transposable element

two weekends ago, we went on a spontaneous strawberry picking expedition in lich. strawberries in germany are ripe for plucking from the last week of may til about the start of july. prior to that period, there are strawberries available in the market starting as early as march, but most come from spain, but to me, are inferior in flavor compared to the german variety.

most of jan’s pickings landed in his mouth, instead. but in just about half and hour, we were able to fill our basket with around 5 kg of strawberries, and paid half of the market price for them. half the price, but double the fun!

so the past week, my oven tops were filled with bubbling pots of strawberry jams: with vanilla, with rhubarb, and with red wine. i’ve still got about a kg of ‘em, and will get some deep frozen currants to make other variations.

this morning, however, my croissant was filled with plum marmalade. if i have to eat another strawberry jam spread, i think i’ll get sick. anybody want some self-made jams? just send a self-addressed stamped envelope (or box!) and i’d be happy to mail ‘em. but send back the jars, ok? i’ll need them for next season’s harvest!

a week before hubby went to ardeche, our tv went kaputt. that means, we have been televesion-free for the last three weeks now. oh yes, it’s possible! it probably sounds abnormal, but except for some snippets of news, we don’t watch much tv anyway. when the war in iraq broke and they keep playing the same stories on the beeb for months, i’ve lost appetite for televiewing. and besides, we’ve got to set good examples for jan, who has never sat in front of the tv ’til he reached age 2. currently, at nearly three, he watches on the average about half an hour tv a day before bedtime.

the american academy of pediatrics recommends that kids under 2 watch no television at all. dr armin krenz, a professor for psychology in kiel, germany, even goes to claim that there is no reason why a child should sit in front of the tv or pc before it reaches age 4. and now i come across another reason why children should stay away from the box. it’s not just a question of getting fat and increasing the likelihood of obesity; early on, children start leading a sedentary lifestyle, which can later on pose more health risks as they grow. more than these, what i worry about is what children are not doing when they are glued to teletubbies, barney and spongebob. there are so many things toddlers and young children should instead be doing. things that are crucial not only for their physical, but also for their social and mental development. it is sometimes sad how most parents would be enveloped in paranoia worrying whether their children’s physical development is up to par, but would be uninformed (or apathetic?) as to how crippling television could be to their kids’ mental development.

on the other hand, television can be used as a learning tool. but parents should increase their own awareness as to which programs and shows are relevant and suitable for their kids’ age group. much as it is tempting to use tv as a babysitter (and yes, i know what a temptation it is, having given in to it a number of times myself!), parents should be more proactive in forming the televiewing habits of their children. just because it’s cartoons or marketed as kid-friendly doesn’t mean it is suitable or recommended for all age groups. bob the builder, for example, is a character you ubiquitously find in children stuff, from milk bottles to pajamas, but parentcenter’s common sense review recommends it only for children 5 yrs and up.

oh well, the long and short of it is, we’ve replaced the kaputt tv. i’ve been lusting after a flat screen LCD i can hang on the wall to free up some space, but seeing how we (don’t) use it , we’ve settled for a cheap ersatz.

april journeys prompted me to this piece of news. it says that according to the National Anti-Poverty Commission, of the 12 million children most at risk, 2.2 million are underweight and 2.86 million are shorter than average.

and PGMA proposes to increase cow milk production as an answer.

cow’s milk? why would milk answer the poverty and malnutrition problem in the philippines?

breastfeeding is best for babies up to 2 years of age. give the cow’s udder some peace. use yours. afterall, it’s your child, not the cow’s. oh, we’re talking about school children, you say? before you rebutt that a woman can’t beastfeed for so long, take note that in some parts of africa, children are breastfed even up to age 6.

i wonder if they’ve taken into consideration that a lot of pinoys show lactose intolerance. probably an evolutionary trait.

and what’s wrong with goat’s and carabao’s milk, too?

the irony is, we currently live where milk and milk products abound. but my son has milk allergy; he can’t drink milk nor eat anything with milk protein in it. so what’s our alternative? rice milk, fortified with calcium-rich algae. ingredients? rice, seawater and the algae. the last time i looked, the philippines is an archipelago, where rice is one of the, if not the major agricultural crop. if my son can drink that, why can’t they?

additional info:
natumi
milk alternatives (in german)

i’ve an itch that’s yearning to be scratched.

annaM did it. bambit did it. linnor did it. i know how strongly i’ve voiced my opinion regarding working mothers to very young children, but now that jan is nearly three and will soon start in the kindergarten, i’m starting to wonder whether i should, too. i’m scared, i’m doubtful, and i’ve the confidence of a fledgling about to make its first flight.

how many falls will it take before i can soar?

just as i extolled his professional virtues, he again does something to make me remember one of the reasons i fell in love with him. he left last saturday for a week-long trekking vacation with the boys (his bro and pop) in ardeche, but not without leaving me what he called the “JSK”: the jan survival kit. a love letter, a big pack of chocolates, a paperback and something else i’d rather not divulge lest i tread on some prudish sensibilities, hehe. but point is, it’s not the gifts themselves– i could and would have bought me chocolates myself, thank you very much. it’s letting me know how he appreciates being “allowed” to go on such a long vaca, leaving me alone with jan. it’s the thought that he did and does worry if i can cope home alone. it’s the thought that even on friday midnight, he hasn’t even packed yet and much less, rest and get ready for the 8-10 hour drive to southern france, but he gathered all his reserved energy to put-together such a silly kit for me.

appreciation: that’s the currency stay-at-home moms like me thrive on.

with its more than 2Gb capacity, and the convenience of opening a whole thread of conversation with just one click, i’ve long turned allegiance from yahoomail to gmail. and i’ve been extremely happy with it. except that, the past few days, i’ve sent mails that never seem to have reached their recepients. so, okay, most of my mails have no earth-shattering relevance, but hey, i did send important messages the last days! i have the right to be indignant, don’t i? i would sue, except that i’m on a free account, hehe…

just can’t help thinking: if my mails aren’t landing on their intended mailboxes, where in the twilight zone can they be now???

last year, he won the madaus most innovative research award. early this year, he published a review paper that became the second most viewed article in pubmed in february. the next month, he won the poster prize at the DFG congress in kiel. as a result of that, he got invited to deliver another oral presentation at the university there. he left today and will be staying at the maritim, all expense paid. and now he’s done it again. here i am, blogging for more than a year, and still, he beats me at freelance writing. when i saw the 8-page spread in the may issue of the pharmazeutische zeitung, a magazine for pharmacists, i thought, “who the heck is going to read such a long scientific article in a magazine?” but when i saw the contract and found out that articles are paid per line, i said, “aw, surely you could have stretched the article a bit longer?” hehe…

but honestly, i feel envious. jealous. that’s the thing when you both come from the same professional background. you start thinking about the what-if’s. but only for a while, because the answer comes back quickly and clearly. no, you couldn’t have done it, too. not with a child to take care of, as well. and then the perspective changes, and all envy evaporate. and then you realize you wouldn’t have exchanged places anyway. afterall, you’re the one who gets to spend so much time with your kid, AND you get to spend his honorarium. hah! how lucky can you get!

at 8 am today we were already halfway across the city, to check out a (real) kindergarten where jan can enroll this autumn when he turns three. at this rate we are already very late to be looking for one; some parents sign up for the waiting list almost as soon as their child is born just to be sure that they get a place. but we have been faced with the possibility of a move to frankfurt earlier this year which in the end didn’t push through, and that botched up all the planning.

why the pressure? sure, the state is obliged to provide a kindergarten slot for your child, but you wouldn’t want to put your child in just any kiga. seeing how some of the state-run kigas are, i would almost rather keep jan home. well, just almost, hehe. luckily we live in a small city, and we have a bit of a luxury for kindergarten slots. if worse comes to worst, there’s always the parents-initiative kiga nearby that has been advertising vacant slots for the last half-year now. it’s just suspicious why nobody would take the offer. but, among the 10 or so kindergartens in the area, we’re hoping to secure a place for jan in either the one run by caritas or the one run by lebenshilfe.

the caritas-run kiga has a good reputation, being highly recommended by other parents we know from jan’s current playgroup and by hubby’s former colleagues at the university. judging by it’s proximity to the university, i can imagine a lot of children of the faculty being there. and THAT is its main attractive point, for me at least. growing up where i did, i know the merits of being in the right neighborhood/peer group. we haven’t gone for an orientation yet, but in the 2 minutes i spent there to get the application form, i got the impression that it was run by stern old maids (nuns? am not sure). not a lot of fun, i thought. but then, my first impressions are never reliable, so, let’s see.

the kiga run by the lebenshilfe, on the other hand felt so relaxed, so child-friendly and boisterously fun. the lebenshilfe is a social NGO, and this particular kiga attempts to integrate disabled (or is incapacitated more politically correct?) children together with “normal” children (under which jan falls, his only disability being, to follow ME). i think this set-up is mutually beneficial for the disabled and the “normal” children. in a group of 15 children, up to 5 of which can be with disabilities, there are 3 “teachers” and a volunteer helper, ergo 4 adults per 15 kids. and THAT is this kiga’s main selling point. the more adults there are, the more they can cater to the individual needs of the children at a given time. if three kids want to go out and play, while two had a bad sleep and want to just cuddle and read a book, there are enough adults to supervise different activities all at the same time. they get more personalized attention.

when choosing a kiga, you’ll also have to decide beforehand what learning principles you abide by. most of the kiga here in germany are heavy on the learn-by-play principle. actually, it’s really mostly play at this stage anyway. that’s why i wrote teachers with quotation marks. they don’t really teach lessons per se. children are not even expected to know their alphabets before they enter the first grade. however, there are still specialized kigas employing the montessori and waldorf methods of learning. admittedly, i haven’t done a lot of research on these, but i think it doesn’t differ/matter much at this point, unless you’re set on putting your child in montessori/waldorf in primary school. which we are not. so. (okay, this paragraph was pointless, eh?)

oh well, so we’ve signed up for the lebenshilfe-kiga. i hope we get a slot, but we’ve got to have back-up plans just in case we don’t. jan doesn’t necessarily have to leave his present playgroup when he turns three in september, but i don’t think it’s a good idea for him to stay longer. he is more than ripe for the big-kids kindergarten and will be under-stimulated if he doesn’t move on. the question is just… where to?