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| always colluding |
Raya: Mama, is Thumbelina real?
Me: I don't know. What do you think?
Raya: No, 'cause people don't come out of flowers.
Yesterday, she told me that Emma, her new friend at school, had told her a "made-up story."
Me: What was the story about?
Raya: She said Princess Leah spent a whole day admiring herself in the mirror.
Me: Does that sound like something a real person would do?
Raya: No!
Indeed, it doesn't. Oh, the innocence of children who have been sheltered from Disney.
A friend gave us a children's book that I love and Raya (kinda) likes. Called The Three Questions, it tells something like a Zen koan with a little boy as its main protagonist. The heart of the story is the boy's quest to answer three important questions: "When is the best time to do things? Who is the most important one? What is the right thing to do?" On the very first reading, before Rado had even reached the end, Raya declared that she had the answers:
When is the best time to do things? When you come back from school.
Who is the most important one? The President.
What is the right thing to do? Go to school and learn new stuff.
When her preschool teacher predicted that she'll make an excellent "school girl," there might have been some truth to the statement.
Regarding her new friend Emma, Raya has this to say: We're best friends. I'm maybe gonna marry her.
Yes, that is perfectly possible, I tell her. I remember Sava saying the exact same thing about Kyle at this age.
Given our recent house-hunting, it seemed prophetic when we got in the mail the latest edition of Click (our favorite 3-6 magazine), themed Under Construction. One story in it concerns weaver birds, who make the most amazing beehive-like nests out of sticks and grass. The male birds build the nests in the hope of attracting females, and if no females pick the nest, the males take it down and try again. When I asked Raya if that sounded like a good idea, she turned to Rado and chirped cheerfully:
Yes! Tata and Sava build, and me and mommy move in!
Yesterday, Phoebe and Malcie came over for a spontaneous visit, which over the past month or so has come to mean an intense group exercise in dress-up. I found the three of them trying to shoehorn their pudgy bodies in three footed pjs, and when I told Raya that she seemed to be outgrowing her set, she replied indignantly:
No, mommy, I'm ingrowing it!
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| what sour grass tastes like |
Rado took Raya to preschool this morning. The class was preparing for a visit from the dentist, so the teachers had taken out a puzzle-like toy where you removed parts from a clothed boy in order to reveal the organs underneath. Raya, lifting pieces and pointing at the various parts:
That's your intestines...And that's your brain...Hmm...It looks like your intestines!
So this is just stuff from the past few days. This is how much I hear if I make a point to pay attention AND write things down.
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| best playground ever |
:::
Sava's really enjoying books lately. We're planning a summer of much leisure and plenty of time to get bored and pick up a book in the absence of anything else going on.
We like bored, and we cultivate bored with pride.
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| sick day at our house; notice the baby in the car seat that's listening to the book |
We believe that children will read, at first, if they have nothing else to do, and later, as with healthy eating, they will turn to reading as their default mode in life.
Without time to become bored, children would never develop the habit to reach for a book and thus, very likely, will never develop a taste for imaginative literature.
:::
All sorts of other remnant tidbits. I love the dynamic of these group exercise photos in the park.
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| it's clear who carries the weight in this relationship |
Her upper body strength is stratospheric. I believe she might be able to lift an ox.
She also is fearless to the point of being reckless.
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| she got there all by herself; it is not exactly easy |
When we contemplate moving to another house that might not be in the same neighborhood, our hearts break at the prospect of losing this.
Truly, I don't know if life--a happy life--apart from these friends is possible.
:::
During moments of boredom, blocks
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| the cat in the stroller, his "best stuffed friend," is watching |
and trans-gender dress up also do the trick.
Also, while some day it might be possible to forget this, rainbow loom is an inextricable part of our lives. Here, Sava's days-long project of making Valentine bracelets for everybody in his class. Yes, the handwriting is his, too. Apparently, he has a knack for cursive.
You know those parenting books that tell you about milestones your child should be reaching at every age? Well, I have a new one for the books. Age FOUR: your child will spend ten minutes in Costco trying to talk you into buying her her very first pair of jeans. Thankfully, she doesn't know that they are called skinny.
Finally, also, a good shot of the fabled hat knit by Sava's auntie:
:::
The books also say that it is good for parents and children to engage in physical play on a regular basis.
To release energy and all.
Pillow fights seem to work pretty well. Everyone needs a bath after that.
Siblings get to pummel each other, and the parents don't get away unscathed either.
As the books advise, we also practice gentle and calming routines at bedtime.
:::
Two weekends ago, Raya set a personal best record in hiking. THREE whole miles without being carried for a single minute.
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| see the hideous doll in her pocket? it was NOT a gift from us |
It really really really helped that she had her "best friend" Katie to hold hands with the entire way.
So, the book's answer to those important questions?
"Remember then that there is only one important time, and that time is now. The most important one is always the one you are with. And the most important thing is to do good for the one who is standing at your side. For these, my dear boy, are the answer to what is most important in the world."
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