family moments in a fast paced world

Yesterday was Brown's annual staff development day. I decided not to run my own session this year because I wanted to participate. I took a digital video class (yeah I know predicitable), a digital photo class (even more predictable), and a course called, "FamilyHood: Family Moments in a Fast Paced World". The description said something about how to "find more time" with your family. Yea, I know cliche and not possible, but enticing. I mainly just wanted to see who else showed up and I thought maybe, just maybe I would hear people say things that I think about. Of course, it was raining and they planted that session at the farthest, most unfamiliar corner of campus. I almost turned around on my way there when the street was blocked by a construction crane, but I made it. I'm glad I did. She described the things I expected: the power of play (NPR had a story about giving kids the executive function to create their own play), the hurried, overscheduled child, weekdays as layovers to the real family time on the weekends, car schooling, and family traditions.

She shared an interesting tidbit that working parents in the UK reported only interacting with their children about 32 minutes a day. She emphasized "opportunity time" with your children and all sorts of books with suggestions. Most were for much older kids but it was interesting to learn about the trends now (which I'm sure will change by the time Aiden is that old). She was into getting kids out into the woods (book called Last Child in the Woods by Richard Louv), letterboxing (letterboxing.org), and getting kids to connect tv time to adventures (kidsoffthecouch.com) which made me wish Aiden was older ;) Some of my favorite tidbits were when she went into talking about music (John Lithgow's Singing in the Bathtub - big band children's music, J laughed, but he does have a song about hippos), using wordless books to create your own stories so that you remain engaged while reading, and the contact for the spouse of someone that works at Brown that sells pre-prepared meals each day (like the Mixing Table, but never frozen and delivered to you directly).

There was a question and answer time and it was interesting to hear what people had to say. I asked about signing with your baby and the newer moms said they used a few (like done, more, and dirty diaper) and it was well worth it. One mom even reported that it made potty training easier because he was already used to reporting his dirty diaper. There was a guy there that asked for advice on his 16 month old's seperation anxiety (which we can see twinges of in Aiden - Once he sees you at pick up time you can't go around the corner to grab his bottles without a little fuss. He is so excited to see us that I can't help but scoop him up right away anyway. I'm well trained in trying to do things with one hand and his nice teacher Kim helps me). Their advice was to make it predictable so that they expect you will be leaving by playing the same song in the car on the way to school.

Speaking of school, Aiden's not-so-new-anymore teachers, Kim and Rebecca, are great. He is happy to see them and gives them smiles. They've reported lately that he can hold his own bottle while being snuggled, he likes playing in the sand box outside, he "tries" to dance with them (he does a Stevie Wonder impersonation where he sways his head side to side - He's either saying no and really into the music) and he loooves puppets.