Art in the Digital Age

 Dear John,

Of all of the extra things your dad and I do for you (beyond the feeding and clothing), I think one of the most important is the way we try to expose you and your sister to the arts.  The creation of art is one of the things that signifies a developed society to me.  The only way artists are free to create and perform is if the rest of the society is willing and able to support their art.  I think our lives are enriched by the beauty around us and if we don't stop to attend to it then we are the ones lacking.

Media, computers, the internet, television, all of it makes our world so much smaller, so much more accessible, and I think it waters down the experience of the artistic, sometimes.  If I want to see a musical, I can download it, get on Netflicks, look on cable, or just stream it on a phone.  But none of those compare to the experience of seeing it on stage.  I think of the future as seen on Wall-E where all of humanity is limited not only to simply watching virtual reproductions of performances, but physically unable to reproduce the kinds of amazing acts of physical beauty that we see in ballet, in gymnastics and in sports.

The digital age can give us so much, but it cannot provide the power of a live performance and the world can be at our fingertips but a live stage performance is always as far away as the closest company.  With all of that in mind, supporting the arts in Austin and making sure you and your sister get to have as much exposure as possible, is very important to me and your dad.

Which is why on Sunday we went to the Ballet Austin's second kids' performance.  We had gone to Peter and the Wolf in the fall and we all loved it, so we felt pretty sure that we would like this one as well.

The show took the right sorts of liberties with the very grim Grimm's fairy tale.  In this version, the loving parents don't actually send the children away.  Instead, the father gives the mother a vacuum cleaner (no one knows why) which she loves (also for unknown reasons) and Hansel and Gretel play with it (of course) and then break it (no surprise) and run away from to avoid being in trouble.  You and your sister laughed and laughed as the children broke that vacuum cleaner!

The whole show was done with eight dancers and was far more focused on German polka music and movement than it was the tale of Hansel and Gretel.  They also had these two narrow tables and did a lot of cool movements involving dancers going under and over the tables, dancing with them and around them.  In the end, the witch is tied to one and then pushed off stage.

The grand finale, though, wasn't the victory over the witch, or even the children's homecoming.  It was the father repairing the vacuum cleaner.

Very funny.  Very silly.  Very German.  And very kid friendly.

I am so glad we took you to see it and I'm glad I got to see it.  What a great city we live in to have such wonderful kid productions so available.

Love,
Mom

Just John and Mama

Dear John,

Today was just you and me.  I can't remember the last time we went somewhere just the two of us.  It was lovely.

I took you to the Nature Center first.  We walked around at your pace and looked at everything you wanted to see.

The big wooden sign that I normally take pictures in front of was gone... possibly for repair, possibly for good.  It was weird to think that there will be pictures of us in front of that sign and you won't remember it.

You were in full imagination mode today.  You were a Super Friend (as a result of watching a lot of the 80's cartoon Super Friends).  You even tied on your cape.

And you put on your mask.

Then we were ready to run around the Nature Center.  And we did run.  After a year of weight loss and exercise, I can outrun you, sweet boy, and that was a glorious feeling.

We dug in the Dino Pit for a while.  Normally we go in the warm part of spring and into the summer and the Dino Pit is scorchingly hot, but today it was perfect.

I don't think I had appreciated how much of your attention for activities is brought to you by your sister and her constant entertainment value in your life.  You had a great time at the Nature Center, but were done in about forty-five minutes.  Since we were already in south Austin, I took you over to the big Zilker Park playground.

 

You even got to eat the snack your daddy packed especially for you because, as he said, "Mrs. Robinson won't be there" and she and Mrs. Hazen are your normal go-to sources for snacks on outings.


Once again, although you had a great time, something was missing, and I'm pretty sure it was your sister.  You normally run all around a playground like this, but you were very wary of the other kids and would only approach a structure if it was completely devoid of other children.  You actually got in trouble at the sand box for throwing sand.  It took me a while to realize that you were trying to create a sand play area off to the side where there were no other kids.  Once I explained that the only way to play with sand would be to get in the sand box with the two other children, both of whom were preschoolers like yourself, you decided to abandon the sand box completely.

We also went to Anna's Toy Depot where I found a few legos I wanted and two instruction manuals I had lost, and then we went out to lunch at the Olive Garden.  We came home for our nap (well, my nap, you just kicked me a lot and watched Dr. Horrible's Sing-a-long Blog) and then I took you up to my school to play before we went over to the Robinson's for dinner (see, son, Mrs. Robinson still fed you today).

It was a wonderful day and I know you enjoyed it so much because you have told me about twenty times today that you love me and another dozen or so times that you like me and then, to drive your point home, you even said specifically that you had "so much fun" today.

Today made me realize, though, that we don't do this enough.  You don't have a clear idea of how to be out and about without your big sister and I don't have a clear idea of how to entertain just you.  I am so grateful for the sibling bond between the two of you that I haven't thought about the time you might need alone with a parent.  We'll work on that.

Because while I adore how close you and your sister are right now,

I want to make sure you get the independence you are going to need in a world that won't always accommodate having your big sister by your side.

(Even though one of my greatest hopes for you is that you and your sister will always maintain this great relationship you have right now.)

Love,
Mom

Being a Part of Church

Dear John,

Two weeks ago was Children's Sunday at church.  It was also the Sunday before the week we thought you had chicken pox.

You were the usher that Sunday.  That means you handed out bulletins, and possibly little bits of that unnamed virus you and your sister had.  It's one of the reasons we were quite relieved that it was not, after all, the chicken pox.  (Hello, good morning, would like a bulletin and some chicken pox this morning?)

In addition to handing out bulletins, you got to pass the offering plate.  You loved this job, but kept trying to take the change back out.  I think you wanted to be able to put those shiny coins in yourself.

I love this tradition in the church.  I love that at two, you are taught that you have a role in the worship service of our church.  Next year, you will probably get to usher again.  The year after that, you might get to do like your sister did this year and say the passing of the peace.  Every year your role and responsibility in this service will grow, just as I pray your relationship with God will grow in the same time.

This year, it was all about the shiny money, the stomping on the big open area in the front of the church.  One day, though, it will mean so much more, and I think you will be made ready for that day by participating in days like this as a toddler.

Love,
Mom

Friendship IS Love

Dear John,

To show you and your sister (and some of our friends) how much we love you, your dad and I hosted a kid valentine party (slash free babysitting) which we called "Friendship is Love."

I thought it was a great way to spend the evening.

 

 

 

On of my favorite parts was making little mail boxes for the parents.  You and your sister decorated ones for your dad and me and your friends made them for their parents.  Then we let the two older girls write their own notes and your dad and I helped the rest of you write yours.  Everyone wrote notes to their parents about why they love them.  I wanted a little glimpse into what you and your sister find meaningful in the ways your dad and I show love to you.  I know what you said about your dad and I can't wait until Valentine's Day to read what you had him write about me.

For today, though, the thing that makes me love you so much is that you spent about half of the party being Butterfly Boy.

I love you, sweet boy!

Love,
Mom

Not Pox

Dear John,

We went to the doctor again on Monday.  It was Day 15 of the pox and I was starting to worry that they weren't going away.  When the doctor actually saw you, though, she was more interested in revisiting the type of pox and less concerned about the duration.  The physician's assistant had been so sure it was breakthrough varicella.  The pediatrician, not so much.  She was quick to back her PA, saying that with fewer spots, it was a more likely diagnosis and it was a more likely diagnosis in you than in your sister (who had two doses of the varicella vaccine).  All in all, as she said, "the story didn't add up" and she re-diagnosed you and your sister with an unnamed virus that had caused some spots and cleared you for daycare the next day.

So thus ends the saga of the not pox.  In some ways, I would have preferred that it had been chicken pox so that I could know for sure that you and your sister have full immunity.  On the other hand, I am so relived that it ended so well that I cannot complain.  The real struggle with the not pox was accompanying fever... not temperature, of course, just the cabin fever.

And how did we deal with that?

Well, first of all, we made a town.

We used everything we could find... the pony castle, the Calico Critters house, the Sweet Streets, the Imaginext toys, the train table, hot wheels, and even some cardboard castles.

At various points, there was an aircraft carrier, two pirate ships, a swan boat, a canoe with campfire girl scout, a dolphin, a hammer shark and an octopus in the lake.

Uh-oh... looks like the octopus is attacking the CFJ-12 John Nolen!

We also tried going out to Sonic and getting treats.  It at least got you out of the house and into a car and that was something of a change.

A chocolate shake and fries... my favorite treat when I was pregnant with you and now here you are...

We played video games.  Well, I played them, you and your sister watched and offered suggestions about what my character should do next.

Sydney's favorite contribution: telling me how to dress the character; your favorite contribution: telling me to go back to my house and take a nap

And then, when there was nothing else at all to do, you disappeared completely.  I have no idea where you went, but this fabulous superhero took your place.

I wonder how the book Ladybug Girl  has helped to create this persona

Butterfly Boy to the rescue!  I always tell people when they ask me about teaching Kindergarten and whether it's hard to keep kids busy, children will not let themselves be bored.  The trick is making sure they are self-entertaining in ways you can live with.

I think you managed just fine.

Love,
Mom

Chicken Pox Update

Dear John,

Looking back, I can tell you this chicken pox business probably started on January 22nd.  That was the Sunday I saw two little spots on your chest.

Figuring that chicken pox like most viruses has that 7-10 day illness window, that puts February 1st as a reasonable end to the illness.  I would still expect another few days of waiting for all of the pox to heal up, but pretty much, I thought we would be through it.

So when you woke up from your nap on February 2nd with more pox than before, I realized that all bets were off.  So who knows when we'll be through this.

It doesn't really matter.  Your dad has been working from home.  You are itchy, but not feverish.  But it has made us reevaluate all of our social plans in the month of February.

Love,
Mom

Rite of Passage

Dear John,

There is a rite of passage that I really thought you and your sister were not going to experience.  It's not a fun rite of passage and I guess I should have been glad for you to miss it, but somehow the idea that there was this significant childhood event that the miracle of modern medicine took from your young life was a little sad to me.

I'm speaking, of course, of the chicken pox.  When I was a child, everyone got chicken pox.  It was preferential to get the chicken pox as a child and a mild case was considered a mixed blessing since it could lead to reinfection later.  Chicken pox was an itchy scratchy nuisance of an illness in children that could be life threatening to adults.  It was also troublesome to parents who had to stay home with their infected offspring for a week or more.  Being a virus, it was something that once gotten was usually over for life and was also something that could be vaccinated against like the bigger, tougher virus of measles, mumps, polo, scarlet fever and others.

So like most of your peer group, you and your sister were vaccinated and we figured chicken pox was something you would just never experience.

It certainly wasn't something we thought about a week and a half ago when you and your sister both had these strange little ant bites... hers on her back, yours on your chest.  We didn't think about it when you got three more of these little bites on your back.  We did check the beds for bed bugs.  We did check the laundry detergent to make sure we hadn't switched brands by mistake.  We even considered other random viral rashes... fifth disease, sixth disease, I googled them all.

But these "bites" lacked the size and scope of chicken pox as I remembered them.

I took you to daycare this morning and even Ms. Carie was baffled.  It didn't look like chicken pox to her, although her years of early childhood experience told her February is the prime month for it (who knew?).  But she circled your six or seven spots and said she would call if you got any more.

She called just as my students were going out to lunch and recess.

I took you to the doctor and that's where I learned the difference between what I thought of as "chicken pox" and what the doctor called "breakthrough varicella."

It's the same thing, really.... chicken pox and varicella.

But because you were vaccinated, your body is already fighting the virus even as you are symptomatic.  It's why tonight you have a grand total of 12-15 blisters instead of a couple hundred.  It's why it was so hard to tell what it was you had.  The doctor was able to find only three blisters on your entire body that looked like textbook varicella.  Once she pointed them out to me, I could see the head clearly and even see the brown pinprick scab on one of them.

I have to say, if chicken pox has to happen, if it is a rite of passage a child really needs to have, this sort of chicken pox is the way to go.

You have to really look to see the ones of your torso and right at your neck.  Your back is where the "better" blisters are.

Not exactly the disease as I remember it from my childhood, but I accept as a rite of passage nonetheless.

You have chicken pox.  I do not understand why that is satisfying to me, but it is.

That you can have it with no fever, little itching, and almost no chance of scarring is the wonder of the world you live in.

Love,
Mom