A Word Explosion

Calliope decided on Tuesday that she talks now. Quite suddenly, she's gone from just a handful of words (see previous post) to indiscriminate talking. She's gone from a girl who'd say, "No" every time we asked her if she could say something to saying pretty much everything. To wit:
towel
marshmallow
Water in it (waddy innit)
I'm all done
Get up lazy daddy (ok, he taught her that one)
You get out
Where is it?
I don't know

And my favorite...
Hold me tight

Oh, Gifts

Well after numerous inquiries about what the girls are into with Christmas looming and all, I thought I'd just put the answer here.

Firstly, nothing, or a card or note are just fine. They love getting mail and both of them have little photo albums if you have a photo, so...

Secondly, 529s (their college funds) are a safe bet with their parents while the girls are young enough not to really know the difference. $10 in a college today will be like a million dollars (we hope) when they're ready for school.

Thirdly, well really none of that is much fun. To that end, we are expecting Santa to bring Clementine a dollhouse for Christmas, specifically this one. He will probably also bring a bedroom set and living room set, but no dolls, pets, bathroom, kitchen, children's room, etc. She is also very, very happy with books, and lately she has been listening to whole chapters of more grown-up books. In fact, she recently listened all the way through Little House on the Prairie, but also loves picture books.

Calliope is interested in puzzles, and has mastered all of hers, all of the schools, and all of Clementine's puzzles. She is particularly interested in order right now and can spend a considerable amount of time smoothing blankets over babies, or just smoothing a piece of fabric on the couch. To that end, I have it on good authority that Santa will be bringing her a doll crib. She has a doll with a potty seat and she and Clementine have a little stroller, but that's it doll-accessory-wise. Calliope is also an avid reader these days, and a fan of owls.

Again, we're having a pretty modest holiday this year due to the economy, and expect that everyone else is in the same boat. The girls will just be excited to hear from their friends and family, and at this age especially can't possibly be disappointed by Christmas no matter what it brings, as long as we are together and I throw a few cookies in the oven, sing some Christmas carols, and we tell them how much we love them. We'll start a new tradition! Love notes at Christmas!

Big Days...

Open Gym, with Static, originally uploaded by audcrane.

...both good and bad.

Calliope has been working on "potty learning," as we enlightened parents are supposed to say these days. It's been about a month I'd guess. Monday she had an accident in the car on the way to school, but that was here only accident all day!! Woo hoo!! Today she had 3, so it comes and goes, but even 3 isn't bad. I think this is just as time-consuming as it was with Clementine, but our expectations are more realistic and we're expecting it to be a long process instead of a few days.

In similar woo-hoo news, Clementine autonomously decided last night to clean her room. And then she DID IT. The whole room. Just awesome. And strange, as she's been pretty difficult in the last few weeks.

On the other hand, on top of bad colds we've had our first run-in with pink eye. Clementine had it Friday night, and just when we thought we were clear, Calliope came up with it today. We're on top of it now, and medicated her quickly, so hopefully it won't be a big issue. Clementine has a horrible dry cough which only comes up at night, which is keeping us all up, alas.

She had a quite odd incident today. Picking her up from preschool a teacher told me she was standing in front of the toilet looking at it. The teacher asked her what was up and she said she'd had an accident. Then she proceeded to have an accident. Now that I write this, it seems clear she was looking for a little attention. The strangest part, though, was when I asked her about it. She told me that her "body told her to do it." As in, "I looked at it, and my body just said, 'It's ok, you can do it here.'" She actually referred to her body as a 'he' too, which is weird because everything is a she. She's also having accidents at night most nights, and has for a month or so. It's yet another sleep interruption but we don't make a big deal out of it. I'm hoping that as Calliope progresses and the whole potty thing isn't a source of lots of time and attention it will get better.

Finally, Ryan and I spent our first ever night away from the girls. My morning sickness started back in May of 2004, so it's been that long since we've been together without a child influencing our time. Holy smokes. We saw Leo Kottke and Loudon Wainright (M*A*S*H!) and stayed at a very lovely local place called Nobody's Inn. It was a total of only 15 hours, but it was pretty nice. I suppose in 4 1/2 more years it will be a lot easier as the girls will be able to sleep over elsewhere as opposed to paying a babysitter. But until then, I'll take a night like that once or twice a year!

The Books of Our Fathers

So Ryan and I both have these big fat books from childhood which I personally hate reading and of course Clementine loves. Firstly, the stories are SO long (so kudos to our parents for reading them at all), but secondly, they're sort of horrible.

Mine is Walt Disney's Story Land, copyright 1962. It includes abbreviated versions of 55 old Walk Disney movies and cartoons, from The Adventures of Mister Toad to Uncle Remus, and including Cinderella, Snow White, etc. etc. The women in these old stories are unbelievably helpless. The one that bugs me the most from this book, probably because it's the one Clementine wants to read the most, is 101 Dalmations. All that any of the female characters can manage to do in this book is fret and feel helpless and call for help. The sum total of their dialog in the book:
"What will we do?"
"Oh, Pongo," wailed Perdy. "I'm afraid it's no use. There's been no answer for..."
"Pongo," she wept, "I'm afraid we're lost."
"Pongo, look!" said Perdita. "There's Cruella!"
"It can't be!" she screamed. "It's impossible! Horace! Jasper! Come here, quickly!"
"Pongo! It's her! It's Cruella!" cried Perdita.
"Oh," she sobbed furiously. "I give up!"
"What will we do with all of them?" gasped Anita.

And then of course, said not by, but about, women, "Crazy woman driver!" Mind you, I'm not picking and choosing here, this is ALL of the female characters' dialog over 10 pages of story.

Male characters, on the other hand, say things like:
"I have a plan."
"It can't be far."
"I've got an idea."
"We made it."



Ryan's book is Best Loved Fairy Tales published by Parents' Magazine in 1974. It very helpful features illustrations on the table of contents from stories not included in the book, which is easy to explain to a 3-year-old who is dying to read "the crying pig one". It has an older version of Snow White, and I'm sorry but this chick was downright stupid. Seriously. The witch comes back no less than 3 times, and each time the kindly male protectors for whom she cooks and cleans save her and tell her not to be stupid again, and then she does it again! I mean, come on! And then of course a prince comes to save her ultimately. Give me the Little Mermaid any day! You save me, I'll save you, we'll be a good team. Not, "Help me, oh dear, I'm so stupid I can barely manage the mental effort to breathe!"

The illustrations are clearly gathered from various places and some are quite charming and others hideous, being obviously wood cuts or something and in this printing nearly unintelligible. It's also written by many different people and some of the stories are fine, if violent, but some are just as bad as the wood cuts. To whit:

"There was once an ass whose master made made him carry sacks to the mill for many a long year, but whose strength began at last to fail, so that each day as it came found him less capable of work. Then his master began to think of turning him out, but the ass, guessing that something wasw in the wind that boded him no good, ran away, taking the road to Bremen; for there he thought he might get an engagement as town musician."

You will have noted that paragraph was only two sentences, and probably not as clear as it could be for a 3 1/2 year old, even one as well-spoken as ours. So as I read, I translate:

There was a donkey who had worked very hard his whole life and was getting old and tired. When he began to worry that his master was going to make him leave, he decided to run away. He was going to a town called Bremen to be a musician.

This translating while reading is tiring, but also a pretty interesting exercise. Of course someday our children will be amused by the books we're reading them now. But not without precedent, darn it!

Fall Leaves

Fall Leaves, originally uploaded by audcrane.

Well, here I finally am! My only excuse is that I have been quite busy with work, which is really good news considering the economy -- make hay while the sun shines, as they say! Ryan has been quite busy too, although I guess that's neither here nor there as I think the only blog post he's ever written was when Calliope was born (admittedly, an important post!).

On the Calliope front, she started preschool / day care in September. It was a little hard, but not as difficult as it was with Clementine. Partially that's me, and partially that's just that she is a much more independent little thing. She goes three days a week, and even naps there on a mat. I'd have bet you dollars to donuts that she wouldn't voluntarily sleep when not physically restrained, but sure enough, she does. It's a Montessori school, and has fewer, nicer toys than your average school. Calliope eats with her friends at a little table just her size. They all have (not sippy) cups, napkins, plates and flatware. The entire school has only 11 children; Calliope's room has 5 toddlers total. It's nice to see her interacting with kids her age as she's normally surrounded by children Clementine's age.

Calliope is talking a little bit. Her vocabulary includes: Mama, Dada, blue, yellow, red, ear, eye, nose, mouth, ball, bunny, meow, this, that, up, down, on, off, in, out, yes (often mm-hm), no (often uh-uh), bath, baby, cow, owie, me, my, mine. She does not, interestingly, say Clementine or anything like sister. She walks, runs, and LOVES climbing. She impressed the attendant at the gym when she (with help of course) climbed up a thick 10' mat that was leaned against the wall, then turned around and slid down. It's nice to be the parent of a second child; Clementine doing that would have freaked me out! Calliope has an interesting penchant for trying to pick up more than she can possibly carry (hm, I wonder where she gets that?). I'll try to get a shot of that sometime, it's pretty cute.

On the compliments front, Clementine's dance teacher called her "a natural"! Of course we cannot take these things too seriously. But she said she liked Clementine's flexibility, sense of space, and balance. >gush< Her language skills continue to amaze. She is asking us things like, "Are you positive?" and "I have two things to tell you: First..." We've found 3 1/2 to be more difficult than any other age so far (well, except the first few weeks). We've started trying to apply the ideas from !-2-3 Magic, which is pretty no-nonsense and is working better for everyone, especially as I'm not the perfectly patient mommy I wish I was. :) Clementine is going to a different school, DELC, which we love and she likes very much too. She has started asking to go in to school by herself, which makes me think about her turning four in March(!), which makes me think of kindergarten. Holy geez.

We are all pretty excited about the election -- have been bringing food in to the DELC headquarters and are looking forward to a big party tomorrow down at The Abbey when our guy wins. What a relief that will be from the last 8 years!

Well, now that I've caught you all up a little, it will be easier for me to do a little more blogging! And I have uploaded tons of photos on Flickr, so get your fill of cuteness!