Posted on by Jessica Dofflemyer

Spellbound

hard
showing
reading
early
amphibian

These are just some of the spelling words Jeb has to learn this week. Test is today and last night we were studying.

It’s become a family affair.

Not having been taught English in school, the Bohemian has learned the language solely by listening. This leaves a little room to brush up on his spelling and he’s taking advantage of Jeb’s second grade weekly list of words.

There they are. Jeb and the Bohemian, their blank pages numbered one to fifteen, pencils poised.

“We’re ready,” the Bohemian says with that slightly rolling ‘r’ of his.

Tonight’s prize is a special dessert to the one who gets the most right.

And when it comes time to correct their work, it’s all stars on the right ones and a little furrowed brow and shake of the head from the Bohemian on the wrong ones.

Afraid he may miss a sweet treat, Jeb tries to finagle out of misspellings.

“I just forgot that ‘n’ there, but I meant to put it in – can that one count, Mom?”

Words that give trouble: since, species and amphibian (though, for the record, Jeb gets ‘species’ right and a short dance with triumphant hands in the air ensues).

In the end, we don’t even tally who got the most right. We know there is the Bohemian’s left over birthday cake and everyone’s going to get a slice.

Homework with Jeb has been a downer all year. I honestly don’t know who dislikes it more, him or me.

But I can chalk another one up for the Bohemian, in the countless ways he makes the unpleasant, pain-free. Thank God my fiancé’s at the second-grade spelling level.

Posted on by Jessica Dofflemyer

Smurfs, Virtual Watermelons and the Touch

The iTouch has reached out and grabbed my son.

We’ve been dealing with electronic mania for years now. It started with that first little Batman video game a friend picked up for him at the drug store a couple of years ago.

He then moved up a level when Dad got a Playstation. The DS came not long after.

I’ve been dealing with these little devices and watching how they captivate my child. Send him into trances, thumbs moving, eyes darting, ears – seeming to lose all sense of hearing.

I’ve regulated electronics to stay, mostly, at Jeb’s dad’s place. We don’t have a television so the Playstation could remain stationary. But technology keeps getting smaller and more portable. Last Christmas his dad got him an iTouch. And I’m a little touchy about the whole thing.

The apps started simply enough. A game like Tic Tac Toe, but they soon progressed to Temple Run and Angry Birds.

Currently, it’s all things Smurf.

courtesy of wikipedia

“Ahh! Šmoula!” the Bohemian says, as it seems the Smurfs have international reach.

I’m not sure how I feel about their legacy being multi-generational. Wasn’t there only one female in the whole clan? And who was Papa Smurf anyway?

All I know is that these present-day Smurfs like to garden and they’ve got Jeb meticulously tending virtual crops.

“Mom, I have to go on my iTouch or my watermelon crop is going to die!”

The Bohemian and I, we’re hip. We can look at each other, and then Jeb, and exclaim “OMG!”

Parenting experts may suggest I at least try to relate to Jeb’s passion for his Smurfy garden. Show some interest even if I’m completely disinterested (or maybe even morally opposed).

I do recall the day my dad brought home an Atari. We had Space Invaders and Breakout. My first foray into virtual tennis.

courtesy of Michael E. Gruen

I don’t remember Mom ever picking up a joystick.

I guess I’m just trying to reconcile our garden – the one that just revealed six real, live and green, baby tomatoes yesterday – with the pretend Smurfville harvest held in Jeb’s eight year old hand. I know what’s real, but does he?

Just when I’m ready to ban the touchy Touch from the house, Jeb runs downstairs to our garden beds without prompting.

“I’ll be back, I have to check the garden!”

Mmmm.

I can spy down below from our upstairs window, and sure enough, he’s giving the chard a watering. He stands there on the seam between ethereal and earthly.

Oh, Jeb. Please stay grounded here with us! Feel the real, cool water on your fingertips!

When he comes back inside he’s all smiles. “There are two flowers on the strawberry now!”

Ok, there’s one for Papa Smurf and all his manly followers. Keep the faith, Smurfette.

Posted on by Jessica Dofflemyer

Growing Fonder

The Bohemian flies out on a short trip and Jeb and I take him to the airport to catch a night flight.

We return home to a quiet house and I tuck Jeb into bed.

There’s a palpable vacancy in the stillness of our home. All of the lights are off in the other room. No splashing at the kitchen sink.

In the blue nightlight of Jeb’s bedroom he says, “I miss him already.”

These past weeks have had me zooming in and out in my perspectives. I’ve been watching chaotic pixelations de-blur to take organized form, then fuzz again on macro-vision. Sliding the view-finder in, then out.

Jessica Dofflemyer ~ all rights reservedIt’s good to change the focal point. Feel the differences. Experience absence.

My heart is already full of fondness. Apparently, just growing more.