easter traditions

With Easter coming up, I have spent a little bit of time trying to decide how we will treat Easter (and the Easter Bunny) in our house. This is the first year that Sam will really understand what is going on, and I realize that this year will set a precedent for future Easter holidays.

When I was young (but old enough to remember), my mom wrote a letter to the Easter Bunny, asking him to not bring candy to our house anymore. Instead, she asked the Easter Bunny to bring small toys and books to the kids in our family. This letter won't be surprising to people that knew my mom and her interest in healthy food. In fact, the gesture is so characteristic of my mom, I wanted to write it down here so that I would remember it.

I can't remember if my mom's letter explained why the Easter Bunny shouldn't bring candy (she may have explained something along the lines that we didn't eat sugar or that "we have allergies"), but I remember that gathered all the kids and had us sign the letter. I guess she wanted to make sure that we didn't entertain false expectations for what the Easter Bunny would bring that year.

Yesterday I was asking V if she remembered the letter, and she said she only had a vague recollection of signing something. I'm going to have to ask A if he remembers the letter; I bet he and I were more distraught over the loss of candy than anyone else. I wonder if my mom ever kept the letter, too. It would be fun to see it again, especially with all of our signatures at the bottom.

That being said, though, Easter was still a fun time in our house. Even though we didn't get candy, the Easter Bunny took great pains to bring us special things. I remember getting a rubber stamp collection one year (remember when stamps were huge in the '90s?) and a fuzzy bunny keychain that could actually hop. The Easter Bunny would also try to bring things that were religious as well - as we got older, we used to feign surprise that the Easter Bunny had given us something exclusively available at Deseret Book.

What Easter traditions did you have in your home? Any suggestions for how we should treat Easter in my little family? Did the Easter Bunny bring candy to you as a kid, or did your mom write him a letter as well?

nearly perpetual sickness

Something strange is going on at our house. I think our immune systems have decided to give out on us. Or maybe we're just turning into hypochondriacs. Over the past two months, it seems like at least one member of our family has been sick at any given time. Okay, it hasn't quite been that extreme, but we are usually sick or have just recovered from some sickness. And this past weekend has been no different. All three of us have a miserable cold. I just shot this picture of J, who has taken to walking around the house with both a Kleenex box and trash can.

Anyhow, I thought I'd jot down all of the colds/viruses that we've experienced over the past few weeks. I'm sure this won't be very interesting to other people, but I want to remember all of this drama. Maybe when this is all over, we'll be able to review this list and be slightly amused at all of our misfortunes:

• First week of February: Sam gets a high fever which lasts for several days. I've never seen my little buddy be so miserable in his life. We finally take him to the doctor and learn that he has an ear infection. He's put on antibiotics for the next ten days.
• Second-third week of February: I come down with a sore throat that turns into laryngitis. I have to cancel some of my classes and end up speaking in a constant whisper to J during Valentine's Day.
• Second week of March: Sam comes down with a really bizarre vomiting virus. He seems to act like he feels fine, and then the virus strikes without warning. 'Nuff said.
• Third week of March: Sam and I feel sluggish over the weekend.
• Fourth week of March: Sam comes down with a really nasty cough and cold. We spend a whole week trying to recover. J and I end up getting the cough too - and the cough has persistently lingered for all three of us (until present).
• Beginning of the second week of April (this past week): Sam comes down with a fever on Tuesday. He wasn't complaining about an ear infection, but did mention that he wanted to adjust his pillow so he could "sleep on his ear." I give him the remainder of the antibiotics which we got in March (see first bullet point), and the fever went down after two days. Hopefully we were able to stave off an ear infection while it was in its early stages.
  
• Latter part of the second week of April (this past week) - present: Sam's cough (see two bullet points above) comes back with a vengeance. The coughing wakes Sam up (and wakes everyone else) consistently every 15-30 minutes at night, and nobody gets much sleep. We all sleep a little better on Thursday night, but not by much. J wakes up with a cold on Friday morning, and stays home from work. By Saturday morning, all three of us are feeling miserable. Sam is feeling the best out of the three of us, J feels the worst. My voice is a little more hoarse (and my throat is more irritated) than the boys, and I'm paranoid that I'm going to get laryngitis again. Man, if I lose my voice during this busy school quarter, I'm going to be livid.

I've tried to boost our immune systems with anything and everything. A few weeks ago I stocked up on vitamins and Echinacea supplements, and I'm making us take them regularly. We've been trying to drink things that have a lot of Vitamin C, too. Nothing seems to work. J thinks that we just have more opportunity to get sick, since all three of us are going to different locations (and mingling with lots of people) during the week. That may be true, but I also worry that our furnace/heating system might need to be cleaned. Someone else told me that she thinks all of the sickness just has to do with this year - it's been a miserable winter for viruses and colds.

Who else has been battling sickness this past winter? Is my family an anomaly or have others been constantly battling viruses/colds?

how to raise the dead (students)

I had a slightly frustrating morning. I've just started the second week of a new quarter at school. The first class that I teach on Wednesdays is abnormally quiet. At first, I thought that the silence might be the fact that the students are adjusting to a new classroom/professor/course topic. But the adjustment period should be over by now, and these students are still insanely quiet. As in, silent as the grave. In all of the classes that I have taught, I have never had a class this quiet.

As I dance around the classroom, scribbling all over whiteboards, shouting about Michelangelo at the top of my lungs, these students look back with blank stares and expressionless faces. I almost feel like I'm lecturing in a different language and they can't understand me. They don't even laugh at my jokes (which aren't that funny in the first place, but my second section of the same course thinks that I'm pretty funny). Most importantly, it's hard to perceive if these quiet students understand the subject matter. If I ask if they understand a concept that was introduced, I'm met with blank stares. I have to plead with them to nod their heads if they understand, so I can have at least some kind of acknowledgment that we can move forward.

Anyhow, it's particularly frustrating for me, because I like to have my classes built around discussions. I want to encourage students to think critically about art, to share their ideas, and to sometimes have debates over controversial topics. And it has been so difficult to get these students to say hardly anything.

So what do I do? Give them a harsh "talking to?" Force them to speak by calling on individuals? I can do this if necessary, but I think that it makes the students uncomfortable and slightly resentful. These students already know that their grade for the course is contingent upon their participation in class discussions, but this doesn't seem to serve as much motivation. I suppose I could just give up and lecture to them the whole time (without asking for a single question or opinion), but this seems so boring. And students will just tune me out (or go to sleep) if I drone on endlessly.

Any thoughts? I realize that many readers of this blog are not professors or educators, but I'd still like to hear your opinion. What has worked to help you to participate or encourage participation in a classroom setting?

sam the paleontologist

Sam might be on his way to becoming a paleontologist. He hasn't discovered any dinosaur bones yet, but he did discover a dinosaur figurine in our backyard yesterday! Some little boy must have lived in our house before, and lost his pachycephalosaurus toy at some point. Sam was elated, especially because out of his 20+ dinosaur figurines, this is one that he didn't own beforehand. He was familiar with the pachycephalosaurus already though, since there is a model of one at our local science museum. He identified the figurine right away:



To be fair, I better say that pachycephalosaurus didn't stay in our house for very long. Soon after we made this video clip, I noticed that the figurine smelled a little moldy. And despite my best efforts to clean the figurine, it still retained its smell. After some reasoning with Sam, he decided that he didn't want a "stinky" dinosaur with his other dinosaurs.

So, we visited the toy store last night to buy a replacement figurine. Ironically, though, when we got to the store, Sam was only interested in looking at the rocket ship toys. He ended up selecting a little rocket instead, and today's conversations have revolved around outer space, astronauts and flying saucers. In fact, he's only wanted to play with his dinosaurs if they serve as "aliens" for his outer space missions. Has this pachycephalosaurus discovery inadvertently given our son a new obsession?

the best laid plans...

I'm sitting in my office at work on pins and needles. This morning I will teach an ancient art class at the university where I normally work (I'm holding office hours for my ancient art students right now), and this afternoon I will be teaching a Renaissance course at a university located a few hours away, nestled in the mountains. (Yes, I have a full-time job teaching at the university near my house, but due to a series of events I wound up teaching this other class at another school.)

Anyhow, I sure hope that I make it to this new school tonight - which is why I am on pins and needles. I woke up extra early this morning and made sure I prepared everything before I left. But as I drove to my local school, I noticed a warning light turn on for my tire pressure. And upon arriving at my local university to teach this morning's class, I noticed that one tire was really low. Not flat, but low. I'm not sure if the tire has a slow leak or if something punctured the tire. [Deep sigh.] I also have no idea what the tire condition will be after I emerge from my ancient art class at noon. Completely flat? Driveable? Hopefully I'll be able to drive far enough to a gas station (to put in some air), and then rush home and exchange cars so that I can be at the far-away university before my class begins this afternoon.

What an ironic twist of fate - especially since today is the first day of class for my Renaissance students. Everything depends on that silly tire.

birthday dad

Unless J checks my blog while riding the bus home from work (which I doubt), he'll be surprised to see this when he walks in the door:

This is the surprise party which Sam and I have orchestrated. We went to the grocery store and picked out these items. Can you tell which contributions were made by me and which ones were by Sam? You might be surprised:

• "Happy Birthday" banner: Me

• Party hats: Sam

• Red rose: Sam (All week he has been fixated on buying J a "special red flower" for his birthday. I think Sam has seen someone give me red roses before, and he now associates them as gifts for a special occasion. I think it's very darling. I don't think I've ever given J a red rose before, and I'm glad Sam had the idea instead.)

• Birthday balloon in the shape of a cake: Sam

• Spiderman "blowout" party favors: Sam
  

• "You are Special" red plate: Me (This isn't something that Sam and I bought expressly for today - it's a plate that we use on special occasions.)

• Homemade lasagna: Me
  

Here is my other contribution:

A pie inspired by Gene Davis! (J requested pie, which is a good thing, because I don't know if I could bake a Gene-Davis-esque cake)

We love J so much and are so lucky to have him in our lives. He makes me and Sam very happy.

P.S. We've moved to a new place! Can you tell? I promise to post photos soon, but I can't bring myself to take photos until we have mounted all of our pictures on the wall.

sam's take on art

Sam knows that I teach my students about art. Lately, he's been wanting to have pretend school sessions, and I am often designated as the teacher. Sam lines up his stuffed animals (his fellow classmates) and we have discussions about sundry topics. We often talk about upcoming holidays, different types of weather, letters in the alphabet, or numbers. And we'll usually end up talking about art for at least a few minutes during each school session, which is fun.

As a result, Sam has shared a few of his own opinions about art. The other week I asked Sam what was his favorite type of art, and he immediately replied, "Mummies." I had to laugh, especially because he was so sure in his response. A few months ago we were looking at one of my survey art textbooks, and he noticed images of King Tut's sarcophagus (including the mummy mask shown on the right).

Sam has also informed me last week that statues can't be lots of colors. They are "just white." I guess he really is a part of Western culture, if he already realizes that marble is preeminent around here!

Today in "school" we talked about where people can display art. He quickly agreed that art can be displayed in a house and in a museum. (He gets most excited to talk about art being in museums, since we take him to the local art museum fairly regularly. His favorite place to go is the African art section, since he likes to look at the masks of animals.)

Anyhow, after a little bit of discussion today, Sam finally agreed that art also can be displayed in a park. But he said, "Yeah, art can be in a park. [Pause.] [Grimace.] But it will get a little bit dirty." Ha! Either he was born with (or has been taught) my aversion to uncleanliness, or perhaps we have a future curator/conservator in our midst.