the days are . . . shiny

He had my attention to himself. He took advantage. There was a book full of pictures. In it were images of more than a few of his favorite things. Gabriel brought me the book. I listened as he opened it and pointed to each picture.

“Ox.”

I said, “Socks.”

“S-ox.” He smiled.

“Socks.”

“Sshocks.” Moving on. He pointed to the next picture. “Soo.”

“Shoes.”

“Sooze.” He skipped to the middle of the book. “Appee.”

“Apple.”

“App-poo.”

“Apple,” I repeated.

He watched my mouth and tried to mimick the movement, “App-pull.” Not truly an “l,” but close.

“Yes! Apple.”

“Appee, appee, app-pull!” Next picture. “Anch.”

“Orange.”

“Oh-anch! App-pull! Ssshocks. Sooos! Appeee! Bee-ya?”

I laughed with his excitement. “Banana?”

“Es. Bee-ya? Bee-a-ya?”

“Ba-na-na.”

“Bee-a-ya.” Satisfied, he flipped to a new page, glanced at the picture of a cat and said, “Bee-ow.” Then he shut the book and we were off to something else.

February 15th, 2010 | Category: babytalk, parenting | Comments (1)

A day late, as usual. LOL.

Not long ago I posted that there was a hole in my life where a good book should be. Be careful what you wish for. I now have little stacks of books everywhere. Still, I am going to ask you, what beginning gardening book do you recommend for suburban gardens?

Here’s what’s in my stacks:

Fertility, Cycles & Nutrition by Marilyn M. Shannon (thanks Megan!)–A great read for those reached by this post. It carefully examines natural solutions for fertility problems.

Charles and Emma by Deborah Heiligman (thanks MIL!)–A look at the family life of Charles and Emma Darwin. So excited for this. Supposedly it’s YA lit. Plan to read it and later use it for home learning.

Nonviolent Communication by Marshall Rosenburg– Yes, again. I need a review of this considerate style of communication. And while I’m at it, I need to look into the chivalrous ways of the Prophets Muhammad and Jesus. Why settle for any example but the best? And since we have historical documentation . . .

Lit by Mary Karr (thanks again, MIL!)–A memoir that promises to be funny, lyrical and juicy.

The Highly Sensitive Child by Elaine N. Aron–Ran across this on The Organic Sister’s blog. Piqued my interests.

How Children Learn by John Holt–To satisfy my homeschooling sweet tooth. Funny story about this one: I met a mom at the library with an oversized 3.5 year old. He and Noah started playing like they’d been BFFs since birth. It turns out the mother had her son in preschool, but due to the same manifestations of stress that Noah had, pulled him out after three months. She proceeded to tell me that she and her husband were okay with that. They’d talked about homeschooling and knew that was the way they wanted to go. We started to talk styles of home learning and books. As the conversation progressed, it became apparent we have very similar reading interests. She said she’d wanted to finish How Children Learn, but she had to return it to the library because someone else had requested it. You guessed it: that person was me. I went upstairs to grab it before heading home. We followed up this conversation with a playdate the next day. Small world.

One Amazing Thing by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni–Hooray, ethnic lit. Hooray for Fiction!

Playful Parenting by Lawrence Cohen–Also saw this on The Organic Sister’s blog and so far it is life-changing. Noah and I have never had more fun together. We’re finding that place where every day is the best day ever because we understand and trust each other. For example, did you know that when Noah hits and kicks, etc., it’s because he’s a bad monster that needs to be kissed and hugged? I didn’t, but now that I’ve uncovered this truth, I’m getting hit a lot less because Noah trusts that I’m not going to be angry at him for whatever he’s feeling and no longer needs to express it through emotionally defensive violence. It requires more energy and attention from me, but that’s a small price to pay when it’s rewarded with smiles on my child’s face. Squee!

Elyon by Ted Dekker–I don’t actually have this yet. It’s the last in the Lost Books series, but when I get it, I shall devour. Very excited to finish this part of the series.

February 12th, 2010 | Category: books | Comments (1)

It’s been Birthday Central around here. Noah woke up the day his YMCA birthday party was scheduled with a fever of 103.5. We quickly rescheduled that party. We’d planned a follow-up family party at the Indianapolis Chuck E. Cheese. That was rescheduled as well. We called to change the cake size, canceled our pizza and macaroni orders, and hunkered down while Noah made his zombie-eyed way through his fever, then Gabriel caught his cold, and then Nathan.

But our friends and family wouldn’t let a birthday go by uncelebrated, so my in-laws visited on Fever Day 2. We had presents and cake. The following Friday, Noah’s best friends threw him a surprise party at their playdate. Cupcakes and presents. Over the weekend, we made that trip to Indianapolis and did cake, presents and games at Chuck E. Cheese. This weekend, on Valentine’s Day, we’ll have that swimming party. Happy birthday to Noah!

I find all of this terribly amusing. We’d scheduled the Y party specifically to avoid the two week birthday. Still, this has worked out for the best. Noah had no trouble transitioning to Four. He told me today he hated being Three. He’s even started getting himself up at night to use the potty!

Yesterday, we spent an hour or so picking out books at Borders for Noah to buy with his birthday money. He chose this book, which made me happier than I can express. I love when he picks out learning books, and we have had great fun with what Noah calls “the tool book” by the same author/illustrator, as well as a book about mosques Noah loves to look at when we pull out his mosque building block set. I actually had him put his first choice back when I saw it was $12 less on Amazon. I told him Mommy and Daddy would order it for him online (we did) because it was a special book (meaning if we had seen it before we bought his birthday gifts, it’s the gift we would have gotten him). We waded through the toys (what’s the deal with the Kids’ books section being 3/4 toys in Borders? WTH?), to the classics on the back wall. Noah chose:

There’s No Such Thing as Dragons by Jack Kent

The Little Island by Margaret Wise Brown

Harold and the Purple Crayon by Crockett Johnson

Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendack

The Snowman (WOW!!!) by Raymond Briggs

and Whistle for Willie by Ezra Jack Keats

They cost him all but $3 of his birthday money, but he didn’t bat an eyelash. I guess it’s okay with me if he invests in his own children’s library!

G has also enjoyed the festivities, even though they always keep him up through nap time. Right now he’s sleeping away. Indulge me–it was wonderful looking at a book with him in his rocker. He touched all the pages and asked, “Book? Book?” when I put the book away. Then he snuggled against me and put his head under his blankie. He fell asleep so fast I was surprised by his snores. It was just as well. Noah was waiting patiently for his own special Mommy time.

I have a reading list as tall as I am. I want to post more about that. I’ll put up a list of the books tomorrow. If anyone’s still reading, let me know if you’ve read these books, what you think, and if you have any suggestions. In the meantime, please read “Saying Goodbye to Yang,” by friend and fellow writer Alexander Weinstein. It’s up on The Spire now. Don’t forget to leave a comment. Writers love feedback!

February 10th, 2010 | Category: Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Noah woke up and tore down the hall to our room shouting for Nathan because of a nightmare. About this nightmare, he said the following:

There was a skunk and it got into our house. It was out of stinky stuff. It had chocolate milk in it’s sprayer. It sprayed some chocolate milk into my mouth. It didn’t taste good. No, it didn’t. But it was a nice skunk. But then all of the other skunks came into our house. They were the skunk’s friends. They had stinky stuff.

Hmm.

In other news, yesterday was Noah’s fourth birthday! We had donuts, went to the library, and tried geocaching. Noah loves geocaching treasure hunting. On our way out in the morning, we drove past a dead skunk. I suspect that combined with the excitement of an amazing day led to the above.

February 3rd, 2010 | Tags: as told by noah, dreams | Category: as told by noah, fears | Leave a comment