Concrete Operations, With a Dash of Precocious

Avery is learning the joys of reading oneself to sleep, and is currently into "One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish."  Normally she wants me to be her audience for the first few pages, after we've finished whatever chapter we're on of whatever chapter book we're on, then she's content to have me leave her alone to finish the rest.

Tonight we get to the page that reads "From there to here, from here to there, funny things are everywhere!"  And the picture shows two road signs: the one pointing right says "There" and the one pointing left says "Here."  Avery asks me why those signs are there.  I say it's so people know which direction to go to get to "Here" or "There."  She was incredulous. "What do you mean?  People already know how to do that!!"  "Really?"  I said.  "How do you know where 'There' is?"  She looked at me like I had sprouted three more heads.  "What?  You just turn around and WALK!"

I burst out laughing. 

"Mom, why is that funny?"

I think about that for a minute.  But all I can say is, "We'll talk about that in a few years, and we'll see what you think then about why that's funny."

"But we'll never remember to talk about it!"

"I'll write it down."

Summary of Recent Developments

Avery - favorite subject in school is art.  Has discovered a love of horses and Batman (?).  Is learning to play chess, taught by Dad.  Getting better and better at reading.  She reads books to little sis all the time. Still wants to take gymnastics, and we are working on finding a way for her to do that.  She and I went to her first ballet, the Nutcracker, a couple weeks ago.  She dressed in finery, and the high


 Elena's new words and phrases are too many to list, but the cutest highlights are: "Dopit!" (Stop whatever you're doing before I put the smack-down on you),  "Go-way!" (self-explanatory), "Wantit!" (also obvious), "Wike-it!" (I don't like it),  "Doo!" (I want one, too),  "Back!" (Put it back, or I want it back).  When helping with the laundry:  "Meents" (pants),  "Gox" (socks), "Doight" (Shirt), "Dacket" (Jacket).  She likes to identify each item of clothing as she pulls it out of the dryer and hands it to me, i.e. "Daddy doight,"  "Lena meents." Singing: "Binkle daw, uhp-ah-bowjah....wike-yeeeewwww!" This is a combination of the parts she knows of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and a song Avery likes from a show on Nick Jr.

Oh, and everyone's current favorite: "Oh bah gosh." (oh my gosh, always said in an incredulous tone).

Sick Kids + No Halloween Party = Pumpkin Carving Extravaganza

There was considerable disappointment about not being able to go to the party we'd been planning for, so we splurged on a few more pumpkins than usual and partied at home.  Avery helped choose the jack-o-lantern designs and got to help Dad do the carving, and Elena helped herself to anything anyone else was doing.

Brains!

 

Novelty of the Week: The Potty

Poop, Pee, Potties, Dead Moose, and Throw Up

Colds are going around, and our elder seems to have contracted one from the younger, because last night she started coughing before bed - that dry, continuous, post-nasal drip kind of cough.  We set up a humidifier, and since I know how she rolls when it comes to sleeping with an on-coming cold (and by "sleeping" I mean "not sleeping at all and keeping the rest of the house awake with her") I made her take a belt of cough medicine.  She typically complains on the rare occasions she's required to take something, but tonight's complaining was pretty creative, I thought.  While alternating between microscopic sips of the medicine and huge swallows of water, she declared that the medicine tasted like pee and poop together.  Next sip. "Ewww, now it tastes like pee and poop AND potties!"  Another sip.  "And dead moose!" Last chug.  "Make that pee and poop and potties and dead moose and THROW UP!"

How she knows what any of that stuff tastes like, I don't want to know.

Colbert on Immigrants

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/27/alabama-immigration-law-colbert-i-told-you-so_n_1035165.html

"No!" and "Go Away!"

Okay, so it wasn't quite that emphatic.  But tonight I had to hear it from both kids, and that's a first.  Elena has finally started to speak the word "no," and she says it repeatedly and with great enthusiasm.  As in:
"Let's change your diaper."
"No!"

"Time to get dressed, honey."
"No, no!"

"Get down from there, that's dangerous-"
"NO!"

"Please stop drinking your bath water!"
"NO NO NO!!!"

And then there's Avery.  Tonight I read stories with her, as I always do, then turned out the light and put on her bedtime music, which is Enya's first solo album.  Normally I lie down and snuggle with her for at least a few minutes, then tell her I need to go downstairs and clean up and I will check on her in five minutes.  And when I go back up to check on her after a generous five minutes, she's normally fast asleep.  I enjoy and look forward to this ritual.  It's a bright spot in my day.  There's that few minutes where we're done with stories and she's just talking and telling me about her day or about something she's thinking about, and I feel completely peaceful, like everything in the world is just fine.  I like my few minutes of delusion, okay?  Tonight, for the first time ever, she turned to me when track #3 (her favorite) started playing, and told me she'd like to be alone.  Well.

I dutifully kissed her cheek, said my I love you's and bid her goodnight, promising to check on her in a few minutes but knowing she wouldn't need me to.

It's too soon.  I'm not ready, dammit.