We're back from a very long, full weekend in Miami. We attended two Thanksgivings, two birthday parties, and got to spend lots of time with lots of family, and Amy's chihuahua, Rosie. Rosie is roughly the size of a grown man's tennis shoe and she scares me half to death when she sneaks up on me. Luckily, she's small enough that we don't think my grandmother can see her, which is a good thing. She doesn't need any more provocation for being upset.
I found out this weekend that my grandmother has been harboring resentment against me for restricting her from eating a second dessert at her brother's birthday party a month ago. She says that she's an adult and she can do whatever she wants and that I'm a "culo súsio." I had a feeling that she was mad at me but I thought it was because she couldn't remember the last name of some dead aunt that I'd asked her about. She's usually mad at me for those sort of things. But apparently not. Also, I called her boyfriend, Pepe, fat. Curiously, I may be the only family member in the whole family to whom she has not spoken to about her fiancé. And if Danny would quit "following" her and "staring" at her maybe she would stop hiding in her room. She's very emotional when she bemoans our impertinence. So my family waits till the rest of us are gathered on the back porch to laugh about it all and debate the ethics of geriatric medicine. (Because you can't get more than 2 Andollos in a room without an argument ensuing). The weather being gloriously cool and breezy, it was one of my favorite parts of the weekend- in addition to the day and a half "off" from the kids that Danny so graciously gave me, going undefeated at Dominoes, and mashed potatoes ad infinitum.
Dominic fell in love with Handel's Messiah (and shouted "Hallelujah!" all the way into church to my mom's embarrassment). Noemie went on a nose-squeezing frenzy (other people's noses, specifically). I got a black maternity skirt so I can dress up for the holidays. We didn't break anything that I know of... in all, not a bad weekend!
Monday, November 30, 2009
Friday, November 20, 2009
Digging up the past, minding the skeletons
I love history. I love the idea that there once existed a world where people as familiar to me as my grandparents lived, that can never exist again. Like an archeologist that tries to reconstruct the past by picking up the pieces found today, I too am digging up remains... the remains of identities, personalities, memories, and paradigms. And photos when I can find them.It all started by accident- I picked up one of those family history fill-in-the-blank books about 3 years ago. And I started filling in blanks. But the blanks weren't good enough. The content wasn't exciting or juicy enough. And my entries were spilling out of the allotted blanks and onto the margins and covers anyway. I also came to realize that the two paragraphs on Cuban history taught to me in 9th grade were insufficient to understand the contexts of the characters who were developing in my mind. The more the characters and the setting and the stories developed, the more I realized that they deserved to be recorded. My interest in my family's past has evolved into a book.
The Bible says, "Fools despise wisdom and instruction. " The don't-trust-anyone-over-thirty mantra that clouded the sensibilities of the baby-boomer generation, and has been eagerly adopted by my own, is absolute foolishness. It's like saying, "Let's make our parents' and grandparents' mistakes over again!" My grandfather wont be around forever to lecture us during Thanksgiving dinners. I don't have a very good memory and my children might ask me one day why I believe in things like hard work and education, the inherent faults of socialism, or in not wearing white shoes after Labor Day. Now I can just say, well let's just look at the books. I'll make it part of their homeschooling curriculum :o)
Now for some fun stats:
My maternal grandmother is the oldest of our grandparents (she'll be 88 next year)
My maternal grandfather was jailed 7 times for political dissidence.
My paternal grandmother was an only child who never met her father.
My paternal grandfather is 22 years older than his youngest sister... They share the same parents.
Danny's maternal grandmother is the youngest of our grandparents (she'll be 70 next year)
Danny's maternal grandfather is 1/4 Scottish.
Danny's paternal grandmother was 8 years younger than her husband
Danny's paternal grandfather had 2 brothers and 4 sisters. Yet he had 4 sons and 0 daughters.
My family tree has 730 names in it between Danny's family and my own.
Most prolific ancestors- Jose Elias Garcia & Maria Regla Rizo (my mom's dad's dad's parents, with 45 grandkids.)
Oldest living person*- Andrea Dorila Garcia (my mom's dad's sister) who is 90 years old (unless
Danny's dad's dad's sisters Dolores or Estrella are still alive in Cuba, in which case one of them would be the oldest at 92 and/or 97)
Person who lived the longest*- Fabiana Borrego (died in 1993 at 101; Danny's dad's dad's mom)
Oldest birthdate on the chart- 1816 Maritiña Escubiña (Danny's dad's mom's mom's mom's mom's mom. She also lived to be 101 years old)
* I don't have dates for all 730 people on the chart
Considering that my heart goes a-flutter anytime I find that I'm in the presence of a centenarian, I might look into doing this for others. For lots and lots of money. (It's not easy, you know!)
We still don't know if #5 is a boy or a girl, and Danny starts his first full-time day-on-the-road as a certified police officer tomorrow at 6:30 in the morning. Ka-chow!
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
The night before the big day
Thursday's a doubly big day, and while I usually don't lump my posts so close together, celebrating our veterans has afforded me this special opportunity to share, very quickly, my predictions for tomorrow.
For my first prediction, I predict that Danny will graduate. Ok just kidding. What I really wanted to say is that it has come to my attention that it is in fact possible, if you're lucky, to tell the sex of your baby at 14 weeks pregnant. Tomorrow we are going to our first doctor's appointment and will very likely get a sonogram for #5.
When I was pregnant with Dominic, I thought he was a girl. But the night before our sonogram, I had a Moe's burrito and it absolutely convinced me that Dominic was in fact a boy. And so he was.
When I was pregnant with Noemie, I determined she was a girl because I craved bruschetta with fresh mozzarella- the kind you can't buy at Publix. Only a girl would want that. Score again.
This time, I am predicting it will be a boy. The only serious craving (and boy was it serious) that I've had was for iceberg lettuce. But everything else feels just like my first pregnancy. And well, it's just a hunch anyway. I just wanted to put it out there cuz if I'm right again, someone should buy me a new car. Preferably a Honda Pilot. Oh! With a salad bar!
For my first prediction, I predict that Danny will graduate. Ok just kidding. What I really wanted to say is that it has come to my attention that it is in fact possible, if you're lucky, to tell the sex of your baby at 14 weeks pregnant. Tomorrow we are going to our first doctor's appointment and will very likely get a sonogram for #5.
When I was pregnant with Dominic, I thought he was a girl. But the night before our sonogram, I had a Moe's burrito and it absolutely convinced me that Dominic was in fact a boy. And so he was.
When I was pregnant with Noemie, I determined she was a girl because I craved bruschetta with fresh mozzarella- the kind you can't buy at Publix. Only a girl would want that. Score again.
This time, I am predicting it will be a boy. The only serious craving (and boy was it serious) that I've had was for iceberg lettuce. But everything else feels just like my first pregnancy. And well, it's just a hunch anyway. I just wanted to put it out there cuz if I'm right again, someone should buy me a new car. Preferably a Honda Pilot. Oh! With a salad bar!
Monday, November 9, 2009
School. At home. Oh the possibilities!
When I was pregnant with Dominic, many people were excited for me. Some expressed concerns about my plans for continuing education, or the tightness of our budget, or about whether I was too young, but even they were generally positive. When I was pregnant with Noemie, it seemed that the mood of the public shifted to one of resignation to the fact that Danny and I were officially in family mode. But the announcement that we are expecting our third has brought out the uglies! If you've had more than two kids you know what I'm talking about. One tactless family member made the discovery while asking Danny if he'd "snip snip"-ed yet. When she found out that on the contrary, we were still at work, she glared at me from afar for the rest of the evening. Yet another family member admitted she was "too liberal" to share her opinion on the matter. Hah! I'm still planning on at least one more. I suppose at that point people will dismiss me from the human race altogether. And wait till they find out I want to home school!
I recently got in an argument about homeschooling with my parental units. And while I've no intention to use my blog for a forum of discussion on the topic, I would like to reiterate my points here.
Why Anais wants to homeschool:
1. I like my kids
2. I like teaching them stuff
3. The teacher:student ratio is way better than they're going to get anywhere else
4. I desire to have control over what they learn, when they learn it, and how they learn it because no one knows my kids better than I do, and no one loves them as much as I do
5. Because we can take vacation whenever, wherever I want, for as long as I want
Will my kids be socialized? Yes, and probably much better than in a traditional schooling system where the only "socialization" that happens is on the playground or on the bus, with a pack of unsupervised children exactly their same age, from the same socio-economic background. How very like the real world. (Oh wait, that's not like the real word at all now, is it?)
It saddens me to see kids drooling over their mundane homework worksheets at the library. They just spent 7 hours at school and now they have to spend another 3 hours grueling over fractions and using the word "earnest" in a sentence? Gross! My busywork-free 4th grader, meanwhile, will be reciting the Declaration of Independence as he runs down the soccer field, solving quadratic equations in his head, for fun, as he plays the drums in his garage band, and explaining oxidative phosphorylation to his little sister as they work together to replace the transmission on a '57 Thunderbird. And if we don't make it to the Krebs cycle, no big deal. I didn't understand it till college anyway. If you take away all the time spent going to and from school, waiting for attendance or walking between classes, taking useless assessments, and waiting for the slow kids to catch up, your kids could have 4 more hours to their day- 4 more hours to learn, to play, to meet people who aren't just like them... It's a beautiful thing.
I'm a HUGE homeschooling advocate, even though most people look at me like I've got pudding coming out of my nose when I talk about it. I am EXCITED! Homeschooling was the norm prior to the 20th century. Literacy today is lower than it was at the onset of compulsory education! Not every one can homeschool for many reasons, but if it's something you are considering, I would love to convince you. I can also give you a number of reasons why having a big family is awesome, but you might feel kinda lonely if you go for it.
Here are Dominic and Noemie in their Halloween costumes:
Dominic is a beach-goer in the 1920s. Noemie is his lifeguard. Obviously.
Dominic is a beach-goer in the 1920s. Noemie is his lifeguard. Obviously.
I recently got in an argument about homeschooling with my parental units. And while I've no intention to use my blog for a forum of discussion on the topic, I would like to reiterate my points here.
Why Anais wants to homeschool:
1. I like my kids
2. I like teaching them stuff
3. The teacher:student ratio is way better than they're going to get anywhere else
4. I desire to have control over what they learn, when they learn it, and how they learn it because no one knows my kids better than I do, and no one loves them as much as I do
5. Because we can take vacation whenever, wherever I want, for as long as I want
Will my kids be socialized? Yes, and probably much better than in a traditional schooling system where the only "socialization" that happens is on the playground or on the bus, with a pack of unsupervised children exactly their same age, from the same socio-economic background. How very like the real world. (Oh wait, that's not like the real word at all now, is it?)
It saddens me to see kids drooling over their mundane homework worksheets at the library. They just spent 7 hours at school and now they have to spend another 3 hours grueling over fractions and using the word "earnest" in a sentence? Gross! My busywork-free 4th grader, meanwhile, will be reciting the Declaration of Independence as he runs down the soccer field, solving quadratic equations in his head, for fun, as he plays the drums in his garage band, and explaining oxidative phosphorylation to his little sister as they work together to replace the transmission on a '57 Thunderbird. And if we don't make it to the Krebs cycle, no big deal. I didn't understand it till college anyway. If you take away all the time spent going to and from school, waiting for attendance or walking between classes, taking useless assessments, and waiting for the slow kids to catch up, your kids could have 4 more hours to their day- 4 more hours to learn, to play, to meet people who aren't just like them... It's a beautiful thing.
I'm a HUGE homeschooling advocate, even though most people look at me like I've got pudding coming out of my nose when I talk about it. I am EXCITED! Homeschooling was the norm prior to the 20th century. Literacy today is lower than it was at the onset of compulsory education! Not every one can homeschool for many reasons, but if it's something you are considering, I would love to convince you. I can also give you a number of reasons why having a big family is awesome, but you might feel kinda lonely if you go for it.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
