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Strings, Excessively Attached
Return Flight
The Sogs
Landings
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Why So Angry?
Tis The Season
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Return Flight
I think it is unwise, even if you are clearly a practiced grandfather, to tell a small boy you have never met before who is waiting to get on a plane that is over an hour late to board that he shouldn't suck his thumb. If the child's mother is mildly unpleasant to you, you have it coming. It also won't help if your wife tries to make the child's mother feel bad by saying that you're an orthodontist and would know better than she does about the implications of thumb-in-mouth. Air travel isn't a moment where this kid's mother is inclined to think in the long term. I know her well enough to know this.
posted by Elise at 6:40 PM
1 Comments
The Sogs
Oh gosh this weather is a killer. I feel as if there were mushrooms growing in my brain and the children are sort of wondering what happened to the promise of playing in the sprinklers, since there's no point when the skies are constantly opening up and the temperatures aren't really balmy.
In retrospect, I have lived a lot of my life trying to avoid direct confrontations with the weather. For years, all of my vacations were planned around going places to spend time indoors watching movies. I would design my own movie shoots to happen exclusively indoors to avoid weather conflicts. I got married indoors... But the children are far from indoor creatures, much less so even than the terrier (who may like a good romp but who doesn't mind sleeping huge chunks of the afternoon away if the weather is even slightly moist-- a bit prissy that one).
So yesterday drove us to a long excursion in questionable weather through Chinatown and a bit into the lower east side because we couldn't think of what else to do and because I caved and decided to stock up on Necco Wafers and Red Hots at Economy Candy. If it isn't crowded, the store is entirely amusing for children, as long as you keep their little octopus hands from grabbing everything off low shelves. Fortunately they don't go in for elaborate displays of pyramids of chocolate and towers of sweet tarts because that would be mortifying and disastrous instead of giving me the mild frisson of tempting fate that a quick trip offers.
And for a few days, we're slated to go on a heavily outdoor-centric trip, so any advice for vacation in inclement weather activities would be appreciated. I am hoping for the best of course.
posted by Elise at 3:59 AM
2 Comments
Landings
Over the weekend I was contemplating these awkward-sounding deliveries on public transportation and trying to decide if it would be more unpleasant to have a baby on the subway or above ground on the bus. I have not yet discussed the baby who was born on the R train with Felix, but I know he would be completely jealous of that kid, although given his current tendencies he would probably suggest that the baby should have held out for a brand new N train (complete with accurate electronic station signs). The other baby was born on the B61 bus in Brooklyn.
If pressed, I think I'd take subway over bus but I'm not sure why.
But then today, I became aware of a different sort of delivery decision that had never occurred to me (again, I'm not sure why). In Pakistan, pregnant women often try to find ways to come to the United States to have their babies to ensure that the children will have US citizenship. There is an article in Slate's new(ish) Double X blog about this, and it is full of things I never knew. I didn't realize, for instance, that this practice is called "birth tourism" (and it does mean making extended vacations to the US because it is difficult to fly too late in pregnancy and also can be hard to find OBs who will take on new patients late in the game). (It isn't just Pakistani women who travel to give birth in countries that have the sort of birth citizenship provisions that the US does, it is also not uncommon for women in Taiwan, South Korea and Hong Kong, according to the article.)
I also had no idea that the US policy about birth citizenship is a 14th Amendment thing. I had sort of assumed it had been around since the country was established since so few of the people who were making up the rules had been born here. But the fact of the matter is that the rule was put in place to give US citizenship to the children of slaves.
Anyway, it is worth reading.
As I understand it, being born on the subway doesn't confer any citizenship or anything beyond an intriguing or squirmy (depending on your and your audience's feelings about these things) birth story. You'd think a lifetime supply of Metrocards for the mother would help offset the embarrassment, but the MTA is always almost bankrupt and would never suggest such a thing for fear everyone hop on the trains during contractions, hoping for free commutes forever.
posted by Elise at 3:55 PM
1 Comments
Subway Stories
My children both love the subway. They're not unusual. It's a common passion in small kids. Occasionally, I am struck when people are surprised that I would take my children on public transportation. I'm not sure exactly what the current reasoning is behind "protecting" children from the horrors of the train, because I don't tend to get into long chats about it, but I did just encounter this article and slide show, no doubt inspired by the release of the new version of The Taking of Pelham 1,2,3, about the unpleasantness of New York City trains in the 1980's, so maybe these scenes are what people are somehow imagining. This is a New York I knew quite well and things are very different now. Actually, the extreme differences in the subways between the 1974 original Taking of Pelham One, Two, Three (no I don't know why the numbers are spelled out in the original and are numbers in the remake titles) and today are one of the things that makes the movie interesting (and the cast, if you're a fan of any of the following: Walter Matthau, Robert Shaw, Martin Balsam, Hector Elizondo, Jerry Stiller). I am not entirely of the "I liked the city better when you were afraid to walk in Times Square" opinion, but I am invested in the city and what it was during the various eras I lived here. Thinking about this, the original is one of the few movies I could probably get Felix to watch, since so much time is spent watching signals change.
Sadly, the tooth troubles persist.
posted by Elise at 3:45 AM
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Fangs
My teeth make me feel old. I have generally healthy teeth and a slightly overly aggressive approach to taking care of them, but a few of my choppers are themselves rather hostile.
The other night, one of my teeth broke again, which necessitated the emergency trip to the dentist with Felix in tow and my mother serving as waiting room babysitter. I have two more visits that I can happily schedule without my mother's assistance, but without a quick patch-up I would not be able to go out in public without one of those still semi-fashionable flu-scare face masks on. And talking clearly would be difficult.
What is it about tooth problems that make me feel decrepit? This particular tooth isn't even troublesome because of my age or anything more than one day of bad luck about 15 summers ago. I was running for the subway (the number 1 uptown train, Felix would insist I specify) and pitched down a flight of stairs at the station. I broke two front teeth then. Somehow a third got involved a bunch of years later. Various remedies have been tried, and keep falling out or breaking or (probably) falling victim to poorly directed angst, and I think I have to bite the bullet now and just get the stupid thing crowned.
I remember once reading an essay that Stephen King wrote about writing horror in which he discussed how eyes are tremendously horrible for being so vulnerable and squishy (among other things). But when this thing happened the other night, all I could think is the I couldn't possibly show up at Felix's school looking the way I did. (In the end I got some temporary glue paste stuff at the late drugstore and cobbled things together enough so that I wouldn't terrify the kids.)
Things are far from pretty now, but at least I'm not looking less like an out of season witch.
And Felix got a new toothbrush out of the visit, so at least he can profit from my poor luck.
posted by Elise at 3:49 AM
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Why So Angry?
 While bumbling around this week, I encountered a piece of highly planned, thoughtfully executed graffiti. Usually I'm attracted to graffiti that is attractive or amusing or in a location that makes one stare, wondering "how did they manage to do that"?
But this was interesting for being sort of sourpuss instead of lively or oddball. I can't imagine what sort of kid-based unpleasantness spurred the author to paste this on this (and presumably many other) lampposts, because this clearly took some work and rigor. I wonder what sort of territory these stickers cover. (Are they intentionally placed around schools and parks? Are they scattered randomly? Does the author think they could be useful teen pregnancy deterrents? Who is the intended audience?) I also don't really understand this sentiment because one of the things I really appreciate about being a parent is that I am not my kid's babysitter. It can be overwhelming, but there's nothing like having the final word.
Of course this week was complicated and I think I probably could have used some extra hours to accommodate the weight of things. School is out for summer and this was met with... sorrow. Felix took the change very hard after not having mentioned any concerns until the night before the last day of school. Suddenly there was sobbing, keening, wailing of a sort I had never encountered before. And then Sebastian had this aforementioned bizarro cold that created inconvenient mood blowouts. It is interesting how the children manage to seek out each others' emotional level so that they almost invariably achieve equal levels of happiness or angst, crying or laughing. It doesn't matter how they get there, if there's something impossible going on with one, I will bet you dollars to donuts the other one will somehow wind up being just as clingy or bossy as the other.
Anyway, the weekend is here and it is so nice not to be a babysitter. It will be even nicer if everyone's even keels return.
posted by Elise at 9:15 AM
2 Comments
Tis The Season
It's like January.
That was the word in the pediatrician's office today. I dashed there this afternoon with Sebastian who had gone from peppy and normal (for him) to feverish in record time. I was worried, because that's what we do in these parts, about swine flu. For the record, Sebastian doesn't have swine or any other sort of flu. He has a cold and the protocol for that is the usual: fluids, motrin, sleep it off.
We're familiar faces in the doctor's office these days, what with Felix having strep throat and before that I think there was something else.
The January comment came from the doctor who diagnosed the cold, saying that in the last few days she's seen 20 kids who presented the same way Sebastian did and when I mentioned our strep party, she said that's the other hot ticket and that for kid sickness things have been as rampant as they get in the dead of winter.
Figuring I might as well get my co-pay's worth, I asked why she thought this might be and her only thought was this: weather. It's been a pretty cool spring in New York City, with the exception of 3 days when the temperatures lept into the mid-90's for no good reason except to make us all aware that August is unpleasant.
Is this just a NYC thing or is everyone fending off late Spring sickness and being relieved when it isn't the infamous, headline making flu?
posted by Elise at 4:31 PM
2 Comments
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