somewhat random Elena development notes

One of Elena's Christmas gifts was a new pre-K workbook. She really enjoys doing workbooks. At this point, she particularly likes tracing letters. She knows the sounds of some letters, but by no means most of them (I regularly hear her giving the sounds for O, T, C, and K. She's less consistent with P, Q, and A). She doesn't seem receptive to sounding out whole words, even when they consist of letters she's comfortable with. I'm sure it'll come, though.

She's getting better at identifying written numbers. She's been enjoying workbook activities that involve drawing a line from a number to a group of that number of items.

For the next workbook, though, we'll probably get one with tear-out pages and laminate them so that she can use an erasable marker and do them over and over (and we can save them for future kids...).

And while I'm thinking on this rather dry post which serves much as an internal family memo as to her schooling, she also traces out letters in sand. She's really into writing. She will spontaneously get something to write with and write out a bunch of the same letter (usually "o" or "t") and then show it to one of us, saying "I'm writing /t/'s!" (In general, we have her use the letter sounds rather than names to encourage the phoneme-grapheme connection.) She also pretends to write in cursive rather frequently.

Other developmental notes:

She seems to be past the abject defiance kick she was on for a while (Erich wrote about some of his struggles with this). She still gets time-outs, but they don't seem to be anywhere near as frequent, or as long.

That post a while ago where I wrote that she seemed to be weaning herself? Well, she hasn't nursed since before that post. She got to the point of spacing out nursing to over a week, then she just... stopped. And that was that. Like it was a complete non-issue. She never asks about it.

Her vocabulary is, of course, expanding at an immeasurable rate. But lately I've noticed a bloom in her social-nicety words. For example: Today I came home sick from work. She heard me come to the front door. When she saw me through the glass, she said, "Oh, hi!" Then she opened the door for me and said, "Come in!" She also does a lot more of "Would you like...?" and "May I please...?" without any prompting.

She has taken quite quickly to my brother, who's home from London for the holidays. He makes up lots of songs for her. He'll play his guitar and make up lyrics as she throws out things to sing about. She also imitates him by making up short songs of her own with silly lyrics.

She still has a broad pallet; she eats whatever we eat, and we eat a large variety of things. She does not prefer hotdogs and mac'n'cheese to sushi and vegetables. She generally wants to be eating whatever anyone else is eating--it encourages us to keep healthy habits. So when my father is eating eggs, she wants eggs (and eats them with gusto). When I'm eating shredded wheat with soy milk, that's what she'll have, too.

Tonight, she's going to a new years party with my parents. I'm sure she'll love it. Don't worry, they'll bring her home well before midnight. They're very attentive grandparents who can tell when she's getting tired.

Animal Sounds

Elena has informed us that dogs say "woof woof" and cats say "meow" and birds say "step up."

"Step up"? Birds say "step up"? Well, they do here. My parents have a parrot, and this is one of her favourite things to say--She says it when she wants to step up onto someone's hand. It is interesting to me that this has coloured Elena's perception of the sounds that birds in general make.

Elena has lots of questions...

We arrived at church Sunday morning, and Erich and I dashed off inside while my mother helped Elena get out of the car.

ER: Where Papa and Mama going?
Nonna: They're going inside so that they can sing.
ER: Why they're singing?
Nonna: Because they love God.
ER: I love God, too! I sing Holy God, Holy Mighty...

And she does. She sings along a lot in church. Sometimes, she even hums along in the byzantine tones when she doesn't know the words. But she still doesn't want to sing with the children's choir...

Some things are so simple to a 2 year old

ER: I'm married
Me: You're married??
ER: Yes, I'm married.
Me: You're not married. You don't have a husband.
ER: I'll go early in the morning to the store and get a husband and then I'll be married. When I get a husband I'll get married! When I get a husband at the store I usually get a husband. And then I'll be married!

Vanity

ER: I'm gorgeous
ER: I'm gorgeous I'm gorgeous I'm gorgeous!
Me: Who told you that?
ER: Nonna
ER: I'm gorgeous!
Me: Yeah, but don't let it go to your head.

Resurfacing Elena's Table, Part 2

So, it's the Saturday of Thanksgiving weekend -- a good time for projects. Given that I was up for hours with a headache last night (I think I got maybe 3 hours of sleep, but that's pushing it), it's a good day for some physical activity. I have a couple of projects just perfect for such an eventuality.

Due to lack of sleep, I'm sure I'll ramble and make several grammatical errors. I hope my editor friend Kathy will look past this. I'm sure I also made several woodworking errors. I hope my woodworking friend will give me a few gentle pointers. I can't quite figure out if it's relevant that my editor friend is married to my woodworking friend... must get more sleep.

So, anyway, one such project is resurfacing Elena's table. If you recall, last time I sanded down the table (by hand, with Elena's help) and applied a simple beeswax polish, letting the pine soak up the liquid wax, and then buffing it down. However, the polish did not stand up to wear, and stains were able to sink into the wood despite the beeswax. That sort of polish just is not the sort of thing for a toddler eating table.

So, this presents the perfect opportunity to get to know my jack plane. Dad had gotten me this plane back a couple years ago for making a few interior doors fit their frames, and I hadn't since had a good opportunity to hone my skills. The stains had sunk in deep, so even power sanding would take a while. The plane is perfect for the job. In theory.

So, I got it out and hardly remembered how to use it, let alone how to assemble and adjust it. After a half hour of fiddling with it, trying different things, and getting frustrated with cutting too deep or not cutting at all or jumping the plane across the surface of the table (called frogging), I consulted the online manuals (youtube).

Lesson #1 learned: how to assemble and adjust a jack plane.

So, now that I had a clue, I went out and had some good swipes. I was still catching my edge on occasion, so I definitely had some technique and fine tuning left to learn. But, ah! Long curly shavings of pine were twirling off of my hands. A truly beautiful... crunch. Uh oh.

I looked down and blinked a few times. How was that possible? A large piece on the edge of the table simply chipped right off. I could see ground where I should be seeing table. This was not good.

Upon further inspecting my mistake, it didn't seem too bad. If I could just plane down the rest of the table a quarter of an inch, then it would hardly be visible, right? The table top seemed thick enough to allow this. As to why this had happened, I thought it a freak of nature, and even if it weren't, I didn't have enough data to go on.

Adjusting my plane a bit shallower, I continued on, some of the rosy color having drained from my glasses. The shavings were coming off smoother now. This is how it's supposed to feel. Nice and smooth. Beautiful shavings curling... crunch crunch. Oh bother.

I could hardly stand to view my handiwork. I had taken a bigger chunk out of the opposite side of the table, this time having ripped off a section reaching all the way down the edge and out the bottom.

Now, if any of you have seen Meet the Robinsons, you would know that this failure would be cause for a big celebration. However, I'm not a Robinson, so I met this with chagrin and a deflated sense of misaccomplishment. But I was going to try and learn from this mistake.

Now, I know that you're supposed to plane and sand with the grain. I've known this since I was old enough to hold sandpaper, and my father would probably attest that I've had to relearn this several times since then. But this is the first time I've planed across a knot. Two knots, in fact. Two knots, both on the edges of the table, in fact. The grain in a knot goes down through the table, and being on the edge offered the knot a perfect opportunity for escape. All it needed was a little bump in the right direction, which I had just supplied. My plane would have had to have been extremely sharp, and fortunate, to have successfully shaved those knots.

Lesson #2 learned: Be careful when planing knots. In fact, don't. Plane around them and sand them down later.

I had now broken my daughter's lovely table, and my family's coffee table (same table). So I did what any self-respecting man should do: I took responsibility for my misdeed and fessed up.

After some incredulity that I was planing the table, Serena offered a good suggestion: glue the chips back on and sand it down.

Lesson #3 learned: Impartial bystanders can offer good suggestions. Swallowing pride can help reverse mistakes by seeking and accepting advice.

So, after finding the pieces, and confirming that I had hit the only two knots on the table, I planed off the rest of the stains and glued the chips back in. One of the chips was missing a bit, which I had to fill with a glue/woodshaving mix. So that's how you make particle board...

And now I'm waiting for it to dry so I can continue with that project. In the meanwhile, I have another one to go after. I'm making a pair of woolcombs to turn a 4.5 pound merino sheep's wool fleece into roving for spinning, with a top whorl drop spindle I also need to make. Why pay $100 when I can make a simple set of combs out of a 1x4 and some nails? Hopefully, that project won't be quite so eventful. But we'll see in an upcoming blog post!

It Rained!

Precipitation of any sort is quite rare here, as I'm sure you can imagine. So when it rained recently, Elena had a lot to say about it, and I took note of her monologue:

"Water in the air falling down? That's called rain. Rain is fresh. Fresh and yummy. It makes me feel better. Rain is fresh. It hits me in the mouth. It will fall in a cup and I will drink it. Rain is fresh water so I can drink it."

Actually, we're not sure it's drinkable, so Erich wants to collect some to test it for contaminants, since acid rain used to be a problem here (I think it's better now, though). Regardless, we're looking at setting up gutter barrels to collect the rain from the roof whenever the rain DOES come so that we can then save it to use in the garden. Water is valuable here, so why let it run down the streets, right?

Digestion

Elena has been learning lately about the digestive system. Now, when she eats, instead of talking about the food going into her stomach, she talks about it passing through her intestines. We're trying to help her understand where her poop comes from. She seems to be getting it. Regardless, it's fun to listen to her talk about the food in her "'testins."

Obedience

We've been expecting more from Elena lately. For example, more and more, if she makes a mess, we expect her to clean it up.

This is not always well received. Either she does it right away, or she refuses. We give her a time out until she does her part around here, but Elena is stubborn. Often, she'll end up in time out for 45 minutes or even an hour.

However, I'm finding that perhaps obedience isn't the core problem here. I take the opportunity to talk with Elena, if I can find her amidst her tears. Here's a conversation that just happened after Elena popped the knob off of one of Nonna's drawers:

ER: sob sob sob
Me: Elena, are you ready to put the knob up on the counter (we thought that would be enough -- she wouldn't be able to put it back on)
ER: sob sob sob
Me: Ok, you can stay in time out then.
ER: sob sob squirm. Hold me?
Me: After you get out of time out.
ER: sob sob sob
Me: What's wrong, honey?
ER: I'm scared
Me: You're scared? What are you scared of?
ER: I want to roooock
Me: Well, we can rock right after you put the knob back. Put the knob back and then we'll go rock.
ER: Watch Sesame Street?
Me: Yes, we can do that. Just put the knob back and then we'll go do that.

She hopped right down and tried to screw the knob back on. I got it started and she finished it up.

I'm suspecting that she's starting to freak out when she gets put into time out, because she thinks her concerns won't be listened to. Talking through her emotions with her is bringing better results than just purely disciplinary action, and it's helping her express her emotional state. In fact, it's interesting to watch her struggle to put words to what she's feeling. Often, when she's talked through what's happening inside, then she's willing to do as we've asked.

Gardening day addendum

Over the course of the past two days, I've gotten pretty close to getting done with my list! I've still got to pick the persimmons and make the lemonade. I've got a few more seedlings to plant. My onion and garlic sets are sprouting, but I hadn't understood there's a top and a bottom to those things, so I adjusted them a little. My broccoli seedings got pretty leggy because I hadn't gotten them into the sun quickly enough, so I'm planting a good bit of the stem on those to see if I can counteract that. I'm putting the carrots in by our preexisting tomatoes because, I hear, they grow well together.

As for the kiddo, she's sitting here beside me watching Winnie the Pooh. She's still not feeling well, complaining about her stomach not working. She's squirming uncomfortably, so I'm inclined to believe her.

Smart girl

Hanging off my arm:
"I'm very smaaaart"
"I'm very smaaaaaart"

"Who told you that, honey?"

"Grandpa"

Garden Day Today

It's a beautiful day out and much to do:

• Weed tomatoes
• Plant seedlings
• Pick tomatoes
• Watering
• Pick persimmons
• Pick lemons and make lemonade
• Take compost out to the garden
• Check on onion and garlic bulbs (why are they not sprouting?)
• Plant more seeds

We'll see how much of that we actually get done...

Sick girl

Elena, poor girl, has been a bit under the weather these past couple days, having vomited a couple times (she did again just today), and generally feeling a bit icky.

This morning within the course of an hour:
Elena poops
Elena poops again
Elena pooped yet again, though this time she didn't make it onto the toilet in time.

"My butt isn't working," she says.

Toddler hypothesis

Elena stands on a stool.
The stool rocks, being unsteady.
Elena gets off the stool.
Elena studies the stool.
Elena says,

"Why the stool rocking? Maybe it's bending."

The Prosphora Fiasco

This post doesn't have as much to do with Elena, but not everything has to be all about her.

We signed up to bake prosphora, which is the bread that is used for Eucharist at church. It has to be made with certain ingredients (flour, water, salt, and yeast), and it has a mold for the top of the loaf, called a "seal", kind of like a butter mold.

Well, it's been like five years since we've done this, and we were a little rusty. In fact, I had never done it at all -- it was all Serena before.

So we got started after Vespers on Saturday night. The bread was needed for the next morning, and already we were starting late, hoping to have had some done earlier in the day. We started into our first couple loaves (we needed five), and discovered our yeast was dead. A quick run to the store, and we have yeast. We got a couple more doughballs rising, putting them in the little oven on the "proof" setting. That, apparently, does nothing, because the oven generated no heat whatsoever.

So after some waiting, we get some dough balls we can start thinking about baking. We preheat the oven. We press in the seals (we have two -- ours and our mother-in-law's). We throw them in and start baking them. We thought we were pretty close to done.

Well, it turns out that that oven is broken, it would seem. It never got hotter than 150 degrees in there, even though it was set to 325. Ahh! Three of the loaves fell, becoming this gooey bread-doughy mess. We had to nearly start all over.

As we're getting more loaves going, it's becoming apparent that the seals aren't taking very well, and that some of the loaves cracked right through the seal during baking. So a couple more loaves...

While waiting for those to rise, I took three of the fallen dough goo-messes and mixed them all up, spreading out the goo on a cookie sheet, to make crackers (or something like crackers) with. I baked that at one of the fallen loaves. Well, it turns out that I should have greased the pan. As I looked at the underside of this somewhat-delicious-looking concoction, I notice some little shiny bits. It stripped off the non-stick coating on the pan! And that was one of my mother-in-law's pans. Whoops. I guess we'll have to get her a new one.

We also put together another loaf just to use up the extra yeast-water we had left over. Serena made that into a braided loaf, which turned out to be the most beautiful one of them all -- the very one we couldn't bring to church!

So we cooked like ten loaves using a full ten pounds of flour, and maybe had five usable ones by the end! We'll have to give the rest to the ducks.

Differing Agendas

One thing about having a two year old -- they're developing their own agenda. They want things to be done their way. They have favorites. They have likes and dislikes, preferences and anti-preferences.

But, my socially-oriented girl wants ME involved in EVERYTHING she does. If I'm not there, it's not worth doing. I got fed up with this about a week ago, and pushed back, insisting that I MUST have five minutes to myself. Not only do I have to check in at work here and there, I have to get at least some minimal amount of housework done. I insisted that she go play by herself (novel concept). She refused, and tensions escalated. She insists that I come and help her pee, which she can do perfectly well by herself. I got angry and upset, and blew up at her. She was afraid of the toilet for a few days after that.

So, later that night, I went googling for things like "independent play" and "entertain herself" and "won't leave me alone for five minutes". I was conflicted -- I want to be an involved father, involving her in everything. But not being able to get anything done for an entire day, literally not having five minutes to myself... there's something wrong with that picture. And I've been becoming concerned with how she doesn't find things independently interesting, often times. She has to have someone else involved. I want her to be curious and live in idea land for a little while at least.

Looking at similar experiences, I came to a couple conclusions:

1. It's not good for a child to have the world revolve around him/her. That's called spoiling, and I was headed in that direction.
2. It's good for a child to learn that people have agendas other than their own. Usually, that's called siblinghood.
3. If she wants to do something with me, she can participate in what I'm doing.
4. I can't play all day. I'm an adult with responsibilities. She can play all day.
5. It'll take some adjustment
   

This all comes together into my motto lately: If you want to be with me, that's fine. You can play over here by me, or you can help with what I'm doing (and I give her a specific way in which she can help or do a similar thing as me), or you can go play by yourself. She generally hates this and throws a fit, but she's being a leech and is not enjoying being unleeched. But I have to work before I play. And it's good for her to see that modeled.

There was one time last week where she was, in effect, threatening to pee on the floor unless I came into the bathroom to help, trying to manipulate me to do something with her. She had always called my bluff on this before -- the thought of her peeing on the floor was too distasteful to me to refuse, and I wanted to encourage her potty training. But she's been really good about toileting, being disturbed herself if she doesn't make it to the bathroom (which is rare). I calmly insisted that I needed to finish something urgent I was doing, and that she could pee by herself. Extremely and visibly conflicted, she peed on the floor in a flood of tears. I insisted that she clean up after herself. She ended up in timeout for a good half hour at least for that one. OK, two minutes are up. Are you going to pick up after yourself? No? OK, back in timeout. And I explained that blackmail is not an option. She eventually had to pee again, which she went to the bathroom to do, came back and cleaned up her pee, and then was proud of herself for going to the bathroom all by herself. Resilient little critters they are...

She doesn't recognize it yet, but already there's being positive effect. I'm not upset nearly so often, making both of us happier. I'm getting things done, which means that I can spend quality time doing other interesting chores like gardening with her. I feel better having some clear boundaries. And I still do things one-on-one with her.

Pre-K Workbook

I was at Barnes & Noble with Elena the other day, picking up a coloring book. We came out with a little more than I was expecting to get. Among the loot was a Pre-K workbook (Ages 4-5) with good initial writing, counting, sorting, etc... skills. Elena LOVES it. She traces the letters and numbers. When asked to circle matching things, she does so. And just today she started pointing out letters on the computer keyboard.

The Picture Famine continues...

Must find that camera...

Our Day Out

Having not had access to the car for a few weeks and needing to do a run to the hardware store, I decided Elena and I would go for a bike ride. The end goal: pick up a little lumber for making a base to a free, broken, sproingy horse and also to get some shellac for trying for a second time to refinish Elena's table (the beeswax, though it looked nice, hasn't held up to wear and tear -- I'm trying something with a little more of a moisture barrier. After a few hours of pumping up the tires, finding my keys, finding my wallet, finding Elena's helmet, finding the Chariot hitch, and so on, we got on our way.

Now this isn't just any bike ride, though. Our household is on the outskirts of town, up in the hills, whereas town is down in a valley. The ride to Home Depot was non-stop downhill for 5.1 miles, during which I became ever more apprehensive at the task of returning home. I became appreciative of Serena's ride to work, which does 7 miles of the same.

We got to Home Depot without incident. Elena had fallen asleep on the way there. I have no idea how kids can fall asleep with their heads dangling on their chests, going over big potholes and such. But I'm grateful.

We got in to Home Depot. I found the wood, and nothing quite so thick as I hoped, unless I wanted 2x4 quality wood, which I didn't. It was just as well, since the 1x4's I did get were the perfect size to bring back with me, and I couldn't have handled anything bigger. We asked for heat-shrink insulative plastic for the windows since it's been cooling off with it getting late in the year. They don't carry any here. Go figure. Crazy Californians.

We found the shellac, denatured alcohol (so THAT'S where you find it! I was looking for some for a pectin test in jam making) as a solvent for the shellac, should I need it. Got the wood, and some fluorescent pink mason twine for securing the wood. It turned out I needed a knife too, since I couldn't cut the twine with my keys, so I got a basic Leatherman, since it's been a while since we've seen ours.

During the 15-20 minutes during which I was hitching up the wood to the bike, one of the Home Depot electricians, out on a smoke break, came over and offered me some wire. It had to be quite a sight. I had these two boards stuck through the frame of our Chariot, one on the right and the other on the left, just inside of the wheels, hanging out a little on both the front and back side.

"I'm an electrician. We use wire to tie everything."
"Yeah, I know. I've known some electricians."
"Heck, we've even tied up people with wire."
(I raised my eyebrows at this)
"If we just drilled a hole in your board, we could loop some wire through it, and through one of the holes on the seat of your bike."
"Actually, I think I'm fine. I've got a nice rolling hitch going here in back, secured to a centeral post of the chariot, and then another rolling hitch in front. It's not likely to slip forwards or backwards. It's not hitting my bike tires or the chariot tires. It's a nice fluorescent pink, being quite visible, and it's not even sticking out much farther than my Chariot flag is anyway. I think I'm good. Thank you, though."

He still wouldn't let me leave without taking some wire, just in case I broke down.

Right before we left, Elena had to pee, so we rushed in and relieved her (YAY Elena! I love it that she's pretty well potty trained).

We went down the road a little to Subway and had lunch. We were both quite hungry. She ate about 3 inches worth of a tuna sub, plus chips and milk.

We went to the yarn store, and I picked up some circular #1 and #2 needles for a project I'm working on. Ive been working with the traditional one-sided needles, but the work is really too large for them, taking a fair bit of effort from me to keep the work from popping off the needles when I come to the end of a row.

Then we started the long, grueling climb back. Five miles, all uphill, climbing maybe a couple hundred feet in elevation. Elena sang to herself much of the way back. People walking on the sidewalk looked our way with smiles at the humming emanating from the Chariot as we just barely passed them, perhaps going 2 mph if we were lucky. I was in my lowest gear most of the way back, and it was still difficult.

We got about two thirds of the way up what now seemed like Everest, and I started walking my bike. It was faster than biking and used a different set of muscles, which I really needed at that point. It was still difficult. I was leaning into the handlebars, having worked up a glorious sweat, labouring at my climb, when along came couple bikers with white button down shirts and sidled up next to me. Mormons.

Without so much as a "Could we help you out with your burden there?" they launched into their have-you-read-the-book-of-Mormon script. Running through the prepared dialogue
seemed to be all they were interested in. Have I read the Bible? Yes, I'm an Orthodox Christian -- it's my job, I replied a little too flippantly perhaps. Had I read the Book of Mormon. Yes, some -- have you read the early Church Fathers? They didn't know who I was talking about. Was I interested in learning more about Mormonism. Not at this time, thank you. And they biked off, leaving me in their wake.

Well, I made it back. All in one piece. Tons of good exercise. Elena seemed to enjoy herself. We got the lumber and shellac, and some knitting needles. My rolling hitches held and worked beautifully. And work didn't try to contact me once during the couple hours we were gone. It was a grand success, I think.

And next time I know what to expect upon such an outing. :-)

Please love the bug.

She handed me an imaginary object and said, "It's a ladybug. Here you go."
me: "What's it's name?"
ER: "Fangin. Please love him."
me: "Love him?"
ER: "Yes. Don't eat him up."

Who's bigger than who?

Elena rode on my back yesterday and got a horsie ride. We haven't done that before, but she really had the hang of it -- she could hold on really well, and dismounted like a pro. She got off and got down on her hands and kness.

"You ride?"
"I can't honey. I'm too big, and I'd hurt your back."
"I'm big."
"Yes you are honey, but which one is bigger? You or me?"
"You're bigger."
"And which one is bigger, you or Mama?"
"I'M bigger!"

Hm...

We don't like telemarketers

I just overheard one of Elena's imaginary phone conversations:

Hello?
Uh huh
No, we don't want any.
What?
Don't call back. Bye.

Addendum to previous post

Then, in the evening, she put herself to sleep. I was rocking her when she turned to me and said "I need to go to bed now." She walked over, got in bed (in our bed with Erich working on his computer in the same room, but still) and slowly went to sleep. And that was that.

It seems like all of these major changes from baby to young girl all happen together. She is now potty trained. She hasn't nursed in weeks (I won't go so far as to say she's "weaned" and will never nurse again, but she's been moving that direction for a while now). And now she's starting to be able to go to bed without being rocked or having someone next to her. Crazy.

I'm pleased that we generally allowed her to move at her own pace with these things. They don't seem to have been sources of stress at all, either for her or for us. And just to make it clear to any of our readers who are more "mainstream" parents: No, it does not bother us to rock her. No, we did not see any reason to "train" her to sleep by herself earlier. It hasn't been inconvenient for us (quite the opposite, really). And I do not at all think that it has harmed her development or stunted her growing "independence" (though I do question whether independence should be a major goal of parenting).

Serena tries to step of the soapbox and trips. Typical.

60 to 0 in 5 seconds

Um, wow. One minute Elena's zooming around coloring in her little notepad. I go and IM a friend. The next minute, she's passed out asleep on the recliner. The surprise is still hitting me. She never goes to sleep by herself except for in the car. Granted, it's a couple hours past her normal nap time (she opted NOT to have one today). But... wow.

Cracking Eggs

Elena and Papa often cook together. Right now, they are baking banana bread. Elena is often put in charge of cracking the eggs into the mix. Unlike many other kids her age, she does not struggle with over-banging them. Rather, she makes a small crack on one end and carefully widens it to a hole. She then watches the albumen slowly seep out. Today, she was talking to it as it emerged: "Want to come out?"

Scary Movies

So, lately I've been rocking Elena to sleep while watching some show or movie. It gives us some wind-down cuddle time. We'll watch things like How It's Made or Modern Marvels. I had recorded some G-rated movies for this purpose too. Charlotte's Web was a big hit. Alice In Wonderland (Disney's) was good too. Ratatouille was good.

However, I, not thinking, started into perhaps the scariest movie for her at this age: An American Tail. Now you might be thinking, "Oh, well sure. It's the cats -- they're portrayed in a really scary way." Nope. It was something far more existentially disturbing to her: the thought of being lost from her Papa.

"Where's Papa??" she would ask.
"Fievel's looking for his Papa. He's going to keep trying until he finds his Papa."
"Where's Papa????" she would ask, tears coming into her eyes, her lip starting to curl. "He find his Papa??"

Fievel calling "Papa! Papa! Where are you?" and Papa not responding and not being there... this was a danger she understood quite clearly, it seems.

I would assure her that he would keep looking. I would point out when something good happened to Fievel. "Oh look! Fievel found a friend!" "Oh look! Fievel found someone who will help him look!" It was no good. The issue of Fievel not being able to find his papa was so deeply disturbing that the rest of the story didn't matter a jot. Of course, the suspense-building mechanism of having Fievel and his parents pass each other but not notice each other didn't help things either--it just reinforced the continuing fact of their separation. And it was obvious she wasn't going to sleep until this had resolved itself. Indeed she was quickly losing trust in my assurances that it would even resolve.

Realizing this, and wanting to restore her calm before she slept, I fast-forwarded to the reunion scene, and was glad this movie happened to have a happy ending. I made sure to drive home the point that Fievel found his papa and that they found him. They're very happy they found each other. It took a while for that to sink in. We had to watch all the way through the credits and a little more of Charlotte's Web before her everything-is-alright-in-the-world was restored.

Well, she's not going to go getting herself lost purposefully any time soon.

Ordered Play

We cleaned Elena's room in preparation for Zia Lina's arrival (Elena's staying in our room while Lina stays in Elena's room). Elena LOVES having a clean room. And she'll now put things away in her room and come to us and say "I cleaned!" It seems to me that when her room is clean, her play takes on a very orderly look. Above, she took out the crate of toys she wanted to use and carefully set large animals on the four sides, saying "Leopard is helping" and "Bear is helping," making sure that the animal could sit upright facing the crate. Each large animal had a smaller toy in its lap. I realize this doesn't make the most interesting of blog material, but I found it fascinating to watch and wanted a record of it.

French Braids

Elena's hair is long enough now for dual french braids. The picture is my first attempt. Hopefully both Erich and I will gain skill in this area...

Jokes

I think today was the first time Elena made a joke. She was putting on her shirt, and she went to put her head in the arm hole. "That's not right!" she says, while looking at me grinning, but also making sure I got the joke. She repeated this joke with the other holes on the shirt. What with the way she did it, the joke was actually quite funny.

A little later while playing with Elena's toys, I had her ducky which I was making quack. Quack quack quack quack quack quack. Quack? Quack quack. Elena brought over a bear. "Say hi!" she says. "Quack," I say. "No, say hi!" she says. "Quack, hi, quack, " I say. She laughed and gave me that look that says, "Haha funny joke silly dad."

There's some other way in which her communication seems more sophisticated today than yesterday, but I just can't quite put my finger on it.

Elena's social skills

Tonight at church, a woman came up to Elena and said, "You're so beautiful! Have you always been so beautiful, or did you have to work at it?" Elena immediately responded, "I have to work at it."

Yes, the worms are still alive

Apparently that's enough of a shock to some of you that I thought it newsworthy. Vive la vermi!

I hope she doesn't want it back...

Eating ice cream with Papa, he ate the last bite. She looked at him and said, matter-of-fact, "My ice cream is in your tummy."

"potty trained"?

Potty training has been a very, very gradual process for us. We started putting her on the toilet to do her business when she was 6 months old, and from then would generally be willing to go in the toilet if A. we put her on there and B. she had to go. About a year ago, she started consistently telling us before she had to poop so that we could put her on, so it's been a while since we've needed to deal much with poopy diapers. When we moved to CA in late June, we started having her hang out naked (from the waist down, at least) and she almost immediately began peeing in the toilet, as long as she was naked. At first, this was through her yelling "PEE!! PEE!! I NEED TO PEE!" and one of us rushing to her to get her on the toilet. Then, a couple of months ago, she started going by herself. She still frequently says, "I need to pee" and one of us will say, "You know what to do" and she'll get on the toilet by herself (she's not tall enough to turn on the lights, though...). Though this was great, for a while she would still wet herself if she was wearing anything (underwear, diaper, whatever). But more recently, she's been consistently telling us she has to go regardless what she's wearing, so we've been able to have her clothed much of the time with no problems. Though she has a harder time removing all the clothing and thus needs more help. And she is not yet able to re-clothe herself, so she's actually still naked a lot... But still! I feel much more able to call her "potty trained" now.

I wanted to make a comment about how she's finally able to wear clothes in time for winter, but it's October and the weather yesterday was still in the upper 90's, so... I think she'll be fine being naked for a good while. It's nice to be able to dress her in normal clothes to run errands or go to church, though.

Writing

I'm always skeptical when people tell me "Elena wrote a [insert letter]"--I think "sure, one of her scribbles may LOOK like a letter, but..."

This latest occurance is more difficult to ignore. Elena came to my mother and said, "See I made a fish...a golden fish....and I made an f for fish." Above is the picture.

No reunion for us...

Short story: I have been unable to find plane tickets to allow the three of us to travel to Iowa for less than the extremely-unreasonable price of $1,500.

I had really wanted to go to this year's Enke reunion. I've been a bit homesick for Iowa and I feel like I haven't seen the family in ages. And I think it's important getting to the reunions now and then. Particularly ones my parents are hosting. :-(

As a concession, at least I can be around for the groundbreaking ceremony at church. We're starting to build our new church building. I was really not supposed to miss that.

And what with Serena not having the day after Thanksgiving off as holiday (!) I don't know if we'll be out for Thanksgiving either. :-(

Note to self: Start booking Christmas flights stat. Start coordinating and planning stat stat and post haste.

Digging up the garden

We're putting in a winter garden. I'm going through preparing a new bed that hasn't been a garden before. That involves:

• Finding the sprinkler lines so I don't injure one while digging
• Breaking up this sandy, claysome, Californian soil
• Adding organic material to it (some non-fertilized, non-chemical, organic-food-safe soil from Home Depot) and mixing it all up
• Adding drip watering lines from the hose spigot, because the sprinklers will cease being useful once plant leaves are getting in the way
• Planting
• Mulching (to keep in the moisture -- very important here in the desert)

This should allow enough time for some of my seeds to germinate. I've been trying to grow seedlings in peat pellets. So far, with a couple exceptions, only my peas are sprouting. I may have to resort to store-bought plants. I had no idea how differently different seeds come out of dormancy. Some need cool temperatures. Some need to go through a frost first. Some need to go through a fire first. Some need to pass through the intestines of an animal first. Some need moderate cycling temperatures. Some are light or dark sensitive. ... So I understand now why the plants are more expensive than the seeds. It's not easy to germinate seeds, and once you have the seedlings, they're relatively easy from there.

But I don't have to worry about that until my new garden bed is ready.

Elena likes helping plant the seeds in the peat pellets, watering them, looking at the seedlings, digging holes in the garden, finding pipes in the ground (digging up the sprinkler system), and such. She's mildly enjoying the whole process so far.

Great kid

I've been nudged to update the blog, since I haven't in a while. Problem is, I haven't had much to blog about. Elena's been pretty boring lately.

Actually, I'm just kidding. She's not at all boring. :-P

But, I AM having difficulty finding something particularly bloggable. One thing from today sticks out though:

I had to go to the DMV, with Elena in tow. She was all happy there, not even asking to color or anything. She was just watching all the hustle and bustle. I leave when my number is called, and she tails behind me. I'm at the desk there doing my DMV business, she's right there standing looking around. She asked to be held so she could see above the counter. Not a problem with her at all.

We got home, and I had a horrendous headache. That, and being tired from waking up too early, and I laid down on the lower bunk in Elena's room. For the next hour and a half, I was alternatively relaxing, massaging my neck, and fading in and out of consciousness. All the while, Elena is laying right beside me playing with her stuffed Animal (muppets) and singing to herself. What a boon! I didn't have to worry about her at all. The best: when I finally got my head figured out and was waking up, she was falling asleep. I got up, and she conked out. I decided not to worry about her not having a diaper on -- I would wash the sheets if needed. It turns out she didn't wet the bed! Yay!

Now most people comment upon seeing Elena on what a well-behaved child she is, or how chill she is, or some such. For example, she has sat through an hour-long adult lecture with my grandparents just coloring away. And Serena and I have been able to chant in church for an hour while holding her because she caused so little fuss. But today seemed to be exceptional. What a great kid!

And yet, somehow, it isn't because she's passive. She definitely has her own mind on how she wants things to be done. Though she isn't the most adventurous sort -- she's pretty cautious like her father. I guess how I'd put it: she's peaceable and willing to negotiate.

No, I'm not pregnant

But Elena insists on singing,

"I'm getting a baby brother,
I'm getting a baby sister,
I'm getting a baby brother,
boing boing boing boing."

Worms, take 2

I killed our worms. It was just too hot for them outside, even in the shade. I looked up temperature ranges and found that 85 is really quite warm for them (I had previously thought that it had cooled down enough because the highs were in the low 90s instead of the low 100s). So the worms died and the fly larvae took over.

We ordered more worms and started over. This time, we're keeping them inside until it gets much cooler.

On the upside, starting over gave me a chance to try my hand at shredded-paper bedding as opposed to the coconut coir bedding that came with the worm farm. I'm hopeful it'll work out this time.

Hiding games

Me: Close your eyes!
ER: (shuts her eyes tight. very cute)
Me: (hides Pooh doll). OK! Open your eyes!
ER: (looks around, finds doll, squeals with delight)

now... the other way around:

ER: Close your eyes!
Me: (I close my eyes)
ER: OK! Find Pooh!
Me: Is he over h...
ER: He's right HERE! (she points to where Pooh is). Find him!
Me: (I obligingly find Pooh)
ER: (Laughs with delight)

Done repeatedly, she would never let me look somewhere other than where he was, and she'd only tolerate my inane searching for at most five seconds before telling me where Pooh was so I could find him.

She doesn't have Theory of Mind yet. That is, she isn't aware that I'm privy to a different set of information than she is... that I have a mind separate from hers. Theory of Mind generally develops around three to four years old. A similar psychological experiment includes trying to get a child to hide a piece of candy in one of her hands. A child too young doesn't understand what you can and can't see and merely tries to mimic procedure.

Navel out of order

I was giving Elena serious raspberries today on her tummy. I turned to give her another good one and found her belly covered by her hands.

ER: "My navel is closed!"

Scheming... a new era

Elena has, for some time now, been superb about doing her business in the toilet... as long as she's naked. I tried a different tactic today, for fear our daughter would never learn to be clothed. I offered her an additional piece of chocolate if she will go in the toilet even if she has undies on. Her eyes lit up.

Do you think you can do that?
Yes, nodnod.
...
I need to pee!
(hmm...) Ok, honey. You know what to do.
(scampering off...)

She got on the toilet and proceeded to try and grunt and push and heave a poopie out somehow. None came. She looks up at me. "Please leave?"

So you can say you peed when you didn't? And let you become aware that it's possible to do things behind my back? Um, no.

But the day is coming where she's going to pit her skills against ours.

Naming the Animals

Elena got a new stuffed animal lately. It's a replacement monkey for the monkey that Zoe (the boston terrier here) chewed up some time back.

Actually, that's kind of a funny story. That poor monkey had had literally its face chewed off. Elena found the monkey and became really disturbed. "Sick monkey?" Yes, honey. It's a very sick monkey.

So anyway, she's playing with Chimpbert (my monkey -- my employers gave him to me -- he's a code munkey) and her new monkey. A little dialogue ensued:

ER: "Monkey's name Chimpbert."
me: "Yes. What's your monkey's name?"
ER: "Monkey?"
me: "Yes. What's your monkey's name? My monkey's name is Chimpbert. Your monkey's name is..."
ER: "Mbumblatwofunisal"
me: "I'm sorry. What's its name?"
ER: "Barrn"
me: "Barrn?"
ER: "Yeah"
me: "Is Barrn a girl or a boy?"
ER: (confused) "monkey"
me: "Yes Barrn is a monkey..."
ER: "Name is Garin"
me: "What's that?"
ER: "Monkey's name is Garin"
me: "Right. Garin. I'm a boy, you're a girl. Chimbert's a boy. Is Garin a boy or a girl?"
ER: "You're a boy!"
me: "yes..."
ER: "I'm a girl!"
me: "yes..."
ER: "... Chimpbert's a monkey."
me: "Yes. Chimpbert is a boy monkey. Is Garin a boy monkey or a girl monkey?"
ER: "Girl monkey. He's a girl monkey."
me: "OK. She's a girl?"
ER: "Yeah! He's a girl!"
me: (um...)

And a couple days pass and now Garin's a boy. Go figure.

Must... laminate...

I've got to find our laminator. Haven't seen it since the move. There's materials that need made. Specifically, I'm looking to have a picture of something (like a cat) on one card, and then have on another card the label (cat). The vowels are in red of course, like any good Montessori teacher would do. :-)

... Oh. Never mind. It's right there.

Food Gathering Skillz

This girl has some powerful visual recognition going on. And a whopper of a memory. She'll remember where people left things. And she'll pipe up when we're making out the grocery list with things that we were intending to get.

We were out by the macadamia nut trees (the inlaws have three of them). I had the day previously shown her what a macadamia nut looks like in the husk. Most macadamia nut trees will drop their nuts when they're ripe. But you don't look for the nuts themselves, since there's shells like crazy from the thieving squirrels, and if you find one out of its husk, you have no idea how old it is.

Anyway, we were walking out to the trees and she says "I found one!" right away, pointing a ways off down the driveway. Sure enough, one had rolled down there. She remembered what to look for.

A couple days later, we were under the trees and had fairly well combed the ground for nuts. I was pretty confident we had almost all of them. I asked her, "Do you see any more?"
A second passes. "There's one!"

I look at where she's looking. She's looking up into the tree.
"Wait. Where, honey? Show me again."
"Right there!"

I got down so I could look up along her arm to where she was pointing. Sure enough, on a racime about 10 feet in the air were three macadamia nuts growing right on the tree.

Now, macadamia trees are the gangliest, bushiest trees I've seen in a while, and our trees are at the end of this particular round of nuts -- there aren't that many on them right now. Seeing them on the tree is quite difficult, and it doesn't help that the nuts' husks are green. It's much like a Where's Waldo exercise, but worse.

I explained that we weren't taking those because they aren't ready yet.

"Do you see any more?" One second passes. "There's one!"

And she had spotted another such racime, this time with one nut on it.

This happened a couple more times, just as fast. It takes me on average about 30 seconds to do the same thing.

Family Relations

Looking back over what has been posted, I didn't see one story that I thought deserved mention one story missed getting told.

Back a couple months ago, I was in the car with Lee and Loni and Elena, I think for our Mexico trip. Lee and Loni (my inlaws, if you didn't know) were talking about things being passed on through the generations, that I (Erich) might enjoy, my kids, or even my grandkids.

At this point Elena pipes up: "I'm going to have kids?"

My jaw about dropped to the floor. How'd she figure that out??

Order

Elena's showing signs of having developed her need for order, which was supposed to be starting sometime in her second year. She was super excited when I cleaned up her room, she is disturbed if something is keeping her from walking down the usual side of the stairway, she delights in routine, and is enjoying sorting activities.

This, of course, doesn't prevent her from being a human whirlwind, getting out everything in sight.

Carnivores

I was rocking Elena to sleep last week. We were watching Planet Earth. We hadn't seen Planet Earth for several months, so it's a bit fresh for us.

Well, we were watching this wolf chasing down this caribou calf.

ER: What it doing?
me: The wolf is chasing the caribou. He wants to eat it.
(the wolf got the caribou and bit in)
ER: (distressed) What it doing?
me: The wolf is eating the caribou.
ER: Nooo....

Sounding out words

Elena's not quite to the point yet of sounding out words by herself, but she is starting to join me in sounding out words, and she is now starting to find the sounds made by certain letters interesting.

Counting to 10... and beyond!

Yesterday, we were having fun counting her crayons. I discovered that she has now learned how to count to 10 all by herself. She's got 11 and 12 down too, but then forgets 13 and proceeds right on to 14. 15 is right out. After dabbling with 16 and 18, she bounces around the higher double digit numbers and then on into imaginary ones, for I either no longer hear them at that point, or they are a different breed of number than my reality holds.

I'm of no use to her anymore

I was laying on the floor in Elena's room. She comes over with a (empty) paintbrush and starts to doodle on my face. She had about the gentleness of a blender.

She gentled up after telling her. After a minute or so, she was done.

"I'm all done"

"Painting?" I ask.

"With you"

Veloci-raptor attack!

Or speedy raptor anyway.

I've been feeling a bit homesick lately for the Midwest, so I decided to make something for supper last night that was a staple for me growing up: tuna casserole. This has no relevance to the story, but in blogs you're allowed to be irrelevant.

We were outside, peaceably eating our dinner, watching the hummingbirds over the workshop and the other birds by the feeder. Then all the sudden we saw this big hawk (pretty sure it was a hawk of some sort) come in real low around the side of the workshop. After trying to snatch one of the birds off the perch of the birdfeeder and failing, the hawk and its quarry race off... right toward us! They flew right over our table!

I have an account!

I finally went and registered myself with blogspot.

This is news enough around here. Serena's been pushing me to do this for a while.

Overheard today...

"I'm not an elephant, I'm Elena!"

poor worms...

So, without thinking, I left the worm house where you see it in the picture instead of putting it in the shade. A number of worms tried desperately to escape from the heat, only to dehydrate and die on the pavement (Out of the frying pan into the fire?). But there's still plenty in the house. You can also tell it's hot in there for them because the worms were all concentrated along the edges. Apparently, when it's cold out, they'll move toward the middle because it's warmer there. That is, if it ever gets cooler here.

But it may happen! Today was the first day where the high was below 90F since we moved here! If we can get below 30C, I'll be a happy camper.

Worms!

Pictured is Elena with our new vermicomposting tray system. It is now set up and filled with worms! For those of you who are interested, here's a description of the process:

The worm house came with a block of coconut coir about five inches on a side. This is fibres from coconut all pressed together into a brick. We soaked this and it ballooned out to fill a large kitchen bowl. This is part of the worm "bedding." In the future, we'll be using shredded paper for bedding. We had also saved a small kitchen trash can full of kitchen scraps (vegetable peelings, etc). We mixed the scraps with the coir (squeezed out), plus a few handfulls of dirt (supposedly to seed our system with the bacteria that aid in decomposition). Then we added the worms, who swiftly climbed away from the light and into the scraps and bedding.

In the picture are only two trays of the five we have. Hopefully, the worms will process the food in the lowest tray for a while, then move up to the tray above where we will have added more food for them. The idea is that by the time we have put scraps on the top tray, the material in the bottom tray will be ready to harvest and relatively free of worms.

In with the scraps were some white larvae (of flies, I think). Most of them were in a little colony under the scraps bucket (there was a crack on the bottom where things leaked out), but I'm sure some of them got into the worm system. Does anyone know whether these are problematic?

Elena enjoyed the whole process, but she really doesn't like being dirty. She helped me squeeze some of the coir, but every time she immediately wanted her hands washed ("Mama, wash my hands!". She tolerated holding a worm for about three seconds before she wanted it out of her hand. These must be Erich's genes. With her interpersonal sensitivity, her ability to "behave" as the only child at an adult dinner party, her dislike for touching bugs and dirt, never mind the blond hair and taller-than-average stature... If I hadn't seen her emerge from my body, I'd wonder if she were related to me!

Our morning conversation

ER: "Mama?"
me: "Yes, Elena?"
ER: "Don't eat my poopie."
me: "Okay. I won't."

ER: "Papa?"
me: "What about Papa?"
ER: "Papa don't eat my poopie."
me: "I'll let him know."

New things

This morning, Elena woke up briefly, singing the ABC song. She got through about a third of it and fell back to sleep. When she woke up again a couple of hours later, she was singing the rest of it. At least when she's awake, she can get through the whole song by herself--and she's finally nailing the fifth at the beginning.

Elena is very helpful. She is pretty good about putting stuff away after she uses it and cleaning up after herself. For example, yesterday, she spilled some fish food on the floor. When I found her struggling to pick it all up piece by piece, I gave her my mom's floor sweeper and she did the whole sweeping up job herself.

She is also learning to peel garlic. Now that we're cooking with my parents, we go through a LOT of garlic. If there is garlic in a meal here (and there usually is!), it's always at least a full head. So that's a lot of peeling.

She's been getting interested in Spanish lately. She's learning it in a very second-language way, which is not at all my preference, but it's better than nothing, I suppose. She's picking up that everything in English has a "name" in Spanish, so she's been asking what it is. Ajo (garlic) and manzana (apple) are favourites. She's also been digging the colours--it's a total crackup to hear her say "ah-SOOOOL!!" (azul = blue).

As much as I can converse reasonably well in Spanish with an adult, I have a really hard time speaking Spanish with Elena. The sorts of things one says to a child are different, and often in command tense. I learn a LOT from listening to native Spanish speakers talking to children.

Next week, Erich and my mom take over the bulk of daytime childcare as I start work, so hopefully they'll be blogging as well.

Elena rides the ponies!

I took Elena to Market Night here in Redlands a few weeks back. She expressed a desire to ride the ponies, and I decided to risk paying for it. Historically, though she's been interested in activities like this (bouncy castle, etc), once I've paid for it, she balks and doesn't ever actually do it. But in this case, she was more than happy to follow the worker and get on the horse, without me even nearby. Though she wore a serious expression throughout, I think she genuinely enjoyed it because she has talked about it since and has asked more than once to do it again.

If only I could adjust the depth of field on my iphone camera...

Practice conversations

It's fascinating to listen to Elena talk to herself. She often seems to be practicing social interactions. For example, as she was walking through the backyard, she pointed to random things and said, "Please have this? Okay! Please have this? Okay! Please have this? No!"

She also can be heard saying "Thank you very much! You're welcome!" at random intervals.

Mexico with Samantha and Alistaire

After our trip to Mexico with Mercy, we headed south again with our friends Samantha and Alistaire. (The picture is Alistaire on the beach.) We had a very relaxing time. I took Elena to the beach every day before lunch and was able to read a pleasure book while she played in the sand. Elena also enjoyed interacting with Samantha and Alistaire, who became experts at making tunnels out of couch cushions.

Desire to read

Elena was paging through a book last night. She got a little upset, got my attention ("Look at me!"), and stated very deliberately and forcefully, "I can't read!"

I blinked a few times.

Staring into my eyes, again she says with even a little greater desire to communicate, "I.. can't.. read." It was bothering her this time.

I told her that we can learn to read.

She pointed to her book. "O. Another O. Two O's!"

Wow. She knew what she was talking about.

We'll have to take advantage of this while we can.

-- Erich

To clarify, she was actually saying the short vowel /0/ sound, not the letter name.

-Serena

Mexico with Mercy

Mercy took the initiative to get herself a passport so we could take her to Mexico. She got to try boogie boarding for the first time and enjoyed swimming in the ocean. Elena loved playing in the sand, running from waves, collecting shells, and other sorts of basic beachy activities. We also ate LOTS of mangoes, sometimes the mango-on-a-stick on the beach but more often mangoes at home from the local fruteria. Elena loves the mangoes and can easily polish off a whole one by herself.

I got to take a private, two-day course in Spanish which I found very useful. I practiced talking in Spanish about various issues in Psychology (sleep stages, parts of the brain, etc.), as well as getting some solid instruction on when and how to use the subjunctive. I'm excited for my next week-long immersion course in August. My hope is to someday be able to advertise myself as a Spanish-speaking, ASL-capable therapist. And then to live in an area where I can use both ASL and Spanish regularly... Well, that would be fantastic.

California with Mercy

One thing I love about Mercy is that she does not require fancy equipment to be entertained. She got great enjoyment out of swimming in the pool with Elena, picking oranges off of the tree and eating them (or making fresh orange juice!), and if there was ever a lull, she was perfectly content to read one of her books. Plus, she helped a ton with mundane moving tasks, which we greatly appreciated.

The Western Slope

We have moved from Colorado to California. We did so by driving a moving truck and our car separately, and we brought our dear friend Mercy with us. She's 13 years old and helped us with Elena on the drive and for a while after in California. On our way to California, we stopped at our friend Alexandra's farm on the western slope of Colorado.

Pictures:
Alexandra and Mercy on one of our walks on the farm; Mercy, with Elena enjoying running down the hill.

Breckenridge

In May, we went to Breckenridge with our friends the Kuhlmans. It was a wonderfully relaxing trip during which we learned to play Mahjong with the traditional Chinese rules. Elena was rather entertained by the Kuhlmans' then-4mo daughter, Ella. She displayed an interesting anti-jealousy: she would become upset if I were holding Ella and went to give her back to her mom, and she frequently asked me to nurse the baby.

The picture is Elena, on one of our many walks into town.

Imaginative play

Lately, Elena has been very into imaginative play with invisible objects (as opposed to imagining that her stuffed bear needs to be fed or whatnot). She will reach her hand into something (her pocket, a bag, etc.) and pull out an invisible Something. She hands it to me (or whoever) and says, "Want it?"
"Sure! What is it?"
Her answers have ranged from various foods (carrots, asparagus, ice cream... after which she'll ask, "Like it? Yummy? Very tasty?") to "Ladybug!" to, lately, "Present! Open it!"
Often, when I open the present, it's a book. She asks me to read it and I make up a story or imagine some pictures and talk about them. Just this morning, I opened her present and asked her what it was. She said, "Bible! Read it?"

Nothing like a two-year-old to test your scripture memorization.

New digs

We've arrived in California. I would like to say that we've "moved in," but I won't really feel that way until all the boxes are gone. Erich's working full time, so that leaves Elena and me to do the unpacking. Fortunately, there's a fully functioning household upstairs, so we have many conveniences (for example, we could cook even when our kitchen wasn't set up).

We've decided to have the smaller bedroom be "Elena's room," combining the office with the "adult" bedroom. As Elena grows, it gets harder and harder to all share a bed. We have a mattress on the floor next to our bed, and Elena has been perfectly contented to sleep there rather than on the big bed with us. Lately, though, since Erich's still been working when Elena goes to bed, I've been putting her down on the bunk bed. Last night, she slept through the night there (in fact, she's still asleep right now...). I don't mind having her sleep on the floor in our room (it's not like she snores, so as long as she's not kicking, it's no imposition), but it's nice to be able to put her to bed in the other room. I like the flexibility.

I'm also hoping that Elena will learn to swim while we're here. She loves being in the water, but doesn't like being held--she wants to stand or sit, period. Ojalá que ella aprenda nadar, poco a poco. And as I write this, I'm watching a rabbit hop around the pool area, which is an odd juxtaposition in my mind.

"Go to sleep?"

We've gotten into a routine since I've been home this summer: we go out for a late morning run or walk or bike ride and then we come home and Elena takes a nap. Elena goes down for her nap very easily when we do this (and sometimes she is asleep by the time we get home).

I never bring along my ipod on these walks, because Elena always wants to talk. We talk at length about all the stuff she sees and our plans for the day or week. Often, there comes a point where she'll break from whatever topic we're on to say, "Go to sleep?"
"That's fine, honey."
And then she does.

She also asks to go to sleep at times in the car. On the other side of things, sometimes when we're driving home I'll say, "It's time to go to sleep, Elena." Often, she says, "Okay," and then she does!

Whole Wheat Udon Noodles

Erich really enjoys making udon noodles from scratch. The last time he made them, I convinced him to use whole wheat (actually, he normally does that) and to make a bunch so we could dry them. These are the noodles drying.

Self-regulating toddler? What?

Elena was being upset on the bed because I wouldn't let her take her open cup of iced tea onto the bed. I was minding my own business folding laundry when she said, "top creaming?"
"What was that?"
"Stop screaming?"
Huh? "You want to stop screaming?"
Big nod.
"Okay, honey, you can stop screaming whenever you want."
At that, she calmed down and moved on to another activity. Odd, eh?

New Blog Location

Due to factors related to our moving, we will no longer be hosting our own blog. So this is the new location! Welcome!