Kavi slept! Last night,…

Kavi slept! Last night, she went down easily around 8, and then slept peacefully until 6. God, if she did that every night, we would be so very very happy. She wakes up in a good mood too when she gets lots of sleep; all smiles and giggles. Super-cute. Right now, she's happily occupying herself pulling all the tupperware out of the drawer, periodically singing along with her music. At this point, we have about fifteen kid cd's for her, which just play in sequence through the day. Kevin's getting a little tired of some of them, but I have a lot more tolerance for repetitive music than he does. (Lisa Loeb, For the Kids, Philadelphia Chickens and other Boynton cds, Yummy Yummy, lots of Trout Fishing, some They Might Be Giants kids' stuff. More recommendations very welcome!) It helps a lot in keeping her happy and occupied. Kavi loves her music so much.

I mostly slept well too, although I had an anxiety dream in which somehow I had to take a big test on the first day of school, and all our babysitting fell through, so Kevin and I were scrambling to try to find someone to watch Kavi then. He says that if that ever actually happens, he can take Kavi in with him and teach his class wearing her in the Bjorn; I don't think I'd want to try that myself. Maybe when she was little, and mostly slept -- at this point, I think she'd be really distracting, both for myself and for the students. I bet she'd be constantly trying to grab the chalk out of his hand. I guess if it were an emergency, it's better than cancelling class. I don't know. :-( Hopefully it won't come up.

Today I'm re-reading another book for class, Making More Waves: New Writing by Asian American Women. At this point, the bulk of the syllabus is set, and I'm looking for poems and other short pieces to sort of fill in the corners. Try to represent a few more ethnic groups, a few more viewpoints, that kind of thing. The course is going to be shuttling between historical grounding and various aspects of identity politics; the challenge is going to keep it from seeming chaotic to the students, I think. In my head, it all actually does fit into a pretty coherent sequence -- or rather, set of sequences. That's the problem, really -- the overlapping non-congruent sequences. In part because different ethnic groups came to the U.S. at different times; the issues of fourth-generation Japanese-Americans were very different from those of immigrant South Asians, both in terms of cultural history and generational concerns. A challenge, but an exciting one. I'm simultaneously thrilled to be teaching this class and just a little tense and overwhelmed by how much material there is to cover. It's a good place to be, I think. The students should get an energetic teacher, which is always good for them.

But hey, in the course of prepping this, I learned a new term for what I am -- apparently, I can be referred to as generation 1.5 -- born in another country, but mostly raised here. Not really an immigrant, not really the American-born generation. Fun. :-)

4 thoughts on “Kavi slept! Last night,…”

  1. We had lots of kid-happiness with any of the Sharon, Lois, and Bram CDs, and a little later with Peter, Paul, and Mary’s Peter, Paul, and Mommy

    Good luck. As you said, this is the age that kids start to become interesting. My wife wished for a way to work for the first year, and then take the paid leave that we enjoy in Canada.

    David (reading you since 1996)

  2. Mary Anne,
    Just rediscovered your website. Carmela told me about it a few years ago, but then it fell off my radar somehow.

    Congratulations on the beautiful baby girl that arrived since I last saw you! Kavi is adorable.

    Re: kids’ music – my girl, Katie, will be 3 soon. We are fans of the Putumayo Kids collection – African Playground is a favorite; Animal Playground is also good; World Playground is OK. The African CD is very upbeat, rhythmic, and dance-y. The sort of music that always appealed to Katie way more than lullabies did. We also enjoy Lisa Loeb and probably sing “Little Red Caboose” at least once a day!

    Best wishes,
    Deb

  3. Mary Anne Mohanraj

    Deb, great to hear from you again!!! Thanks for the recommendation — I agree, rhythmic stuff seems to be her favorite, so I’ll look for the African one!

    Little Red Caboose was actually the first song that Kavi noticeably loved — especially the kids saying “choo choo!” For a little while, we could get her to laugh out loud (and open her mouth during feeding time) just by saying “choo choo!” Sadly, that didn’t last…

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