monster mouth

After that third one lost its place she woke up, looked in the mirror and came running gleefully into the bathroom where I was slowly coming to life as I splashed water on my face.
"I look like a MONSTER!!" she joyfully exclaimed.
She couldn't be happier.

The one remaining front tooth seems to have crept over to the middle (perhaps searching out its recently departed twin).  Today it's just hanging by a thread.  Not for long methinks...

Not for long.

number three

Ever seen a kid look so crazy happy with a bloody mouth?  This shot was taken about a minute after that tooth was yanked free with the help of a little corn on the cob last night.  She couldn't wait for school today to tell her classmates and teacher.  It's like there's some kind of competition going on in her kindergarten class.  I have more than once walked in and seen them with their fingers in a friends mouth trying to help them along.  One child tells me, "ALL my teeth are wiggly!"  (In reality I think none of them are and he can't bear the thought of that.)  This one of Naiya's has been loose since the beginning of the school year.  It only took 9 months to finally find its way to freedom.  Oh, the ecstasy!

one down, nineteen to go

That little guy had been wigglin' for a while.   We went camping over the weekend and after an ear of corn-on-the-cob it was barely clinging to its familiar home.  (Should you have a wiggler that needs moving along, might I recommend corn-on-the-cob?)  As we drove home the next day Naiya casually spoke up from the back seat, "Mommy, I think my tooth just fell out."

She says this is what makes her "big girl".  She tucked her special mini box under her pillow and fell asleep dreaming of fairies.  She didn't even want her usual nighttime snuggle.

In the morning she found the fairies had left a sprinkling of dust on the nightstand as well as a special stone bead and coin in exchange for her tiny tooth.

we've got a wiggler

Of the dental variety that is.  It came as a shock to me that Naiya has her first loose tooth!  I generally think of seven as "the change of teeth" and here we are with a wee five and three quarter year old with one bottom tooth a wigglin'.  I told her to stop messing with it (secretly hoping that the thing would maybe harden back into her gums). 
I'm not ready for the loosing of teeth.  (Am I the only one finding this aging of my child so disconcerting?)
My baby girl is growing up.

fairie fare

In preparation for the long anticipated arrival of the fairies in our garden on May Day, Naiya and I have been creating some tiny fairie nibbles.  While last year we used an old store of Super Sculpey to make dishes and serving ware, this year we're using Sculpey III, which is a colored version of the same oven-fire compound, to fill those platters with healthy goodness.  It's a fun and quick craft for kids who are able to roll balls and eggs and carrots without much help and, because the clay is already colored, there's no fussing with paint and all the surface protecting and clean-up that entails.

Naiya is at an interesting place in her imagination with this project.  It's seems very important to her to keep reminding me that the foods we make are not real, but she entertains the possibility that the Fairie Queen might magically make them real for herself and her friends before she actually eats them.

the razor

I'm not especially coordinated.  I tend to have a somewhat exaggerated fear of being hurt or even uncomfortable while pushing the limits of my body.  I'd rather lounge on the patio than bungee jump any day.  I can't dance.  I have absolutely no interest in extreme sports and hardly an interest in regular sport of any kind.  Also, I'm not good at learning things I'm not immediately good at.  I didn't learn how to ride a bike until I was ten and was always chosen last for team games in school.
Yeah, I was that kid.
I'm not proud of these facts.  I'm not especially ashamed of them either.  But I have given some thought to normalcy in childhood and the influence my lack of interest and my dis-abilities in this area might be having on my daughter (or might have in years to come).
She's not especially amenable to physical risk either.  She only climbs the lowest branches of the trees while her friends scale the heights and after struggling two or three times to ride her bike more than ten feet many months ago, she gave up and reacts unkindly to that contraption's infrequent reappearance.

That's why when a few weeks back she asked us for a scooter, Ryan and I started immediately searching them out and, after finding one on Cragslist for $10, gave it to her without it even being a special holiday or occasion. 

We like to encourage her adventurous and daring side at any opportunity.   (I know scooter riding is hardly daring to those of you with regular tree-climbing, monkey-bar-swinging kids, but we're working within differing confines here.)
We're on day three.
She's fallen a few times even though she barely lifts her foot off the ground.  Even so, she glows when she rides this thing - laughing and smiling as she putt, putt, putts down the sidewalk.  I think she thinks she's doing something absolutely amazing.
In my book, she totally is.
Maybe she'll be her father's daughter in this after all.

Go, my little Razor girl!  GO!!

things you need (or really don't) for kids

   I started reading blogs when I was a new parent.  I often felt like I didn't know what I was doing, was unsure of what my child needed (mostly in terms of material things) and, having never really been around small children, I was always wondering what would come next and the developmentally appropriate timing of her growth and movement as well as her emotional reactions and thought processes.

   The blogs I found were helpful and encouraging in so many ways.  In great part because I found that others were just as baffled and confused by these tiny beings they cared for so deeply (but, like me, just kept them thriving with basic intuition and all the love they had to give).  What the blogs also offered were some fundamentally simple approaches to trusting my own instincts and simplifying our entire lives.

   Over time, I felt released from the need to purchase all the paraphernalia the warehouse baby stores wanted to sell us and embraced the natural world as the wonderful play thing, teaching tool and provider that it is.  Our toys were stones and pine cones, leaves and sticks.  Our daughter also loves jar lids, pots and pans and all manner of wonderful objects that already existed in our home.  She used dishes we already had, clothes that were handed down and, for the most part, we made due with the plethora of appliances and whatnot that we already owned.  Children don't need much specialized equipment or toys to thrive I discovered. 

   Occasionally though, some item - a product we buy or something we make (like the work stand my dad built) will strike me as a valuable "thing" to have for a child at home.  Of course, for thousands of years people have done without these Things and certainly we'd survive just fine without them as well.  But they make our lives a little easier and, in this particular case, this object made a developmental leap rather enjoyable for both child and parents. 

   We've had this for over three years and I don't know why I've not mentioned it before.  We're actually at the point where we hardly use it anymore and are thinking of getting rid of it.  Perhaps that's what prompted me to share.  Yes friends... after that long rambling intro, the fabulous Thing I so want to make my personal contribution to the blogosphere with is... a Toilet Seat!

Once Naiya was able to use a step stool to climb onto our own toilet, we found this very convenient and rather attractive (compared to the character- laden plastic padded alternatives) built-in child's toilet seat.
It has that smaller opening that keeps her from falling in but is permanently attached so it never wandered out of the room to act as a rather unsanitary queen's crown or other imagined play thing.  It's easy to clean, doesn't take up any space and just looks like it belongs.

This particular model is made by Bemis and we got ours at Home Depot for around twenty bucks.  (I'm sure there are other brands and models based on the same concept.)

It's one of those innovative things I would never have thought we needed, but, man, I totally dig it and it has been an inspiration to many of our friends with children at home as well.

drawing day

 Thursday in our home is Drawing Day.

   As I've mentioned before, I have never "taught" Naiya how to draw.  I generally stay away from coloring books and don't instruct her on the how-to of figure rendering or architectural outline.  I do draw alongside her, but I have always been interested to see what would happen in her art if she were just given the tools and then been allowed to let color, movement and imagination be her ultimate guides.

   When we gave her a permanent dedicated art area in our home, her interest increased significantly as did the quantity of beautiful works she produced.  (She, of course, draws, paints and models wax on her own even when those activities are not a specified part of our daily rhythm.)  As in many homes, we've found a novel way to display a plethora of her lovely creations but struggle with what to do with the excess.  I have such a difficult time just throwing them away.

   It's been interesting to see her human forms evolve and then revert back to some previous stage.  (A while back the people had legs but they have now returned to the classic single peg.)  Sometimes they have heads and even faces; on other days they're simple stick crosses with hair.  Mostly she draws people, houses and gardens (both vegetable and flower).  I suppose that's because those are her primary interests and, having limited drawing skills myself, those are my own default subjects.
   One thing we've done that has inspired new subject matter and some interesting variations in her work is to change the size and shape of the paper on which she draws.  We make them long and skinny and lay those both horizontally and vertically or we cut triangles, circles, butterflies, pumpkins or even just odd organic forms.  When I give her a tiny, tiny piece of paper to draw on she squeals with delight and then laughs and laughs.  She loves drawing tiny pictures.

Vivid swirling radiant hues
Reds and yellows, greens and blues
From heart and mind down through my hand
On the page the colors land
Light and shadow then appear
Forming pictures bright and clear

mommy and daddy sitting in a tree...

K-I-S-S-I-N... Well, maybe if we were sitting on the same branch we would be kissing.  As it is, daddy is checking out the view from the branch above mine.  Our five chickens can't really fly so they sit on the lowest perch while Naiya watches us all with feet (or foot?) planted firmly on the ground.

alternate reality

It's like I'm living in some alternative world.

I don't know exactly how this occurred but as I was putting away dishes and making myself a cup of coffee just now, Naiya came in for second breakfast.  Only this time she didn't say, "Mommy, I'm hungry...what can I have?... Mommy, get my dish... Can you pour the juice?... Mommy, I need a napkin..."  Instead she pulled her kitchen stand over to the cupboard, found a bowl and a cup, put them on her shelf near the floor, poured a bowl of cereal, opened the refrigerator and filled both bowl and cup with milk, got a spoon from the drawer and walked outside to enjoy her meal in the garden.

I watched her silently dumbfounded through the entire process.  She didn't even look at me!

It was life changing.

the people have legs

Since part of what I do here in blogland is just keep a record of my lovely daughter as she does what she does and grows and changes each day, sometimes I like to record what's happening in her art.  Oddly, she's not in the past gotten very excited about drawing or painting.  I say oddly because I have presented an active opportunity for these things nearly every day since she was quite young and there are passive permanent areas in our home where she can color and draw any time she'd like.  Until a few moths ago, she mostly hadn't.

We did recently move the playroom and this new space has a kind of built-in desk where, right next to her chalk board, we set up her crayons and an array of papers and colored pencils in a more organized and inviting way.  Since then, she has embraced chalk drawing and coloring more frequently.  I don't know if I'd label her an art enthusiast just yet but I'd say we're moving in that direction.  Where she used to tire of these sorts of activities in less than three minutes, now she enters into them in her free play time and will sit with crayon or chalk for sometimes ten or twenty minutes before she excitedly comes to share her latest masterpiece.

What I never have done much of is instruct.  I draw and paint alongside her but I don't mandate or advise her on her work.  I also try to generally stay away from coloring books and pre-made pictures.  From the beginning, it has been fascinating to me just to see what she'll do on her own; for her to explore color and form from her own hand, through her own movement, thought and imagination. 

Likely these pictures she draws are of little interest to anyone but me.  (Although maybe one day some psychologist will infer interesting insights about her childhood experience through them.  Yeah..., probably not.) 

(This one is the three of us, grape vines, a house and fallen fruit.)

Anyhow, recently in her figure drawings, The People Have Legs.  This one is Naiya and her daddy.  (They used to look like this.)  It's new and I don't know what this really means developmentally.  There's probably a book out there somewhere that explains exactly what is happening in the child's consciousness, development and perception of the world when this remarkable transition takes place.  Who am I kidding?  There are probably several such books.

To me it's just enchanting and I'm endlessly intrigued by what her little hands, heart and mind produce.

words I say and sign - VII

This will be the last recorded entry of Naiya's language development.  It's just expanding too quickly for me to take note at this point, and I can no longer recall what is new and what isn't.  Other than vocabulary, she's also begun to speak in the possessive.  The ball is "Naiya's" and the cup is "Mommy's".  At a year and eight months I think we can already safely say we're going to have quite a talker on our hands.

June, 2008
necklace, sticker, blue, donkey, pants, upside down, boots, wha's da' (what's that), wow, goose/geese, kitty cat, puppy dog, six, eight, Nikki, bluebird, Gus, Hank, Paul, Mat, pink, sun, banana, lock, basketball, bucket, potty, blanket, bacon and butter

words I say and sign - VI

For May, 2008 we've got a lot of word perfecting going on in Naiya's speech as well as some word combining.  I'm having a harder time writing down all the new words I hear her say.  Those I recorded were the following:

nut, light, car, truck, whered'i'go?, Slade, Tim, fox, out, one-two-three, paw, Naiya!, mittens and Dude (always referring to our cat Frodo) 

This last one is the result of me trying not to scold our badly behaved cat with more savage words when he pees on something.  "Dude!" once escaped in a harsh expletive-like tone and Naiya has called him Dude ever since.

words I say and sign - V

For the month of April, 2008 we've added the following to our vocabulary:

rock, Opa, cookie, glasses, egg, poop, moon, stars, keys, pocket, Oma, pee, knock, close, oopsadaisy, pine cone, pear, cat food, treat and monkey

words I say and sign - IV

I'm not sure how long I'll continue keeping this language development record.  This month we added...

March, 2008
signs only: "cereal, please, rabbit, help"
says & signs: "baby, owl, hat"
says only: "auntie (erin), pants, apple, bottom, pooh (the bear), broccoli, ant, booby, binky, no, goat, chicken, down, pumpkin, flower, coat, frog"

words I say and sign - III

We're chatting up a storm with this month's additions.

February, 2008:
signs only: "cup, eat, book and mouse"
says & signs: "shoe, bath, dog and cat (she doesn't actually say cat, she says "meow")
says only: "hair, mouth, teeth, clock, spoon, moo (for cow), bear, juice, bubbles, cheese, snake, balm, mama!, fish, clock and sock"

words I say and sign - II

Continuing the record keeping of Naiya's vocabulary development, this month she added:

December, 2007:
signs only: "bath"
signs & says: "all done, more, milk, apple"
says only: "up, Golem (for all cats), balloon, belly button, nose, dada, hi, polar bear, eye, ear, all gone, squirrel and bird"

words I say and sign - I

For the sake of posterity, you know, for when she's five and she asks me, "Mommy, what was the first word I ever said?" I thought I'd keep a record of Naiya's language development. We're signing basic ASL signs to her pretty consistently and starting back in September, she exhibited her first comprehension and contextually correct usage of language. I also talk to her incessantly, mostly to keep myself company. Perhaps this will help with her acquisition as well.

September, 2007:
first sign: "finished" or "all done"
October, 2007:
first spoken word: "bye bye" (along with a wave)
November, 2007:
sign only: "milk"
say & sign: "duck"
say only: "ball, hot"