Monday, December 23, 2013

A Post in Search of a Topic

I feel like writing a blog post, but can't seem to pull together a coherent topic.

First of all, I wanted to tell you all that this week's Tungsten Hippo post is about camels.

There's pretty much nowhere to go from that, so I'll talk about something completely different instead.

I was going to try to ask for help on my latest workplace conundrum, but it has taken such a weird turn that there is no way I can blog about it. If I'm still blogging in 10 years, I'll have some stories to tell. Until then, there is beer.

Then I thought I'd try to write about why watching Pumpkin grow up is delighting me lately, but I could not find the words. It is something to do with how I can see her gaining maturity and learning the hard lessons about when something isn't worth the fight. And also watching her learn to modulate her emotional reactions but still be unabashedly loving towards her little sister. I don't know. Like I said, I can't figure out how to describe it.

Watching her gain this maturity is heartening, though, as I come to terms with the fact that we're rapidly running out of the time that the Spanish immersion school bought us, and we'll soon have to find ways to either accelerate or augment her schooling. If she has more maturity, perhaps she will be more patient as we try to figure this out. So far, she does not complain about being bored in school, but she says she is bored in her after care program, even though the after care program seems quite good to me. We're going to add in an after school Chinese lesson once a week and see if that helps.

I haven't really processed my thoughts on Pumpkin's academic performance enough to write about that topic, though.

So maybe I'll tell you about some of the delightful things Petunia has been doing lately.

She tells me that when she grows up she's going to have a Yo Gabba Gabba bedroom, complete with Yo Gabba Gabba linens on her bed.

She's at that cute age where she's started to pick up adult mannerisms and try them out, but she wears the awkwardly. Except the "awww, dammit" phrase she still says whenever something doesn't go her way. She has that one down perfectly.

And of course, she still has a bunch of cute mispronunciations. Here are some of my favorites (or, as Pumpkin still says sometimes, "fravorites")"
"chopstick" for chapstick
"checkup" for ketchup
"lello" for yellow
"megry go round" for merry go round
"candle" for Kindle ("can I play with the candle, Mommy?")

She also does this thing where if something has a two part name, she puts the consonant of the second part at the beginning of both words, giving us "Pinnie Pooh" instead of "Winnie the Pooh" and "Gubble Guppies" instead of "Bubble Guppies."

So basically, I think my kids are awesome. Big surprise there.

Maybe I can get you guys to help me out with one of my Personal Fun List items. Not surprisingly, I am not going to make it through the entire list this year (I'll claim that if you hit 100% of your goals you aren't aiming high enough or something like that), but I am halfway to being able to create a mix CD of new to music. I have 35 minutes, and I need 70. So... tell me what music you love right now! Go ahead, I won't judge you.

To help convince you of that, I will tell you that this is one of my favorite songs right now, even though I agree it is super schmaltzy.



I think it is the line about "there's nothing but empty sheets between us" that gets me.

I'm such a sap.

So go on, give me some new songs or artists to check out in the comments.

And that probably wraps up my last post until after Christmas. Merry Christmas!

6 comments:

  1. Anonymous5:19 AM

    If you wanna shoot me an email, we can chat offline about your situation. At some point in the future I need to pick your brain about a research project I wanna do on stem stuff.

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  2. Tim Minchin's "White wine in the sun" has been around for ages...but on the off chance you haven't heard it I will mention it again :)

    I recently stumbled across S.J.Tucker - tons of variety there, but I'm in love with "Tam Lin" and "Firebird" (can find her stuff on BandCamp)

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  3. Loving Lorde's current radio song "Team", the whole album by Passenger (though it's depressing), and Vienna Teng's new album AIMS, which I think you might like. (Lots of big, deep topics.) Merry Christmas!

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  4. Dracula, the musical. Several songs from Rent, the Broadway version (no day like today). Haim, days are gone. Merry Christmas!

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  5. I have no idea what you like in music, but Townes Van Zandt and Gram Parsons were my post-holiday antidote this year (sort of like wanting to eat vegetables after days of cakes and ale).

    Someday I hope you will write more about smart kids being bored in school, as this is one of my great concerns.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I like Townes Van Zandt! My tastes range fairly wide, particularly if there are good lyrics and/or a good melody.

      I do not feel at all qualified to write about how to handle smart kids who are bored at school- but maybe I can at least rally and do a Friday links post to other people writing about that!

      Delete

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