Posts Categorized: Self-Control

Attention Distraction Dis-whateveria

I was listening to a speaker (I think on PBS Ted Radio Hour) who was talking about a little girl, decades ago, who could not sit still in her chair at school. A specialist, after watching the child, from a distance, bounding and leaping and bouncing around his office, said to her mother, “She needs to move. Put her in dance class.” And the girl became a famous dancer and teacher of dance.

“It was before ADHD was invented,” the presenter said. “Before people knew they could have such a thing.”

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Summer Reading

IMG_8132My daughter-in-law Sarah talked books with me back in the spring. She brought a couple of books for me to read, when we were both in Tennessee in May. Then, a few weeks later, I got a heavy box in the mail, with postage of $4.72. I mail packages all the time from here to New York, to California, and nothing goes for $4.72, especially not something heavy. So, it must be BOOK RATE!!!! It was, indeed, books.

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I Just Can’t Help Myself.

Who *wouldn't* want to chat with somebody as cute as this! With such a darling hat!!

Who *wouldn’t* want to chat with somebody as cute as this! With such a darling hat!!

I confessed to a class once, when I was teaching Child Development courses at our community college, that I can’t help myself; I talk to little kids at the grocery store. I will talk to them anywhere, but the grocery store provides more opportunities, as they are corralled in a seat in a cart. And, while their nearby adult is putting groceries on the conveyor belt, I am pretty much face-to-face with them, and it just seems a little rude not to chat. I am careful to keep my distance, and I never reach out or touch them.

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Fauna

Disney's fairies, Fauna, Flora, and Merryweather. I get why Merryweather is clad in blue (sky--weather), but it seems like Flora should have on green (even though some flowers *are* pink), since she represents plant life, and Fauna should have on, maybe, brown? There's not really one color that represents animal life. I don't know; it just seems confusing for her to be wearing green.

Disney’s fairies, Fauna, Flora, and Merryweather. I get why Merryweather is clad in blue (sky–weather), but it seems like Flora should have on green (even though some flowers *are* pink), since she represents plant life, and Fauna should have on, maybe, brown? There’s not really one color that represents animal life. I don’t know; it just seems confusing for her to be wearing green.

When I was a third-grader, a new Disney movie came out. Sleeping Beauty. Back in those olden days, animated movies didn’t come out every few weeks, like they seem to now. Kids had to wait for those Disney movies. Sleeping Beauty featured, among other characters, three fairies. (I was going to say “magical fairies,” but it seems that, by definition, all fairies are magical.) The Disney fairies are Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather. I thought those were just cute names, not having had enough science yet to know what flora and fauna meant. (Merryweather can refer to family surnames, musical groups, a fictional private security corporation from video game, and a Victorian firefighter’s helmet.)

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I’ve Never Been Particularly Good at Knowing What Two-Year-Olds Are Thinking. Why Do I Keep Trying?

Left side opened w/car inside; right side closed w/car outside

Left side opened w/car inside; right side closed w/car outside

This is how our garage looked, all my growing up years in the house where we now live. Well, except for the cars. Not for the years and makes of them, but just the fact that they’re there. My Dad would get up each morning, open the garage door and go out to get the newspaper, and leave the door open. After he left for work, it stayed open, all day, as did most other garage doors on our block. He closed the door each evening after dinner. The right-hand door wasn’t opened very often, as there wasn’t a car there.

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I’m Just Wrapped Around His Little Finger

Okay. I’ll admit it. No reason to pretend. I am totally wrapped around Grandson Peter’s little finger

The sun really hurts his eyes. So he has a cool pair of sunglasses.

The sun really hurts his eyes. So he has a cool pair of sunglasses. Of course, a little redundant when he’s asleep.

(well, most of the time). And, having accepted that as pretty much a given, I began to wonder where the phrase came from.

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