6 posts tagged “kids”

I sent this to our local parenting d-lists today...

Since this comes up often on-list, I wanted to briefly share our passport application experience for our girls, recently (successfully) completed. Much of this info can be gleaned from the State Department page on children's passports at http://travel.state.gov/passport/get/minors/minors_834.html -- but there are some gotchas to avoid.

First, the good news: despite the estimated three-month backlog, the two passports we applied for on Saturday Sept. 1 -- no rush or expediting, just a standard application -- arrived back at our post office on Monday Sept. 17. This is not to say that your process will be as fast, but it does indicate that some of the crunch has been relieved. You should still apply for a passport at least six months in advance of any overseas travel plans, if you possibly can... this early prep will do wonders for your stress level. (We're not going anywhere until next summer, and this is an extremely uncharacteristic burst of organizational energy for us. :-)

Now, the tricky bits. We applied at our local post office (Bay Ridge Station, 54th and 7th Ave) and had to make a return visit due to poor preparation on our end, so hopefully you can learn from our errors. Post offices vary in terms of the hours they accept passport applications, and I recommend arriving at the beginning of a shift to avoid long waits in line.

First, it's a family outing. Not only does the minor applicant (the kid/s) have to appear in person, but all parents or legal guardians have to be present as well. If a parent is not present you'll need a notarized form DS-3053 (http://travel.state.gov/passport/forms/ds3053/ds3053_846.html) to grant permission for the passport application. Single parents must provide evidence of authority to apply, and the acceptable items are listed on the webpage. In general it is much easier if everyone is present in person. Be sure to bring appropriate ID, proof of citizenship and documentation for all participants. If you have a current passport, that's good ID/proof for a parent. Foreign-born parents who are now US citizens may want to bring naturalization paperwork as well.

Second, don't assume the instructions are optional. We had paper copies of the passport application for reference, but we filled in applications online (from http://travel.state.gov/passport/forms/forms_847.html) and printed those out. Unfortunately we only brought the "relevant" pages with us to the post office -- the pages with the actual application info, not the instructions/'your legal rights' pages -- and even though we had copies of the paper forms, if you print out the online application, you must bring all the printed pages with you to the post office. Although the website indicates pages 1-4 (out of six) must come with you, don't take the chance of getting a passport processor who doesn't know the exact rules; bring 'em all. (This cost us a day and a return trip to the post office, along with the next gotcha...)

Third, measure your pictures. We took digital pictures of the kids (fine) and printed them out on photo paper on our HP inkjet printer (also generally fine). The rules are very specific, though -- you need two copies of the same picture, and they must be exactly in spec (2x2", precise head size, etc.). One of our pictures was a wee bit too small... and there you have the second part of our one-day delay. Check the pictures against the template on the applications and also against a ruler.

Fourth, you can't waltz in and pick them up. When our two girls' passports had arrived, Heidi went to pick them up with the postal slips in hand. The post office would not release the passports without seeing the girls' social security cards, to prove that we were the proper recipients of the passports. I imagine you could bring the kids along to pick up the passports and match them to the photographs as well, but we didn't try that.

I hope this provides some help. Good luck!

6 year old asks "How much longer until we get there?"

An hour and a half, we reply.

"How long is that?"

Ninety minutes.

"How slow do I have to count to ninety?"

One count per minute, we say.

"Okay. ONE!... is it a minute yet?"

No, we say, laughing so hard that there's a distinct risk of running off the road.

"Tell me when a minute is."

She made it to "NINE!" before getting bored.

Kid #2, who is 2 and a half, approaches her aunt Brenda at the dinner table. Brenda is seated. Kid is wearing a shirt and no pants, holding a toy plastic Phillips-head screwdriver.

In her most polite, inside-voice manner, kid says

"Would you please stand up, so I can kill you?"

I have no earthly idea where that's coming from.

Show us a picture of someone that can always makes you laugh. [sic]

I think you meant "always MAKE you laugh...." -- and do you mean the person can always make me laugh? or the picture? So confused. Anyway.

grimace

This picture of daughter #2 makes me laugh every time I look at it. It's the sort of expression that makes an otherwise laid-back dad exclaim "Don't do that! Your face will freeze like that!" We were visiting friends in Philadelphia and she was having so much fun, she couldn't stop smiling. I think that's a smile. Or she was pooping. Hard to say, actually.

Sunglasses

The "real face" she has is much more becoming. See on the right, with big sis.

i can swim!

The big girl is learning to swim... two weeks of classes while staying with her grandparents and she's an accomplished doggie paddler. Bravo! (Not entirely willing to get her face wet, but that will change with experience.)

I didn't realize how strongly I felt about children learning to swim until I a) had some -- children, that is; and b) found myself getting edgy with the kids around the pool in Pennsylvania at my in-laws. Kids need to know how to swim. It's a basic safety skill, right up there with "Don't get into cars with strangers" and "Does it smell bad? Then don't eat it."

It wasn't until the report of successful swimmage came back to the home office -- once across the deep end, no flotation devices, completely legit -- that I found myself thinking about Davy Blumberg. Davy was a friend of mine in elementary school. He had a loaf of curly hair, blue eyes, a pale complexion and a rubbery grin, a boundless energy even for 8 years old. He wasn't necessarily the coolest kid in class, but he was funny and gleeful and he made things seem somewhat easier when he was around.

One morning during winter break, I think it must have been in 3rd or 4th grade, my parents called me into their bedroom. My mother had clearly been crying. There had been an accident, they said; Davy was dead.

I had never known a dead person before, and in retrospect I reacted more out of surprise than grief. I wanted to call my other friends and share the news with them, which is a little bit grotesque... but I was 8. I remember the funeral, and Davy's mother laughing and crying at the same time; someone said she was on tranquilizers, which I didn't understand. Davy did indeed look as though he were sleeping.

What happened was this: Davy was at the pool, on vacation in Texas with his father. He was unattended, and he was running (he was always running) and he slipped on something, slipped and fell and hit his head. He hit his head, and he fell into the pool and he drowned.

Could he swim? Was he unconscious? I don't know; I don't know if anyone else knows either. What I do know is that my children are going to be watched when they're near water, and they're damn well going to know how to swim.

I hadn't thought of Davy in a long, long time. I wonder, had he lived, what sort of person he'd be now.