life story

"when i am in first grade then n. will be in 2nd grade. when i am in 2nd grade n. will be in third grade. when i am in third grade n. will be in fourth grade. when i am in fourth grade n. will be in fifth grade. when i am in fifth grade n. will be in college. when i am in college n. will be a mommy. when i am a mommy n. will be an old lady. when i am an old lady n. will die."

maya's breathless account of the lives of her and her cousin, with sad ending.

local local, love

this week we attended two evening school events. free, fun.

one was a visit from local author and illustrator ashley wolff, who came and illustrated a book that the kids "wrote" by yelling out crazy comments from the floor in front of the stage where she stood with a big pad of paper and super speedy drawing powers.

another was a visit from aiko cuneo, in conjunction with scrap (the scroungers center for reusable art parts). the kids went crazy and made unique and very wearable hats. they got to use glue guns and some kids got very creative.

thanks to the parents who organized these great events. we are lucky to have our kids' elementary school as a resource in the neighborhood long after the school day has ended.

and parent conferences were not too awful. after just a few months maya's teacher amazingly sees all the talents and subtle challenges i see in my kid. it feels nice to have your kid understood.

today maya said we were lucky that we can walk to a bookstore (there is a new branch of the dogeared books empire opening on 24th street). we started to make a list of things we could walk to:

dance class

school

st francis ice cream parlor

the bookstore

the library

the water park

the donut store

a's house

g's house

the skate park

the bakery

m's house

the garage sale

walgreen's

million fishes art gallery

the rice and beans restaurant (aka casa sanchez)

and in an emergency...the hospital

i just have to say that i had such a nice day with my two children i started to feel sad thinking about them growing up and leaving me. just walking around the neighborhood, and then attending an ice cream social birthday party at st. francis (no wonder they were so nice,they were fully sugared up), watching them play with their friends. then holding hands walking home in the dark past some very far gone men, hipsters smiling at us on their dates, passing toddlers reaching for our party balloon, an ambulance speeding by, the horrible window displays at walgreens and then home-- i felt so in love with my offspring. sorry if that sounds strange, and they both returned the feeling, maya with her many mommy i love yous, and miles with a request for cozy time. he read his book smushed next to me in maya's bunk, then climbed into his own, and said a now rarer "love you", too.

enjoy it while you can.

hiiiii

mask made in art program at sf parks and rec afterschool enrichment program

in a very excited voice maya told me about this girl who had said hi to her near the jump rope area. she demonstrated how the girl had said "hiiiiiiiii!" with a huge exaggerated smile, standing on her tiptoes, with her arms up over her head kind of in a diving pose. she showed me this several times, cracking up when she said the big "hiiiiiii". i said the girl must like her a lot, kind of picturing a patronizing and slightly older kid. then maya told me that the girl was in the class "where a lot of the kids are hurt. one is even in a WHEELCHAIR!" and i realized she was talking about the primary special day class.

interesting that maya thought of this as the class where "a lot of the kids are hurt". i explained a little bit about wheelchairs, but really, only one kid is in a wheelchair, there are just a lot of kids in the class who move a little differently. and kind of awesome that maya was so amused and thrilled at the way this girl greeted her. maya thought this girl was just "SO FUNNY!"

somehow this anecdote was an antidote to the description i heard this weekend about the wondrous acres of land, knitting, high teacher student ratio, wood shop, and focus on social emotional development and creativity to be found at the private school where my friend's kid just started. i am not in denial, and know my kids will have an education constrained by budget issues, and ridiculous testing, and many other obstacles. but at least they are in a place that is open and welcoming to all.

hiiiiiiiii to all of you, too.

scary witch

howdy

sorry about this very generic photo of pastorino's pumpkin patch. but look at the pumpkins! the hills, the mist? the cute children! and what about this creepy creepy witch? maya listened to her gravely and then bravely posed for this photo.

this is the time of year when we are confronted with lots of images of death--graves and bones and ghosts and leaves that have fallen off the trees. the whole cycle of seasons feels a little strange here, because there is no winter. no cold dead time followed by spring. instead there are days of gloom and days of sun with holidays that evolved over thousands of years in very different climates attached to the calendar on the fridge.

sometimes i think not having the progression of cold to colder to coldest to warm to warmer to hot to cool, with accompanying holidays and natural events to celebrate (light returning ,winter solstice, various religious holidays with candles etc. , harvest festivals and feasts when there really was a crop t0 harvest, egg focused holidays in the spring when birds build their nests)--really throws us all off here in san francisco. seems like food is always growing, and it is pretty much never the dead of winter, and birds seem to have babies any old month. maybe there are more rhythms but i am not feeling them. maybe this is a problem with city living.

there were many memorable thoughts and quotes and vignettes since i last wrote, but none so memorable that i actually remember them. too busy with work and work and kids and driving all over the city and picking up kids and work and dishes, and walking dogs and putting kids to bed, making lunches, iep meetings, driving, work, picking up kids, dropping off kids, work, meetings, making dinner, you get the picture.

last night we saw a huge yellow moon in the sky and talked about how big the earth is compared to the moon and the sun. miles stated that "we learned about the solar system today" and then proceeded to share some vague information and some false information. they are not learning much science at school, and although miles is definitely able to read to learn at this point he mainly reads to learn more about the world of manga soccer players. we googled image comparisons and the kids were impressed with the size of the earth and the sun. it got a little cosmic. maya found out that we are in just the right position from the sun to be alive. miles said something about the earth moving two inches around the sun each day which was a little frightening to hear. i guess that will have to do for now and i will have to relax about my 5 and 8 year old not being able to find good jobs when they grow up.

i am tired of seeing worksheets. i am ready to throw all the worksheets in the recycling bin and teach my kids something about the world,but then i would have to be a non-working homeschooling mom. which is something that does cross my mind occasionally.

i read in the paper today about rick perry making a big deal about expanding offshore drilling, repealing environmental protection laws, etc. a nice republican lady i know mentioned those crazy environmentalists and i just held my tongue. i had heard obama talk about his jobs bill the week before on the radio and had stupidly thought it might go through. it made sense to me.

andtoday a kid was being mean to other kids at soccer practice, again, and we graduate school trained adults just didn't know how to deal with the problem, again. because it is a hard problem to deal with.

how smart are we peoples?

anyway, tomorrow i am going to sonoma for a ladies overnight getaway. can you believe that? at bedtime i got many extra hugs and i love yous from my wonderful children, which i enjoyed. i will miss them too.

walk to school day

here are some happy folks walking up the rocky way to school for walk to school day. i had some work at home time today and found myself listening to some experts on what the lack of nature in our lives is doing to us. interesting stuff about how urban planners 100 years ago prioritized proximity to nature and the whole fascinating subject of how many of us are no longer interacting much with the world people evolved in, but with the world people created (they stated 53 hours a week average screen time for american teens). anyway, i better get off this laptop and go out in the back deck in the rain, or at least pet my dog, or water a houseplant. just five minutes a day of being in a natural environment (and the definition of THAT is up to you) will improve your mental and physical health.

iiiahh

walking slowly home from dance class yesterday maya and i came upon a little table by the house of color run by iiiahh. three ladies wo-manned the the table which was covered with photos of objects and curious objects such as a george washington era wig made from a diaper, a box which when opened contained a tiny theater with a tinier mouse in a mousetrap watching a show, and a felt puppet whose teeth were made from a hair clip. People kept stopping by, mostly asking if the things were for sale (they weren't) and many staying for a little while to check out the objects and ask questions. maya was pretty delighted. there was a tunnel with a flashlight inside that you could switch on, a sequined black jellyfish made from an old purse, and more.

this could have been an art show to encourage recycling but there was more to it. i looked at the web site and it turned out that in previous weeks these ladies had held swap meets where people were encouraged to stop by the tables to look at a mouse house made of bread and little wooden puzzle pieces, and to trade something they had with them or at home for one of the wooden pieces. the artists then took home the swapped objects they had obtained, photographed them, and then made them into something new. look at the website--it explains things much more clearly than i just did.

this process appealed to me quite a bit, as a way to increase the circles of communication, encourage reuse, and inspire people to do something different with their time. i am sure there is a more scholarly way to put it, but it was just kind of fun.

nothing heavy duty in this post, nosiree! if you click on the iiiahh link please take a few minutes to check out the awesome clip of a man advocating for sensible spelling.