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.