundlessly, she was sometimes quite an irritating passenger.

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Today, the Girl and I took our first father/daughter bike ride: a respectable distance of 2.1 kilometers (1.3 miles) in a nearby park. It took us 28 minutes, meaning we were riding roughly 4.3 km/h (2.7mph). There were a number of reasons for this rather slow tempo, all related to her lack of cycling experience.

  1. Having training wheels makes her dependent on them for balance. Thus, when one loosens a bit and is thus not providing perfect support, L panics.
  2. L is terrified of going downhill. When she gets going too fast, she panics and, instead of putting on brakes, plants both feet firmly — albeit very temporarily — on the ground. The pedals bite her ankles, she almost looses her balance and falls forwards, and the whole thing becomes a gigantic trauma. “You need to use your bakes” I said continuously today.
  3. The Girl doesn’t have the best concept of two-way traffic. Even when she sees someone coming from the opposite direction, she seems oblivious.
  4. She hasn’t mastered braking, so it’s always all or nothing. There is no such thing as coasting on the brakes.
  5. L’s bike is too small for her. Her knees almost touch the handlebars, and her legs are never more than 3/4 extended.
  6. When all of this combines into one experience, it is disaster writ large.

Still, a relatively successful first day out. We’ll start working on our first father/daughter century ride when we get her a new bike this spring.

Cyclist