Cozy

As more and more of Elizabeth's friends got sucked into Harry Potter, I decided we'd hold off a little bit  and revisit another old friend - Laura Ingalls Wilder.  One of my friends said to me that she HATED reading the Little House books, because it was like watching paint dry, there was nothing interesting about smoking deer meat, and there was simply too much detail without enough story.

So I picked up Little House in the Big Woods with some level of trepidation.  The interesting thing to me about reading children's book now is having the capacity to evaluate the writing choices of the author and the ability to step back a little and put the book into a historical context, as well as imagining the adult perspective of the child's view.

I've decided that Beverly Cleary and Laura Ingalls Wilder are essentially the same books.  What both authors do well is to focus on the family as a unit, and the smallest child's place in that family.  They remind the reader of how special it feels to be inside a circle of love - the love a child feels for her parents, the love of a family together.

One night this summer I was reading aloud from Little House in the Big Woods and got to this passage:

[Pa] had curried the horses until they shone.  He had swept the wagon box clean and laid a clean blanket on the wagon seat.  Ma, with Baby Carrie in her arms, sat up on the wagon seat with Pa, and Laura and Mary sat on a board fastened across the wagon box behind the seat.  

They were happy as they drove through the springtime woods.  Carrie laughed and bounced, Ma was smiling, and Pa whistled while he drove the horses.  The sun was bright and warm on the road.  Sweet, cool smells came out of the leafy woods.  

As I read I could picture the little family setting off on their adventure.  In the back of my mind, I was admiring Laura (or Rose's) ability to set a scene so vividly with so few words, while also wishing I was riding along with them.

Suddenly, Elizabeth interrupted me with an outburst:  "Oh, I want to be them!"

Indeed.

Books

I have intended forever to do a post (and many posts) about our reading.  I was a voracious reader and no lie one of the best parts of parenting is revisiting the the books I loved with Elizabeth.

As she approached age 5, I kept telling her we were going to start reading chapter books, and she would protest loudly that she DID NOT like chapter books and would not listen.  I pulled out a staple I knew she'd love - Ramona!  And soon after her 5th birthday I started - and for the first few sentences she protested over my reading, but then suddenly was enthralled.  We would read at night before bed, and during the day I'd find her carrying the book around, parroting reading it to her toys or to no one at all.  Beverly Cleary uses the word "scowl" a lot, which was a new word to Elizabeth, but one I heard her repeating over and over - she would speak a little jibber jabber when pretending to read aloud, but throw in scowl and Ramon and Beezus and a few other key words.

After the first few books in the Ramona series we read more classics - A Cricket in Times Square, Ralph and the Motorcycle, Charlotte's Web, the Bunnicula books.  For a while I joked that we weren't reading anything published past 1980.  We did dip into the Magic Treehouse books for a while, but mercifully she got bored with them (but I bet we'll have to revisit with Andrew).  Based on a friend's recommendation, we even read The Hobbit last fall and over the winter.  It took a while, and I wasn't sure it was a good choice, but she was immediately in love with it.  Doesn't hurt that it has one of the best opening sentences in all of literature.  I'll have to write more on our adventures with The Hobbit in December (when the next movie comes out).  I tried once to start The Wind in the Willows but she was not at all interested, so maybe we'll try that again later on.

We've spent some time with the Disney Fairy books, which are good enough in their own way.  The one popular series I simply could not read was the Junie B Jones books.  Like fingernails on chalkboard, and I have discovered I share my hatred with all of my book loving friends.  AND, I also discovered everyone I know also corrects Junie B Jones's atrocious grammar while reading - it's like simultaneous translation, reading the crappy writing and correcting as you read aloud.

I'm already off NaBloPoMo pace - Sunday was too beautiful to spend any time blogging, so writing this Monday and backdating.  So I will end here and divide what would have been a long post into two.

Andrew-isms

At almost 5, Andrew's mostly speaking like a child, no longer mispronouncing or making up words. But there are a few Andrew-isms that persist and I don't want to forget:

- Dark Vader

- chickmonk

- wuh-lee-gee (Luigi)

- plablo (Pablo, a character on Backyardigans as well as his old soccer coach)

Yesterday I was laughing with him a little bit as he was telling me a story. He always makes one point, then says, an' DEN when moving to the next part. So he asked me why I was laughing and I copied him and he said he was going to say 'then' from now on.  An' DEN I simply replied, I'll miss it when you do.  

Back?

Wow.  Two years. There's a lot of living that happens in two years. I don't entirely know why we stopped blogging, but the longer you stop the harder it is to get going again. Do you go back and catch up?  Do you just start fresh?  How do you start again?  

I work now with a group of mostly men, who are mostly roughly 10 years older than I am. I worked on a big project this summer with two men who I genuinely like as people. Both have college age sons, and in the middle of crunch time they both talked a lot about the logistics and planning - and emotion -  of taking their kids to college. 

The day after one came back from the drop off trip, he said to me, it goes so fast. I'm telling you right now, write it all down.  Get a notebook, get something, and just write down all the good stuff. Because before you know it you're pulling up at the dorm.  

And I thought, well, I do - did - that.  I do have my notebook - this blog. This is where I should be writing it all down.  I've got 16k pictures on my computer and I know I'll never print them out and make memory books, but I can document the highs and the lows and everything in between. Or at least some of it. 

So, back for now. It's been so long blogger has totally changed and there's even an app. 2 years is a lifetime in web applications. But we can figure it out again, I think. And it's worth it. 

Descriptors

(OK, so it's January, but I'm so far behind in posting, I'm writing posts and backdating them, but tonight I had to do a book club post, so stuck this in here.)

Since both Elizabeth and Andrew were small, we've looked for short simple phrases or really, one word to describe them and their personalities. 

For a long time, pretty much ever since he became mobile, Rich has called Andrew indomitable.  And it's true, there's not much holding this guy back.  But lately, I've hit on the perfect word: relentless.  This boy is relentless when he wants something, and most particularly when he wants attention, especially a response.  Which has led to another descriptive phrase: aggressively conversational.  Let's just say he cannot be placated with a "not right now" or a "hold on a minute" or even, distressingly, a "shh! quiet in [church/restaurant/any public place that requires quiet moments]."

For now (well other than church or other public places) it's mostly fairly charming, so we just try to give him a specific answer to whatever query and hope he gets distracted by something else.  Not that he ever really does, but there's always hope. 

--
In Sweetpea news, school continues to go well, and we're confident we made the right decision in having her in a second kindergarten year.  She is in a bilingual immersion school, which means one full day in English followed by one full day in Spanish, and so on.  For one thing, in Spanish, she is gaining confidence and even says sometimes, let's talk in Spanish.  She understands nearly everything said to her in Spanish, and she can recite poems and expressions and sing songs in Spanish.  She's still shy about speaking conversationally, but the teachers report her confidence is growing.  And, she's quickly picking up reading in Spanish.  It's nice Spanish is more phonetic than English, though some sounds (like J, which makes an h-ish sound rather than the English "juh") are harder than others. 

A couple of other parents have mentioned to me they want to talk about how we decided to put her in this grade.  The birthday near the cut off is so hard - we initially decided to push her ahead because she was so confident, and verbal, and seemed ready.  But the child we saw at school events was quiet, reserved, and in the background, often non-participatory, whereas at home (and with neighborhood friends) she was loud, assertive, and very much in charge.  Now, though, her English teacher tells us that sometimes she is non participatory, because she is more mature than many of the kids and doesn't want to do silly things.  But overall, we can see she is more confident in class and we think benefits from being on the older side.  But who knows.  I think she would have been fine either way, and we're glad we have this opportunity to have her experience something new this year.  Overall, the teachers (at this school and her previous school) report she is a happy, confident girl who is quick to make friends and easily moves amongst groups of friends. 
--
I sometimes look at both E and A and wonder how their personalities will continue to develop and what kinds of kids they will be, and compare to what kind of kids both Rich and I were.  Somehow I think (and I hope!) they will have an easier path than Rich and I did.  Though it's not like anyone really enjoys the middle school years. 

In the Myers-Briggs world, Rich is an ISTJ, and I am an ESTP, which means we have fairly similar personalities except Rich is an introvert and I am an extrovert.  Though, for both the S and P I score so close to the middle it's hard to really say.  And, I first took the assessment when I was a senior in college, and my extrovert score was nearly off the charts.  In the (gulp) decades since, I've officially taken the assessment another 3 or 4 times and each time my extrovert score slides closer and closer to introvert.  Now, I'm close to an ambivert.  It's far too early to tell for E and A, of course.  Rich has a more classic scientist/engineer type profile, and while I emphasize the arts at this point for E&A, I have to admit I really hope they both have a more analytic, science-minded focus.

We'll see.  The fun is in the journey, right?  Right?  Isn't that right?  Don't you think so?  Are you listening?  Did you hear my question?  Do you think so?  Whoops, sorry, channeling Andrew's relentless queries there for a sec. 

Are you an introvert or extrovert? Author Susan Cain explores how introverts can be powerful in a world where being an extrovert is highly valued. Join From Left to Write on January 19 as we discuss Quiet: The Power of Introverts by Susan Cain. We'll also be chatting live with Susan Cain at 9PM Eastern on January 26. As a member of From Left to Write, I received a copy of the book. Fascinating, though I haven't finished reading yet! All opinions are my own.

Happy birthday Little Guy!

Little guy was very excited his birthday was on a holiday - Thanksgiving Day.  Elizabeth was jealous - why does he get to have his birthday on a holiday and I had to have my birthday on a Tuesday!

The weekend before his birthday we had a few friends over and a small celebration.  

 The little guy's favorite dessert is pumpkin pie, so of course we had to celebrate with his favorite. 

 On his actual birthday we were with Rich's side of the family. 

 He enjoyed being the center of attention.

And he really liked the Thomas cake! 

Sometimes we get it right

Ok, well, NaBloPoMo was a bust this year, and once again I have a creative excuse.  Last year it was a kidney infection, the year before it was the cold that never, ever, went away over 3 months.  This year it was walking pneumonia!  What can I possibly come down with next year?  

But, at least one thing went right this fall.  I was stressing over what, if any, activity to choose for them over the winter, and finally decided to just go for gymnastics.  Sure, it's a hike to get there, and a pain in the middle of a Saturday, but this is one time I can confidently say we got it right.  Elizabeth LOVES it. No more soccer for her.  We're going to stick with gymnastics or dance from here on out.  Andrew thinks it is fun and all, but the truth is he'd really rather be playing a ball sport.  But it works, and it's fun for them to be in class at the same time.  So just two quick videos from the rope swing.