New Bathroom Fittings; Lola's Art

These pictures of the new bathroom resplendent with IKEA mirror, towel holder, and toilet paper holder (and picture of Aunt Hazel), are especially for Grandma Linda and Aunt Hazel, who together funded this small jewel of a renovation.
The picture below shows what Josh calls "Lola's first art installation." It cleverly juxtaposes images of Dora the Explorer and her male counterpart Diego in order to call into question the longevity and/or disposability of gender difference.--K

Ice Cream

One of the great joys of 2-and-3 year-old parenting is the absolutely unembarrassed use of imagination in which children of this age engage.  This morning, Josh and I were taking Lola to school, and she said, after we passed a few fast food restaurants,

"Where's the Ice Cream Cone Palace?"

Josh and I were struck dumb for a second, even though we knew what she must have seen out the window, and then Josh said,

"Oh, you mean where the Dairy Queen lives?" 

A Creepy Episode

Yes, this story is about a spider encounter, most probably of the wolf spider variety.  Read on below!

Lola and I were bathing tonight--I always sit behind her--and our nice large bath was about half full.  All of a sudden, I see with horror among the floating toys, right next to my daughter's bare thigh, a spider, small and lethal looking, much like the one above, but darker (probably because fully wet), SKITTERING with all its strength, as if it had just fallen in.  I immediately cupped the water around it with both hands and threw it with all my strength out of the bath to my right (on the left was the tile wall).  I looked for its fall frantically, keeping all of my body away from Lola.  A moment later a felt a rapid movement on my left hand (held out of the tub to the right), and instantly flicked my hand strongly down and away to direct the creature toward the floor.  Still no sign of it.  I looked around all the floor, at the base of the toilet, all the while keeping an eagle eye around Lola.  For no reason, she started singing the Itsy Bitsy Spider at this point, even though I asked her if she had seen a spider and she said no. Finally, satisfied it wasn't near her (and therefore must be on the floor or in the yet-ungrouted crack between tub and floor), I got out of the tub and called Josh.  As I turned back, Lola said, "There's a spider," and there it was, on the small towel I had put on the floor while the bathmat went through the wash, right in the  center and motionless, but vital.  I folded over the towel and killed it with absolutely no remorse or guilt.  I realize that I should feel it, but I am still covered in goosebumps fifteen minutes later.  If the goosebumps don't go away overnight, I'll have to acknowledge that it GOT me while it was on my hand.  That's the kind of reaction I have to wolf spider bites.  However, I'm optimistic that what I'm feeling is only extreme loathing.  Next up, a request that my husband grout the tub crack--although it could just as easily have come from the spout.--K

Little Girl Madness: When Can We Renovate the Basement?

You readers get the benefit of their cute faces, but we also got proof of their healthy lungs. Here are Lola, Amber and Shemya at work. All the pictures in the middle are of Lola and Shemya, because Lola and Amber have a rivalrous sibling relationship (they've been together since they were 8 months old), and thus they are difficult to photograph together.--K

Two-and-a-Half Year Old Impulse Control

Lola is very rational for a two-and-a-half year old. But her reason has its limits. At about 7:30 this morning, she and I made brownies for her school going-away party today. At about 10:30, we cut them and set them on a plate. At 12:30, after we finished lunch, I moved the brownies from the back of the kitchen counter to the dining room table and told Lola, "Now we need to wait to eat these until Amber and Shemya come over." Josh and I were both completing tasks at the time, but thirty seconds later, Lola walked into the kitchen with a bitten brownie in hand. Oops!--K

A Great Visit

K's twin sister Rosslyn, her husband Brandon, and their five year-old daughter Brooke visited from way out West! Lola and her cousin Brooke had a great time, and the parents had fun too.--K

Lola's First Pedicure

Lola and her mommy sat outside on the front steps and gave themselves matching pedicures for Cousin Brooke's visit tomorrow. We are very excited to see Brooke and her parents. Aunt Rosslyn is Mommy's twin sister--K

The New Roof

Here are pictures of the roofing of our house. It was really noisy--we tried to keep Lola out of the house while it was going on! Hopefully this one will last the twenty years they claim it's good for--K
Here's a haiku for the new roof:
New roof! New roof! You
elegantly took away
my Autumn wardrobe.

"Habeas Corpus Was Invented For American Citizens"

I am posting on Lola's behalf as an outraged American citizen. This morning, I was watching NBC's "Morning Joe" on mute while Lola slept. I didn't know that the host, Joe Scarborough, is a lawyer and former Republican congressman. They were discussing Habeas Corpus (roughly, the right not to be held without charges), and Joe Scarborough says, "Habeas Corpus was invented for American citizens." I couldn't believe it, and neither could the journalist who was one of his guests. She responded, "It comes from British common law," at which point he stammered for a second and then started talking about something else, because he couldn't wriggle out of it. I am a mere English professor, but I teach the suspension of Habeas Corpus in Britain every time I teach the French Revolution (which began in 1789). I am more outraged that this man is a credentialled lawyer than I am that he is a politician. We expect stupidity from politicians. We don't expect incompetence from practicing professionals. I have to save this blog post for Lola as a grim example of the long slow slide of American educational standards.--K

Andy's Birthday and Lola's Elephants

The pictures below are from Andy's fifth birthday party. Andy and Lola are at the "we-love-to-make-faces" age!







Below, Lola bowls for the first time. Josh and I tried to position the rack she used so that she would score big. She didn't care!


Lola sits behind Andy's baby brother Tommy. Welcome to Lola's blogworld, Tommy!


This photo is classic--dad Rich prevents Andy from falling into his cake.


These are the only elephants allowed in our house until we Democrats sweep the November election and can afford generosity. We inherited my great-grandmother's elephant collection--Lola loves it!

The Dancer's Body

Lola has an excellent natural physique for dance. I will need to be careful not to push her into it. For those who don't know ballet, and think that the best dance physique is tiny and thin, I'll explain. When I was manager of a dancewear store in Denver, and took notice of such things, the winner of the junior ballet competition (high school age) was a 5'10", strong, long ballerina named Athena (no joke here). Many successful female ballet dancers could have been volleyball players if they had favored a different type of athletic activity. One of the most important things for ballet is to have strongly and precisely built hips, knees, and feet, so that the strain of pushing your body to its limits does not break it. Because I fitted pointe shoes when I worked at that store, I know that Lola also has "good legs and feet." Why is this so important to me? Because I wanted to dance ballet until I was sixteen, and was effectively told (through the results of an audition at my high school) that I would not make it in the ballet world. Could I have danced another style? Possibly, if I had made tremendous adjustments, but what I did not or would not acknowledge to myself at the time was that I was effectively dancing with a handicap (used in the racing sense). Look at the picture below:




This dancer is doing the movement called a "grand jete." When I was sixteen, I was very anxious about my inability to do anything more than 3/5 of a grand jete. All the dancers with as much ambition and experience as I had could do one. Now I know, after training to fit pointe shoes and learning a lot, that I suffered from more than just an almost-flat foot, which in itself would put paid to most professional dancing ambitions. In fact, my entire leg formation below the knee was devastatingly weak and unbalanced. That I looked during my dancing years like I had a halfway decent arch to my foot was, I now know, actually a great testimonial to the amount of work and discipline I put into my dance studies. When I speculate now on the causes of my undoing in the "grand jete," I can say pretty confidently that they were the weak legs, lack of physical training at the level needed to compensate for my physical conformation (weight-lifting would have helped), and, probably, problems with weakness and rigidity in my lower back. To this analysis, readers might respond, "But isn't dancing supposed to be fun, and accessible?" Yes, it is, but in the same way that soccer is fun and accessible. If you want to be a professional soccer player, however, you are likely to have been gifted with certain physical strengths and abilities. With dancing, weaknesses are exacerbated because the standard for dance is to be able to move in any way, with a maximum amount of strength. So if Lola decides that her early ballet classes are fun, but not for later pursuit, I will let her have her way. That doesn't mean I won't feel a huge pang of stage-mother anguish ("so gifted, and throwing it all away!").--K

The Desire to Dance "Ballet"

(Warning: If you have never participated in, or at least appreciated, dance in its highest and most athletic forms, you will find this post to be fansite gibberish).

Tonight the three of us were watching "So You Think You Can Dance." For those who have never seen it, the show is the only one on the major channels that features real, talented dancers, and exciting choreography. When two of the best dancers, Will and Jessica, began their contemporary ballet routine, Lola said to Josh, "Dance with me, Daddy!" He got up to dance with her, but after a few moments, she started to complain. "No, not like this!" (they were dancing apart, like "normal" people dancing). She pointed to the TV several times, getting very frustrated. "Like this . . . like this!" she said several times. Finally she said, "Like this . . . ballet" as the two dancers onscreen did a complicated and beautiful series of lifts." I laughed and said, "Okay, Lola, we can do that," and lifted her into an elementary "fish" lift and spun her around. For those of you who knew me in high school, yes, it was the one I did with the show choir. After the fun, she continued to want to do what the people onscreen were doing. I had to explain to her that they were very good dancers and that it took a lot of practice. But that desire ("like this . . . ballet") reminded me so much of how I felt during my dancing years, because with the best dancing, you see always an ineffable "like this."--K

Melancholy Meditations on Montessori

I have to confess that we are enrolling Lola in our local Montessori school in August. We had always planned to send her to private school if necessary, but anyone who has followed this blog for a few months will remember that I said "absolutely not necessary" of Montessori a few months ago. But Baby Lola has been succeeded by Preschool Lola, an amazing, narration-prone little girl who is telling her daddy a story in the living room as I type. We think Montessori's focus on independent learning and activity will be best for an only child with parents who are not tremendous extroverts (although we make efforts in that direction). I'm having a day where I feel sad that Lola is entering the world of Experience. Hopefully she can preserve a core of Innocence that will later be converted into idealism and resilience. Babyhood is so short! (at least after the parents make it through the first year--that phase felt pretty long). If Montessori doesn't fit her, though, she can go back to her friends Cody, Amber and Shemya at her current school.--K

"I Want a Kitty Pet"

Thank goodness Josh and I are both allergic to cats! Lola has grasped the concept that "pets" can be acquired.--K

Beautiful Bix and Family

Here we are celebrating July 4 in Sewanee with the peerless Bix and her parents. What a hoot!--K