Dear Student...

I have been teaching college students for 10 years now! Wow. Here is a collection of some responses I wish I would have sent or said as a result of some real student interactions.

Dear Student,

• I know you have a lot to remember as a student, but since it is the last month of the semester, addressing me as in an email as “Ms. Jvale” is not the way to win points. You can find my name, if you forget, on the syllabus. You shouldn’t go by the email address assigned to me by the school, which, like yours, is a hybrid of my first and last names.  
• Thanks for telling me I “chuckle like a mother sheep.” I understand that from your worldview and experience, this is, in fact, a compliment.
• Although I respect your right to your own opinion, I disagree that someone's Facebook posting qualifies as a reputable research source.
• I'm sorry that you missed turning in your assignment; however, when you tell me in an email in the morning that you are deathly ill with pneumonia, it is a poor idea to show up in the afternoon in the hallway outside of my office and regale your friend with the tale of your previous night's debauchery (namely how you were so sick this morning because of you were still drunk).  I doubt you will be able to get a doctor's note to excuse this type of deadly illness.
• Please understand that when I say that your 8-10 page paper should be double spaced, I really mean it! 11 pages of single spaced text is a little extreme for the assignment.
• If you are going to ask me for a letter of recommendation, it should really be at least one week in advance of when it needs to be turned in.
• “Eating cow balls” on a dare does not qualify as an intercultural experience. Perhaps you should read the assignment description a bit more closely.
• Telling me you have a product you could sell me that would help “get rid of the circles under my eyes” is thoughtful, but I prefer to keep work and my personal hygiene separate.
• I am sorry you were unable to figure out how to log in to the online class for so long! I understand it can be difficult to navigate online courses for the first time, and I am glad you finally figured it out. Sadly, I can't let you "catch up" with what we have done in class this semester. Since it is finals week, it is too late to fulfill the requirements of the course in the time we have left.

Ailey's arrival: A photo montage

Can you believe I was supposed to go another three weeks? This was about 8 hours before the baby was born, in all my pre-eclamptic glory (the birth story details will be eventually told in another posting).

Seconds after her arrival....

I was so excited to finally get to hold her, about 5 hours after she was born. She was whisked away right after; I only got a quick little love pat on her back after she was delivered so it was awesome to finally hold her.

The food was remarkably disgusting! This is is a sample of the breakfast fare...scrambled eggs on the left, cream of wheat on the right. Both were fairly chilly at the time of serving, because the nurses had to deliver the food to me, not the food staff, because of my diabetes (apparently the hospital is concerned that a diabetic will freak out when faced with eating a meal when not accompanied by a nurse). So the kitchen would bring the meal to the nurse's station, often without telling the nurses that it was brought, and then the nurses would eventually bring it to me. Since nurses are really busy doing other important things like giving medication and taking care of babies, sometimes the lag time was significant (although the nurses always felt really bad that the tray took so long in getting to me and apologized profusely) I am so glad I had an amazing spouse who smuggled in decadent food (think Chipotle-esque). Since I was in the hospital for about a week, I got very tired of the redundant and gross food. 

The view from my hospital room (the second room, anyway)...you can see the ocean!

A hospital room is NOT the place for a two year old. This is while I was alone in the room while Ailey was still in the NICU.

Cameron really wanted to make a run for it down the hall, and he told us "I want to run in the hall." Too bad that running in hospital hallways is generally a frowned upon activity, and also too bad that Cam was able to open the door on his own!

More of the amazingly awful food...note the crust on the white mound that is masquerading as mashed potatoes.

Cam was SOOOOOOOOOOO EXCITED to finally meet his baby sister! I wish I could have captured his huge grin when he saw her for the first time, but it will forever be impressed in my memory (we actually did think we captured it, but it turns out the technology gremlins somehow deformatted our video camera files).

Cameron gently holding the newcomer....

Cameron not so gently holding the newcomer....he wanted to explore her and see what she was like! Lest you be concerned, we intervened before serious damage was done. She may or may not have a slightly deformed ear as a result of his loving.

Her first glamour shot! It may not look very glam, but she is much cuter in person (all the aunts and grandmas can attest to this!).

Her going home outfit.

Ailey's first  reaction to her carseat was very similar to Cameron's..."what the...?"

Ailey was fairly jaundiced, and she had to get her blood drawn so often that her little heels had no more places to poke, so they had to draw from her hand.

Her official baby name book entry. Sadly, the runner-up name, "Agnatha" didn't fit in this picture although it was on the same page.

A few days after she was home, he finally managed to wrangle himself so he could cuddle next to her. He was quite pleased with himself.

Not a fan of her first bath!

I am getting to be quite adept at holding both kids in my lap! Even more impressive is when I hold Cameron and read him a book WHILE I am nursing Ailey...but no one needs a photo of that.

What's in a name?

We did it. I apologize in advance to our sweet baby girl. For the rest of her life, she will have to deal with her name being mispronounced. In waiting rooms everywhere there will be a pause, and then a tentative calling of "Ay-lee Valenti?"
Not that I don't like the name Ay-lee; in fact I was thinking of it as a serious contender, but was worried that  people would think the first letter of her name (like a B or H or K) was left off.

For the record, our daughter's name is Ailey Marie Valenti (and no, it doesn't bother me at all that all three of her names end in an "ee" sound). Ailey is a name of Scottish/Irish origin and means "light" and "pleasant." You pronounce her first name as eye-lee, but we didn't want to spell it that way because it is a bit too...too...functional and puts the first thought into someone's head of an eyeball. 

Phonetically speaking, our nephew Sam informed us that her name does not "play fair," because "when two vowels go walking the first one says its name," hence it should be "Ay-lee." Maybe we did misspell it according to the rules of the English language, but when did this language ever really play fair?

Welcome to the world!

Cameron videos

Caretaker of the Rocks: 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AfHNS0SA18o

No swimsuit, no problem:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OtjHI0g6T9E

Fun with Kelp:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2KP3Dcacwk0

Trains & Togas:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4oT2sMxtOQ

Soaked at the Splash Park:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJ2dIv5vynY

Playground Fun

Cameron loves to play at playgrounds. Here are some photos and videos of him exploring and playing at one of our neighborhood parks.

Park Swing Video: 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7S4W_r5ba1Q 

Sliding and Climbing:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QvbmjBT4zZs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cVxfNHxXJnE