Zoe and I went to the Vesuvio Playground outdoor pool today... Then we shared a pineapple Italian ice. There were roses growing near the pool...
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I just saw an email that said, "New York Greenwich Village Preschool Registration Now Open," and I thought, "That's cute." Then I remembered my kids are too old for preschool. We found out who Zoe's kindergarten teacher will be. I had heard about the intense, neurotic teacher and the nice, nurturing teacher. She got the nice, nurturing one.
It's funny how kids can surprise you. Before Eric was born, I had a mental list of books I would get for him, books that I really liked when I was a kid, and hoped he might enjoy also. He has liked a number of them (Anastasia Krupnik, Laura Ingalls Wilder), but Beverly Cleary, Judy Blume, and Anne of Green Gables didn't grab him as much (though he's read some of them). A lot of stuff he reads, I've never read - Pippi Longstocking, the Boxcar Children, the Wizard of Oz series.
I can feel myself calming down about the election now that things seem to be going Hillary's way (KNOCK ON WOOD LOUDLY). Seriously, though, he seems to be the biggest disaster that ever ran for president. I can't remember this much negative coverage on any presidential candidate. I remember the Dogs Against Romney, when Romney put his dog on the roof of his car for 650 miles or something like that. But that's the most damning thing I can remember. Also, George W. Bush saying "nucular" instead of "nuclear." He was a disaster too, of course. But somehow no one comes close to Trump. The former head of the CIA is endorsing Hillary, warning that Trump could be a threat to national security. This morning, I finished Heroes of the Frontier by Dave Eggers. He wrote about a single mother and two children gallivanting around Alaska. I got the sense that Alaska was the literal frontier in the book, but parenting was the symbolic frontier. He wasn't too heavy-...
You don't need the X-rays
I just read a New York Times article about bite wing X-rays at the dentist's office. The article said that dentists tend to overuse them. According to the American Dental Association, you only need them every 2-3 years unless you are unusually susceptible to cavities or gum disease. My dentist does them every 6 months! I turned them down when I was pregnant. The level of radiation in a bite wing x-ray is relatively low, but the effects of radiation are cumulative, so each x-ray is an unnecessary risk, increasing the chances of cancer down the road. Brain tumors are more prevalent in those who have frequent bite wing x-rays. This was all very interesting to me because my mother always asked for fewer x-rays for me. My Massachusetts dentist said, "You would get more radiation walking through Danvers Square." Turns out he was wrong...what matters is the cumulative effect, not the level of the individual dose. My mom was right.
I re-followed The New Yorker & The New York Times...I don't want to be uninformed...but it really is a lot of bad news. The first thing I saw was an article about the nightclub shooting in Fort Myers, Florida. It's really high time for meaningful federal gun control. Hawaii is the hardest state in which to get a gun, with strict background checks and a registry of gun owners. Of course, it helps that Hawaii is very isolated and they can control their borders. But I believe the nation as a whole should follow its lead.