yes, the day has arrived: she is wearing her hair up in pigtails. i had noticed that her hair was getting to be quite a mullet, but she is still a haircut virgin so i didn't want to flippantly cut off the back. besides, cutting off the back won't make the sides longer, will it. then she will have short hair all around. at least she has a little long hair! and i finally figured out how to make the mullet look great: put the back in pigtails! oooooooooh it is to die for. tiny short little pigtails that stick pretty much straight out of the back of her head. i have to get her to hold still for the installation process, though, which can be a challenge. but she's been pretty good so far. i just tell her, "you are going to look so cute! almost done! ok, go look at bookie in the mirror! cute!" and she says "cute!" and runs to see the effect in the mirror. i have to work on emphasizing other qualities besides cuteness, though. i hate it when kids are cute and they know it. it ruins their cuteness altogether. what was that passage in the bible about your cuteness not coming from the wearing of braids or pigtails... her inner cuteness must shine forth!
i am extremely interested in her artistic development lately. i read a great book from goleta library called "young at art," and in it i learned an immense amount of surprising information about how to assist the young artist in the best way to develop their artistic expression. for example, i didn't know that it is harmful to their a.d. (artistic development) if you draw on their paper, draw cute pictures for them, or try to show them "how" to draw. i didn't know that it is detrimental to try to relate their drawings to real objects, like: that looks like a whale! or even to say "what is it?" apparently, if it's just a scribble then it's just a scribble and parents should leave it at that. it is not even recommended to say "i like that," or "that's pretty," because this puts subjective values onto the child's personal artistic expression. it is better to simply describe the physical quality of the work they are doing, such as "that is a long, crooked line." or, "i see you made some thin straight lines!" HOW important all these little things are i'm not exactly sure, but i want to stick to them as much as possible, just in case she is meant to be a great artist. evidently kids need to be allowed to free-scribble in big sheets of paper for about 3 years or so before they begin to even make shapes, and then it varies as to when they come upon the idea to draw a human. these milestones should NOT be pushed. apparently the child's mind stays a lot more free and creative if caregivers allow the progression to happen naturally. eventually the toddler will draw what is known as a "mandela" shape, which involves either a circle with lines sticking out of it, or a ladder-type structure. it is the child's first attempt at organization of lines, basically. from this the natural step to the human depiction. this is exactly why toddler pictures of people don't have separate heads and torsos. their human figures are derived from the mandela shape, and they simply add eyes and mouth, and the lines sticking out become of course, limbs.
at any rate, all that to say that i went overboard on this month's budget because i couldn't resist buying sparrow a big newsprint pad at michaels and the cheap one-dollar markers as well. these are skinny little affairs which are not as easily "washable" as expected, and look not that great on big pieces of newsprint. however, sparrow certainly loves them. i try to limit her colors per art session, but she knows there is a whole pack of all the colors and insists on having the rest also. i let her because i think it is better that she is having a good art experience that interests her (even if it's just playing with markers) than doing all the projects and book-suggestions word for word. i have an "art blanket" that i put down every time i let her draw, as a sort of a drop cloth to protect the floor. i have been teling her since the beginning that the crayons and markers have to stay "on the blanket!" when she forgets and walks off the blanket holding a marker, i always say " this has to stay on the blanket!" and toss the marker back onto the cloth. haha, well--she caught on to that one really quick. now whenever i tell her, "this has to stay on the blanket!" she thinks it is her duty to throw the marker away from her, instead of just putting it back on the blanket. she thinks the object is to throw the crayon, not where the crayon lands. pretty funny. the blanket is also spattered with some paint that i have let her use before. a few weeks ago she was wandering on the cloth, pointing out all the paint drips and saying, "art!" but like an english person: "aahht!" she sounds a bit british when she asks for water, too, and it is soooooooo sweet!
she has started saying her first short phrases: "bye bye daddy," and "alan--sleeping!" as well as "all gone fishies!" when she is done with her gold fish. i notice, too, that she retains information for quite some time as she remembers something that occurred previously. there is a huge wolf spider, for example, that sits in the passageway downstairs at our apt. complex quite often. we have pointed it out to her a few times when it has been there. today, as we were walking through the passageway, she said, "spider!" another spider illustration, from tonight: i was changing her diaper when i noticed a sort of menacing-looking spider come out from a cranny somewhere, beelining straight for her head. i picked her up and tried to be calm as i said, "we've gotta take care of that spider, sparrow, come up here and mama will get it." i looked around me and found one of her changing pads lying nearby. "ok, now we just have to aim, and--squish it! then squeeze!" and the thing crunched under the changing pad. having no immediate way to dispose of it, i laid the changing pad next to the rocking chair, smushed spider-side up. "ok, all gone spider! good job." a few mins. later as i was trying to read her a book, she was still squirming in the rocking chair, trying to see the spider and sayin "by-dou! by-dou!" so i pointed out where it was on the floor, and said, "all gone, spider! bye bye! spider is sleeping!" a full 20 mins. later, while she was already on her bed, thomas came in, and the 1st thing sparrow did was try to tell him the spider story. she eagerly told him, "by-dou! all gone!" over a few times, til o told him she was trying to tell him a story, and filled in the gaps for her. i was also quite impressed yesterday because she proved to remember certain people associated with certain other people. we were going over to the lomelino's to return something. i told her, "we're going to go see samuel!" and then kept asking her at random intervals who we were going to so see. she accurately would say, "myu-myu!" (samuel) but then i asked her when we were almost there, and she said, "hope!" wow! so surprised! she remembered without me mentioning it, that hope lives there too! amazing.
she has started walking around on her tippy toes the past 2 days. who taught her that? anyways, it's pretty fun to see her do that. as if she's a real, normal person or something!
tonight i thought she was brilliant because she turned her book upside down to properly see the picture of the boy doing a flip into the water. the boy is pictured upside down in mid-air. she deliberately turned her book all the way around, stared at the boy for awhile in this position, and flipped it back right-side up again to continue to read.
Thursday, September 13, 2007
Monday, September 10, 2007
sparrow and doris' DAY OF FUN!
one of my main birthday wishes was: to go camping. i hadn't been in FOREVER! since before i was married, i think. there is only so long i can go without the grand outdoor pleasures of roasting marshmallows on a fire and sleeping on rocky ground and getting all my stuff to smell like smoke. besides that, summer is my favorite season, and camping is an active celebration of summer, in my book. gotta get it before it merges into the cold and crisp and pumpkinny-ness of fall! my birthday was on labor day weekend and therefore i thought it would not be wise to attempt a camping outing at the time. however, the weekend after that, tara and camille made it happen. i kept telling her the two days before we left: "we are going to go outside--all weekend long! you're gonna love it!" since she continually desires to go outside. this would be perfect. i even splurged and bought some wine and marshmallows for the occasion. not that she got any of those.
bright and early saturday morning, tara picked up sparrow and me at our house, and we headed north to the great beauty of big sur. it was quite the decision, i daresay, to take sparrow up the infernally curvy highway 1 again, after hating that drive so much in july, but if that's where we were camping, it had to be done.
we stopped in SLO to get some wood, which we were calling wooo'd (rhymes with food) and getting sparrow to start saying it too. she even helped us to load the firewood into the suv.
when we got to the much-talked-up andrew molera state campgrounds, tara and i were immensely pleased to find that there were spots open. (it is her favorite campsite in big sur.) then the ranger said, "you know there's no fires allowed here, right?" what. "no fires!" i exclaimed, "we have a professional chef coming in!" hahaha. well it's true. camille was bringing fish and sausage and eggs and multiple other heat-needy items. we spent the next hour or more trying to get things re-situated: finding a private campground with fire allowance, attempting to get a hold of camille somehow without service on our cell phones, driving back and forth, eating burritos, figuring out how/when to change sparrow's poopy diaper. baby was extremely restless in the car at this point. when we stopped at the general store to get burritos, she was so excited that i couldn't keep her from bee-lining straight for the creek. tara went to get us a campsite while sparrow and i waited for camille, and i took sparrow's clothes off and let her play in the water. the stream had rustic-looking comfy wicker chairs in little groups sitting right in the water. the effect was completely magical; i felt like i had walked into another world, a mark-twainish fantasyland where people sat in chairs in the middle of streams under dappled sunlight, reading newspapers. the water was (obviously) very shallow and clear and gorgeous, with clean-looking pebbles and rocks. little goosepimpled, barefoot sparrow found a bigger rock to sit her little diapered bottom onto, then, shivering, would reach into the water and grab handfuls of rocks and pebbles and gleefully say, "one, too...WEE," on "wee" throwing the rock with a splash and being completely delighted every time. this is the beautiful state in which tara found us when she returned to collect us again. we were a bit worried about camille, but by some fluke she received a text message that tara had sent, and arrived at the new campsite right as we did! and not only had she brought fish and sausage, but she also brought kimberly lumm. a double bonus, since kimberly can spout "you've got mail" quotes with the best of us. this was going to be fun.
the rest of the afternoon was spent setting things up, eating (of course), and hanging out by the creek. the new campsite, you see, was right on the river, and would have been quite beautiful if it weren't for the fact that the camping spaces were the size of parking spots and there were tents, cabins, and cars everywhere! didn't feel that much like nature(and i had to keep a sharp eye on sparrow at all times). in fact, there was a huge cabin looming over our campsite; we were right in the "front yard," as if we were the serfs in some lord's kingdom. we had also spent $50 for this campsite instead of the $10 charge at andrew molera. but we knew it would be well worth it when we smelled what camille was cooking. camille and i agree that camping is all about the food. well, ok, it's about nature too, tara, and getting away from the demands of everyday life, but back to the food. first we had tasty sandwiches in the afternoon, plus chips and home made salsa. then we decided to take a little nap to sleep it off so we would be hungry for dinner. hahaha.
then camille made tasty green salad, artichokes with aioli sauce, eggplant with a garlic wine sauce and fish. all over a campfire with lighting help from tara's car head lights. soooooooo good! then of course we got to roast marshmallows. sparrow had taken a nap in the tent, but that night she would not go to sleep alone in there. even when i was sure she was fast asleep, and lay her down, she would sense it and wake up and so she stayed up as late as we did. then we snuggled up in the tent together, with tara, and were super cozy and toasty in the morning.
breakfast consisted of several kinds of sausage, high-quality bacon, toast with butter and jam, fruit, scrambled eggs, sauteed vegetables, and my favorite: coffee. a bit tricky to make it in nature, but still possible. and my half and half had kept, even though i hadn't had it in a cooler for the whole ride up. whew!
we packed up the tents and everything and headed back to andrew molera state park when we were done eating. there was beach access there, and kim and camille were going to stay there for an extra night despite no fire, as tara and i drove home later. we hiked over to the beach and found out that you actually have to wade through a fairly deep pool in order to even reach the beach. for some reason i was super uptight about getting my underwear all wet. not wanting a cold wet bottom, i suppose. watched camille and tara go through the cold water up to their boobs. they even took sparrow across for me, who cried and clung to camille and nearly struggled her down in the middle of the deep part! kim and i walked up the cliff to see if there was another way. but there wasn't. i would rather have gone in naked than get my underwear wet at that point. but there were other people around, so it looked like that was going to be a very rude an awkward thing to do. anyways, we were about to brave it, when i saw another man wade in, and come out on the other side without even getting his shorts wet! HEY! there must be a shallower route! kim and i found it, and i am happy to report that my underwear came through unscathed.
why was i still wearing my underwear and not a bathing suit to the beach, you ask? it's fairly complicated, but truly for me the beach is about lying around in the sun. i just wasn't expecting to get wet.
and that's what we did: lay around in the sun. eating chips and carrots and playing scrabble, just sitting on a blanket for about six hours. it was perfect for sparrow. normally she attempts to run right into the waves when we are at the beach, so i have to keep a close eye on her and don't get to just loll about. this beach, however, had a big strip of rocks in front of the water, so she couldn't really get to it by herself. hurrah! there were shallower pools that she could play in, and did, but i was soooo pleased that she basically just toodled around for the whole day and entertained herself with sand, sticks, and seaweed. the girls and i got pretty seared in the long sun-exposure, but it was the most relaxing time! my body is now in the process of shedding the sunburned layer in big disturbing pieces. i don't like to look at me at the moment. WHY did i neglect my berries/spirulina-chlorella regimen? grrr. sparrow, i am pleased to tell you, did not get sunburned. i had clothes and/or hat on her part-time but she also went naked, and honestly, this was all day. i only ever take her out to the beach for an hour, max 2. it was incredible. she obviously has a much better skin-shielding diet than i, what with her kale/broccoli-eating ways.
in the late afternoon we trudged warm and happy back to the car and got ready to go. tara and i had to get another burrito for the road of course. we thought sparrow would be out cold in no time, since she hadn't had a nap. but she ended up screaming her head off for the first part of the trip, upset that she was in a car seat instead of a bed, evidently, and wanting to be home. i drank my green tea, unnerved that she might have gotten sunstroke or similar. she finally settled down when i put my hand back toward her. she grabbed my whole forearm like a teddy bear and fell asleep clutching it. and was perfectly fine after all. babies just need extra love when traveling away from home.
and that, my friends, is the story of sparrow's first camping experience.
bright and early saturday morning, tara picked up sparrow and me at our house, and we headed north to the great beauty of big sur. it was quite the decision, i daresay, to take sparrow up the infernally curvy highway 1 again, after hating that drive so much in july, but if that's where we were camping, it had to be done.
we stopped in SLO to get some wood, which we were calling wooo'd (rhymes with food) and getting sparrow to start saying it too. she even helped us to load the firewood into the suv.
when we got to the much-talked-up andrew molera state campgrounds, tara and i were immensely pleased to find that there were spots open. (it is her favorite campsite in big sur.) then the ranger said, "you know there's no fires allowed here, right?" what. "no fires!" i exclaimed, "we have a professional chef coming in!" hahaha. well it's true. camille was bringing fish and sausage and eggs and multiple other heat-needy items. we spent the next hour or more trying to get things re-situated: finding a private campground with fire allowance, attempting to get a hold of camille somehow without service on our cell phones, driving back and forth, eating burritos, figuring out how/when to change sparrow's poopy diaper. baby was extremely restless in the car at this point. when we stopped at the general store to get burritos, she was so excited that i couldn't keep her from bee-lining straight for the creek. tara went to get us a campsite while sparrow and i waited for camille, and i took sparrow's clothes off and let her play in the water. the stream had rustic-looking comfy wicker chairs in little groups sitting right in the water. the effect was completely magical; i felt like i had walked into another world, a mark-twainish fantasyland where people sat in chairs in the middle of streams under dappled sunlight, reading newspapers. the water was (obviously) very shallow and clear and gorgeous, with clean-looking pebbles and rocks. little goosepimpled, barefoot sparrow found a bigger rock to sit her little diapered bottom onto, then, shivering, would reach into the water and grab handfuls of rocks and pebbles and gleefully say, "one, too...WEE," on "wee" throwing the rock with a splash and being completely delighted every time. this is the beautiful state in which tara found us when she returned to collect us again. we were a bit worried about camille, but by some fluke she received a text message that tara had sent, and arrived at the new campsite right as we did! and not only had she brought fish and sausage, but she also brought kimberly lumm. a double bonus, since kimberly can spout "you've got mail" quotes with the best of us. this was going to be fun.
the rest of the afternoon was spent setting things up, eating (of course), and hanging out by the creek. the new campsite, you see, was right on the river, and would have been quite beautiful if it weren't for the fact that the camping spaces were the size of parking spots and there were tents, cabins, and cars everywhere! didn't feel that much like nature(and i had to keep a sharp eye on sparrow at all times). in fact, there was a huge cabin looming over our campsite; we were right in the "front yard," as if we were the serfs in some lord's kingdom. we had also spent $50 for this campsite instead of the $10 charge at andrew molera. but we knew it would be well worth it when we smelled what camille was cooking. camille and i agree that camping is all about the food. well, ok, it's about nature too, tara, and getting away from the demands of everyday life, but back to the food. first we had tasty sandwiches in the afternoon, plus chips and home made salsa. then we decided to take a little nap to sleep it off so we would be hungry for dinner. hahaha.
then camille made tasty green salad, artichokes with aioli sauce, eggplant with a garlic wine sauce and fish. all over a campfire with lighting help from tara's car head lights. soooooooo good! then of course we got to roast marshmallows. sparrow had taken a nap in the tent, but that night she would not go to sleep alone in there. even when i was sure she was fast asleep, and lay her down, she would sense it and wake up and so she stayed up as late as we did. then we snuggled up in the tent together, with tara, and were super cozy and toasty in the morning.
breakfast consisted of several kinds of sausage, high-quality bacon, toast with butter and jam, fruit, scrambled eggs, sauteed vegetables, and my favorite: coffee. a bit tricky to make it in nature, but still possible. and my half and half had kept, even though i hadn't had it in a cooler for the whole ride up. whew!
we packed up the tents and everything and headed back to andrew molera state park when we were done eating. there was beach access there, and kim and camille were going to stay there for an extra night despite no fire, as tara and i drove home later. we hiked over to the beach and found out that you actually have to wade through a fairly deep pool in order to even reach the beach. for some reason i was super uptight about getting my underwear all wet. not wanting a cold wet bottom, i suppose. watched camille and tara go through the cold water up to their boobs. they even took sparrow across for me, who cried and clung to camille and nearly struggled her down in the middle of the deep part! kim and i walked up the cliff to see if there was another way. but there wasn't. i would rather have gone in naked than get my underwear wet at that point. but there were other people around, so it looked like that was going to be a very rude an awkward thing to do. anyways, we were about to brave it, when i saw another man wade in, and come out on the other side without even getting his shorts wet! HEY! there must be a shallower route! kim and i found it, and i am happy to report that my underwear came through unscathed.
why was i still wearing my underwear and not a bathing suit to the beach, you ask? it's fairly complicated, but truly for me the beach is about lying around in the sun. i just wasn't expecting to get wet.
and that's what we did: lay around in the sun. eating chips and carrots and playing scrabble, just sitting on a blanket for about six hours. it was perfect for sparrow. normally she attempts to run right into the waves when we are at the beach, so i have to keep a close eye on her and don't get to just loll about. this beach, however, had a big strip of rocks in front of the water, so she couldn't really get to it by herself. hurrah! there were shallower pools that she could play in, and did, but i was soooo pleased that she basically just toodled around for the whole day and entertained herself with sand, sticks, and seaweed. the girls and i got pretty seared in the long sun-exposure, but it was the most relaxing time! my body is now in the process of shedding the sunburned layer in big disturbing pieces. i don't like to look at me at the moment. WHY did i neglect my berries/spirulina-chlorella regimen? grrr. sparrow, i am pleased to tell you, did not get sunburned. i had clothes and/or hat on her part-time but she also went naked, and honestly, this was all day. i only ever take her out to the beach for an hour, max 2. it was incredible. she obviously has a much better skin-shielding diet than i, what with her kale/broccoli-eating ways.
in the late afternoon we trudged warm and happy back to the car and got ready to go. tara and i had to get another burrito for the road of course. we thought sparrow would be out cold in no time, since she hadn't had a nap. but she ended up screaming her head off for the first part of the trip, upset that she was in a car seat instead of a bed, evidently, and wanting to be home. i drank my green tea, unnerved that she might have gotten sunstroke or similar. she finally settled down when i put my hand back toward her. she grabbed my whole forearm like a teddy bear and fell asleep clutching it. and was perfectly fine after all. babies just need extra love when traveling away from home.
and that, my friends, is the story of sparrow's first camping experience.
 |
| From sept. 07 |
Thursday, August 30, 2007
super genius
not only does sparrow point at the splatters on her art-drip blanket and say "art" in an english accent ("aaht"), today she said her own name for the first time!!
she recognized herself in a picture.
one of her favorite activities is to go through my phone pictures and look at all the ones i have of her and daddy. she says "daddy!" "baby!" there is one of her and liz, and she now knows it's liz and says "sisi!" (auntie sissy). then today she totally blew me out of the water and said, "sisi! aewo!" and i gasped and said "what!? who's that?" again, she said "aewo!" sparrow! woohoo!
she is saying so many new things that i can barely keep up. she is particularly good at copying us when we say something, so i am not quite sure if she gets and knows what she is saying all the time. my favorite thing recently has been her amen. she started doing it a month and a half ago, but now it is soooo funny. you bow your head to pray and she is doing really goofy and cheesy faces the whole time and totally just being funny; you don't think she is paying attention at all, but then the second you say "in jesus' name," she right-on-cue says "amen!" which is promptly followed by "bite?!" like, feed me already!
she recognized herself in a picture.
one of her favorite activities is to go through my phone pictures and look at all the ones i have of her and daddy. she says "daddy!" "baby!" there is one of her and liz, and she now knows it's liz and says "sisi!" (auntie sissy). then today she totally blew me out of the water and said, "sisi! aewo!" and i gasped and said "what!? who's that?" again, she said "aewo!" sparrow! woohoo!
she is saying so many new things that i can barely keep up. she is particularly good at copying us when we say something, so i am not quite sure if she gets and knows what she is saying all the time. my favorite thing recently has been her amen. she started doing it a month and a half ago, but now it is soooo funny. you bow your head to pray and she is doing really goofy and cheesy faces the whole time and totally just being funny; you don't think she is paying attention at all, but then the second you say "in jesus' name," she right-on-cue says "amen!" which is promptly followed by "bite?!" like, feed me already!
Monday, August 20, 2007
new hilarities
haha, let me tell you about sparrow's listening skills. she pretends a LOT that she doesn't know what we are saying to her, and yet, we can be praying this long elaborate prayer, and she is listening so well that as soon as we say "in jesus' name," she says, "amen" right on cue! every time! crazy.
sparrow can say one, two, three! in sequence, and when she hears someone say "one," she usually concludes with "wee!" (three) and then starts again, "one...wee!" she thinks this is great fun because it usually comes with getting daddy to jump around or toss her around or lift her up to fly. she also walks around humming "A B D, A B D," which is of course abc, slightly mispronounced.
today i took her to farmer's market as usual, and we have been eating a lot of berries lately. well she was already stained red all over by the time i put her in the car; i wanted her to eat something a little lighter in color for the ride home, and she always wants to eat in the car. anyway, i decided on a yellow plum-thing and started biting bits off to hand back to her. she ate one piece, but mistrustingly, and when i tried to give her another piece she said loudly, "no! ...beiiyy!" (berry) wow. making her feelings quite clear. oh well. more plum for me! she will stick with the strawberries, thank you!
one of the coolest things she's learned in the past week or two is to take her dirty diaper once we are done changing her, and put it in the bucket in the bathroom. it is such a nice thing. and she has never even tried to throw it into the adjoining toilet either! at this rate, she really will be fully earning her place in the household by the time she is seven!
another one of her recently acquired skills is walking backward. she has been working on this for a few weeks (something thomas taught her), but has just recently gotten pretty good at it. she gets this little taut smile on her face and mischevious eyes, and starts taking little marching steps-in-place while saying "back back back back..." and moves backward, usually landing with her butt on her mattress and then bouncing up and down for a few moments with her short little wispy hair flying upward. it was really funny when she was first learning the backward thing because when she would get under pressure, like when we would ask her to demonstrate it for us, she would get too excited and end up always going forward with her little marching steps, instead of back.
the other day thomas and sparrow found a discarded kiddie-doll stroller on one of their walks. sparrow loved it sooooo much that thomas at last acquiesced and brought it home. he cleaned it up, and now she plays with it all the time, pushing it around and sitting in it and playing with the little buckle. the evening after she first got it, i had set her stuffed piggy that liz gave her into the stroller and we buckled him in. then i asked her, "are you going to take piggy for a walk around the block?" immediately she pushed piggy away and...straight to her box of blocks! i was baffled by her confidence and sincerity at which she followed my suggestion! not only that, but she picked out all the colored blocks from the stash and put them in piggy's lap. so nice!
on wednesday we went sailing with dave and danielle. i was BUSHED from the drammamine i had taken, and completely nauseous the whole time on top of it! would i have been less sick-feeling, or more, if i hadn't taken the medicine? sparrow LOVED it. she kept pointing and saying "wa-du! wa-du!" and wanting to stand right on the edge of the boat looking over. luckily we had borrowed a kid life jacket from the reeves and had stuffed her into it the minute we got on the boat. about halfway through the fun, she got so tired that she fell asleep on me, and of course, slept like a baby until we got back to land. she has experienced so much already, in her short little life! my first time sailing--almost 26 years old. her first time sailing--not yet 16 months. she's been to at least ten weddings already, too, and four countries.
HAAAAHAAHaaaa, do i have a treasure of a video to share with you today! thomas taught sparrow the greatest move ever! i laughed my head off at the dinner table.
i hope this link works.
sparrow can say one, two, three! in sequence, and when she hears someone say "one," she usually concludes with "wee!" (three) and then starts again, "one...wee!" she thinks this is great fun because it usually comes with getting daddy to jump around or toss her around or lift her up to fly. she also walks around humming "A B D, A B D," which is of course abc, slightly mispronounced.
today i took her to farmer's market as usual, and we have been eating a lot of berries lately. well she was already stained red all over by the time i put her in the car; i wanted her to eat something a little lighter in color for the ride home, and she always wants to eat in the car. anyway, i decided on a yellow plum-thing and started biting bits off to hand back to her. she ate one piece, but mistrustingly, and when i tried to give her another piece she said loudly, "no! ...beiiyy!" (berry) wow. making her feelings quite clear. oh well. more plum for me! she will stick with the strawberries, thank you!
one of the coolest things she's learned in the past week or two is to take her dirty diaper once we are done changing her, and put it in the bucket in the bathroom. it is such a nice thing. and she has never even tried to throw it into the adjoining toilet either! at this rate, she really will be fully earning her place in the household by the time she is seven!
another one of her recently acquired skills is walking backward. she has been working on this for a few weeks (something thomas taught her), but has just recently gotten pretty good at it. she gets this little taut smile on her face and mischevious eyes, and starts taking little marching steps-in-place while saying "back back back back..." and moves backward, usually landing with her butt on her mattress and then bouncing up and down for a few moments with her short little wispy hair flying upward. it was really funny when she was first learning the backward thing because when she would get under pressure, like when we would ask her to demonstrate it for us, she would get too excited and end up always going forward with her little marching steps, instead of back.
the other day thomas and sparrow found a discarded kiddie-doll stroller on one of their walks. sparrow loved it sooooo much that thomas at last acquiesced and brought it home. he cleaned it up, and now she plays with it all the time, pushing it around and sitting in it and playing with the little buckle. the evening after she first got it, i had set her stuffed piggy that liz gave her into the stroller and we buckled him in. then i asked her, "are you going to take piggy for a walk around the block?" immediately she pushed piggy away and...straight to her box of blocks! i was baffled by her confidence and sincerity at which she followed my suggestion! not only that, but she picked out all the colored blocks from the stash and put them in piggy's lap. so nice!
on wednesday we went sailing with dave and danielle. i was BUSHED from the drammamine i had taken, and completely nauseous the whole time on top of it! would i have been less sick-feeling, or more, if i hadn't taken the medicine? sparrow LOVED it. she kept pointing and saying "wa-du! wa-du!" and wanting to stand right on the edge of the boat looking over. luckily we had borrowed a kid life jacket from the reeves and had stuffed her into it the minute we got on the boat. about halfway through the fun, she got so tired that she fell asleep on me, and of course, slept like a baby until we got back to land. she has experienced so much already, in her short little life! my first time sailing--almost 26 years old. her first time sailing--not yet 16 months. she's been to at least ten weddings already, too, and four countries.
HAAAAHAAHaaaa, do i have a treasure of a video to share with you today! thomas taught sparrow the greatest move ever! i laughed my head off at the dinner table.
i hope this link works.
Monday, July 9, 2007
sparrow's new words
i have to keep a list of the new ones she acquires, at least for awhile, because it is fascinating to me.
july 9th--
rock (she said it walking all the way back home from brandon school, and insisted on touching every rock in a little stone wall and saying "ock" as she pointed to each one.)
july 10--
truck
weekend of july 13-16
amen (she interrupted our prayer by saying "amen!")
kick
bike
light
tree
bite! (every time she sees us eating something she wants)
bible
hand
july 17--
boy
july 20--
wet
july 21-28th--
quack
pokey
cup
drink
bounce
food
book (not just the sign but the real word now!)
july 29th--
key
berry
wipe
july 30th--
tea
avocado (abcoco)
train
elmo
cookie (kickee!)
july 31st--
yucky
aug. 2nd--
blankie
pinecone
coffee
buggy
one
chicken
aug. 3rd--
hug (she started saying this awhile ago, actually, don't remember exactly)
bath
bowl
cracker
dog (for real--not just panting or barking or "du". she says "dogk"
chair
glasses (started awhile ago too.)
aug 5th--
wind
(this was completely amazing because she was just sitting eating lunch and she kept staring out the window at the tree waving vigorously outside. suddenly she pointed out and looked at me and said, "wind!" her dad teaches her well.)
she also now walks backwards in tiny little steps with this pleased, excited, mischevious look on her face, saying "back back back back" as she does so. haha!
it seems like she ditches the signs for things as soon as she has the word down. kind of a sad loss, but her talking is so cute that it's worth it!
aug. 6th thru 19th--
pen
sand
gate
swing
slide
skunk
cheese
hot dog
cereal
bucket
bathroom
towel
shoes
toes
hair
head
blanket
read
help
hard
puppy
bee
duck (full-fledged!)
on
go
out
bird
airplane (using 2 syllables now and is understandable as such)
train (she hears a train hooting in the distance and perks up and says "wain!")
spanking (beng-keng)
hole
muffin
butterfly (she has this elaborate sign for it and says "vwy!")
three
aug. 20th--
bread
toast
car
bottom
outside
she also said "rice" and "bus" today, but i don't know if i should officially include them, because she was copying us, and i don't know if she really knows what these words mean by themselves. all the other words i have up, she could say without prompting when she saw the object or action in question.
aug. 20th to sept. 19th--
sweater
hungry (she refers to the fridge as "ungy!")
bear (real word)
grape
shoe
necklace (real word)
potty
knee
dip
guitar
drum
turtle
yogurt
bag
rain
cow (real word)
toy
ring
paper
art
outside
leaf
walk
pancake
monkey
juice
milk
snake
booty
spider
buggy
wagon
foot
piggy (real word)
fishy (real word)
raccoon
bunny (real word)
spider
peekaboo (bookeego!)
star
two
abc
flower (r.w.)
gentle (r.w.)
bee (r.w.)
frog (r.w.)
sleeping
dinner
read
page
house
neck
dress
animal (aminau)
vegetable (sounds like "butterball!")
july 9th--
rock (she said it walking all the way back home from brandon school, and insisted on touching every rock in a little stone wall and saying "ock" as she pointed to each one.)
july 10--
truck
weekend of july 13-16
amen (she interrupted our prayer by saying "amen!")
kick
bike
light
tree
bite! (every time she sees us eating something she wants)
bible
hand
july 17--
boy
july 20--
wet
july 21-28th--
quack
pokey
cup
drink
bounce
food
book (not just the sign but the real word now!)
july 29th--
key
berry
wipe
july 30th--
tea
avocado (abcoco)
train
elmo
cookie (kickee!)
july 31st--
yucky
aug. 2nd--
blankie
pinecone
coffee
buggy
one
chicken
aug. 3rd--
hug (she started saying this awhile ago, actually, don't remember exactly)
bath
bowl
cracker
dog (for real--not just panting or barking or "du". she says "dogk"
chair
glasses (started awhile ago too.)
aug 5th--
wind
(this was completely amazing because she was just sitting eating lunch and she kept staring out the window at the tree waving vigorously outside. suddenly she pointed out and looked at me and said, "wind!" her dad teaches her well.)
she also now walks backwards in tiny little steps with this pleased, excited, mischevious look on her face, saying "back back back back" as she does so. haha!
it seems like she ditches the signs for things as soon as she has the word down. kind of a sad loss, but her talking is so cute that it's worth it!
aug. 6th thru 19th--
pen
sand
gate
swing
slide
skunk
cheese
hot dog
cereal
bucket
bathroom
towel
shoes
toes
hair
head
blanket
read
help
hard
puppy
bee
duck (full-fledged!)
on
go
out
bird
airplane (using 2 syllables now and is understandable as such)
train (she hears a train hooting in the distance and perks up and says "wain!")
spanking (beng-keng)
hole
muffin
butterfly (she has this elaborate sign for it and says "vwy!")
three
aug. 20th--
bread
toast
car
bottom
outside
she also said "rice" and "bus" today, but i don't know if i should officially include them, because she was copying us, and i don't know if she really knows what these words mean by themselves. all the other words i have up, she could say without prompting when she saw the object or action in question.
aug. 20th to sept. 19th--
sweater
hungry (she refers to the fridge as "ungy!")
bear (real word)
grape
shoe
necklace (real word)
potty
knee
dip
guitar
drum
turtle
yogurt
bag
rain
cow (real word)
toy
ring
paper
art
outside
leaf
walk
pancake
monkey
juice
milk
snake
booty
spider
buggy
wagon
foot
piggy (real word)
fishy (real word)
raccoon
bunny (real word)
spider
peekaboo (bookeego!)
star
two
abc
flower (r.w.)
gentle (r.w.)
bee (r.w.)
frog (r.w.)
sleeping
dinner
read
page
house
neck
dress
animal (aminau)
vegetable (sounds like "butterball!")
Thursday, July 5, 2007
sparrow's words
i want to start keeping a record of words sparrow adds to her vocabulary. i should have been doing this all along. what counts as a baby's first word anyhow? their first correctly-pronounced word, or their first recognizable attempt at a word? her first recognizable attempt at a word came at seven months, shortly after she had learned to crawl, i believe, which happened just before she turned 7 mos. i was showing her a rubber ducky, and doing the duckbill sign, hoping she'd catch on to the sign soon, as i knew she loved her duckies. but instead of signing, it, she just started saying "du-du!" one day. i was amazed. i was so amazed that i thought it was just a fluke, but when she kept doing it every time i would bring out the duck and speak and sign it, she would continue saying "du-du!" and to this day she still says it "duh!" words she can now say are:
duck (duh)
dadda
mama
dog (duh)(sign too)
wow
owl (ow-a)
banana (nana)
ball
water
apple
no (sign too)
hi
bunny (nanna) (sign too)
moon (nun)(sign too)
hat (sign too) (she pronounced it "ta" for a long time but how it's "hat")
hot (sign too)
button (don)
balloon (noon)
bye-bye
boo! (bo)
uh-oh
night-night
up
down
poopee (poopa) (sign too)
airplane (nana) (sign too)
octopus (ahpo) (sign too)
bed (ba) (sign too)
baby (bay bay)
ant
egg
clown (doun) (sign too)
sky (gy)
the last 11 or more were just acqquired within the last 2 weeks. she is saying a new one every day now.
and she has sounds or signs for at least 2 dozen other things:
clap
food/eat
nursing
phone
flower
book
sneeze
fishy (fishface)
pig
kitty
gentle
please
bird
horse
peekaboo
i love you
cow
sheep (she goes "heheheh!" for "baaaa" so cute. she sits there and 'laughs' at her book with all the sheep in it)
donkey
comb/brush
necklace
goose
bee/bug
motorcycle
sleep
driving
frog
bear
cold
monkey
lion
of course she can identify a bunch of other things such as: her nose, eyes, hair, ears, mouth, toes, shoes, porridge, sandwich, cereal, blanket, spoon, bath, door, window, etc. and knows pat-a-cake. she can do a bunch of faces on command: her first and most famous was "tigerface," at about 8 or 9 months, then came fishface around 10 months, and roller coaster face (my favorite) around one year. she also nods her head vigorously when we say "yes, mama!" or "rock n roll!" and knows what it is to go upside down and dance and bounce.if i say "pick up the crayon and put it on the blanket," she knows what to do. also "go give this to daddy."
anyways i don't know what they are supposed to be saying/signing at this stage at ALL. no idea. but i do think she is a genius.
duck (duh)
dadda
mama
dog (duh)(sign too)
wow
owl (ow-a)
banana (nana)
ball
water
apple
no (sign too)
hi
bunny (nanna) (sign too)
moon (nun)(sign too)
hat (sign too) (she pronounced it "ta" for a long time but how it's "hat")
hot (sign too)
button (don)
balloon (noon)
bye-bye
boo! (bo)
uh-oh
night-night
up
down
poopee (poopa) (sign too)
airplane (nana) (sign too)
octopus (ahpo) (sign too)
bed (ba) (sign too)
baby (bay bay)
ant
egg
clown (doun) (sign too)
sky (gy)
the last 11 or more were just acqquired within the last 2 weeks. she is saying a new one every day now.
and she has sounds or signs for at least 2 dozen other things:
clap
food/eat
nursing
phone
flower
book
sneeze
fishy (fishface)
pig
kitty
gentle
please
bird
horse
peekaboo
i love you
cow
sheep (she goes "heheheh!" for "baaaa" so cute. she sits there and 'laughs' at her book with all the sheep in it)
donkey
comb/brush
necklace
goose
bee/bug
motorcycle
sleep
driving
frog
bear
cold
monkey
lion
of course she can identify a bunch of other things such as: her nose, eyes, hair, ears, mouth, toes, shoes, porridge, sandwich, cereal, blanket, spoon, bath, door, window, etc. and knows pat-a-cake. she can do a bunch of faces on command: her first and most famous was "tigerface," at about 8 or 9 months, then came fishface around 10 months, and roller coaster face (my favorite) around one year. she also nods her head vigorously when we say "yes, mama!" or "rock n roll!" and knows what it is to go upside down and dance and bounce.if i say "pick up the crayon and put it on the blanket," she knows what to do. also "go give this to daddy."
anyways i don't know what they are supposed to be saying/signing at this stage at ALL. no idea. but i do think she is a genius.
Sunday, July 1, 2007
mama's sewing corner
i have been using our sewing machine and my precious evening hours of late to sew clothes for the baby... ok, ok, i wasn't really sewing clothes per se. not in the 1950s gingham dress-sewing sense. but a cape can count as clothes, too, right? can i win an industrious housewife award? yes. i was making sparrow a princess cape. it can even be attached to her onesie with snaps to prevent choking accidents. i had noticed a few times that sparrow was wrapping her blankie around her shoulders and traipsing about the house that way, but not only that: my pants, shirts, even my victoria's secret underwear were on different occasions worn by her as a "cape."
so---it was time to make her a cape, of course. i made it a bit too long, and not wide enough as it should have been--she can't really wrap it--so i'll have to make another one. but for now it still looks pretty dang amazing when she runs around trader joes in nothing but her onesie, cape, and huge sandals. sigh. so cute.
also, we had a heeeeelarious potty training incident this morning: sitting on couch in kitchen, sparrow pats her diaper and says "poopa!" i say, "we'd better take her; maybe she has to go pee again...?" (she says poopa for both functions.) thomas says, "you have to go to the toilet?" and we rush her to the bathroom. when we get her diaper off, thomas looks in her diaper and says, "hm, it's already wet, and...look, there's a little bit of poop in it..." well little sparrow is still standing there next to the toilet, and while he's analyzing it, she lets the rest of the poop out onto the floor! hahahaha, thomas was so shocked. so you see, young potty trainers out there, one MUST put the baby on the toilet immediately after removing the diaper! analyzing diaper contents can wait til later. baby bowels can't.
i think the hardest part about potty training is having the energy to consistently run the baby to the toilet every time they give their cue. because sparrow doesn't quite know yet, i think, that she is only supposed to say the cue before she actually needs to go. not just for fun or whenever she thinks about it or when she hears a toilet flushing. so i would seriously be putting her onto the toilet 20 times a day at this point. any advice from the veterans? i haven't read any books, just prayed about it, and it seems to be working alright. we don't even have her own potty for her, so maybe we should get us one of them and that way we can just buy pull-ups and she can take herself to the potty.
so---it was time to make her a cape, of course. i made it a bit too long, and not wide enough as it should have been--she can't really wrap it--so i'll have to make another one. but for now it still looks pretty dang amazing when she runs around trader joes in nothing but her onesie, cape, and huge sandals. sigh. so cute.
also, we had a heeeeelarious potty training incident this morning: sitting on couch in kitchen, sparrow pats her diaper and says "poopa!" i say, "we'd better take her; maybe she has to go pee again...?" (she says poopa for both functions.) thomas says, "you have to go to the toilet?" and we rush her to the bathroom. when we get her diaper off, thomas looks in her diaper and says, "hm, it's already wet, and...look, there's a little bit of poop in it..." well little sparrow is still standing there next to the toilet, and while he's analyzing it, she lets the rest of the poop out onto the floor! hahahaha, thomas was so shocked. so you see, young potty trainers out there, one MUST put the baby on the toilet immediately after removing the diaper! analyzing diaper contents can wait til later. baby bowels can't.
i think the hardest part about potty training is having the energy to consistently run the baby to the toilet every time they give their cue. because sparrow doesn't quite know yet, i think, that she is only supposed to say the cue before she actually needs to go. not just for fun or whenever she thinks about it or when she hears a toilet flushing. so i would seriously be putting her onto the toilet 20 times a day at this point. any advice from the veterans? i haven't read any books, just prayed about it, and it seems to be working alright. we don't even have her own potty for her, so maybe we should get us one of them and that way we can just buy pull-ups and she can take herself to the potty.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
