Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Halloween




A decided he wanted to be an orca for Halloween. A killer whale? you say. Like Shamu? the locals say. Yes, a killer whale, or as it is known in its less pejorative way here, an orca.

Naps for all small children and I sewed. My last iron was tossed haphazardly into a box in the move and the steam reservoir did not survive, so a new iron was purchased last weekend. It's a fancy Rowenta and I can honestly say I've never felt this way about an iron before. It irons like a happy five-hundred-degree slice of heaven; I feel like I should have Snow-White-esque woodland animals holding up my skirts as I iron.

I got most of the costume together, which only meant two trips to the dreaded Joann's fabrics. I have not placed the all-important white spots on either side of the orca's head, nor have I put the actual eyes in place. And I was debating whether or not the costume looked like a sixth grader's craft project and whether I should resew some seams or rethink the entire configuration, when my darling husband said to me, "He doesn't care. All he will remember is that he wanted to be an orca and his mommy made him an orca costume." So then I felt better. I'm a mommy who made her kid a costume, yay!

The orca's just one of several projects going here, but next week C is off for comp time for the awfulness that were the 70-to-80 hour workweeks and we'll get traction, I swear. Now I just need to get L and A together for a little mommy-indulgent Halloween photo shoot...

[Edited to add images: boy as orca, brothers as Calvin and Hobbes. Enjoy!]

Thursday, October 14, 2010

Vowels and consonants

We've started teaching A to read. Well, not true. We've been reading to him since he came home from the hospital, and that's part of teaching A to read. I read from early, early and don't remember learning to read, so I just assumed A would have picked it up by now because we read all the time. I'm surprised L doesn't read yet either.

Then I realized, hmm, maybe I'm a little naive about these things.

His pre-K teacher told me, "A's got a memory I can't believe. That kid remembers everything." They were learning new songs, and A knew all the words before the teachers. He's interested in words, books, and songs, and he's got a good memory. Time to read.

So I got a book on teaching reading through phonics, since C learned phonics and his guesses on pronunciation of new words are more to the mark than mine. The book we have talks about the difference between consonants and vowels, as well as the different types of consonant sounds (voiced, unvoiced, nasal). I thought this was a little much but lo and behold, he was able to differentiate for me between the different types. ("That one doesn't need air, Mommy.")

We're up to M now. Now everything that has words is "Look, there are some vowels and consonants on there!" Not letters. Not words. Vowels and consonants.

We've had a couple instances where I'm not sure if he was reading or just memorized something. I'm guessing memorization since his Pre-K has an extensive library and so I don't know all the books he's read. When we actually finish the book, it's going to be difficult to get a book the Pre-K doesn't have to test him.

Mama, hi, A!

Baby L has been saying, "Mama, mama, mama," when he's hungry or when I am not nearby, so we're getting pretty close to calling that his official first word. He's been sick and unhappy, but he's getting better, which always makes me remember how cheery and happy he is by nature. When he's not sick, he's one of the happy generation. When he is sick, I think he's how most people walk around in the world.

But now he's got words popping out all over. He signs for milk, just like his brother did. (It's important to be able to get food.) Yesterday, while we were playing, "How big is L? So big!" over and over again, he stopped to wave at me and say, "Hi!"

This morning, C called out the window to A, who was in the backyard, "Hey, A?" and baby L said, "Aaaaaaaaaa-ay." Someone told me that the first baby's first word is, "Mama," and the second baby's first word is the first baby's name, since it's the word he hears the most. We'll see if he repeats it.

Friday, October 01, 2010