On the much-esteemed advice of Mrs. Rives, we have added a delightful cd entitled "You Are My Little Bird" by Elizabeth Mitchell to our music collection. It is what all children's music should aspire to--thoughtful, simple, playful lyrics and lovely, easy to sing melodies. I loved it from the very first listen, and the kids listened to it for the entire trip home from my parents' house yesterday (almost 2 hours) without a single request for another cd. Ms. Mitchell, I noted with interest as I read her biography on Amazon, was college roommates with Lisa Loeb at Brown. Which actually reminded me of another thought that has been bouncing around in my head ever since I caught up with my New Yorker reading with all my leisure time while the grandparents tended to the kids. And by "caught up with" I actually mean "got to read two entire articles" which is kind of a feat, because, and I think I've mentioned this, the articles are really very long. So I read articles about Arne Duncan, our Secretary of Education, and Sonia Sotomayor, our newest Supreme Court Justice. Our president likes to appoint people with a good back story, perhaps because his own is so compelling. Duncan and Sotomayor have very little in common except for the fact that they both thrived in urban settings as kids (though Duncan's "urban" was still white and wealthy) and went to Ivy League colleges. I think we, as a country, really like those stories. In recent history we seem to prefer our leaders with a little grit and then, a little Ivy on their resume. Which means that folks like Sarah Palin (University of Somewhere in Idaho) and Mike Huckabee (Oauchita Baptist University) for all of their "populist" appeal, have to prove they are smart even without Fancy Degrees. I wish I could believe that having lots of charisma and a good back story is going to help Duncan turn around our schools in any sort of meaningful way. If only it were so simple.
I am sorry to report that I have sustained a 30 Day Shred-related injury. I had read, in the past couple of months, a couple of different articles advocating barefoot running. Apparently, research based on the Kenyan marathoners that pretty much dominate the sport has shown that most running shoes cause our feet to adopt an unnatural heal-toe gait which can cause all sorts of injuries. So,using this newfound knowledge AND due to the fact that my running shoes were all the way in the other room, I decided to do The Shred in my bare feet. Only apparently it is somehow important that a Kenyan marathoner has a body mass akin to that of an average sparrow, which means that when their bare feet touch the ground it is like cotton balls springing atop cumulus clouds. My feet, it turns out, NEED some artificial, Nike-manufactured cushion when they are doing the jumping jacks and deep lunges. So I've been limping around, wincing at the acute pain radiating from my left Achilles tendon area.
Hudson is very intent on establishing himself as a Big Boy these days, and Harper is intent on reminding him that he is actually a Small Boy. Today I heard this as I was getting them out of the car:
Hudson: I a Big Boy!
Harper: Well, you are a Big Little Boy, though.
Hudson: Mommy! Hoppy say I NOT a Big Boy!
Harper: You are little! In fact you are so little you are a pebble! You are a pebble!
Hudson: (beginning to cry) Hoppy NO! I NOT a peddle. I a BIG BOY!
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5 comments:
A pebble! Trying hard not to wake my nursing baby with my laughter!
Chrys
AH Patti your HAreper is funny and cute! Did you not interveene? how sweet is HUdson toooo! IS he named after Doc HUdson in Cars?! :)) only joking!! Mxx
You know, I really did NOT intervene, mostly because I was trying not to let them see that I was laughing very hard. I tried to explain to Hudson later that, while he is, in some ways, a Big Boy, he is also somewhat small in stature compared to, say, Daddy, and that this is what Harper was trying to "help" him understand. I then told Harper that she is not to be so disagreeable with her brother.
He loves that he shares a name with Doc Hudson from "Cars". Hopefully someday it will mean equally as much to him that he shares a name with Hudson Taylor, who, though he never won a Piston Cup, did some things we thought might be worthy of emulation some day.
Oh, those conversations - a big little boy. You are Big Boy, Hudson! Promise!
Thanks for the cd rec. Putting it on our list. (And I find E Mitchell so much more optimistic than Lisa Loeb. Never really liked the latter.)
Margie-I think I read that she just had a baby recently. Maybe that will add some sun to her disposition.
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