This Moment, March 30, 2012

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. 

What I am Loving Right Now

Right now I am loving my children's speech. They are both at different places in their speech development, and both are equally delightful. Penelope is a lover of words, and uses them very creatively. She is always stopping me while I read to her to ask what a word or a phrase means, she pauses movies to run and ask me what a character was talking about when they used an unfamiliar expression, and there is an urgency to her need to have these things explained. If I am in the middle of a conversation with another adult, or on the phone she will come to me saying "excuse me!" and I'll ask if it's important or tell her to wait just a minute. She usually has a very hard time being patient, and when I finally can pay attention to her and find out she wanted to know the definition of a word, I tell her that really wasn't important enough to interrupt me, it could have waited, she is angry. "It WAS important! I DIDN'T KNOW WHAT IT MEANT! I NEED to know what words mean!" Complete exasperation.

I love to listen to her "read" books right after we have been to the library. She uses words we don't usually use in our every day talking, but that are common in books. I hear her say things like, "he declared" or "she cried out" or "he responded" or "they exclaimed". I love the descriptive adjectives she uses when reading too. "It was a bright and beautiful morning", "across the misty meadow", "down the long and winding lane", "inside his safe and cozy den, safe from harm". She doesn't know the story yet, because we have just brought the books home, but she'll sit for an hour or more and "read" the books to herself, using the pictures, her imagination, and the vocabulary she has heard in other books. I have tried to get this on video to keep forever, but she stops reading if she sees me do it, and so I don't know if I'll ever get it. I really love it though, it is one of my favorite things.

I also love the things she says incorrectly. Like, she doesn't eat grilled cheese, it's girl cheese, as in "Will you make me a girl cheese sandwich, Mom?" Or yesterday morning when she asked me if I thought one of her friends liked to go to croissants. Our conversation went something like this...
Pen: Mom, do you think Kimmy likes to go to Croissants?
Me: Do you mean does Kimmy like to eat croissants?
Pen: NO! I mean does she like to GO to CROISSANTS!
Me: Umm...Like the kind of treat you sometimes get at the farmer's market?
Pen: NO! MOM! You are NOT listening to me, I'm talking about croissants!
Me: So am I, but I don't think we are talking about the same kind of croissants, is it a place to go eat?
Pen: NO! Mom, I can't believe you! You are doing this on purpose! You are making me SO MAD!!!
Me: Well I'm really confused, can you explain what it looks like, where it is, what we do there?
Pen: Mom, you know this. We go all the time in the summer. It's down by the water and we bring a picnic dinner and sit on a blanket and people play music on a big stage and we dance and get Del's lemonade and lots of people go and we see all our friends there! You know THE CROISSANTS!!!
Me: (finally seeing the light) Oh! The concerts! You mean the concerts!

And Violet is suddenly growing her vocabulary by about 10 words a day. It is amazing to watch. Today she put two words together for the first time. Penelope was trying to convince her to climb up a rock with her, and Violet didn't think it was a good idea and said "No rock". Penelope noticed that she used two words. "Did you hear that, Mom? She said no rock, just like a real talker!" And yesterday, because of the unseasonably warm weather, I let them wear their new flip flops. Violet called her's pip pops, and now that's what Pen and I are calling them. And my favorite of the week, yesterday at the zoo. Violet is very into naming things, and naming body parts on various bodies is a favorite activity. We were looking at the elephants, and Violet began pointing out and naming all the elephant's parts. "Back. Legs. Feet. Tail. Head. Eyes. Nose. Wings."  Wait a minute, wings? Where are the wings? And she proudly pointed to them. And there they were, sure enough, wings. Right where one would normally notice ears, but don't elephant ears just look exactly like wings?

So now I know that elephants have wings, I'll be wearing my pip pops this summer, and I'm sure I'll be making my way down to the croissants to hear music and have a Del's lemonade with my favorite girls in the world.

This Moment, March 23, 2012

 {this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. 

Family Hike in the Woods

Excited hiker taking off.

Slow and steady, with her bunny on her back.

Feeling the trees.

Steve trying to keep up with Pen, while I hung back with Vi.

The girls building a fairy house of sand and found objects.

Pig having a piggyback ride.

Pig

Penelope and Pig on a stump.

Penelope and Pig on a rock.

Violet as Puck

Throwing rocks in the pond.

Making a fairy house.

Cradle for a fairy babe.

Who needs toys when you have logs?

Vi looking for rocks.

Putting rocks around the fairy house.

Those are acorn caps stuffed with "cakes", the leftover banana muffins we brought.

Finished House

Pig and Bunny Num Num ready to head back.

All of us.

We went hiking at Massasoit State Park on Steve's last day of vacation. The two of us used to go there all the time. It's a little different with kids, but still fun. Penelope was very enthusiastic about it all. Violet wanted to hike too, not ride in the pack. I let her for a long time, going at a snail's pace and stopping to touch every leaf, stone, and tree. She was very much in the moment about it all, while Pen was all about what was just around the next bend.

Eventually I was able to get Vi into the pack, and she even napped a bit in there. Penelope kept posing pig and asking me to take her picture. There were lots of other hikers who brought their dogs, so the girls were thrilled with that, and Penelope even got to pet two horses and talk horse stuff with their riders. They were Pasa Finos, and of course, that is now Penelope's new favorite horse. One of the women told me that when a child begins their obsession with horses at such a young age, that means it's in their blood and she will be a horse woman. I already suspected this was true. She said to be glad, because when other girls were hanging out at the mall, Penelope would be working in the barn or out on her horse. She did have a point, but I'm still trying to deal with the fact that horseback riding lessons are $40 for a half hour. No lessons for Pen just yet. Hopefully someday, though.

We stopped by the pond for our lunch, and built a house for the fairies to find. Penelope and I started it, but soon Steve and Vi were working on it too. I hope the cakes we left in the acorn caps were enjoyed by someone. It was a really nice day, and I can't say how happy I am that my girls both love hiking too. I look forward to enjoying many more of these together.

This Moment, March 16, 2012

 {this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

Playing at the Park

Feeding Rocket

How cute is this animal?

Feeding a chubby goat.

Honey the Pony

Violet eating the food we brought for the animals.

Violet the pig and Violet the human sharing a moment.

Spectacular Boy

Pen on a unicorn.

The most amazing slide EVER!

Pen on the slide.

Vi heading down the slide.

Steve looking slightly terrorized.

Boat in the sandbox.

Best sandbox we've ever seen.

Vi having a snack.

Vi having another snack while riding a chicken.

We went to the World War1 Memorial Park in Attlborough yesterday. We'd been meaning to check it out for a long time. It's pretty cool. There are tons of playgrounds all over the place. My favorite part was the huge blue tunnel slide. We all went down it a couple times. And the sandbox was amazing too. It was huge and open, and the best part was the huge Adirondack chairs all around for the adults to sit in and enjoy the sun while the kids play.

The petting zoo was nice too. The animals were all clean and healthy looking, and so dear and gentle. You can bring your own apples and carrots, which we did, and both girls were in heaven feeding all the fuzzy beasties. I loved the darling pig old ladies best. Their names were Charlotte and Violet. Pen loved the horses and the deer and I think Violet loved the rooster the most. We had one moment of panic when I fed a darling old donkey a carrot piece and an apple slice before noticing the signs all around her saying NOT to feed her anything because she chokes. I waited in horror while she chewed for what seemed an eternity until she finally safely swallowed her forbidden treats.

We want to go back when the butterfly garden is blooming, it looks like it's something to see. And of course, the girls want to go visit and feed the animals again. I wouldn't mind a trip down that slide again, myself. It's all free too. It was a really fun day of play for all of us.

Pixies and Soccer Balls

Tree Nymph?

Penelope peeking through the fairy door.

Violet peeking through the fairy door.

We went to Colt Park for a dinner picnic last night. It was a little chilly for eating outside, but perfect for running around with a ball or hunting for fairy houses. I love the pictures I got of the girls in and around the old trees. We could hear peepers in the woods, and even though it was chilly, spring could definitely be felt in the air.