The girls are just zooming along these days. I can't believe my baby is almost not a baby anymore. And Nat is such a little person lately. Toddler-no-more.
Two Sundays ago, when I went to pick up Nat from the childcare room and take her down to the church service for communion, the rector's wife (who has years' of experience with little kids and runs the children's programming at church) asked me "hey, where does Nat got to preschool?"
"At my house" I told her.
"Well it's a shame you can't have other kids come over and do preschool at your house, too!" she declared. A nice commentary on the homeschool moment, for a change. I didn't ask her what Nat did to inspire her curiosity. So now I'm dying to know.
Nat's faces are getting a bit more recognizable these days. This is a good example. Up until recently, eyes, nose, mouth and ears were all just dots somewhere inside a big circle and the hair went all the way around.
Yesterday, we were sitting in the big leather chair in the living room and I was trying to watch the news, but Nat wasn't really letting me. We started playing a game with Nat's name. I signed "N-A-T" and Nat said "N-A-T, Nat!" then I went through every __-A-T combo word in the alphabet and Nat would "read" my fingerspelling and declare the word:
"B-A-T: Bat!"
"C-A-T: Cat!"
"H-A-T: Hat!"
etc. through all the words possible except "eat" which I didn't try. I was impressed. I didn't know she could do that. Kudos to Between the Lions, because heaven knows I'm not sitting her down and making her do reading exercises.
A few days ago, she surprised me when a little advertising postcard arrived in the mail and I let her have it. (She likes to have her own mail when we go down to check.) It was from a men's store where Cole buys shirts in D.C. They were having an underwear sale. There was this super homoerotic photo of two guys in their skivvies and it said "Some like it HOT!" Nat looks at the card, points to "hot" and sounds out "h-h-h-o-o-o-t-t-t: hot!" Her first word read all by herself on her own impulse (that I know about). On a boys' underwear ad. Heh.
Selina is just motoring all over the place these days. She's started to pull up this week and gets better at it by the hour. I think she'll be walking by her first birthday in three weeks (egads!). She gets sooo proud when she sees something she wants across the room and goes over, and by golly, just gets it! She will wave it in the air and giggle triumphantly (until Nat takes it away, of course).
She still (increasingly) loves to sing. After nearly a year of trying to rock her in my arms and sing her lullabies while she lays quietly against me (like Nat loves to do) and struggling with her about it, I have figured out that what she really wants to do before bed, is sit in my lap facing me and sing along with the lullabies. Unlike certain other children of mine, who I won't name, Selina has a natural sense of pitch and can almost copy my tone when we sing. If I actually work on it and sing a scale to her slowly, letting her adjust, she can get pretty darn close. She also dances the second she hears music and her rhythm is perfect. I do think she has a real gift in the music department. Fern says Selina's father was a singer and Fern loves to dance. She named Selina for Selena because she likes the music. We still haven't got around to watching that film, but we are looking forward to it.
(Mind you I do realize that pitch can be taught and I give Nat a short "lesson" almost every day, when I ask her to copy what I'm singing. We don't tell her anything but that her singing is wonderful and music is fun, and Nat has a great sense of rhythm when she dances, too. Both my kids will be musical. Selina just seems to be born with it a bit more so than Nat.)
Selina is also starting to say "mama" and mean me. She will also copy words when I ask her to. She has said "bite" and "Nat" and "Cole" in this way, though she has yet to utter those words voluntarily. She does have enough sophistication to say them, though. Second child notwithstanding, I do think she'll be talking more or less on target.
I have decided that if we can find someone who will teach little ones, Nat will be taking Capoeira in the fall. I like that it is a combination of dance and martial arts, and that the "bouts" I have seen don't include actual contact. It's more about skillful cooperative choreography than throwing someone down. Yet, if need be, I want to girls to be able to kick some butt. I also like that it is a New World, Black Atlantic, slave tradition. Might as well throw some good geography, history and politics in there, right?
Anyone out there have any Capoeira experiences in the Chicago area to share? Do tell.
