My aspirationally weekly, realistically more like monthly email of books and enthusiasms will keep your #tbr full and make sure you know what's next.
Dear Ayelet Waldman Originally uploaded by kjda I am enjoying your book. I loved your NYT essay that caused all the hoopla. But I am very, very happy to say that I think I am actually a very good mother. And so does Wyatt! I am pretty sure that by Chapter 18 you will have come to feel the same way. Although it sounds like you might still not go for the cruller and frappacino action. But I know you […]
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Wyatt takes his hair VERY seriously Originally uploaded by kjda KJ Dell’Antonia sent from my iPhone
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Today’s project Originally uploaded by kjda Haircuts. A charity auction. Cheering up, and pretending I didn’t read the rumor that all China adoption action has ceased until…September. I do hear Fujian is lovely in September…but why anyone would think the flu would be gone by then, I can’t imagine. Also in the "overreacting" category–my brother-in-law’s wife refusing to fly to my sister-in-law’s wedding next weekend. She has a three-month- old…but if you won’t travel because of THIS flu, then you […]
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My Bag of Rocks, originally uploaded by kjda. Geez, what’s in there, a bag of rocks? Why, yes! It’s a metaphorical bag of rocks, too. I am carrying a lot of baggage, lately.
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To decide to have a child is to decide to allow your heart to go walking around outside your body. Wyatt’s TMO teachers presented us with that sentiment on Mother’s day, as their idea of a festive mother’s day apparently involves making one cry (they also offer handprints, and that poem about how the handprint won’t be this small for long—oh, and checkbook covers, which I quite appreciate.) Let me just say that the decision to adopt a child—now that, […]
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Today we acquired a–doubly used–double trailer bike. Also known as a double tag-a-long bike. In essence, it’s a tandem tag-a-long, because the riders must pedal in unison (although not with the adult doing the pulling). We are, collectively, very, very thrilled. We–in the form of me, Lily and Sam–tried it out, for all of a block. A great deal of core strength is required to keep us upright, so I feel this will be very good for me, although I […]
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It looks like things are still moving in China-adoption land, flu or no flu. And so it looks like we will likely be trotting along on our planned schedule. One advantage to not being able to do something at the first possible minute is that it’s more likely to fall in with your schedule. Not that it has, yet, and aliens could always invade at the last minute, causing the whole thing to go up in smoke in an Independence […]
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I am having just a wee bit of trouble getting anything done. Anything, that is, besides dicking around on the internet preparing to go to China. Much lies in between us and China, as it happens. Including Seattle and my sister-in-law’s wedding, Lily’s birthday, a photo shoot for Family Fun magazine, and some pretty substantial housework. Among the things I could have accomplished today, it’s worth including: ordering bow ties, arranging a larger propane tank, packing up assorted outgrown clothing, […]
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I ripped Tom Bissell’s essay on David Foster Wallace out of the back of the Times Book Review on the plane last week–because it had a word in it that I didn’t know the meaning of, and couldn’t figure out from the context. Here’s the quote: “Transcription of the 2005 Kenyon Commencement Address — May 21, 2005†now has a proper title and colophon, This Is Water (Little, Brown, $14.99). In the book, the passage above has been gently elided, […]
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You’ll have to head over to Word of Mouth at NHPR.org to hear me still being funny about it! Today I’m feeling less clever, since rumors are spreading that China will close down adoption activity until things sort themselves out one way or another. Rory’s in good hands, though, and if things get worse–well, they get worse. And if they don’t, I’m confident it will pick back up quickly. I’m sticking to my vague June travel plans until forced to […]
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Here’s what I think: I think we’ll head out around 6/11. Here’s the tentative schedule I’ve planned for us: Day 1: leave Day 2: Arrive Beijing Days 3-4: Sightsee in Beijing. Lily tries to throw Wyatt off Great Wall. International incident narrowly averted. Day 5: Fly to Fuzhou City Days 6-9 Get used to Rory, one way or another. Day 10 Fly to Guangzhou Days 11-13 Various appointments Day 14 Fly home. I may have the whole date line mixed […]
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It’s a beautiful night here. I’d like to go for a walk with the dog. I would much rather be going for a walk with the dog–and even the younger kids–than babysitting by 7-year-old while he completes a project about New York state for his “state fair.” Go ahead, you say? Why don’t you? Why should you be stuck with hishomework? Well, if I don’t contribute at all, then what he will end up with is a posterboard covered in […]
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I have another NHPR bit, this time on delicious Theo Chocolate.
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One of the perils of visiting my folks is that the radio station they favor plays a lot of Carpenters. That has obvious issues, of course, but one of the biggest is that even the very happiest Carpenter song, what with the whole sad story of Karen Carpenter, the nostalgia factor, my lost youth–makes me feel sad. And since it’s not a specific kind of sadness, I just apply it to whatever I’ve got going on that I could possibly […]
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Mini golf course maintenance, originally uploaded by kjda. KJ Dell’Antonia sent from my iPhone
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We are on Vacation!, originally uploaded by kjda. So of course, we are at Starbucks. You could say that is like going to Paris and eating at McDonalds, but I don’t think Dallas is really known for it’s local coffee. In fact, as far as I can see, it could be known for the abundance of…Starbucks. KJ Dell’Antonia sent from my iPhone
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Fishing, originally uploaded by kjda. Right now, we are fishing in the yard, because Sam’s new fishing rid is broken. It seems to have come that way. I am having flashbacks to my childhood, when every single thing of this nature I ever received was always broken, and could never be returned and replaced until the stores opened, a seeming eternity later… But Lily is happy! Note the big plastic weight on her line. We are thinking that leaving that […]
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The three and I flew from Boston to Dallas today. It’s a four hour flight, but came in at 5 1/2 (plus) due to 1) delay on the ground but in the plane because of storms and 2) no gate when we finally DID land. And you know what? It was fine. Sam and Wyatt sat in the row in front of Lily and I. Wy napped for the first hour or so after takeoff (that would be hour 2 […]
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I’m contributing/blogging for Word of Mouth. A good gig!
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Wow. So, none of what I planned to get done this afternoon got done, although, oddly, I cleaned part of the vegetable garden. Because, what with packing for Texas, finishing Rebecca’s dvd and package, finishing a pitch for my conference next week, doing a new post for the NHPR site I just started writing for, finishing the article for Parenting I wanted to have done before we left Friday…well, clearly what I really needed to do was work in the […]
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Ok, nobody but another China adopting parent will know what that means. Suffice it to say it’s big news. It means our paperwork has been through the mill. There are no questions, there are no issues, and now we are just waiting for our permission to travel–which is a pretty standard and predictable process. This was fast. This is good. (This is real!)
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I’ve got about 1/2 an hour this morning before I go relieve Rob at TMO (Wyatt’s pre-preschool, where somebody has to be the parent volunteer). He’s #3 to go through it, and we–along with the five other families in the class with #3–finally figured out (or maybe that should be I finally figured out) that if you split the morning it’s actually kind of fun. Anyway, I popped in for my treat of the week: one Lou’s chocolate cruller. It […]
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A few days ago I found Rob noodling around on the Internet (what did we do with ourselves ten years ago?) looking at, of all things, artificial ice. We’d been talking, looking at pictures of Rebecca, telling the usual end-of-the-day stories…him talking about how funny Wyatt was during tooth brushing, me describing the day’s drop off and pick up adventures. And now he was looking at…ice. As in, synthetic hockey rinks. Really. Who knew? There were pictures–a big ole suburban […]
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There has been a lot of discussion in our household lately about the history of the two major religions that intersect here. Twice a year, sometimes three times, these things come up more often than they usually do. There was a time when there was some acrimony, with Rob blaming me for the ubiquity of Christmas and me demanding, shrieking even, to know why Sephardic Jews can eat rice during Passover but Ashkenazi Jews cannot, thus leaving us with 10 […]
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Tonight Sam and Lily were back in Mandarin class. Rob drew the short straw, so he came home with grumpy Wyatt to put him to bed (I can tell he’s peeved, because he’s on the upstairs computer, not the downstairs), while me and my laptop hung out at the Dartmouth arts building (nice view of the green, comfy chairs, excellent wireless). As I lingered, responding to email, syncing calendars, etc., a student came in to practice on the grand piano. […]
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I got an impulsive email from Guoji Familia this morning–she, Cupcake, Spark and her #2 son were heading our way! We met up at the Montshire, and hung for the morning. It was great to meet up “IRL”, but I’m finding the whole thing inspires me to talk in what I think of as “blogher” talk…lots of exclamation points and references to the ‘net. We had a good time, and bonded over plenty–adoption, of course, kids the same ages, yadda. […]
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There has been some recent discussion in the Beyond Nuclear household about how our children do not do enough for themselves. When Sam asked for a hot drink after dinner tonight (because it’s April in New Hampshire), it seemed like the perfect opportunity. He is a responsible child, and permitted to use, on occasion, sharp knives. I will show you how to make yourself some tea, I said. I put the tea kettle on to boil and showed him where […]
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My Postal Pickup, originally uploaded by kjda. So you have to picture me, at the post office, mailing my one little package (Rebecca’s book) and handing over my pick up slip. And then he said…I’ll get the handtruck. What is it? One comforter, two fans and a few assorted items of clothing. KJ Dell’Antonia sent from my iPhone
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Rebecca!, originally uploaded by kjda. Here she is! And in yet another amazing coincidence–Lily owns that sweater. It’s an Oshkosh B’Gosh by way of Target, but it’s unmistakeable. We got an update tonight, and the word is that yes–I did, via googling and link following and Yahoo Groups, find our little needle in the big ‘Net haystack. I’m thinking I should have bought a lottery ticket, too! More importantly, she’s on track in every way, and we know it. We’ve […]
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What a Bad Mother Eats for Lunch, originally uploaded by kjda. Can you see the telltale Easter Egg dye on the sides? In my defense–my totally excellent babysitter was inspired to dye Easter Eggs with the kids Saturday. On the plus side: Now I don’t have to do it! On the well this is kind of a benefit side: a fridge FULL of hard-boiled eggs. The good kind, the kind that come from a local farm. Three dozen of ’em, […]
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It’s really late. I should not open my new MacBook Air. I have opened the outer ox. Now I am taking out the inner handled box. It is small, but rather heavy. There better be something else in here, like a book. Which seems unlikely. Am I having remorse already? There is a book. A smallish one, but it accounts for some of the weight. And two mysterious power cords. Perhaps I should read the book. But this is a […]
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"Jumbo" Rice Krispie Treats, originally uploaded by kjda. As in, Rice Krispie Treats (yum!) made from new “jumbo” rice krispies–more fiber! Whole grains! The minute I opened the box I had my doubts. Tasted one, and doubted even more. So I mixed them–half and half–and still. So not worth it. A belated look at the ingredients reveals that Rice Krispies contain: Rice. Malt. Maybe one other thing. The Jumbos–a huge list of all kinds of crap. They taste something like […]
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Spring at Duke, originally uploaded by kjda. And at home, not soon enough! Don’t you LOVE this time of year? KJ Dell’Antonia sent from my iPhone
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I just figured out why so many people couldn’t get to my blog recently–I reconfigured it so that the address is https://kjdellantonia.com rather than www.kjdellantonia.com. I didn’t realize I was doing it. But I think I will leave it that way. A look around at other people’s sites reveals that the www appears to be out of date. Most sites redirect. I’ll have to work on that. Ooh, a project! Just what I need.
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Well, I’m traveling. With my puny old laptop (which has actually served me very well for many years)… And the blog is looking kinda busted, and I don’t have all of the various codes and backups with me, so the best I can do is pop this old site up for the time being. Makes you want chocolate, doesn’t it? Meanwhile, here we are in North Carolina. Just the two of us. It’s very relaxing. Honestly, the plane ride was […]
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Under the last patch of melting snow.. Originally uploaded by kjda KJ Dell’Antonia sent from my iPhone
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Those two things don’t really go together, do they? Or maybe they do. Perhaps Erik Reece, an author whose new book: An American Gospel I know I’m going to enjoy, also, when he isn’t exploraring the relationships among history, the gospel and environmentalism, likes to get in a good CSS coding session. I heard Reece on NPR this morning–this is a book that’s going to really play into some of the issues that have been percolating in my life and […]
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You Wan lives in a foster home in China–and I found her. As in, I found the foster home, online. I found pictures of her. I found out more about her than I ever thought I’d know at all, let alone before we went to China to get her. Chalk it up to the magic of Google. Wan’s file has been in China since 2007, when someone, somewhere, declared her ready for adoption. The latest information we had dated back […]
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You Wan Originally uploaded by kjda KJ Dell’Antonia sent from my iPhone Here she is! Some know, and plenty don’t, that we’ve been working on adopting a little girl from China since February of 2008. (Details? look here). If there are extreme adventures in parenting, this has to be one of them. Because this is Number four, right here. Don’t be fooled by appearances–she’s three years old. This is an old picture, and we’re waiting, now, for an “update”–which could […]
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Best Playdate Ever Originally uploaded by kjda. KJ Dell’Antonia sent from my iPhone
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Dogs in the Snow Originally uploaded by kjda. KJ Dell’Antonia
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What we really did today… Originally uploaded by kjda. KJ Dell’Antonia
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Lest you think we did not use the batman mask… Originally uploaded by kjda. KJ Dell’Antonia
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Snow angels Originally uploaded by kjda. KJ Dell’Antonia
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All dressed and ready to go Originally uploaded by kjda. KJ Dell’Antonia
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Wyatt licks sugar off the counter Originally uploaded by kjda. Sam is home sick. It’s 4:00, and I am just…tired of being in charge. Since I intend to end the day with a full on TV binge, it’s a little early to start. And so things slowly deteriorate…
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This sick day may be too much fun… Originally uploaded by kjda. KJ Dell’Antonia
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Snow day morning Originally uploaded by kjda. There was a mars mission spaceship, but Sam didn’t think it looked good in the picture. KJ Dell’Antonia
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Grace in action Originally uploaded by kjda. KJ Dell’Antonia
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