07.31.06
Posted in Life in general at 10:44 pm by Christina
As I mentioned, there’s a great-sounding place in Los Altos that I’d love to look at tomorrow. We’re going to sell our house as soon as possible – in fact, I cancelled an appointment with our realtor this morning because of the mumps thing. Basically, we’re not very good homeowners; we just don’t have the time or inclination to keep up on the regular or more significant maintenance issues. We don’t abuse the house, we just live in it; but we can’t even keep the lawn mowed!
So we’ve been on a virtual quest to determine where is the best place to relocate. At this point, we’re not planning on leaving the San Francisco area, but the combination of factors makes the decision complicated. The top factors in contention are location, square footage, and cost.
Location: Even within this factor there are competing issues. Jeff’s parents live in Castro Valley and the girls visit there weekly. I very much enjoy my community chorus, which rehearses generally on Saturday, but has a tech week three times a year with daily responsibilities for a straight week. We have some close friends in this area as well. Our other close friends are all over on the Peninsula (where Los Altos is). We’d like to be in proximity to a natural/organic foods store. And finally, we’d love to improve the environment of our location, shifting from a barren suburban wasteland (say one mature, tall tree for every twenty or more houses) for something that brings nature more into our immediate surroundings. Environment is close to being a fourth independent factor; that’s how important it is.
Square footage: Right now we have a 3 bedroom, 1.5 bathroom with ~1500sf. We definitely need to increase to a four bedroom and would appreciate a five, where both girls could have a room and we could have a guest room and a separate office for Jeff. We’d like to increase to at least 2000sf and get a bit more breathing room for our five bodies.
Cost: We’d like to keep our housing costs down so that our combined required expenditures don’t exceed 50% of our total income, keeping our finances in balance. (See the book All Your Worth by Warren and Tiyagi for more on this philosophy of personal finance.)
These factors combined really restrict the rental market for us. I watch Craig’s List regularly to gain a feel for what areas are within our means, where our factors are in trade-off against each other, etc. I also search some of our dream locations in the Bay Area just to see what’s happening there. That’s what I was doing when I turned up this listing in Los Altos. We would be farther away from our current community ties, but not prohibitively so (as with Santa Cruz, which we’d love just for the ocean proximity). This particular Peninsula location also puts us in terrific proximity for our current homeschooling activities (homeschool chorus and orchestra) as well as giving us amazing access to a lot of other activities which the girls would love to be closer to (Rocket Science and a great children’s theater program).
It would put a rush on the home selling, but I’m going to try and see it tomorrow before the doctor’s appointments!
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Posted in Life in general at 10:19 pm by Christina
It looks like our family has at least one case of this mild childhood illness. Unfortunately, we seem to have shared it with a lot of unsuspecting people!! E woke up Sunday morning upset about a soreness at the edge of her jaw; we didn’t see anything suspicious and thought perhaps she had a little bite, which she is particularly sensitive to. We spent all day at a tiedye party, during which she enjoyed herself without complaint. But on the way home she became quite upset about it hurting more and more, and by the time we got home I could see visible swelling, the “chipmunk” symptom of mumps. She also had a mild fever, which in her body means she is really fighting something; she almost never has a fever no matter how sick. (K spikes fevers for even minor illness.) I could see the swollen gland in a throat examination too.
We’ll be taking her to the pediatrician tomorrow afternoon (Tuesday). For non-urgent business, we always prefer to see our own pediatrician, who has a very compassionate attitude toward our alternative choices, especially concerning non-vaccination. For something like this, directly related to the vaccination issue, without a compelling reason to go in and be berated by a different doctor, we’re happy to wait. There’s nothing to be done for a mumps infection anyway as it is viral.
We suspect that J’s fever on Wednesday may be related to mumps as well. After E presented last night, I checked J’s jaw area for swelling as well and found the gland on one side enlarged. (Mumps is an infection of the salivary glands.) So he is going in for an appointment as well. I am hopeful the doctor will order lab work on both of them, and perhaps K too, to confirm (or reject) the diagnosis. Mumps is a CDC reportable illness so they may want it definitively diagnosed, and I would certainly prefer that myself. The only trouble would be the type of specimen they want; there is a blood test as well as swab tests. The bloodwork would be a bit challenging for me to manage with all three kids needing my attention! I’d better make sure to bring the stroller along for the baby; I could have E go first, J in the stroller under K’s care, then K could go (she’s done it before so wouldn’t need as much care) while I soothe down E, and finally the baby could go after E is calmed down and K is done.
On top of this, I fould an awesome list for a rental in Los Altos that I’d like to see before the appointment. I can’t believe how busy our lives are these days…
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07.28.06
Posted in Life in general at 8:46 pm by Christina
We’ve been working hard to keep ahead of the heat, although the seriously hot temps are past now. We don’t have a/c, just a bunch of fans and the judicious use of opened and closed drapes and windows. We were in NYC at a Brooklyn museum once and it was so hot, we rolled up ice cubes in spare handkerchiefs and tied them around our necks; it worked like a charm! When it was really hot, we put bandanas even on the baby, though he didn’t like the ice cubes much at first!
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Posted in Life in general at 2:31 pm by Christina
J has surpassed his sisters’ walking achievements. They both started walking a few steps at 10m and were proficient at 11m. J started taking a few steps at 9.5m and now at 10m he is fully walking. You can watch a fun QuickTime video at Walking
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07.27.06
Posted in Life in general at 8:45 pm by Christina
The baby’s fever was lower this morning: 100.3 axillary. He’s much more playful today, and his naps are more normal too. He’s still not eating much, just enough to stay hydrated, but that will improve. And we haven’t seen any extra symptoms pointing to a particular germ.
Today the four of us with lots of teeth all had appointments. Our insurance will be changing with Jeff’s switch to consulting, so I wanted to get us all in on the old plan before it expired. I scheduled the girls earlier this month; then yesterday mine and Jeff’s dentist called with last-minute openings. We had to get up early for pumping, then Jeff drove to the first appointment while the girls got ready. The kids and I drove to my appointment, where we met Jeff and he took the kids to get breakfast smoothies while I was in. Then the kids and I went to their pediatric dentist and Jeff went home to work! Tomorrow E and I go back down so she can get sealants done; I’m glad they could squeeze us in the last few days of July for the same insurance reasons…
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07.26.06
Posted in Life in general at 9:47 pm by Christina
I guess it had to happen sometime – after ten months, J is good and sick. He did have an unexplained vomiting episode, which happened in the middle of the night, all over our bed (I think that’s where all our kids’ vomit has landed!), but despite the temporary disruption, he never showed any signs of being other than momentarily sick. Not so today. We went to the pool with friends and while I had him in the sling in the pool, I noticed he wasn’t quite enjoying it the way he had previously. Then he unexpectedly fell asleep in the sling in the pool, only an hour and a half after waking up from a solid nap. He slept for about an hour, was awake for a while, and then fell asleep again during a feed. Spent some happy time on the pool steps, but then went cranky again when it was time to pack everything up.
When we got home and I got him undressed for a shower, I noticed he felt warm; we thought it might be because my hands were cool from the air conditioning in the car. Unfortunately, he went down for another hour’s nap and woke up even hotter, with the crankies to go with it. I ache all over when I have a fever; imagine being a poor baby who can’t even really complain or get a cool cloth where it really hurts… We took his axillary temperature (armpit) and it came in at 102.3; that’s at least 1 degree lower than oral, some say up to 1.8 degrees. So he’s got a medium high temperature (babies’ temps range differently than adults) and who knows where it will take him – no other signs at this point (rashes, discharge of any kind, etc.).
Thank goodness the heat wave broke today and it’s in the reasonable seventies – I’m going to be holding this boy a lot tonight!
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Posted in Homeschooling at 10:03 am by Christina
K turned ten this year, and we took that opportunity to transition her into more formalized academics. We have pursued an unschooling approach, meaning no formal academics, up to this point, and continue to do so with E (7), although she does have some academic materials on hand for those times she wants them. With K, this transition has been challenging but overall she has embraced the advanced work. The challenges have arisen mostly from integrating new responsibilities into what was already a full life.
Following our unschooling foundation, we don’t operate on any kind of annual academic schedule, nor on any kind of daily one. What we have done is established a set of materials for her to study from. Within that framework, we create assignments together once the previous assignment is completed. She chooses what to work on, even if that means she pursues one discipline intensively (following her intense nature) for a long time before moving on to something else. We had an in depth discussion to outline the best structure for meeting her academic responsibilities, resulting in a schedule of one hour of academics, five days a week, in the mornings after her chores are done. As she builds her academic discipline, the time spent may increase; that really depends on how her ability to focus in grows. The intensity of her focus is paradoxically paired with high distractibility, so part of what she is learning right now has nothing to do with subject matter; it has to do with consciously building a space of concentration.
Her academic subjects include ancient history; biological science; grammar and spelling; writing; and mathematics and logic.
Ancient history: We are using an early Newberry Medal winner as our main text: The Story of Mankind by van Loom. Finding acceptable history texts has been a bit of a quest for me. Traditional textbooks are dry recitations of fact; the modern crop of DK and Usborne style books are disjointed strewings of fact; and much of what remains sports a strong Christian bias that is inappropriate for our family (as well as in my opinion for historical accuracy). Having found this particular book, now I am on a hunt for an appropriate U.S. history text! History is also the location of much of K’s writing work; we have done work on outlining, and right now she is nearing the end of writing a narration of the epic of Gilgamesh. (Which assigment I thought would take a day or two, but I forgot my K! She has truly written an epic retelling, with far more detail than I had anticipated, and it has taken quite some time, but she has had fun doing it and it has given us some good areas for improving her writing technique.)
Biological science: I purchased Oak Meadow’s sixth grade Life Science curriculum, which is basically a single text including assignments. Being Oak Meadow (which is a Waldorf-inspired home study program), the assignments take a generally soft approach, with lots of uncritical observation and writing. It has the advantage of being a single text, self-directed presentation, which I like! My assignment is to complement it with more hands-on work.
Grammar and spelling: K’s grammar skills are quite fine; the work in this area is to create the formalized framework and language for understanding grammar (and therefore being able to apply it to foreign language study which I plan to start next year, though we’re doing vocabulary building this year if Jeff has time to label things around the house!). Spelling is more challenging, especially because E is a talented natural speller. So we are working on different spelling rules (why isn’t there a good book for this??) and doing spelling lists, etc.
Mathematics and logic: In preparation for learning the various “middle school” math topics (primarily operations on fractions, and also decimals and percents which are just an extension of basic math), K is working on improving her recall of the basic operation solutions (”math facts”). She understands math concepts at a far higher level, but she’s not a big game player and so there haven’t been lots of opportunities in her life for getting speedier at the facts themselves. For logic right now we are using Mind Benders logic puzzles.
This system is working for us, and we’ve built in good feedback for maintaining that, which is always important with K 
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07.24.06
Posted in Life in general at 10:46 am by Christina
Today we are participating in another family’s potluck carnival: each family was invited to create a carnival activity and bring it along. Doesn’t that sound like fun?? The girls came up with a great idea: Q-Tip blowing, which involves blowing Q-Tips through straws at targets. (This was not an original idea, they apparently saw it at a Valentine’s Day party they went to with friends right after I started dealing with J’s breastfeeding problems.)
It is still supposed to be very hot; we will be sweltering, but it should be lots of fun! Jeff and J are out getting the supplies right now, and I have some art board for the girls to make a sign…
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07.23.06
Posted in Pumping at 1:24 pm by Christina
So, I’m an exclusively pumping mom to a 10m baby. This takes a lot out of me, probably not more than breastfeeding would, but differently, and it does feel like the grass would be greener! Yesterday, we went to the pool after my second pump and I ended up doing my third pump in the changing room. It was pretty stifling, even with my chilled water, but I just don’t feel as comfortable whipping the pump out in strange group situations like I did with breastfeeding (which I did anywhere). It’s not as discreet, and to a certain extent I think I still feel embarrassed and guilty that I don’t breastfeed any more. Emotions are quirky, aren’t they? I breastfed the girls for more than four years each, I fully intended to nurse J until he chose to wean, I worked for four solid months to try and resolve the intangible, undiagnosable issues that prevent him from extracting the milk when he nurses, and still I feel embarrassed and guilty! Go figure…
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07.22.06
Posted in Life in general at 2:37 pm by Christina
I hear that record-breaking temperatures are pretty much covering the nation these days; it’s certainly the dickens here, and we’re less than a mile from the Bay, with breezes and cooler temps as a result. Just heading a couple of miles inland, into Hayward for chorus, brought the heat up almost ten degrees, breaking 100. Here we’re at 96; fortunately it looks like we’ll be cooling down almost 15 degrees over the next several days. We’re as prepared for heat as we can be, with half a dozen fans keeping the hot air circulating around, achieving evaporative cooling via our perspiration. Air conditioning would be nice, but for less than a week out of any given year? In the middle of the heat wave it always feels worth it!
We’re heading to the pool this afternoon, for a graduation/birthday party at 6pm but I think we’ll likely head over sooner to start cooling off. The only difficulty is my evening pump, which I normally do at ~7pm, but which I was going to do at 5pm to get in before the party. Opinion is out on what the best scenario is… Pumping in the car is an option, but in this heat not the greatest one! Leaving the party early to head home for a later pump is another; it gets the kids in bed at a more reasonable time, too. But it cramps the last pump of the day closer to midnight, which in turn means less sleep. Let me tell you, I complained about breastfeeding a little bit when I was breastfeeding the girls, but pumping puts all that out to pasture. The inconvenience of the pump, not to mention the bottles, is insane!
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