We were walking, and I bumped her. As I bumped her, I said "Excuse me", to which she replied "You're welcome". Well, she said more like "Do welcome", which she doesn't do anymore :( I tried asking her today so I could get the pronunciation just right, but now she says it right, like a big girl. (That was the only place she didn't say "your" the way she was supposed to.)

Me: I'm welcome? Huh? I said Excuse Me!
Evangeline: *giggles* I'm sorry.
Me: It's all right. I'm sorry, I bumped into you!
Evangeline: I said you're welcome. I say that when you say... when you say...
Me: Thank you?
Evangeline: Thank you. I say you're welcome when you say thank you. Thank you! You're welcome!
Evangeline: Thank you, you're welcome, thank you, you're welcome.
Me: Yep.
Evangeline: You said sorry. Say sorry, Connie.
Me: Sorry?
Evangeline: It's okay. Sorry, it's okay, sorry, it's okay, sorry, it's okay.

I'm glad she has a grasp of the basic manners she's been learning for the past 4 years.

Today, she was speaking and I noticed that she said "nothing" like "nussing". Intrigued, I started bombarding her with say-this, coming up with all the words with th- in them I could (and making a few up). I alternated between voiced and unvoiced, but the pattern I eventually heard (before she got bored) was consistent... so if the unvoiced becomes -s, the voiced becomes -z and so on.

Th at the start of a word (this, then) becomes a stop (dis, den). Th between vowels becomes an alveolar fricative (nothing becomes nussing, mouthing with a voiced th becomes mouzing) unless it's before -er (or probably -ar, I have try that out!) (and she still turns -er into -or most of the time, which yes, does problems with the word "her"!) in which case it becomes a stop (mother becomes mudder). Th at the end of the word is a bilabial fricative (teeth becomes teef, bathe becomes bave). There's a few exceptions (anything becomes anyting... though it's possible she's thinking of it as any + thing, two words, which makes sense because thing is usually ting, that's why nussing caught my ear), but it seems pretty consistent, although I really have to start listening better instead of waiting for a quiet moment and pouncing.

As near as I can tell, she's essentially covered all her bases with regard to this weird th thing, except for the correct one! She knows how to make a th, I explicitly taught her one day when I was bored, she just doesn't unless I sit her down and exaggeratedly do it first and ask her to copy me. And I don't expect her to do it when talking either, it's one of the lastest sounds kids learn, isn't it?

Ana now has all her cursive lowercase letters down. I really didn't want to tackle z, it being a difficult and uncommon letter that looks nothing like its print form (apparently, it comes from the medieval form of the letter), but I built it up to her by saying that it's worth learning because it's fun to do, so she took to it relatively well. Today we wrote the week's sight words in cursive, and I wrote out a sentence for her to read. I think we'll just try for a word a day for next week, and then I'll teach her capitals.

Tags: 'cdotes, child development, daily stuff, language
I'm feeling: accomplished

Here's a nifty trick. I often see people who have tantrummy kids trying, frantically, to keep them from kicking either the parents or the seat in front of them.

And this is what they do. If they're standing, they hold the kid under the armpits and put their other arm on the top of the kid's knees, and if they're sitting they do the same thing, but, you know, sitting.

This isn't very effective. The kid is still able to get in a few good kicks, and if you're standing they're also able to wiggle down and possibly out. If they fall and bump their butt in a tantrum they're REALLY be unhappy.

Hopefully, this doesn't come up very often, but sometimes you have to get from here to there without being kicked - either in the shins or off the bus. So this is what you do:

Put ONE arm around the kid's chest, under the armpits. Put the OTHER arm *under* the kid's legs. If you're walking, put them directly under the kid's knees so that the knees are higher than the butt. The kid can't wiggle out this way, and kicks will go harmlessly up into the air. If you're sitting, put that arm slightly lower, under the kid's calves. Kicks will go harmlessly up into the air (and not rebound onto your legs), and you'll also be able to maneuver better to avoid being headbutted.

Evangeline eventually did calm down, though this time we never did find out what was upsetting her. She kept saying NONONONONONONO!, but it's hard to deal with that when you don't know what she's saying no to.

In other news, Ana currently has 4 teeth out of her mouth, and another one or two loose. This has got to be some kind of record. The teeth that are coming in are HUGE. She already had big teeth! I suppose it's going to compensate for the few weeks she's spending more or less toothless. She just came into my room to inform me that the Tooth Fairy can take a vacation, LOL. I told her it's her mom's turn to be the Tooth Fairy.

Tags: 'cdotes, advice, daily stuff, kids, thoughts
I'm feeling: accomplished

For Ana's birthday, I got her class a wooden birthday cake. Evangeline was there. And for Evangeline's birthday I did the same thing. After her party at school, as the class was leaving, Evangeline began to cry. And cry, and cry, and cry, and she would not be consoled. If we asked her what was wrong, her reply was a furious, frustrated "Nothing!", which wasn't very helpful.

So I picked her up and walked homewards with her while her mother went around the side to pick up Ana. And Evangeline eventually calmed down a little, but she wouldn't tell me what was wrong. We went through the churchyard and hit all their windchimes and yelled Boo! at her mom, and Evangeline still wouldn't tell me what was wrong. She was calmer, but she was still upset.

To make her stop crying after she started up again, I started walking backwards.

( Read more... )

But you know, even after that, she was still a little on edge, so finally, after I crossed the street, I sat right down on the sidewalk and put her on my lap and asked again what was wrong.

( Read more... )

I can see what happened from here, of course. Evangeline didn't ask because she assumed she'd get to play with the cake that day, and she didn't, and then when everybody packed up to go and she realized her teacher didn't know she wanted to play with the cake at all she also realized it was MUCH TOO LATE to ask. Which is why she kept telling us nothing was wrong when something obviously was.

Poor honey.

We explained the problem to her teachers later, they'd been concerned.

Tags: 'cdotes, daily stuff, school
I'm feeling: satisfied

Ana: Connie? *sticks out middle finger* Olivia says this is like cursing.
Me: Huh? Oh, yeah, it sorta is, don't do that.
Ana: But why? I mean, I'm only pointing at things.
Me: Yeah, but it's a little rude. Most people just use their point fingers, not their middle finger.
Ana: But...
Me: *sighs* See, Ana, because the middle finger is longer than the other fingers, some people think it's kinda like a penis, so they consider it rude to stick out your middle finger like that.
Ana: o.O ?????
Me: Yeah, I never said people were very smart or that this made sense.
Ana: *carefully holding down every finger but the ring finger* I could point like this!
Me: Yeah, I guess so, with your-
Ana: With my... my RING finger.
Me: Yeah, you could, that's fine. Most people use their point fingers.
Ana: Or I could use my pinkie. *demonstrates*
Me: Sure, you could do that. Most people just use their point fingers.
Ana: I guess I could use my thumb.
Me: Absolutely. Most people just use their point fingers.
Ana: People might think I'm giving them a thumb's up, though.

Tags: 'cdotes, daily stuff
I'm feeling: cheerful

(And I still want to see more examples - charts, I guess - of how script is taught in other countries. Just because.)

One thing I keep seeing is the statement that up until the 30s or so, cursive was what was taught in the first grade - not print. (And of course some schools changed over sooner than that, and some later - or not at all!) Many of them also say that that's how writing is taught in other countries as well, with the possible exception of Great Britain. Any insight here from people who know what they're talking about would be useful :)

If this is true, all of a sudden that scene in To Kill a Mockingbird makes sense!

See, it was weird enough that Scout's father was criticized for "teaching" her to read when he'd done no such thing (she picked it up on her own), but I never understood the bit about how she was taught to write. It seemed strange to me that they taught her to write in script but not print (and that this was referred to as writing but print wasn't), but stranger that this should be a problem.

But now it makes sense, if teaching print first was somewhat novel - the teacher, new to teaching, felt she'd just had her pedagogy insulted. She's got this idea of how you're nowadays supposed to teach reading and writing, and they did this old-fashioned thing that was ditched to make things easier for kids, this being the newish era of look-say reading as well, I suppose, though technically Scout learned that way anyway. (And it had worked, too!)

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Today, as we walked to the library, I noticed some rosemary in another person's yard, and challenged the kids to find "a plant we can eat" in there. (They did!) I also pointed out that person's impatiens.

Evangeline: Why are they called that?
Me: I don't know.
Evangeline: Maybe they don't have patience?

Now, you all saw that coming, but listen. I don't think we've ever expressed patience as having or not having it. We tell them to BE patient, sure, but not to have patience. I would have expected her to say "Maybe because they're not patient" or even "Maybe because they're impatient" instead.

So now I want to gather up im- words and see what she makes of them. This is probably a bad idea.

Tags: 'cdotes, books, daily stuff, education, thoughts
I'm feeling: cheerful

We were reading The Talking Eggs the other day.

Great story. The first girl (the nice one) goes and follows the instructions that the old woman (kinda like Baba Yaga, but without the chickenfooted house) gives her, and is rewarded both then and later. And the second girl, predictably, doesn't and isn't.

As we were reading, and we got to the second girl entering the hen house after stealing the old woman's head (she really isn't very nice, this girl), I asked if the old woman had told her the truth. I wasn't paying much attention, and assumed she had - if the girl had just taken the plain eggs like her sister, she would have been rewarded just the same, even though she WAS a nasty piece of work.

And Ana said "No, because last time she said to throw them over your right shoulder, and this time she said to throw them over your left!" I knew as soon as she said it that she was correct. In all these old stories, nobody says to do anything on the left side unless the RIGHT side is the correct one. I know this because I've read many fairy tales and also because I'm a lefty and as a kid that sort of detail irked me a lot more than it does today. (Of course, it's very hard to throw anything over your right shoulder unless you use your left hand. Try it!) But Ana hasn't read nearly as many fairy tales as I have, or even as I had at her age, and she's never had any reason to notice handedness at all except that I occasionally sit on the wrong side of her when writing or eating and have to move so we don't bump elbows. She only noticed because she paid attention to this one detail in a book she was reading with me for the second time ever.

As for Evangeline, she said something yesterday that made me think "LOL, like on BSG", but for the life of me I can't remember what on earth she said! VERY annoying. But it was cute.

Tags: 'cdotes, books, daily stuff, fairy tales
I'm feeling: cheerful

We're the most lucky people in existence. No terrible twos, and her therrible threes consisted of occasionally getting out of naptime before I came to fetch her, and then hopping back into her hammock with a doll. Seriously. I'm even looking forward to four! (Sorta. I don't want her to grow up!)

The other day, I asked her to get her PJs from off the box holding the bookcase in the hallway. And she told me she couldn't and she told me she couldn't, and finally she went up to it to DEMONSTRATE that she couldn't. "SEE?" she said, raising her arm above her head, "I can't... oh! I can reach! I didn't know I could reach up here!"

Tags: 'cdotes, daily stuff, family, holidays
I'm feeling: cheerful

(she's singing to Baby Jill, her special doll, while rocking her in a doll carseat that doubles as a cradle)

"Rock a bye baby, on the see-saw..."

Hey, it makes sense now!

Tags: 'cdotes
I'm feeling: cheerful

( Well, this was a productive conversation! )

She also saw this pic of the President's daughter hiding behind a couch, and we had the linked-to conversation. Aww.

Tags: 'cdotes, daily stuff, gay rights, links, pictures
I'm feeling: bored

Unless something's bleeding or broken (or extremely likely to get that way), I don't wanna hear it.

So at lunch yesterday Evangeline tattles (and it's not like I don't see it!) "Ana just STUCK OUT her TONGUE at me!!!"

Me: Aaaaaand...? (Meaning, of course "and I care why, exactly?")
Evangeline: AND THEN SHE PUT IT BACK IN HER MOUTH!

In fairness to Evangeline, Ana has been antagonizing her all week. Little things, but they add up - for example, she's recently started giggling hysterically whenever her sister is around. Eventually Evangeline, fed up, will tell her to stop laughing at her. "I'm not! *gigglegigglegiggle*"

I'm about to scream. They're acting this way because of school starting, that's obvious, they're both a little nervous. Well, we've only got a few more days.

Tags: 'cdotes, daily stuff
I'm feeling: calm

Swing becomes fing. Sweep becomes feep. Switzerland becomes Fitzeryan.

Yesterday, she asked me if I could "s'ing" her. After I confirmed that she meant swing I asked, in dismay, if she could say sweep, could say swallow, could say Switzerland. "S'eep, s'a-yo, S'itzeryan."

I suppose this is a step forward, but I didn't want her to step forward! I wanted her to keep being the cute little kid who cutely asked me to fing her!

I've lately heard her saying "lollipop" instead of "yayipop" and "byoo" or "blue" instead of "b'ue", and - tragedy of tragedies! - "beyieve" instead of "abeev".

She clearly hasn't read and understood the memo: SHE IS NOT ALLOWED TO GET ANY OLDER. I tell her that, every day, but she laughs! She seems to think - and has even said as much! - that just because she "can't help it" that's an excuse for growing up! Not on my watch.

Edit: Incidentally, I'd love to know what Evangeline does with sw in the *middle* of words, but the only word I can think of is "asswipe" and you can imagine I'm not exactly jumping to introduce this to her! I also don't want to make one up because I'm weird like that. Can anybody think of any words to try her out on?

Tags: 'cdotes, child development, daily stuff, family, language
I'm feeling: sad

This is a public playground that's called McDonald Playground and is coincidentally next to a McDonald's. Consequently, many people assume they're connected, but they are not. One of these days I have to figure out who this playground is named after.

I had stepped into the bathroom to help Evangeline with the toilet (hard to flush, toilet paper rips too easily), and when I came out Evangeline decided she was my mom and started trying to drag me places. Ah, like toddlers everywhere, I pulled her in the opposite direction entirely. "No, honey, we have to see the animals!" (Apparently we were at the zoo?) But no, I said, I needed to see her sister for a sec since it had probably been 15 minutes since I'd last laid eyes upon her and I don't want to entirely look like a bad auntie.

And good thing, too! I'd left Ana near the swings, and she was still near the swings - but now she had a crowd of kids around her as she climbed a chainlink fence. The fence started maybe 4 feet above the ground (it rested on a concrete ledge) and went up another 8 or 10 feet above that. Ana was at the top... and apparently she wanted to lean over and grab some snagged balloons for another child. Well, that's all well and good, but no. If she were to fall she'd land right in somebody else's property that I didn't know where the gate was, and that's... really the line I draw.

So I took a picture of her, reminded her that she's not supposed to climb that high without telling somebody, and told her that, unfortunately, I didn't want her leaning over if she did climb up there again. (The balloons were snagged on barbed wire, too. Ye gods.)

Man, you should've seen these other kids! They were just stunned that Ana wasn't getting in real trouble! Well, I told them, Ana's allowed to climb. She's just supposed to tell me first so, you know, I know! (And she was punished - I didn't let her climb it again. Much more effective than a time-out or a lecture with Ana.)

Tags: 'cdotes, daily stuff, thoughts
I'm feeling: calm

So I brought it in the house to show the girls. Mostly it was freaked out and curled in a ball, but after Evangeline left it started to explore my palm in classic inchworm fashion, making a lowercase n and then stretching out. So I pointed this out to Ana - "Look, it moves in a really funny way".

Ana had more sympathy than I did (I was all for putting it on the windowsill for the birds, I mean, it was EATING the KALE, but I eventually agreed she could bring it out to the weeds in the front of the house instead) and said very carefully "No, Connie, it doesn't. That's just the way caterpillars are supposed to move".

And of course she's right, although that's so word-for-word my views on neurodiversity and related topics that I spent several minutes afterwards wondering if I'd ever explicitly stated this to her. I feel as though I must have, but for the life of me I can't imagine where it's come up except, maybe, in talking about her hair and skin as compared to "Princesses",who of course have long, straight blond hair and the skin that matches. I watched in consternation and dismay the day she went on Starfall to design a story about a girl who looks like "her" and picked the palest skin and lightest, longest, straightest hair she could. I just didn't know how to react! Still, clearly something about the message is sticking, no matter how she's heard it, if she can apply it to caterpillars.

Tags: 'cdotes, daily stuff, neurodiversity, thoughts
I'm feeling: cheerful

IF they come downstairs and Nanen is in bed sleeping, then they have to go bug their parents.

Otherwise, if Nanen is awake or if she's gone, they can wake me up.

This rule has worked splendidly. A few weeks ago, I woke up before they did (they really overslept) and I went upstairs to check on them. As I passed their room, I noticed through the crack in the door that Evangeline's hammock was wiggling, so I stood very quietly to watch.

The hammock wiggled, and Evangeline half fell, half climbed out. Then she immediately plodded over to her sister's hammock. *pokepokepoke* "Ana? Ana? Are you awake? Ana?" *pokepokepoke*

( Read more... )

Tags: 'cdotes, daily stuff, family
I'm feeling: cheerful

We went to lunch with my mom first, and we played "I'm thinking of something". Like I Spy, but you don't have to spy it first.

So first my mother thought of something that starts with a B and is in the garden (and a new hint is given every round). It was a butterfly. Then I thought of something that starts with a C and is in the garden. It was the compost. And Ana thought of something that starts with an S and is NOT in the garden. I forget what it was. And then it was Evangeline's turn, and I told her to just tell us what *color* it is instead of what letter it starts with.

Okay. It's blue and it's NOT in the garden. Got it. It's not the sky, or a flower, or the house. It's blue and it's not an animal (that's the second hint). Okay, it's not up at all, ever. And it has... three legs? No, it's not a scary monster.

Finally, staring unbelievably at her, we ask what it is. We gave up!

"I forgot!"

Well, this is what you have to expect when playing guessing games with three year olds, but I just about died laughing. I laughed and I laughed! Next time (the ceiling) I made Evangeline tell me first and I just didn't play. I kept telling her not to point, but she did anyway.

Later we went to the Billy Johnson Playground in Central Park. We got our faces painted (the woman took a pic and my email, but she hasn't sent it yet), and the girls got free balloons. One popped, so Ana took that as well and told me she'd "give it away". And she did - to the park musicians! LOL.

When we made our way to the playground we played a LOT on the slide and the slide and the slide. I told Ana that she could go wherever she liked in the playground, even the big slide, without me so long as she didn't do anything stupid, but that she couldn't take her sister unless she told me, and that I had to be there if Evangeline wanted to use the slide. (It's really big, but more than that it's too easy for small children to accidentally cut in line.)

And I helped a woman get her baby into her moby for the firstest time ever. It was, lemme tell you, THE worst wrap job I have done in a LONG time. I'm not an expert on front carries, having only gotten a wrap when Evangeline was bigger, and doing a wrap on somebody ELSE is very different from doing it on yourself. You wouldn't think it'd be any harder, but it is. Still, he was secure and fell asleep pretty fast. I wasn't happy with the way the cross was spread in my FWCC, I could see it could've been done more securely, but it wasn't dangerously bad and she'd feel if he shifted anyway (plus, really, this is her first time wearing. Her hand was gonna hover, right?)

Still and all, I gave her links to slingsinthecity and whatnot so she could get some better help.

And then we went home. I'm gonna reclaim my fans from Jenn now that they've put in the AC upstairs.

Tags: 'cdotes, babywearing, daily stuff

When we were in California I learned that she's pretty flexible. She liked to hop through the pool. She's not great at hopping, so she held her other leg up to keep from putting it down by accident. Held it up above her head. You know that thing ballet dancers do to show off, where they tuck their feet behind their ears? They don't hop at the same time.

So today she took Sleeping Doll (a Dora whose eyes open and close) and swaddled her up in Super Duck. A pretty good swaddle, too! She's seen babies wrapped up and decided that it's just the done thing.

When I told her to fetch her shoes she put Sleeping Doll down and wandered off, saying to herself "I left my baby over there, over there, over there. I left her over there to go and... and find my shoes. I lost my baby, I lost my baby, I lost my baby, I found my shoes and I lost my baby."

She wasn't singing it, so it took me a minute to recognize what she was doing. It's this song. My goodness it's a depressing song (and I recognize that the nonsense lyrics at the end are actually misspelled Gaelic, thanks). I can't imagine what I was thinking when I taught it to her. (Actually, I really do sing it as a lullaby. Not sure if that's better or worse than "Rock-a-bye Baby", come to think.)

Tags: 'cdotes, daily stuff, family, music
I'm feeling: amused

I saw water fountains - real fountains with real water that gets cold when you run it (and you CAN run it, WE have no drought!) and tastes like water instead of like some unholy combination of salt and mud... oh!

Poor Ana had a fit the day we got to California because of the water quality (and the fact that she was extremely tired and hungry). She and Evangeline had so much juice...! Day before we left, I had a bottle of water I couldn't open. My mother couldn't open it. My aged grandmother (pushing 90 now!) got it in a few seconds. We, uh, loosened it for her.

Our garden is terribly overgrown, but that's all right. We seem to have obtained a new form of mint while we were gone that's taking over EVERYthing. Mint will do that, but this is a bit much even for mint - and I'm not even sure what kind of mint it is! Could be mountain mint, but I'm sure I decided *not* to plant that....

Our flight was fairly uneventful. Our flight out - oy. Oh dear god. I asked my mother in the airport terminal NOT to buy the headphones, feeling that they're altogether too interested in TV as it is and conscious of the many things I'd picked up to entertain them. So she... bought them anyway. And gave them to the kids first thing, as SOON as they sat down, before I asked them.

Naturally they squabbled over watching the same show (or not) and I had to find the channel for them, and I had to check periodically to make sure it was reasonably child-appropriate, and they were cranky and annoying the whole way. My mother said she thought she'd be able to help me in the flight - ha! She sat behind me and never switched seats halfway through like she PROMISED she would. Never had a chance to read any book or eat anything of my own.

Our flight back, I knew my mother would still be in California. This time, I got to make the choice - No. Headphones. My lovely mother goes "They'll scream!" at me. How insulting! Not only insulting my judgment - and I do like to believe I know my nieces well enough - but also of the girls. How does she think anybody managed before inflight TV? Does she think we had that when we flew across the ocean?

Guess what? True to *my* predictions they were darlings the whole flight, they helped each other with their craft supplies (Klutz books, how I love you!), they were friendly and sweet, and the crew went out of their way to compliment their behavior.

TV does not make them behave better. (Duh.)

In the airport (I guess I'm doing this backwards) I got to listen to a totally asinine lecture on Evangeline's choice of underwear... or the lack of underwear under her shorts. Apparently you could see that if she flopped backwards and you looked. Whoops.

"Don't you KNOW that children are KILLED every DAY and there are PEDOphiles?" "What, here in the airport kids are killed every day?" "No, not in the airport". Given that she was TSA I decided to stop the conversation there and not point out that, frankly, I simply don't care unless children are routinely being snatched from that particular airport. Isn't that what security is for, anyway? (And even if they were - guess what? It wasn't going to happen. They were holding my hands until we got to the plane, then they were going to sit right next to me.) And what did she think, that cotton panties have magic powers to repel evildoers? They're panties, not chastity belts! Or maybe that pervs only go after children without panties. If *that* is the case, they're even weirder than I thought. Bit of a long shot, waiting for a kid to come along without the appropriate amount of underwear. (Admittedly, I would've put her in panties instead of just the shorts if I'd realized we could have this problem, but not out of fear. I just don't like her flashing people.) I also didn't mention to the TSA woman her grasp of the statistics of the situation was totally flawed. I was Being Pragmatic. (And she meant well, in her wrongheaded way.)

I have to wonder why she was looking at Evangeline's crotch in the first place, though. I mean, even when the kiddo flopped on the floor it wasn't that obvious until you looked for it....

Tags: 'cdotes, daily stuff, free range, rantlings, transportation
I'm feeling: amused

We'll probably finish it on the plane - we're starting to plow through chapter books FAST!

In one of the first chapters, Clementine's best friend is shocked that Clementine's brother misbehaved. "THE EASY ONE?!?", she shrieks. And then she explains that her mother says that in every family with two children, one is the easy one and one is the hard one. In *her* family she's the easy one, but everybody knows that Clementine is the hard one in her family. (This is actually quite a widely-held belief. I recall a personal article about a woman with two "difficult" children being very annoyed because during her second pregnancy everybody had assured her that NOBODY is so unlucky as to have two hard children in a row, but that was SO not the case for her!)

And to forestall any touchy questions from Ana, I explained that no, that's not always true.

Ana: Yeah, because in OUR family we're BOTH really easy!

Um... right, Ana, yup, you're just as easy as your sister, uh-huh! (I didn't have the heart to explain that if that were true, I'd never have told her that it's not always true!)

But Ana, you know, she tries. And she's apparently grown out of the worst of it. (Tell the truth, I keep waiting for the other shoe to drop and for Evangeline to become a wild hellion. But no - she occasionally does things that seem to shock her with their badness, and what I don't have the heart to tell her is that her sister was doing worse, and earlier.)

Tags: 'cdotes, books, thoughts
I'm feeling: chipper

Mines instead of mine, and double negatives. I know, I know, dialectical variation and all that, but it still grates to hear! And of course two days after Ana picked them up, Evangeline stole them directly from her. (It's really remarkable how much Evangeline idolizes her big sister.)

Evangeline (today, while "putting on a show"): Connie, ask me if I want a cookie.
Me (thinking that she didn't say please): *silence*
Evangeline: Connie, you didn't say nothing!
Me: On the contrary, I most certainly did say nothing.
Evangeline: Bu- SAY SOMETHING! Please?

You can't trip up these girls about anything, you know :)

~~~~~~~~

Evangeline has a quirk with certain past tenses. I'm trying to work out how this quirk exactly works - every time I notice it I think I should write it down, and then by the time I get where I can and I also remember to do so, I've forgotten the exact situation!

With words like had and got, she tends to go "hadded" and "gotted". This is new. I remember hearing the words, but I seem to remember that there was something interesting about it, not just a case of her trying to both use what she knows is the correct form and ALSO use what she knows is the right way to past-tense a verb. But maybe I'm misremembering. When I see them again (they're up with their grandmother for the week) I'll pay closer attention.

~~~~~~~~

Much later today, when Ana was out at the store fetching eggs for me (man, the ability to send her out the store is so damn freeing. "The spoon for my icee broke, whatever shall I dooooo?" "Go fix it yourself". And when we got the icees? I realized halfway out the door - hey! Ana! You're the kid! I pay, you carry. It was so strange walking with nothing in my hands or over my arm! I go nowhere without a bag or a book or a bag FULL of books! I don't go so much as down to Ana's school to pick her up without bringing something. And sure, when I go big shopping with the kids, I make them each carry something, but something small. But icees, now, that day I could (and did) make Ana carry all of them) I got Evangeline dressed. (See that? Now, if I couldn't send Ana, I would've had to forgo the eggs or else made Evangeline get dressed so we could all trek out. The gift of time, guys.) And she was in a really whiny mood, grumbling that she shouldn't have to sit to put on her shoes.

"I don't care!" she said.

And then she brightened, almost immediately, because she'd remembered something, and she knew she'd gotten it right. "I'll pull down your underwear!"

Me: Hah, I'm not wearing underwear!
Her: I know that. It's just how the rhyme goes!

She often misremembers rhymes, getting the gist but not the words right, and she knows it, so she was very proud and happy that she'd done this JUST RIGHT, and finished getting dressed without a second's fuss.

~~~~~~~~~~

Today, the girls were outside making HUMONGOUS bubbles and the baby next door, Madison, came over to pop them. Madison was having a BLAST toddling around after the "big" girls and grinning like... something... that... grins a lot. And the girls were having fun with her. Evangeline came running up to tell me she came over (because a Connie hath not eyes to see, apparently), and then ran back down so she could "be nice to her".

And I'm looking at this kid, who is only as much younger than Evangeline as Evangeline is than Ana, and they DWARFED her. She looked so TINY, and they both looked so BIG, my little nieces.

But you know what struck me? In comparison to Madison, the two of them looked just about the same height. Evangeline, when I bother to look, I can see that she's barely half a head shorter than her sister, and she's more filled out as well - Ana is a skinny Minnie, really. And the two of them are only one size apart as far as shoes go. The shoes they got recently are the same make, and they've both made mistakes picking which shoes to wear until Ana got the idea to always check the tag first.

In a few years, I'll be surprised if Evangeline isn't the same height as or even taller than her sister. Don't know how Ana will take that....

Tags: 'cdotes, daily stuff, family, language
I'm feeling: calm

Really, she like gouged out a strip of flesh! I saw it, gasped loudly, and then caught myself and said, as calmly as I could manage, "Wow, you really got banged up. Sit here on the porch, I'll run up and get you some band-aids".

Evangeline: SOBsobsobsobSOBsobSOB!!!!! *hyperventilates*
Me: Eeesh. *runrunrunrunrun*

I came back down equipped with some wet toilet paper, some DRY toilet paper, the tea tree oil, and enough bandaids to equip a small army. Ana and Sonia were talking to Evangeline, and I don't know what they said, but it seems to have worked!

Evangeline (excited and happy): Connie! YOOK! I have BLOOD down my YEG and into my FOOT and they took off my SHOE! Coooooool!
Me: Wow, that's certainly a lot of blood 0.0

It really was too. Consider that I hardly ever bother with band-aids, and yet, this boo-boo took three and we probably could've/should've fit a few more on there before they became superfluous.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

We went to a playground last week for a concert featuring Princess Katie and Racer Steve. (Google them.)

Now, I've said it before and I'll say it again - playgrounds that aren't challenging just encourage children to play unsafely... or at least, not in the recommended way. Unfortunately, there aren't many playgrounds built to Ana's level. So while I'm busy chatting to Evangeline, Ana climbed up the outside of a playground structure. The top wall she climbed over was some 10 feet in the air, designed so children don't just fall off.

Here's the other grown-ups: 0.0!!!!!

Here's me: Hey, Ana, let's pretend I totally was watching you and am not a bad auntie. Do me a favor, never do this again on a crowded playground, wait until the playground is empty. You scared some people half to death! *forced laugh*

Here's Ana: Hey, I did this totally easy thing, and these bigger girls said "I wish I could do that", and I *can* do that, it's easy!

Let's be clear - I wasn't scared for her at all. But it was a very tall structure and I realize that I'm a little unusual in that. Most kids seriously *can't* climb the way she can.

Hah, she climbs the chain link fence around the parking lot EVERY week when we visit the library. It's six feet high. The other week I thought she climbed down a little fast, so I hung around and watched the week after.

She climbs up the way you'd expect, swings over, and then hangs by her hands while her legs dangle. Then, using ONLY HER HANDS, she lowers herself a bit, checks her height (with her eyes) and drops - from about two feet above the ground and holding herself with nothing but her upper armstrength between her and a direct painful PLOP.

People ask if she needs help. She says no. (She used to ignore them, but I'm working on convincing her that it's okay to talk to strangers if all you say is "no thank you" or "hello".)

~~~~~~~~~~~~

The other day, Evangeline asked me to flip her.

Well, no, she asked me to f'ip her. And I didn't want to, so I pretended ignorance. "Fip you? You want to fip?"

Evangeline: No, Connie! *giggle* F'IP!
Me: Fip?
Evangeline: F'IP!
Me: Fip?
Evangeline: SSSSSS...FIP!
Me: *gigglegigglegiggle*

I know what happened. Usually when we tease her (and she giggles too, we're laughing WITH and not AT her), it's for dropping her initial s :)

Tags: 'cdotes, daily stuff, thoughts
I'm feeling: cheerful

I've read some complaints online about the "trend" of "Americans" (it always seems to be Brits making this complaint, and some cranky old people with no kids or grandkids) making a "big deal" out of things that "aren't a big deal" and how "graduating from kindergarten doesn't count" and it's stupid.

Let me make this clear, to anybody confused by the phenomenon. Kindergarten graduations (this one was technically referred to as a "stepping up" ceremony) do commemorate something important - your kid is entering Real School for the very first time. However, that's not why we have them. We have them because, damnit, this is just about their last cute year, and there's nothing more adorable than dressing little kiddies up in grown-up outfits, in this case gowns and mortarboards!

It's not much different than taking pictures of bunnies with pancakes on their heads, except that you get to pretend it's srs bzness when we all know it's not. They came in, they sang three different songs (the last one had a whole dance routine and was just beyond awesome), they pretended their diplomas were telescopes, and then we ate cookies and juice and cadged photo ops off of everybody.

Though I do think making us sit an hour and a half so they could fit in two different renditions of Pomp and Circumstance was a bit much.

Edit: Also, let me say that I deserve a bonus. A monetary bonus, thank you very much. When Ana got her cap and gown on Monday and we tried it on in the library to show the librarian, I had to spend 15 minutes first convincing her that the zipper goes in the front. She didn't believe me! I had to tell her, look, I graduated kindergarten*, I graduated elementary school**, I graduated intermediate school***, and I graduated high school****, and sooner or later I'm bound to graduate college! The zipper goes in the front, Ana!

After I finally convinced her and wrestled it in she kept on muttering "I still think the zipper would look better in the back". Ye gods.

But when she got dressed today she was the one who informed her parents (who also have graduated from all the things I listed - it's like she doesn't think grown-ups know anything!) that the zipper goes in the front, so there's something.

*I didn't attend my own kindergarten graduation because I was on a plane to Belgium at the time. This was probably a smart move on my parents' part.
**We didn't wear robes in the 5th grade, but Ana doesn't know that.
***This was my first time graduating with a robe, yes, but I'd spent three years in Chorus wearing a similar robe for concerts.
****I have nothing to say here other than that I wish I'd remembered to bring a book to my high school graduation, it would've been less boring.

Tags: 'cdotes, daily stuff, family, holidays
I'm feeling: happy

The other day she was very cranky, so I gave her her nap late - like, at 4:50 PM! Her sister was very upset that I woke her up at 6. "She hasn't napped long enough! She'll be cranky!" and was very solicitous of her for the rest of the evening - cleaning up for her, that sort of thing, and glaring reproachfully at me if I said anything even remotely stern or strict to Evangeline. "Connie, you know she's just cranky because she hasn't had enough of a nap. You shouldn't've woken her!" Well, an hour long nap isn't very long, but it was that or let her be up all night, Ana...!

Evangeline is so cute lately. She talks about her "invibbible" friend, and about how there are no e-yephants/wermaids/p'incesses/d'agons in "this yand". Where does she even pick that up, in this land?

Tags: 'cdotes, childhood, family
I'm feeling: cheerful

I don't just mean it has a lot, I mean it is full of worms. We have weeds growing between the bricks on our tiny bricked spot. Every weed came up with at least a dozen baby earthworms. (Saw a baby praying mantis the other day, you bet I said oooh!)

You can't turn over so much as an inch of soil without disturbing a handful - a grown-up handful! - of worms.

If I didn't love worms so much, I admit, I might be a wee bit creeped out by the fact that they've all chosen to live and fuck in my yard.

Today, my mother told Evangeline about planting beans one year. She put the hole in the ground, dropped the bean in - and within seconds a horde of ants descended upon it and took the bean back to their colony. Well, live and let live, she moved further from the anthill and tried again. And within seconds the ants appeared to take the bean home with them! Evangeline, listening to this story, found the solution: "You should've put the dirt in your HOUSE and planted the beans THERE, Annen!"

Tags: 'cdotes, daily stuff, garden
I'm feeling: cheerful

I let her because, woo-hoo, I could nap until 9:30!

I forgot that this would mean she wouldn't take a nap later in the day. Well, shoot.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

She left her dolls on a porch for a minute, then panicked.

Evangeline: CONNIE! I have to get them, they'll be COLD and CRY.
Me: Um, you know they're just dolls, right?
Evangeline: They're babies!

She saw a bug today.

Evangeline: I'm scared of bugs, and Baby Jill is too!
Me: No she isn't, you know, she's a doll.
Evangeline: Well, she's still scared!

One of her dolls has closing eyes.

Evangeline: Sleeping Doll had a dream last night about....
Me: Did she? How do you know?
Evangeline: Because her eyes open and close. Duh.

Duh, Connie!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The other day, Ana and Evangeline had cookies. Cookies are cookies and I try not to give one a treat that's obviously bigger than the other. That's really not fair.

Ana broke her cookie in two pieces.

Evangeline: That's not fair! Now you have two, and I have one! YOU HAVE MORE THAN ME!
Me and Ana: No, it's the same amount, it's just that this cookie is broken.
Evangeline: NO! Connie, look how much she has! Look how much cookies are on her plate!

We eventually convinced her to just break her own cookie. It's a sign of the times, though - she's hit three with a vengeance. During her time-out yesterday (she refused to clear her fork off the table and I refused to let her up until she did) she said, with great emotion, "I'm NEVER gonna be your niece again!" Ye gods.

She's very honest, though. Before she gets up, I ask her if she's going to behave. "I don't know!!!!!"

Eva says:

eva i luv my sistr!

Tags: 'cdotes, child development, daily stuff, family, language
I'm feeling: cheerful

So you don't want DW accounts, I can see that, but you could've entertained me anyway. I leave the house bored, I come home and it's still boring here!

2. Evangeline is in that age - hold on, let me interrupt you for an Important Bulletin:

Evangeline: Girls go to dance class, boys go to... work. I don't want to be a boy!

This has been an up-to-the-second update on what Evangeline is thinking! Stay tuned for more quotes

-back to what I was saying, she's at that age where every verb, every noun is regularized. One foot, two foots. I do, I doed. I bring, I bringed. Perfectly normal - and it's a step *up* from rote memorization, no matter how it sounds.

Lately, instead of saying "I b'inged this" like she had been, she's started saying "I b'ung it". So she's caught on to the fact that it's a weird formation, but she's still using a more regular form instead of the standard brought (or b'ought, I guess). And yes, I know brung is normal in some dialects.

3. She has some trouble with prepositions. Not literal ones like "Go up" and "Fall down" and "Put in" but the more metaphorical ones - "Is that cooled up yet?", "Slow up!" (I know some people say that. Nobody I know IRL), that sort of thing.

4. In the past few days she has finally - finally - begun making her s-blends. Sometimes. So sometimes it's swim instead of fim, and sting instead of ting. Not all the time, though, and it's clear she's working on it - she'll go ssssss - ting! very carefully.

Tags: 'cdotes, child development, daily stuff, family, language
I'm feeling: cheerful

Evangeline sat in the stall. Now, these doors go far down, it's hard to get the locks from the outside, AND they self-flush. So I left the door open. Ana comes in and she's "The DOOR has to be LOCKED!" and honestly, she's such an arguer. So she marches out again (it's an open-ish plan, so long as she stayed where I could hear her I was fine with this) and just as quickly whirls back in.

"I saw a police!" *whistlewhistlewhistle*

...

(No, seriously, she whistled, and even started cobbling together some form of tune. I just about died laughing - and when she asked why I explained it to her and she apparently had no idea that "whistling around the cops" is a major trope.

Tags: 'cdotes, daily stuff
I'm feeling: cheerful

Lately Ana's been asking me to make a hopscotch grid every time we have a few minutes and a patch of sidewalk, so I made one but she didn't play. Instead I taught the game for a few minutes to a girl whose mother is from Canada. (I know because she said "grade two" instead of "second grade", but she also told me explicitly though it was really too late, I already knew.)

As I'm watching the kids, the woman jumps a little and mentions she saw a rat. A few minutes later some boys saw the rat. Then the woman sees the rat again. Then her daughter sees the rat. Then her son sees the rat, but he's only pretending. By now I'm staring all around to see if I can see this rat, but I never do. Various things happen, the boys attempt to chase the rat out of a bush. Rat, rat, rat.

And then Ana comes up to me.


"Connie! Connie! I saw a gerbil!"











(She totally saw the rat.)

Tags: 'cdotes, daily stuff, nyc
I'm feeling: cheerful

Go Ana!

She's a hero. Today, as she was doing her homework on the porch, our neighbor came over and asked for her help. Her basement tenant had locked himself out, and his windows are tiny. So Ana climbed through, yes, we said, you can step on the bed! and she fetched his keys - and tried to bring them to us, prompting calls of "Just open the door!", which she did, and she SAVED THE WHOLE CREW! Hooray! What a day, when the babies key ran away.

I loathe goody bags, so we did a grab bag first (which the kidlets had apparently never done, though they were de riguer for christmas parties when I was a kid - but maybe it's a Brooklyn thing?) and we also gave some presents For The Whole Class: A set of lacing letters, two sets of alphabet stamps and a stamp pad, a dolphin stamp (because the school animal is the dolphin), several sets of letter stickers, a M&D birthday cake, and some construction paper. And two birthday-themed books. And, incidentally, some snacks, bowls, and cups that we didn't use for Ana's party. Some of them came with those special "box tops for education" on them, so win! Best part is that I can just repeat this present for Evangeline's pre-k and kindergarten birthdays. Go me! No idea what I'll do for Ana for the first grade, though - definitely some books (anybody want to suggest picture books of a more advanced level that talk about birthdays or feature birthdays prominently? Or chapter books suitable for a first grade library?), maybe a few games...? First grade is different. More craft supplies, for sure. (Which reminds me, I want to get some lefty scissors for the school, you know my feelings on that. I need to ask what teachers, aside from grade teachers, use scissors. Like, does the science teacher? The literacy teacher? Are they going to have an art teacher next year?)

To round out my stories, Evangeline was in her own personal horror film recently. She was wearing her clicky-clacky shoes (Ana is the language innovator, "clicky-clackies" for "plastic pretend dress-up shoes" is a term she invented. Evangeline picked speech up much faster, but Ana played with it more. This is an area of degree, of course) when I decided to be a tickle monster. I started to run towards her, but she cried in (mock) horror "I can't run in my c'icky-c'ackies!". I swiftly shifted to the lurching kind of tickle monster and she escaped in safety, closing a door in my face. Tickle monsters, like vampires, can't go where they're not invited, you know.

Tags: 'cdotes, daily stuff, education, holidays
I'm feeling: cheerful

This is the book she brought home: "Baby Elephant had a new bike. He got on. The bike wobbled and wobbled, and Baby Elephant fell off. "I can't ride this bike," he said. (We totally haven't been reading the books she brings home. I have her read a note I write for her to take to school every day instead. It's theoretically for lunchtime, but we read it together over breakfast. I didn't do that this week. Bad Connie!)

So that gives you an idea of how difficult that reading level is. What's funny is that I know she can read harder stuff than that and comprehend it - if and only if she's doing it alone, with little attention. I've seen her do it. She struggles and stumbles though, and *this* she can read easily. This is the old Ana trick of not letting on that she can do something until she can do it perfectly, of course.

I only bring this up because the illustrator's name is kinda cool: Jan van der Voo. Say it. Isn't it awesome? My only problem is that I can't figure out if we say Jan like a Dutch name (as van der Voo is clearly a Dutch name) or, because this book was written and illustrated in the US, as an English name - presumably the illustrator is American, I can't see why they'd send this book to be illustrated overseas. Having never met this person, I don't know how s/he pronounces this name! There's a Jan van der Voo who is a Dutch cartoonist, but that doesn't seem to be *this* person. (Correction: The series was developed in Australia and New Zealand. Well, all right then. How do I pronounce Jan?)

~~~~~~~~~

I can't talk about one being cute without the other, of course. (And do you know, both children insist on saying "teechuther" instead of "each other"? Always have.) Day before yesterday, Evangeline napped on the way home, in the wrap, but woke up as I put her in her hammock. I told her she had to stay in bed and be quiet for half an hour, it was still naptime. After that time was up, I said she could get up so long as she stayed in her room, but she declined. Then, 10 minutes later she asked me first if she could get up (uh, yeah?) but then she asked me "Connie? Did you know that if I have a long bath, my fingers get all p'uney?" This? THIS is what she was thinking about all that time? "Yeah, I was t'inking about it a yot."

And on the subject of each other, I have a question. It has been bugging me and bugging me for over a year now.

When I'm walking with the nieces, sometimes I want them to hold each other's hands (and not just because it looks cute). Maybe I want them to walk together in a crowd so I can keep better track of them, or we're crossing a busy-busy street and I have one hand full - whatever.

What do I say? Do I say "Hold your sister's hand, kids" or "Hold your sisters' hands, kids"? Obviously, each child is only holding one hand from one sister, but there are two hands being held. I have gone round and round thinking about this, and I can't figure it out.

If I asked them to pick up their jackets, and each child has one jacket, I'd still say "Ana, Eva, pick up your jackets", regardless of the fact that each child is fetching one and only one jacket. But somehow, to move that to hands sounds wrong! It sounds right to say "hold your sister's hand", but why in that context when not with jackets or balls or whatnot? Sometimes I use "each other". Hold each other's hand? Hold each others' hands? God, I have no idea what to say! And meanwhile, as I try to figure it out, they've run ahead a mile and I can't catch up.

Tags: 'cdotes, daily stuff, language, thoughts
I'm feeling: cheerful

It was sunny enough when I left the house to pick up Ana. As I walked to her school, I noticed a patch of dark clouds and thought it might start raining by the time we left the store. As I waited, the sky grew VERY dark, and the first drops started falling by the time Jessica's Dad (that's what he's listed under in my phone, too!) came by with an umbrella. Man, it was coming down a minute later when Ana walked out the door, and we took a ride home with him. Two minutes, he could barely see out the windshield, the water was FLOODING down our steps, and thunder, and lightning...!

Of course, when the rain comes that fast it ends fast too, and we made it to the store (two pounds of onions: $.99 three pounds of onions: $1.99. You see a problem with this?) and we got the ground beef and turkey necessary to make HAMBURGERS for dinner. I really outdid myself with those - the secret is to put in more garlic than usual because "eh, no point saving only three cloves, might as well use it all up".

I told Ana, as it was coming down, that old joke about how you know it's raining cats and dogs (you go outside and step in a poodle, of course). Then I realized she had no idea (though she laughed politely) what "raining cats and dogs" means, so I explained it's just a funny way of saying "raining a heck of a lot".

So of course, when she saw Nanen and I mentioned it had rained, she tried the joke on her. "How do you know if it's raining cats and dogs?" (Nanen has heard this joke, of course, but she played along.) "How?" "Because it's RAINING a LOT!"

~~~~~~~~

Ana's teacher says "You get what you get and you don't get upset", a statement Evangeline glommed onto as "You get what you get and you don't get... MAD!" (She has a real sense of comedic timing, the darling.) Ana recently modified that one too: "You get what you get, and you don't go killing people", which I suppose is true, but really Ana? Really?

Tags: 'cdotes, daily stuff
I'm feeling: amused

Location: Walking to pick up Ana, a nice, warm day.

Eva: I wish I could go to the beach.
Me: Yeah, but not today, it's not warm enough.
Eva: Actually, it's not hot enough, Connie!
Me: That's what I said.
Eva: Maybe in the summer we can go to the beach.
Me: Oh, definitely. We'll be sure to go this summer.
Eva: Last time we went to the beach, Ana saw... saw... those things? they have 'tingas?
Me: Jellyfish?
Eva: Yeah, jellyfish! We saw jellyfish! And I never saw them before, and we ran back to Daddy's... to Daddy's...
Me: Umbrella? Towel?
Eva: Daddy's umbrella and towel, and we just played there.
Me: Mm-hm.
Eva: And I don't think there are any jellyfish where Bonne-maman is, right? There aren't any in the POOL, right?
Me: No, not in the pool, but-
Eva: I don't think jellyfish can be in the pool because how could they get there? That's silly. They can't get in the pool!
Me: No, they can't get in the pool.
Eva: Because they can't... they can't take a jellyfish plane, Connie! *giggles*

Tags: 'cdotes, daily stuff, family
I'm feeling: amused

(I finally set up my wireless again, so I'm totally upstairs while typing. This either rocks or sucks depending on how much computer time you figure I'll have...!)

Their mother hadn't sent Ana's vacation homework up with her, which meant I got stuck with it. That's all right, she just kinda plowed through it. (And yes, I *do* think vacation homework for kindergarten is silly, but I'm told that the other kids in her class have parents who want MORE homework. The mind boggles, let me tell you.)

One of Ana's homeworks (she only has three left for the weekend - the daily "what the weather is" picture, her "my favorite thing I did this week" picture and two sentences, and a math set (they're working with coins) that she didn't want to finish) involved rhyming words. There were four words in each row (in four different rows), three of which rhymed. This was pretty badly done as the non-rhyming word always made a minimal pair with a rhyming word - bug, rug, and rag, for example. It would've been more challenging if they hadn't. But I digress.

The final row had these four words: pin, pen, ten, hen.

Can you see the problem with that? Say the list aloud. If you automatically figure out the problem, gold star! If not, go here. As it happens, I have the pin-pen merger. I think I must have gotten it from my dad, as neither my mother nor sister has it and they used to tease me about it. (Because I didn't get enough of that at school, guys?) I remember sitting in speech (therapy) lessons as a kid, the only year I had actual instruction in those, working it out in my head how weird it was that there was no short-e before n, even when it's written in that way! I literally don't hear it when other people say it unless I'm listening for it, and I feel as though I'm twisting my mouth unnaturally to produce it myself.

So when I saw this I listened with great interest to see what Ana would do.

She carefully read the words (didn't have to sound them out!), and as soon as she got to pin and pen she stopped. Read them again, the whole list. Frowned. Sounded each word out carefully. "Connie, they all rhyme!"

So what do I do? Do I tell her to ignore her instincts and fill out the words that look like they rhyme? That's what she used to do when she was three. Do I let her fill out all of them and look like she didn't get it at all? I compromised by telling her that there's a good reason they put four rhyming words there, telling her to fill them all in, and writing a note to her teacher explaining this. Then, she she was done, I explained the pin-pen merger and talked her through the steps of a simple linguistic survey. We're totally stopping family members to see who has it and who doesn't today!

Poll #1385210 Language question
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 50

Do you have the pen-pin merger?

This isn't the first time I've had a language quibble with Ana's homework. Once she had to do "initial sounds that match" and one of the examples was a P word with a "pan". Except that I generally say skillet, and she generally says skillet, and when we don't say skillet we say frying pan. But she breezed right through that without a thought, proving that she understands very well how to do worksheets.

Tags: 'cdotes, child development, education, language, polls
I'm feeling: bouncy

Saturday, I went out. Ana was sitting on the porch, moping that her sister was sick and asleep. (Evangeline is still under the weather, though now that her stuffiness has gone on for nearly a week I wonder of some of it isn't allergies. She does tend to a runny nose yearly.)

After I'd gone down a block I realized I'd forgotten to grab a Metrocard, so I ran back in the house and passed my bag to Ana on the way up. "Ana! Guard this WITH YOUR LIFE. Don't let ANYBODY take it."

And she did! As I came back down I took my bag. "Thanks honey! Waaaaaaaiiiit... I told you not to let anybody take this. Did you let somebody take my bag?"

I was so sure I was going to catch her with that one, too! But no...

"No, I - I mean, yes, I did. I let you take it, Connie!"

She's getting too smart, I tell you. Next thing we know, she'll be plotting her own worldwide takeovers!

(Or maybe not. That's the sort of thing antisocial bullied kids do, isn't it? Ana's very popular. Seriously, we were at the checkout at a store when three of her friends walked in. "Ana? ANA!" *groupglomp* It was a little disturbing.)

Tags: 'cdotes, daily stuff
I'm feeling: cheerful

So, remember this post, wherein Evangeline twice used the construction "name is called"?

Today, I heard Ana spontaneously say that as well while she and Evangeline were playing pretend. Evangeline pretended she didn't know her, and she replied "My name is called..." (which is very strange, because in real life I can't get either one of them to a. ask names or b. share their own names, not for love or money). She wasn't there when Evangeline said it that time, and I haven't heard Evangeline say it since (though she might have out of earshot).

So...

1. One of them is cribbing off the other?
2. Or there's another person they're copying?
3. Or this is actually becoming a much more common turn of phrase than I'd realized, and it's more widespread than any of us could've imagined?
4. Or they both misunderstood the normal rules for giving somebody's name in the same way?

Edit: I don't want to make a new post, so read this edit. Evangeline is in the habit of referring to the act of turning something right-side out as "insiding it out". I don't really pay it much attention, but today she made a really long sentence with that phrase that struck my fancy: I can't come now, wait, because I'm insiding the sleeve on my jacket out right now. Even if I were inclined to say "insiding out" I think I'd say "I'm insiding out my jacket sleeve" instead just to keep that verb more together.

Tags: 'cdotes, family, language
I'm feeling: cheerful

Today I came out with "You Take The High Road" and "Bonnie George Campbell" and... oh, some other songs which, in retrospect, were all Scottish.

She's been paying attention recently, and now she asks me questions about them. Like "So, the low road is shorter, that's why you'll get there before me, right?" and "But WHY did he never return? Did he get lost? He DIED? WHY DID HE DIE? How do you know he died?" and... oh, the other day she asked a very interesting one about "Who is it that is happy?" and I said it was me, and she wanted to know who it was in the song. She'd caught on to the idea that the person singing the song isn't necessarily the speaker in the song, which is a sophisticated idea, isn't it? It's disconcerting. Ana certainly never asked, and it took her until she was five to suddenly realize that Barbara Allen isn't exactly a laugh-a-minute. (Well, it is, but only once you realize how impossibly maudlin and absurd the whole scenario is.)

Here's a question for you. A lot of songs I sing aren't in exactly in the language I speak, either because they're old, or because they're from another part of the more-or-less-English-speaking world. Like Scotland. This leads to two problems:

1. Words that don't have meaning to me, or that have the *wrong* meaning to me, such as "resigned we may be to our greetin'", to me "greeting" doesn't in any way mean "weeping", even though I know that's what the song means.

2. Rhymes that don't. This is worse than the first category!

How does one deal with that? As I see it, I have a few options.

A. I can ignore it and sing it the way I'd say those words. This option hurts my ears.

B. I can fake the appropriate accent. This is not possible, and is patently absurd.

C. I can sing it the way I'd sing it, but say those words the way the rhyme and meter demand. This just sounds silly.

D. I can try for an appropriate (and poetic!) translation into my own dialect and sing that. This is what I generally do (folk process and all), but I get this vague feeling like it's wrong and if people heard me who knew the original they'd be shocked and horrified. And then my mind throws up phrases like "cultural appropriation" and, honestly, I feel ashamed to even say this, but I was happier when I didn't know what that meant (although I *still* had those guilty feelings about changing the words).

So mostly I go with E. which is "Do option D, but don't sing the songs where anybody can really hear you other than your family", which is unsatisfying.

What do you think?

Tags: 'cdotes, child development, daily stuff, family, music, thoughts
I'm feeling: happy

And after she broke it she came running up and said "Connie! I broke my stick with using my hand!"

This might be a simple error like people make all the time - starting to say "with my hand" but deciding mid-word to go with "using my hand" instead - except that I feel certain I've heard her use the "with verbing" construction before, if not very recently.

I like it a lot, actually :)

Tags: 'cdotes, child development, daily stuff, language
I'm feeling: cheerful

During dinner (tacos!), I got bored, so I started singing.

( This is a story that will get on everybody's nerves )

Overheard earlier today, while the cookies were baking and the girls were playing with their friend Sonia from down the block: "Ana, that's what I saided!" I'm not sure how Evangeline thinks of the verb "to say", but the past tense, for her, is clearly "saided". Or "sedded", even.

Tags: 'cdotes, daily stuff, language
I'm feeling: cheerful

She does. Evangeline is a very fluent speaker, moreso for her age than her sister, I think, but Ana communicates better, when she has a mind to. And she's better with conflicts than I think I've ever been, certainly when I was five!

A few weeks ago, for example, she was frustrated with her sister poking over her shoulder as she worked with her paper dolls - a toy that's largely off-limits to Evangeline because she's only three and might reasonably rip them (and anyway, they're Ana's). Instead of doing what I expected from her (and from any five year old, really), which is some combination of whining, screaming, tattling, and pushing, she did something innovative and very effective:

Evangeline: *shoveshovegrab*
Ana: *moving away slightly and turning her body*
Evangeline: ANA! YOU'RE BEING MEAN TO ME!
Ana: I'm sorry, but you can't just do that, I don't want to play with you when you do.
Evangeline: YOU'RE BEING MEAN TO ME!!!
Ana: *workworkwork*
Evangeline: You're being mean to me!
Ana: *workworkityworkwork*
Evangeline: You're being mean.
Ana: *workworkwork*
Evangeline: Can I see that? It's pretty.
Ana: Sure! Here, why don't you help me? You can't do *this*, but you can do *that*.
Evangeline: Okay.
Me: Uh....

I listened to it, and I've thought it over, and for the life of me I can't figure out why it worked. Some of it is Evangeline's more-or-less easygoing personality, but... I don't get it. And yet, it did work, and very well.

Yesterday, she was being chased at the playground by another girl, and she came up to me to tattle and get... I don't know, a hug? Advice? Me yelling at this child? Apparently the girl was chasing her and saying "mean things", but what mean things, I don't know. So we cycled through the options of "Don't chase me" and "I'll tell your mom" and "I don't like that", and finally I grit my teeth and suggested that if all else failed, she could pull a line like "I don't want to chase. That's silly" combined with turning her back on the girl and standing absolutely still. (They can't chase you if you're not running.)

As she was talking to me, the little girl came up, and, in fact - before I gave her that last bit of advice - Ana was already using it. The girl opened her mouth, and Ana turned around and didn't look at her. I *know* I didn't grasp that sort of body language subtlety at her age. There's no way. How does she know these things?

At any rate, some time later the girl came up to her again, and Ana turned to walk away without so much as deigning to reply to her, but the girl said "Wait" and started a civil conversation, something about if Ana could go down the bar slide or not. I was trying desperately to eavesdrop, but I just couldn't get a good spot, and when I did, Evangeline called for me. Grrr.

(Incidentally, I'm very firm with Ana that she mustn't tell lies unless she can tell good lies, which is apparently the same line my father gave me. "You always say that!" she says, and she's right, I *do* always say that. Why? Because it's damn good advice, that's why. If I say I bought something, and Ana says no, Daddy did and he plans to use it for dinner, I know one of us has to be lying and for sure it isn't me. The problem is that she *is* good at lying, she's very convincing. Fortunately, her lies are so a. predictable and b. over-the-top that she's still easily caught in them. She's bound to smarten up sooner or later, though.)

Tags: 'cdotes, child development, family, language, thoughts
I'm feeling: thoughtful

Today, she told me very seriously that since dragons don't exist (I had to put *something* in her lunch letter, so I told her about a dragon I saw, sue me!), princesses don't exist either. (I signed myself as the Pepper Princess, because she keeps teasing me that I always just sign my name.)

Well, I said, they do exist, and kings and queens and princes too.

She grudgingly agreed, but I'm not sure she believed me, because she repeated the line when she came home, and then said she wanted to see a picture of a prince.

Well, there are scads of royal families still around, so I called my mother and explained the situation and asked her to print out some pictures. But, I warned Ana, she's going to be disappointed, because kings and queens and all? They don't look like they do in the fairy tale books. (I still remember the first time I saw the king of Belgium (on TV), and I didn't even believe it! This was back when I still sorta thought that French speakers had to translate all their thoughts from English before speaking, and wasn't sure why they went through the effort, so I guess that puts me at about Ana's age at the time.)

Tags: 'cdotes, daily stuff, family
I'm feeling: cheerful

Right after picking up Ana. On our way to pick up Ana, I almost bumped Evangeline with our bag. The one FULL OF BOOKS. So I said sorry, because I wouldn't've wanted to hit her in the head with hardcovers. Ouch.

Evangeline: Sorry?
Me: Yeah, I almost hit you with the bag, and I'm sorry.
Evangeline: Oh, that's okay. But you wouldn't WANT to hit me with the bag.
Me: No, I wouldn't.
Evangeline: Because then I'd get 'mashed!
Me: Right, and I don't want to smash you.
Evangeline: I might die and then I'd never see Ana again!
Me: Uh... yeah, that could happen. That's right, that's what happens when you die. But hey, let's not talk about this. BECAUSE IT'S MORBID.
Evangeline: Yeah, I don't want to die!

Ana wants me to know she's (once again) invited to her best friend's house for a sleepover. We've been down this road before. "Is it okay with her mother?" "Weeeeeeell... she has to ask her. BUT I KNOW SHE'LL SAY YES!!!!!" (No, she won't. They're doing massive construction and the woman has two sick parents living with her. Forget that.) "PLEASE CAN I GO????" "Uh... IF her mother says yes then... uh... you-have-to-ask-your-parents!"

She and her sister spent quite some time the other day trying to convince me that I was their parent too. "But you're a grown-up, Connie!" Yes, I suppose I am, but that doesn't make me your parent, kidlets. "But you're our aunt! That makes you a parent!" I was torn between amused and annoyed that they were so persistent.

Tags: 'cdotes, daily stuff
I'm feeling: chipper

Read this one, for instance.

(I mean, I did other things too, of course, but some of it was spent just as I said!)

Today, just today, do you know what conversation I just had with Evangeline?

Me: You silly goose!
Her: My name isn't called Silly Goose!

And then, not minutes later, after she asked me to get her a cup of water...

Her: Connie? What is my name called?
Me: It's Evangeline.
Her: Oh! *giggle* And what... what is Ana's name?
Me: Elephant.
Her: NO! It's ANA! SILLY GOOSE!

So that's twice in as many minutes when she's pulled out "name is called". We don't listen to Handel's Messiah much. I mean, we would if we could, I love that work, but we don't because I've long since lost my CDs of it.

On the subject of language, just a few days ago over in linguaphiles somebody asked about language change, and I piped up that one way English seems to be changing in my lifetime (and it really sounds very recent to me, I don't remember this from even a few years back, though I accept that my memory might be flawed) is the (to me) weird way a lot of people make subjunctives. Instead of saying "If I had done such-and-fuch" a lot of people now are saying "If I would have done such-and-fuch".

Yesterday I bought this book. It's a fun little series - definitely fluff, and don't worry too much about characterization because it's not very rigid. But fun! And what do you know, near the end of the book, the nerdy hot guy (as compared to the macho hot guy - you know how mysteries can be....) comes out with a sentence using "If I would have...", just like that! I do believe this is the first time I've seen that in print. I folded down the page so I can find it later and show my mom.

Tags: 'cdotes, books, language, links
I'm feeling: cheerful

Last week, last Sunday, the niecelings and I went to the BCM for their program. They made hats, and we had lunch (and gosh are their food options expensive! I felt bad taking kosher sandwiches, but all the *other* sandwiches have cheese, and I reasoned that the kosher sandwiches are a service for those who need them, not just for Jewish people who need them... right?), and we hung out until the museum closed, and we came home, and my sister owed me $38 at the end of the day (not counting the stop by the museum store, which I paid for out of my own pocket).

I like how they look now that they've renovated, they really have a lot more space. But that's not the point of this entry.

On the way out, Evangeline went over the subway map, as is her wont, and excitedly pointed out "Taten Iyin", where we "yiv". (Her ability to read those maps is scary. She points out all sorts of places if I let her...!) At the museum I picked up a brochure, which I *thought* was a calendar, but which really was a list of other places in Brooklyn with a simplified map.

And I forgot about it.

This week, Evangeline found the map and did two interesting things. First, she filled in the spaces where you're supposed to write where you've already been with words. She would give me a word, I'd spell it, she'd pause, and then she'd ask me how to form each of the letters I'd spelled. Cool, right?

The other thing she did was look at the map. After identifying it as a map, and ascertaining it was a map of Brooklyn she looked carefully, found the Brooklyn Bridge, and declared that that was our bridge, the bridge that goes home, to Staten Island, and we live on Staten Island! (Of course, that's the Verrazano she meant, and the two bridges look nothing alike, not even on crude maps, but that's beside the point.)

I love that bridge. I used to look at it from our roof in Brooklyn, and it's plainly visible on our walk to/from the library and boat, as well as from the middle (I say top, we rarely go up further than that) of a certain hill where we are. (We can even see it from their mother's window, though none of us knew that until last year.) I'm glad to see Evangeline likes it too, she points it out when we walk by it :)

Tags: 'cdotes, daily stuff, nyc
I'm feeling: sleepy

Telling Evangeline that no, she can NOT kiss her own elbow. Oh, how she tried to prove me wrong! "Maybe if I do this. Maybe if I do that. Maybe if you help me. Hold it so I can kiss it!"

LOL. I'm mean, aren't I. (Well, she laughed too, so maybe not.)

Evangeline, for whatever reason, rarely cries or acts upset when she tumbles, even if it's actually what I would think of as a bad fall. (She also rarely falls in the expected way. For over a year she NEVER fell while standing on a chair, no matter how often well-meaning people would ask her to sit down, but she'd fall while sitting perfectly still at a rate of two or three times a month. Thankfully, she's outgrown this.) Today she slipped on the stairs, and plopped on her butt. Didn't fall or hurt herself, but I asked if she was all right, because that's what you do when people fall down. "I'm okay, Connie. I didn't hurt myself. Don't worry about it!"

I love hearing grown-up phrases and words coming out of little kids' mouths.

Actually is another one. I know I said that a lot as a kid. I know because I got teased for it, and made a concerted effort to stop. I don't think I succeeded, because both Ana and Evangeline were using this word by the age of three. My favorite from Eva? "Actually, Connie, it's called boogers, not just snot. You call it snot, but Granma says boogers."

A note on Ana's spelling: She doesn't really get the long and short vowel distinction. Banana today came out as "bnanu". She also has trouble with consonants before stops. Sounding out "held" runs huh... aitch. Eh, eh... ee. Duh, duh... dee! Or sometimes she'll go huh, el, duh and get hld instead. Hands might just as easily become hads. And of course any vowel + r combination is likely to end up with the vowel dropped, so hamper may become hapr. She'll outgrow it.

She was in a perfectly terrible mood today, and I'm irked because I even took her to the playground to celebrate the balmy weather and I left my book there (!!!!!) and honestly, with the length of the bus ride, I wouldn't've bothered if I'd known she'd grouch at me the whole time. Plus, her boots and her sister's are worthless. Neither of them keeps out damp very well, and Evangeline's don't even have decent traction :(

Tags: 'cdotes, daily stuff, language
I'm feeling: cheerful

It reveals so much, not just about how she speaks, but about how she *thinks* she speaks.

Like this word: Tiyrd. What is that? Tired, of course. I heard her sound it out - the y is consonantal, the r is... syllabic? Is that the word? Whatever, it's off making its own r sound. Because that's how she says the word, of course. (It's roughly how I say the word too, but I'd never write the y in there, even in a word I'd never seen spelled. Why? Because I know that ys don't just pop up in the middle of words, even if you say them.)

Button becomes btn. But apple becomes apul. Same vowel, but sometimes she writes it and sometimes she doesn't. I'm not sure of the logic. I *think* it has to do with the fact that in button that "u" sound (as she'd write it) is at the end of the vowel, but in apple it's more or less at the beginning, and she's been carefully taught that when she says the sound a consonant makes she shouldn't add a gratuitous "uh" at the end. B makes the b sound, not the BUH sound. (This ended one bit of confusion, but - if I'm right - has clearly started a whole OTHER bit of confusion instead.)

Pancake - the word of much pride - is inevitably "pancaek". She knows about silent e, and wants to cram it in there as soon as possible.

She puts a lot of ds and bs where I'd put ts and ps (and she reverses d and b a lot too, just to add to the fun!) because I guess she hears them as voiced when they're between vowels. I don't, and I don't think I say them that way either, but she does.

Edit: She still gets caught up on words like train and tree, by the way. I noticed it well before she started writing and reading, that she processed those words the way they're said - chrain, chree. But she doesn't know how to *write* the ch sound, and it annoys her. I keep telling her it's a t when you write it, but....

Tags: 'cdotes, child development, education, language
I'm feeling: cheerful

But I don't think she likes negative emotions. I don't really see her holding grudges like Ana has done, and she doesn't hold onto a bad mood for very long either. So her reaction to a little jealousy is very constructive: She gets an easy, repetitive book (like Brown Bear, Brown Bear), and declares that She Will Read It. And she sits down and recites the words, slowly and carefully, as though she really were learning to read. All she needs is for me to tell her the parts that change. I help her by acting surprised and going (as I do with Ana, it's an ongoing joke) "NO! Don't read! STOP READING ARGH!" as she "defies" me.

Ana at that age would just recite what she knew, guess at the rest, and have conversations with the characters in between times. She didn't want help at all. Evangeline, by contrast, wants to be RIGHT, and that means it has to be something she can do without having to guess.

Evangeline, by the way, consistently turns initial sw- into f. I think this is new, I'm sure she used to say simming instead of fimming.

Tags: 'cdotes, books, family
I'm feeling: cheerful

The man's apparently written a whole slew of books like this.

Very cute illustrations, very cute book.

Interestingly enough, when asked (on the scene where the other trucklings are teasing the baby plane) what the mom should do, Ana answered "Say 'You should go and fine a new family'".

Well, that is the hidden moral of this story. Good that she picked it up.

On the subject of books, I'm a fool. I thought Mo Willems had signed their books with their names, a picture of Piggie, and the word no!, which made no sense to me.

Overnight it occurred to me that, duh, that's his handwriting, he wrote "Mo!" which is, of course, his name.

That makes a lot more sense now.

Tags: 'cdotes, books, links
I'm feeling: blah

We haven't read it in nigh on half a year - Ana's pretty much forgotten the words.

Which is probably why, when she took it away from me, it took her thirty minutes to work her way through the book. Slowly, carefully, and she had a few stumbles (I had to explain to her how putting your finger under the words keeps you from losing your spot!), but she managed to read, to really read her way through 63 pages of appley goodness!

I'm so excited! (And I just can't hide it, you know!)

Oh, I was so happy to see them this morning. They've been upstate all week with their grandma, visiting. I missed them :(

Tags: 'cdotes, daily stuff, family
I'm feeling: happy

We baked cookies for Ana's teachers yesterday, and gave her main teacher two books (Cookies and Christmas Cookies, if you're curious - a bit of a splurge, but first year teaching in a new school? She's got to need to stock that library. I donated to the gift fund as well, so I think I'm covered!)

There were plenty left over for us, so today I packed four in Ana's lunch, explaining carefully (like she listened!) that one was for her and three were to share with her friends. "But there are 23 kids in my class!" "Yes, but you can only share with three of them. Deal."

That left three in the little container.

After breakfast, Evangeline asked if she could have some. Yes, I said, right after lunch. And looking in the box, without counting, she went "I can have two and you have one, right?"

I was so tickled I hugged her and agreed. Then later I realized I got totally played, because, hey, she's the child! I should get two! She should get one!

But I can reach the cookies stashed on top of the fridge...!

( Evangeline's daily lunch )

( For parity, a cute Ana-cdote )

Tags: 'cdotes, daily stuff, family
I'm feeling: cheerful

When Ana was three - and to an extent, even now - her knee-jerk response to a quick "ANA!" was "You're mean, I hate you, I'm not your FRIEND!" and a steadfast refusal for the whole time-out process. You put her in her room until she calmed down, and until she was calm she'd make SURE you knew she was upset. (NOT putting her in her room didn't work either. This way, at least one of us could keep our cool.)

Evangeline? Before you even start telling her not to do something it's "Sorry, Connie! I love you!" which is just as annoying (and harder to deal with) but oh, so much more pleasant. Send her to her room and she bounces out in five minutes with a big hug - and bounces back in because her toys are in there and she feels all better now, so she'll play, okay? When she wakes up early from her nap she does not sneak around and attempt to make the biggest, stickiest mess possible. She gets a toy... and goes back to bed!

Weird.

So, yesterday we were going to go out, but after they put their jackets on I nixed it on the grounds that the snow had become sleet. Sorry :( As a condolence prize, though, I said we could head upstairs and have chocolate milk, mmmmm, isn't that good?

We go upstairs and I say "Take off your jackets and put them away, and then you'll have your chocolate milk."

Ana refused. And refused. And when I told her again she said "Well, I just want to put it over *there*", and this finally culminated in "I always have to be good to get a treat." (Um... yes? That's why it's a treat? LOL, Ana!) I had to wait a few seconds before I could reply - it takes the weight off of your statements when you're laughing at her expense - but then I said, very firmly, that yes, that's how it works.

And it escalated from there, with comments that SHE would tell her MOMMY how I was being MEAN and SHE would tell her DADDY that I didn't give her CHOCOLATE MILK!

Right around there I put her in time-out until her Dad came home (well, I took her out of time-out after she calmed down, but she still had to sit at the table and not do much) and told her Dad all about it. She can not use "I'm telling my parents!" as a way to get out of behaving. It's absurd! (Not to mention that it's simply not gonna work. Really.)

I have no idea where she got the idea that this was a good idea, either. She's tried it before, but she's never stuck with it past the point where I put her in time-out. (And, to my knowledge, after calming down she's never told her parents I was mean for, you know, making her put her stuff away and all.)

She didn't get any treat, either.

Tags: 'cdotes, daily stuff
I'm feeling: frustrated

The other day she ran by three garbage cans, paused, and counted them: "Three, two, one!" She knew there were three there just by looking, she didn't need to count up first.

A few days later we were setting the table. We determined that we needed five plates, and that two of them were for kids. How many grown-ups? The normal way to figure this out would be to count each grown-up, but instead she held up her five fingers, took down two for her and her sister, and came to the same answer: Three! This is, of course, a far more sophisticated (and useful) way of doing that problem. Bright girl :)

Tags: 'cdotes, daily stuff
I'm feeling: happy