huck blog

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a special halloween indeed

October 31, 2009, 9:39 pm

Like every other family with small children in America we have been celebrating Halloween now for what feels like forever. Everything culminated this late afternoon and early evening in our neighborhood's tradition of trick or treating along 181st Street collecting candy from all the shops followed by a pizza dinner and then the ever-growing and wonderful parade to Bennett Park (truly a sight to behold). About a month ago Troy jokingly suggested going as Little Miss Muffet to accompany Huck's spider costume, and of course that is what Huck decided Troy must be. Thanks to Rosie's bloomers, a beautiful dress and bonnet hand made by our friend Bea (she even came over and measured him one evening!), a very blond wig and a pair of size 11 lady shoes from Payless, Troy was magically transformed into the delightful (and a bit manly) nursery rhyme character. The man (I mean lady) even carried around a bowl of curds and whey all evening. I loved hearing the neighborhood slowly recognize him, especially those with very young children who worship Troy. I was supposed to be Huck's web but ended up as some sort of strange woman in black with bits of white stuff draped over my clothing, which by the end of the evening had all but disappeared. No matter. All eyes were on my charming little spider and his feminine daddy.

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another good question

October 29, 2009, 8:36 am

Last night as I was tucking Huck into bed he said to me something charming like this: "When I have children someday I'm going to be a really nice daddy who stops working on projects to play with them." So I went on about how wonderful of a daddy he will be one day while he stared at me silently. And when I had finished picking up the clutter and putting things in their place he finally said, "So why don't you do that?"

Goal for the day: Stop the projects. Play with Huck.

As soon as I finish posting this. (This is not going to be easy.)

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a sunday afternoon walk

October 26, 2009, 1:59 pm

[ 3 comments ] ( 19 views )

the festival must go on!

October 25, 2009, 3:18 pm

Yesterday was finally the Harvest Festival, held mostly inside our church because of the rainy weather. We were supposed to do this thing last Saturday (with the rain date being last Sunday) but had to postpone a whole week because of, well, the rainy weather. Mother Nature and I have had some problems this year and I think she finally decided to prove a point. I'm happy to report that after all the meetings, scheduling, fundraising with local businesses, recruiting of more than 100 volunteers, ordering and sorting of prizes and craft supplies, daily emails back and forth, and the agonizing decision to postpone followed immediately by the re-recruitment of new volunteers, the festival was still a huge success and full of fun activities for Huck and all the other neighborhood kids and their parents. As we very, very tired grown-ups were cleaning everything up last night Huck announced that he wanted to do the Harvest Festival again.

Next year, Huck. Next year.

[ 3 comments ] ( 25 views )

a new season

October 19, 2009, 1:46 pm

Fall is in full swing here with the colors beginning to show up and the air nice and crisp. (And we just survived a wintry weekend so it's nice to have autumn back.) This morning Huck and I took a walk through Fort Tryon Park and took many pictures of my favorite season. He found a stick full of green leaves and said he was taking it to school for the discovery center. I wasn’t sure if this was allowed but he insisted that Ms. Dorothy would say it was okay. So an hour ago he hugged me goodbye in his obsessive compulsive way that he does when I drop him off (many hugs and kisses and I love yous) and proudly holding his branch marched right up to the teacher.

We parents haven’t been at all involved in the classroom so far so we rely on these children of ours to tell us what they do each day. From what I can gather they eat a lot of chicken for lunch, learn a lot of cute songs and paint a lot of pictures. I recently found out that the class has a pet fish who received its name Pookie through an election. (Huck, for the record, did not vote for this name but likes it all the same.) I also learned that during the first week Ms. Dorothy apparently helped Huck put on his hoodie but then said, “I don’t do zippers.” Huck’s response to me was, “I wanted to tell her that was the part I needed help with! But look.” And then he showed me his new skill of zipping. I also know they have a sand table that the kids love to play with during free time, but Huck complained that the water table we saw during the school tour last spring was missing. I told him to ask Ms. Dorothy about it, sure he’d be too shy. The next day he announced that the sand table becomes the water table later in the year AND she adds liquid soap in the spring.

Last week I picked Huck up from school and found out that he had cried for me, telling his teacher that he "used to go to the church and learn things but now I just play." Surprised by this, I quickly described our parent led pre-school from last year, realizing as I spoke that he misses it. He misses experiencing school with me and he misses learning really cool stuff. Huck later told me that Ms. Dorothy sat down next to him at a table and they talked until he felt better, and then the class made apple sauce. I’m glad he feels so comfortable and confident with the first school teacher of his life, and I hope his branch made it to the discovery center today.

[ 3 comments ] ( 28 views )

a once in a lifetime weekend

October 14, 2009, 11:52 am

As if autumn in New York isn't wonderful enough, my dad and sister Jeni visited last weekend to give us an extra special October. The last time Dad visited our city was exactly ten years ago this month, so we had a lot of new things to show him. (Like Huck's school, Huck's teacher, Huck's friends and Huck's art supplies.) Aunt Jeni comes to visit every March so it didn't take her long to find her refrigerated Rolos. Every now and then we would find Jeni and Huck in his bed under the covers eating various snacks and giggling, and every time we lost the spray cheese (their favorite snack of all) we'd find it sitting on top of Huck's dresser. She is his ornery partner in life, that's for sure.

Over the years I've asked my dad to come visit again and recently he told me he felt a little anxious about making the trip alone. As soon as Jeni heard this she got to work finding a flight out of Kansas City for them both. She drove six hours from Illinois in order to bring my dad to our apartment. My sister Lori took care of my mom all weekend so she wouldn't be alone. Thank you, sisters.

And speaking of thankfulness ... thanks to our friend Carl who got us free fifth row center tickets to see the fantastic new Broadway musical "Memphis," our friend Kimberly for giving my dad her apartment on the 16th floor for the entire weekend, and our friend Charlie for the use of his car to go to Boo at the Bronx Zoo! It's nice to depend on the kindness of friends and family.

We also enjoyed a trip to the Met, Central Park and dinner in Little Italy. And as you can see, Huck and Grandpa made a lot of art together (and had a passionate argument over a project that made my dad feel he'd gone back in time to when I was a child).

Thank you, Dad and Jeni, for starting off this wonderful season in such a perfect way!

[ 21 comments ] ( 76 views )

robot

October 6, 2009, 10:09 pm

Huck has an absurd sense of who his mother is. Maybe all children do. All I know is that my son somehow thinks of me as the best Robot dancer there ever was, watching my jerky movements and overly intense face with admiration as he attempts to imitate it. Now he's starting to ask people outside the comfort of our living room, "Do you want to see my Mommy's robot?" And what can I say? I have to do it. And I have to do it with pride and commitment because I don't want him knowing that his mommy is actually one of the worse Robots that ever lived. (And my poor audience has to applaud and cheer as if what they witnessed was in any way good.)

It is both extremely embarrassing and oddly comforting to know that I can so easily impress someone.

[ 4 comments ] ( 29 views )

what's up

October 1, 2009, 8:30 pm

I've been absent from the blog for a while and people are beginning to ask questions. Questions like, "So how are you? What's been going on?"

You really want to know?

Well, first Troy got bronchitis and a sinus infection, then Shannon moved away, then our computer broke and we lost some valuable files including all of our summer home movies and stuff I've been writing lately, then Huck decided he wasn’t sure he enjoyed pre-school after all which sent me into a brief downward spiral of concerned anxiety, but now he’s decided he likes it after all and I can smile again. I've been slowly going crazy planning the beloved Harvest Festival while at the same time having panic attacks about where Huck should go to kindergarten next year. In the meantime, Troy’s body has broken out into thousands of pimples as a result of his antibiotics, my back hurts, and today on the playground Huck's hoodie strings got hooked to the slide somehow and began kind of choking him, causing three adults to run to his aid and release him. We are, in a nutshell, a mess!

But in less messy news, Troy's Children and Worship/Godly Play Sunday school program is underway and going strong, I was in a wonderful play reading a few nights ago with some of my favorite people, and last week we got to see U2 at Giants Stadium and had an incredible night.

Max is fine. I can't believe he outlived our computer.

As for Huck, he's completely obsessed with the solar system and draws/paints it any chance he gets, proudly describing all of the planets (including the dwarfs Ceres and Eris which he always counts as real planets). At the same time he’s crazy for math and knows the answers all the way up to 9+9 and beyond, lately going a step further into 40+40 and 80+80 territory, once again proving he has an excellent memory. Today when he asked me, "What's 1600+1600?" and I accidentally answered "3600," he smiled and said, "Did you mean to say 3200?" (This is all Troy's fault.) Lately he's getting into fractions, which is really a nightmare situation for a non-math person like myself.

But perhaps most delightful of all ... Huck got a spider costume for Halloween and wants Daddy to dress as Little Miss Muffet.

And that is what’s going on. Aren't you glad you asked?

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