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| Peo just had her first ever dose of Monty Python. We showed her the Ministry of Silly Walks sketch. She giggled several times and declared the walks very silly. When we asked her what she thought of it afterwards, she said, "It was a bit too silly." But later she confirmed she liked it anyway. Then she pointed to a screen shot of the Inquisition on the DVD box and asked to see that. She is currently having a mega-tantrum because we said no. Well, and because it's bedtime. | ||||||
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Blatherings
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June 28th, 2009
June 21st, 2009
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| Peo's teacher told Corran on Friday that her reading has impressed the older kids at school. Peo thinks this is great because the big kids praised her...pretty much manna from heaven for a littler kid. Unfortunately, the teacher also told Corran that some of the older kids were also starting to show signs of competitiveness with Peo over it. Peo hasn't noticed. She's too happy. Here's to hoping it doesn't go ugly in any way. This teacher is really good at this sort of thing, so we are indeed hopeful. But when I mentioned it to a knitting friend who works for the local gifted association, there was a lot of nodding and dire hmm-hmming because this can be the precursor for harsh judgment. And let's be clear about this: nobody said the dreaded G-word to these kids, nobody elevated Peo in any way, nobody did any of those things that the parents of gifted kids get accused of. Heck, Corran and I haven't even met most of these kids, since Peo gets dropped off earlier and picked up later than most. All that happened was Peo read in front of them. | ||||||
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June 13th, 2009
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| Peo has learned how to stealthily open her door, then our door, then sneak around to one side of our bed or the other and then startle us awake with either soft chatter or giggles. And of course, she does this at an obscenely early hour on days when we could otherwise sleep in, but on days where we need to go somewhere, she oversleeps and needs to be woken up. Such is the law of the universe, I know. Oh well...I enjoyed being serenaded by kazoo when I was in the loo...that was funny and cute. | ||||||
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June 12th, 2009
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| Peo was just begging for a cat again, but also expressing endless frustration with the concept that it might touch her toys. So I tried to talk to her about other pet options, but none of them suited her. Then she announced with a gasp, "I KNOW! I want a never not scary little NICE bear!" So...um...those of you involved in genetic science...could you please get right on that for her? Thanks. | ||||||
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June 11th, 2009
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| Been meaning to mention this milestone for a few days... Peo successfully kept her undies dry during nap time for two whole weeks, so as per the agreement we made with her, she then got some pull-ups/training pants for night time. There were only two in her size at the store, but she's kept them dry ALL NIGHT more often than not, so it's working out okay right now. That means the nappy load Corran has in the washer right now is probably the last load until the next kid. Woohoo! And Peo has been getting much praise and goodies for her sudden leap into the world of potty training! Yay! | ||||||
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June 7th, 2009
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| Ages ago, I gave Peo my old Rub A Dub Dolly baby doll. It has legs that move at the hip, rotating in full 360 from either direction. Today, Peo rotated the legs, from the back, so that they were as inverted as possible and declared, "Baby's doing YOGA!" | ||||||
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June 1st, 2009
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| I keep meaning to post this but always remember at the wrong time until just now... As of a week or so ago, we're willing to say that Peo is absolutely, undeniably, full-out reading. We have suspected she could do it for some time...last fall at a Biscuit Brothers concert she asked me what "klah-roo" meant and it took me a moment to realize she was reading the call letters for the local PBS station, KLRU. Around the same time she took a book she had never seen before, sent by Grandma, and read it fully on her own (granted, the pictures assisted her in guessing some words but it was clearly more than describing the pictures). I think I grabbed the camera and took video of that but I'm so far behind in photo/video sorting that I can't quite remember. But many examples of her reading until recently could have been brushed aside as mere rote, and indeed, some of the unpleasant people we've encountered in the negative playgroup I've mentioned before loved to cite it as such when Peo would spontaneously read in front of them. Also, she still frequently refuses to perform on command and gets worried when asked to read because, I suspect, she fears that nobody will read to her anymore if she can do it herself. (Mind you, as I'm posting this, she's trying to show off some reading to Corran because he's busy cooking and she wants his attention.) So until recently, we've been fairly sure she could do some sight-reading but couldn't prove it, especially in the face of nasty nay-sayers. But then a week or so ago, she was in a snit and wanted to watch a specific episode of Ni-Hao Ki-Lan on the DVR and we didn't have that episode avaiable. She insisted that we check each recorded episode to prove that we didn't have the one she wanted. As we scrolled through the list, whenever a title was shown, she'd shout, "No, I don't want [name of epiosode]!". Granted, on a couple of them the screen shot next to the listing showed a scene that made the episode obvious. But most of the time it was the title screen showing, and she was clearly reading the words. She has also been reading signs while out in the car, labels on jars/cans/toothpaste tubes, etc. She doesn't always get complicated words right, but after seeing a LeapFrog video from the library that taught her about how a silent E makes the previous vowel say its name, she handles most words quite well (and has demanded that I knit a silent E machine for her Fisher Price Little People). So in a nutshell, Peo can read. She can read new words by sounding them out even in the absence of pictures or other context. Yay! Well except for wanting to tell Corran about ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} nightxade's trip to the zoo in code...I had to describe it as the "last letter double vowel place" and let him work it out...and frankly I bet Peo could guess that too if she had been paying attention... | ||||||
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| I AM SUPER MUM. Peo was in tantrum-tears because she doesn't want to nap and she's overtired since she's been resisting nap for hours. I'm stuck on the couch so Corran was upstairs with her trying all of the very sensible tactics. But she was just getting wound up, so I shouted up there the suggestion that maybe if she got TEN GIANT KISSIES from Daddy that maybe then she could go to sleep. Instant calm as she contemplated this and then agreed to it. Heh heh heh, Mummy cast Distraction By Snuggle Summoning for the win! Corran agreed as he came downstairs that I get a badge for that one. :D | ||||||
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May 30th, 2009
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| There's a promo pic for the wolverine movie that I've liked for some time. I can't cut and paste on this iPod (grr) so I can't post a URL but if you google image search on wolverine you can find it...it's the one where he's wearing a leather jacket and standing in a rusty/dirty alleyway with his claws out, sort if walking towards the camera. Yesterday I set that as my iPod wallpaper and told corran so he could tease me about it. :) Today while he was getting dinner ready and peo and I were sitting at the table, I said how I've conclusively decided that the hair in origins is much, much better than in x1/2/3. Peo asked what were talking about. I said, "well, Mummy has been watching some movies that are grownup movies that you can watch when you're much older, and there's an actor in those movies that I like because he's a very good actor and also very handsome. And Mummy went out to see another movie just before my surgery with CCs Mummy, and he was in that movie too. So I was just saying to Daddy thatvthe man's hair was much better in the new movie.". Then I showed her with my hands how the hair is spiky in tv early movies and she agreed that that was silly hair, but looked very thoughtful as she nodded. Through all of this conversation, neither corran nor I had mentioned the name of the character or actor, so when Peo soon thereafter asked, "is the man's name wolverine?" we were suprised and amused. And that's when I turned ten shades of red - helped on by corrans teasing of it - at more or less having been found out by my preschooler. To which I repeatedly muttered through my blush, "I'm NOT obsessed!" *dies of girlish embarrassment* | ||||||
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May 28th, 2009
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| Moments ago: Me, after Peo had been up to go to the washroom: If Peo promises to go straight to bed and sleep, she can come downstairs for a kiss and hug from Mummy. Of course, she took the deal. When down here she looked at the tv, which had a paused scene from an extra on the latest Futurama DVD, and asked what we were watching. Me: it's a show called Futurama and you can watch it when you're older. Corran: Peo can watch Futurama when she's old enough to tell me why "Wheel of Fortran" is funny. Peo: what is it? Me: you'll learn. Peo, excitedly: is it POO? Much laughter ensued. Corran: no, but it is stinky. | ||||||
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May 27th, 2009
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| Gender, as summarized by a three and a half year old: Peo: "When I'm a lady, then I'll get my hair cut and I'll be a boy." Me: "But if you're a boy, you wouldn't also be a lady. Ladies are kinds of girls, boys turn into men." Peo: "So when I turn into a lady, I'll cut my hair and pretend to be a boy." Me: "Do you wish you were a boy?" Peo: "Yeah." Me: "Why?" Peo: "Because then I could have short hair." To be clear, we've told her she can get her hair cut, that both girls and boys have both long and short hair, and Corran has long hair, and we've never told her that being a boy or girl is better than the other, and we've even avoided language pertaining to permanency of gender. We're about as hippie-liberal-liberated-inclusive as the English language allows, but society has still gotten the message through to her that girls have long hair and boys have short hair. Really, there's no way for a parent to shield a child from negative societal norms. And if we, as such gender-liberals, can't combat it on that front, I can't imagine how we could have any hope against racial issues, where we try not to be racist but in all honesty are as bound by our white privilege as anyone else. There's no way any individual family can eliminate bigotry on their own. Nor will muppets all colours of the rainbow help. The best we can hope for is for enough of us to give it our best that maybe, over a few more generations, it might fade to a less permeating level. | ||||||
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| In happier news, Peo has finally decided she prefers to poop in the potty rather than diapers. Suddenly a bunch of stuff we'd tried before came together to be enough enticement, plus she's now allowed to get up from bed to go to the washroom. Ah, yes, she's discovered that by going just a little bit, she gets rewards and praise, and then can prolong bedtime by coming back out every five minutes to do more. We let her get away with it the first night because we were just so happy that she was willing to do it at all. Now we've had to institute rules about how soon/often she can get out of bed to go to the loo. She doesn't like that but thankfully it has not yet occurred to her to punish us by deliberately pooping her pants or anything like that. Funniest moment: she comes running out of the bathroom half-naked and squealing, "Daddy! I made a poo and it's bigger than YOUR HEAD!" (it was apparently impressive but not bigger than Corran's head) So hopefully she'll be out of diapers entirely soon. The current deal is if she can nap in underwear without wetting for two whole weeks, she gets to go buy training pants for overnight. We don't expect overnight perfection for some time. Yayyyyyyyyy! | ||||||
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May 7th, 2009
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| Been meaning to mention this since last weekend... I took Peo to Pioneer Farms here in Austin, which is where the Biscuit Brothers is filmed (and as far as Peo is concerned, is an actual, operating, Magical Musical Farm). There was a Biscuit Brothers concert along with other May Day celebrations. You know that the Biscuit Brothers' show - which teaches kids about music, everything from musical terms to types of instruments to the science of sound - is accomplishing its educational goals when we were on the other side of the farm from the stage and, when some low notes came over the hill, Peo said, "I hear a bass!" By which she means the double bass. And she was right. Awesome. :) PS I linked to the About page for the Biscuit Brothers because the main page has automatic music. | ||||||
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April 28th, 2009
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| 1) People of Austin: if you were enjoying the rain, I apologize. If you wanted sun, feel free to thank me. Peo wanted desperately to be able to stand in puddles so, amidst the rain, I took her to Target for rain boots (having never successfully found her size at resale shops). We were out of Target for maybe 5 minutes when the drizzle stopped and the sun came out. So...you're welcome/sorry. However, I also bought her an inflatable pool (figured since I can't take her to park pools when I've got a cast, and since we have a big dead spot on the back lawn anyway, that it was reasonable to let her cool off in the backyard this summer). I said we couldn't set that up while it was raining. So...that might be why the sun has been ducking in and out of the clouds. I told Peo it was sunny because we bought rain boots. I got a, "WTF, are you insane or something?" look followed by a highly doubtful, "Tsk, noooooooo." 2) How much do I love Costco? TONS. I got some prescriptions filled on Saturday but didn't open the bag until last night. That's when I noticed one of them was the wrong dosage. I just had Costco switch them all over to my new doctor, so figured something might have gone wrong in the transmission. I decided to call Costco first, figuring they'd tell me to call the doctor, but at least wanting it on the record that there's been an error. Well, the pharmacist says he could see that I was on 30mg but the new doctor said 15, and he can indeed see that they sent over the request to the doctor as 30, and he says the doctor uses an electronic prescription system that is no end of trouble for pharmacies because it's apparently incredibly easy to point and click on the wrong dosage, wrong instructions, wrong patient, etc. So instead of making me call the doctor, the Costco pharmacist is going to re-fax the request with a note that I had been on 30 and still wanted to be on 30 and as long as the doctor doesn't say he's forcing me to change to 15 (and I can't think why he would), Costco will take care of everything including taking back the wrong dosage. The guy will even call me when he hears back from the doctor. See? Discount prices don't have to mean discount service. We consistently get good service all over Costco, and I'm entirely sure that the fair wages, flex time, and other good labour practices Costco is known for are a huge part of the really helpful attitude of the staff. It means less money for the top people and they're all okay with that. Isn't fairness fun for everyone? | ||||||
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April 23rd, 2009
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| Forgot to mention that the other day, Peo wrote her name all by herself for the first time! I think she has better manual dexterity and confidence with the thick, egg-shaped sidewalk chalk than with regular pencils/crayons etc. Yay! | ||||||
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April 22nd, 2009
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| I helped Peo get her pants and undies down and get up onto the potty chair. Then I went into my room to wait for her to be done, as usual. A minute later she came running into my room squealing and naked. I asked, "Why are you naked?" She replied, "Because I NUDE IT!" Then giggled and ran back into the bathroom. Someone is becoming very punny. | ||||||
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April 18th, 2009
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| With Peo's up and down angstiness, we don't often feel like genius parents. However, there is something we frequently do that can sometimes avoid angst ramping up in the first place, and it takes hardly any time/materials/cost over and above what would be done otherwise: we add faces or other silly designs to things. Here are some recent examples of how taking a few seconds to do something silly can really help with a 2-4 year old child: 1) In any kind of food preparation, especially one where the child might otherwise be a fussy eater, make some or all of the food into a smiley face shape. If the child is old enough and willing to help, bonus points, since kids are more inclined to eat things they help "cook". Some examples:
Notes: - Faces don't have to be perfect; kids can figure it out. Sillier is sometimes better. - Sometimes the kid will eat the face off first. Fine. Let them. Then plop more of the dinner into a new face and they will eat it. Keep up a good mood about it and you can trick them into eating all of their dinner quickly. It's like frickin' magic, I swear. - Do try to avoid mixing foods that will get soggy if your kid hates this (as Peo does), so no crackers with the wet fruit salad. - Making the face say "hi" or "eat me" or "don't eat me" or whatever in a silly voice does wonders as well. - Give in to whatever gory violence your kid does to the face. If they squeal about eating the eyes, squeal back about how gross it is. This ramps up the fun BIG TIME. If you're artistic, you can go beyond faces for other shapes, but there's a caveat: the more detailed you get, the more detailed you'll continually be expected to be, so don't over-commit yourself. I made the mistake of trying to carve an Ernie-head out of a piece of cantaloupe when Peo was 2-ish and she wanted a damned Ernie head on every piece of melon for ages after that. Keep it simple for daily stuff, and if you feel the urge to push your limits, save it for obviously special times. Unless, of course, you're some kind of insane-martyr-super-parent-chef-knifewie 2) Faces don't have to be limited to food. You can pretty-up plain stuff that's cheap instead of buying pre-decorated stuff for more money. Bandaids are our recent discovery for this example. Peo recently cut her big toe and I couldn't find the one and only package of licensed-character bandaids we bought (which we only got because it was the only source of teeeeeeeeeny tiny infant-finger-size bandaids we could find), so I drew a stick figure on a regular bandaid in about five seconds and made a big deal about how special it was. Soon it turned into a big thing where Peo was much happier about her wound simply because of the potential for other exciting drawings on the bandaid. She confuses "plain" with "plane" all the time so Corran has been drawing planes on the plain bandaids, which delights her (actually lately we think she's punning it more than being confused, but same difference). Caveat: ensure the child does not start wasting things to get more new designs. Peo has to be stopped from ripping off perfectly good bandaids to try to get new ones. Or as she phrases it, "It's not special anymore!" No. Not allowed. Don't ever give in or you are HOSED. If they rip off the bandaid, either they don't get another one until the next time you'd put on a fresh one anyway (like when Peo took hers off during dinner and she was going to bed in an hour anyway), or if you need to put another one on, that one stays plain until it'd be time for a fresh one. They will cry. Be strong...the delight will return on the next drawn-on one and they'll be more inclined to treasure it and not waste it. Other things we've put smiley faces on over the years: - Reused food tubs have been turned into Angry and Happy faces for bath-time play (Sharpie on a semi-clear deli tub seems to last for years). - Rocks, with paint, markers, more dirt, whatever...or just draw 'em in the sand/mud...or any nature-based face is good when you're outside - During any art or craft time, show your wee one how to make a smiley face out of stickers, paint (be it brush or finger or full-smacking hand in glorious splashy colour-puddles), googly eyes (don't for one second limit them to eyes alone!), glitter glue, regular white glue (seriously, buy it in bulk and let 'em squirt it and study fluid dynamics and don't fret about the excess), stamps (the rubber kind...DO NOT LET CHILD SEE YOU USING POSTAGE STAMPS UNLESS YOU CAN KEEP THEM OUT OF REACH or unless you reeeeeaaaallly like supporting the post office), crayons/pencils, pre-cut paper/wood/foam shapes, whatever. You'd be amazed at how much delight a little kid gets out of seeing or making faces. This is when I cue dididdlyi to say how much she likes spotting face patterns in things, as do I (I had a whole army of them marked out on my cubicle wall when I was a staff writer for a tech mag), and of course the whole face thing is deeply rooted in our brains and that's no doubt why kids seek them out, etc etc etc. The psychological imperative is interesting but not necessary to know or understand: the point is, put faces on everything for your kids and make a big deal out of it and it can go a long way to mitigating a lot of behavioural issues. It doesn't generally stop a tantrum in full swing, but it can avoid some tantrums in the first place. Or at least, it doesn't seem to hurt. | ||||||
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April 14th, 2009
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| Peo and I had a conversation about pets today. She was talking about having a cat and then she asked, "Would the cat touch my toys?" Me: "Yes. The cat would probably touch everything." Peo, firmly: "I don't want a cat." Me: "Is there another kind of pet you'd like someday?" Peo: "Two cats." Me: "But two cats would touch your toys even more." Peo: "No, only each other." Hahahahaha, wishful thinking, kiddo... | ||||||
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April 9th, 2009
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| Yesterday, Peo told me that Bert is Ernie's wife. She's quite sure about it. She apparently came to this conclusion on her own, from what I can tell. Fine by me, but very interesting on many levels... | ||||||
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April 6th, 2009
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| When I was a kid, I envisioned that my intestines worked by having an assembly-line of little men who turned my food into poop. I told Corran about this and we had a long-running in joke that when one feels constipated, it's that "the men aren't ready". I don't think we've said that around Peo, or if we did, it was so lacking context that it would have been odd for her to put together the same image based on that alone. However, apparently intestinal men are genetic, because today during breakfast she and I had this conversation: Peo: What do you wish for? Me: I wish for Peo kissies. Peo, laughing: No, that's not a real wish! Me: Okay, I wish that we could find that missing library book today. Peo, laughing: No! Make a real wish! Me: What's a real wish? Peo: The kind that comes down into your heart. Me: That's nice. So what do you wish for? Peo: I'm wishing for a brain. Me: You have a brain. [aside: she even has a toy brain Corran brought home from a conference last week] Peo: No, my brain is away. Me: Where is it? Peo: It's flying to the library! On a PLANE! Me: Wow, that sounds very exciting! But you do have a brain, it's just off flying. Peo: Yeah. *sighs* I also have people that live in my body. Me: People in your body? Peo: Yeah, in my guts and stuff. They make my guts work. That's their work, to make my guts work. Me: Wow! Peo: And they go into my head where my brain should be and there are fountains in there. Me: Fountains? Peo: Yeah, and they go sprinkly sprinkly drop! All in my head and down to my tummy. Me: Are they nice fountains? Peo: Yes, and the people like them. Me: What else do the people do? Peo: They do their work to make my body do stuff. Me: What do they do with the food you're eating right now? Peo: They make it go through my body and then they see what it turns into when it comes out. Me: Oh? Peo: Yeah, they push it through my body and it becomes pee and poo. So there you have it. | ||||||
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Blatherings
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