The Kalksteins' Blog

By Dr. Yasmine Kalkstein October 27, 2009

It's been awhile since I've posted anything. We've been really really really busy. We still have two rooms full of boxes, and have discovered it's a lot harder to get things going when there are things like work and parenting in the way.

Adam is wishing I would just enjoy white walls rather than deciding things like "I want a blue hallway" "I want a seagreen office!" My draft for my first college essay was actually called "The white walls" and it was about how I was dying to paint my walls and instead filled it up floor to ceiling with stuff to spite my parents for not painting it, and I talked about what was on my walls. So, of COURSE, now that I'm a homeowner, I'm super excited to cover those walls. We like a few things about home ownership. One, we no longer feel guilty waking the neighbors when Sivan wails her insanely loud wails. Two, it's really cool getting to paint (oh yeah, I mentioned that. Of course, I think it's cool, because I just point and tell Adam what to paint). And three, it's nice having our own land. On the other hand, there is suddenly a new slew of responsibilities. I learned I own 115 feet of pipe (and confirmed also that I would never ever be a plumber!) We live in Monroe, NY, which is sort of rural/small town. Today, I finally realized I may never find a coffee shop with wifi to work in in this town; I found this very frustrating. On the other hand, the scenery is gorgeous. It is hilly (after living in Minnesota for the last 6 years, I had some trouble bike riding), and the leaves right now are gorgeous! Sivan has adapted well, although she misses the kids we got to know in Minnesota. We are slowly meeting people and hope that we'll eventually make good friends here too.

As for Adam, his job is (hmm, i wonder if the military somehow intercepts this blog...) great in some aspects and very...military in others. For example, he arrived at work at 8 am the other day (that would be considered "late" despite the fact that he didn't have class until 9:30) and the other professors (who are almost all military) ridiculed his late arrival a bit, saying that they had arrived 2 hours early for physical fitness testing. Being one of the only civilians in the department is an interesting experience for Adam. The nice thing is my husband is ALWAYS clean-shaven these days and I don't really have to mention to him that he should get a haircut.

Adam and I have very different days. My days are usually spent trying to get work done (I'm still doing adjunct teaching) but mostly hearing the following from my little student (Sivan):

NO IMA! NO IMA! ALL BY YOURSELF IMA! DO NOT IMA! THIS ONE IMA! NOOOOOOOOOO!!! I DON'T WANT IT IMA!!!!! NO IMA!!!!! NOOOOOOOOO!!!

Adam generally hears the following all day from his students:

"Sir" "Dr. Kalkstein, sir", "All present and accounted for, Sir" "Sir?" "Thank you sir" "Yes, sir" "No, sir", and all emails are signed "respectfully yours".

Sivan goes to preschool three mornings/week. This usually leaves me with time to shower or shop or exercise or some combination of 2 out of 3. She loves it and is in a small class of 3. As for her developments, she has gotten even more personality, even stronger, even more autonomous, and talks in sentences all the time now. She can sing her ABCs and counts to 10. It's really exciting hearing new words from her constantly. She is also a hypochondriac. She gets "owies" all the time. And immediately says "I need an ice pack". I try to tell her a kiss will do, but sometimes she gets pretty insistent that her injury merits more serious attention. When someone starts crying, she says "are you okay?" "what happened?" and of course "do you need n ice pack?" She seems to always have some injury. She'll tell you she has owies in her knee or belly. We are working on potty training and she will tell any stranger that "poop on the potty, get a marsh-a-mellow".

Despite the picture below, Sivan is very excited to be Elmo this Halloween. No, really. Really.