If I Had to Choose a Favorite Bug....

It's not that I hate bees, wasps, hornets, or anything that has the ability to sting.  I'm simply out of my mind terrified of them.  This happened almost two years ago, and I still get breathless thinking about it.  That's partly because these fellows still get in somehow, and it always happens while the girls are taking a nap.  All is calm, I am getting ready to enjoy some peace and quiet, but I hear a buzz, and sure enough there is a wasp crawling around on the window. 
I react the same way every time (which is about once a week).  First, I gasp and then say, "OhmygoodnessohcrapohmygoodnessohcrapohmygoodnesswhatamIgoingtodo?" Then I go get a shoe, and text Jesse to tell him there is ANOTHER wasp on our window.  The third step takes forever.  I just stand there staring at it and feeling like I'm going to faint.  A tiny voice tells me that this wasp that I'm looking at is not that big, but I don't believe it.  To me, it's enormous.  It's Animal in the Muppet Movie when he grows so big he busts out of the building  that he's playing the drums in.
Sometimes I take a break from staring at it and text Jesse again to give him an update. "Can't kill it." or "It's so scary!" or "Can you come home and kill it?"  (I have the luxury of knowing the wasp will be right where it is because once they get into our place, they don't fly.  They just walk up and down the same window.)  But it always ends in me having to get closer and closer, then slowly raising my shoe covered hand to eventually crush it.  I hate every part of this, but killing it is the worst.  Afterwords I feel sick.  I have to sit down.  I gave birth to an almost 10 pound baby and minutes later got into a heated conversation with the nurse trying to convince her that "I can totally stand up and walk to the recovery room," but something that weighs less then my wedding ring gives me pause.

But it's summer now so I have to deal with wasps and other kinds of bugs.  It's probably a good thing; facing your fears and all that.  If a wasp was on our window and I was all by myself, I'd probably just leave and have Jesse deal with it when he got home.  Because that's the kind of wimp that I am.

The only bug that does not in any way freak me out is the firefly.  I love these guys.  Who doesn't like sitting outside on a summer night and watching lightening bugs? They don't come flying around, buzzing in your ear.  They don't want a piece of what you're eating. They just fly around lighting up the evening.
That's why, when we saw them for the first time this summer, and Hadley freaked out (a skill she learned from her mother), I was the first to calm her down.  "No, no, Hadley.  These are the good guys.  These bugs are really cool!"  And so we stayed outside and watched them do their thing.  We tried to catch a few so Hadley and Harper could see them up close.  We "oooed and ahhhed" along with the girls.  And then I started wondering if there were any books on fireflies. 

I found The Very Lonely Firefly by Eric Carle that we've been reading at home recently.  Like all of Carle's books, the pictures are great and the story captivates both Hadley and Harper. I, however, am a little sad throughout the entire story until the firefly finds his friends.  I like the last page where he and his friends seem to be having a little party in the night sky.  I thought it would be fun to re-create this last scene with the girls, plus, it gave me an excuse to use the ridiculous amount of glitter I recently purchased at Micheal's.

Here's my night sky:

I traced a bunch of "bodies" for the bugs, along with wings and heads for Hadley and Harper to put together.

I showed Hadley how to put together the first one.  She probably could've figured it out, but I really wanted to use the glitter.  From Hadley's face, you can tell she did, too.

And then I let her give it a try (Harper wasn't too interested at this point).

After we made several, we put them on our night sky.

The finished product:

These guys are hanging in the room that the wasps come in, sort of as an example of the kind of behavior I expect from any bug.  No buzzing.  No flying in my face.  No stinging.  If you can't abide by these rules, I'll need to get my shoe.  That's just the way it is.

Yea? or Yeah?

I was in a bookstore recently and I overheard a couple of conversations that have stuck with me.  One was between a patron and one of the store managers.  The customer was wondering about a certain book and how closely it followed the movie.  He told the employee, "I want to make sure this book is exactly like the movie."  The employee told him that she wasn't sure how closely the book followed the movie because, "the book was written first, and I haven't seen the movie, I've only read the book."  I was walking towards the cafe, so I didn't stick around to learn whether the customer bought the book.

When I got to the cafe, I sat down next to two teenage girls.  This was accidentally on purpose.  They saw me walking towards them before I realized what I was doing, and I didn't want to change my route once we acknowledged what was happening because I figured they'd know I would be changing it to avoid sitting next to them.  So I sat down and tried to look as though I had no interest whatsoever in what they were doing.

The girls were texting and talking.  Or maybe they were checking Facebook and talking.  I'm not sure.  They both had a phone in their hand and were thumbing away on it while talking to each other.  At one point, one girl asked the other, "Are you going to tell him you'll go?"  The other girl said yes, she would.  Then the first girl said, "OK then I will, too."  After a minute she said, "Are you going to say, 'yeah' with an 'h' or leave it off?"

Oh boy.

I am not so foolish as to think that either of my girls wouldn't ever use a bookstore to look for a book that is "exactly like the movie" or sit at the cafe with one of their friends and discuss how the other is going to respond to a boy.  We were in the bookstore yesterday and Hadley and Harper picked out a book for themselves - Hadley chose a Handy Manny book, and Harper chose a Sesame Street book - inspired by TV.  And when I was younger, I was not a reader.  I liked listening to stories, and I liked telling and writing stories, but I didn't like reading them. 

It wasn't until I had a summer job shelving books in a library that I began to think I might be interested in reading them. It started out as a way to pass the time.  I'd hide behind one of the shelves in the back of the library and read the back cover of a book I was supposed to shelve.  If it looked interesting, I'd start reading it and end up taking it home after my shift was over.  As ashamed as I am to admit this, one of the first books I took home that summer was The Princess Bride. I began reading instead of shelving it because I liked the movie so much.  I also liked the cover of the book.  It looked just like the copy the Grandfather brought to Fred Savage in the movie.  While I was reading it I felt smart because it looked like a classic.  There were no pictures on the front, just weathered cloth with unassuming gold letters that spelled out the title.

Dear Mr. Henshaw was next.  I took that one home because it wasn't technically a story - it was a bunch of letters.  I loved reading books that were a series of letters.  I wonder if Sharon Creech's Absolutely Normal Chaos was around when I was shelving books.  I would've loved that one.

But I had other interests, and while reading wasn't at the top of my to-do lists, it was slowly making its way into my life.  The conversations I listened in on in the bookstore bothered me, but I think I also need to be prepared for when my girls may be more interested in other things besides reading.  Just in case that happens, I'll document it here so they know that for awhile, they liked to read stories.

So Hadley can remember that in the beginning of the summer of 2010, she was only interested in reading "flappy books" (the books that aren't hardcover).  So Harper knows that it was impossible to read The Very Hungry Caterpillar or Pat the Bunny because she would stick her fingers where there were holes in the pages and scream in delight for someone to grab them. So the girls know that after nap time, one of the first things they did was read books together.

Three for Three

When I check books out of library for the girls, I try to keep them for three weeks and read them several times so they get to know the story.  While we read, there is usually something that we'll see that we didn't notice the previous time we read the story.  It's also a chance to solidfy any concepts the girls might be shuffling around in their brains.

For Harper, a new book isn't always interesting until she sees something familar about it.  We have recently been reading Mr. Brown Can Moo, Can You? by Dr. Suess and she wasn't too keen on this book until she saw a butterfly on of the pages.  Once there was something in the book she recognized - or liked - she was OK with reading the rest of the story.

The books I am going to return to the library after their three week stay in our home, are My Very Big Little World by Peter H. Reynolds, Mama's Coming Home by Kate Banks, and my favorite of the three, In A Blue Room by Jim Averbeck.  Hadley never comes out and says she likes any of the stories we read, but I assume that when she picks out the same stories before naptime and bedtime, that she is pretty intrigued with them.  This was the case with these three stories.

Jim Averbeck uses poetry and the five senses to lull a wound up little girl to sleep.  Alice is bouncing on her bed past bedtime, telling her mother she will only sleep in a blue room.  Her mother brings in lilacs and lilywhites to smell, orange tea in a brown cup to taste, an extra soft quilt to touch, and lullaby bells to listen to. As the book progresses, Alice grows more calm, but it's only when her mother clicks off the bedroom light and Alice sees that her room turns blue from the moon, that she falls asleep.

In A Blue Room is such a peaceful book, and I always saved that one for the last because Hadley grew calm as the story progressed as well.  I'm not sure how poetry and pictures do that, but I'm thankful for it.

I think what Hadley liked about My Very Big Little World was the way Peter Reynolds captured a little girl's voice in the story.  The narrator, Sugarloaf, says and does things that Hadley would say or do.  Sugarloaf tells us that her dad drives to work in a big truck.  She notes that she is smaller then the truck, but she will grow.  However, the truck will not.  This is logic that Hadley can appreciate and understand. 

Hadley also liked that Sugarloaf has a favorite color (orange) and draws all of her pictures in that color.  Hadley does the same thing, only the color is black.  She loves making black with her crayons, markers, or paints. 

I picked out Mama's Coming Home because we own another one of Kate Banks books, and I love it.  It's called And If the Moon Could Talk, and I would suspect that if I were to read that along side In A Blue Room, I would be in a peaceful sleep before Hadley could say, "You forgot to finish the story!"  Mama's Coming Home is also poetry, but it has an exciting tone to it because Mama's coming home!  Kate Banks manages to illustrate the craziness of one parent trying to get home during rush hour, and another trying to make dinner and manage the children.  I think the chaos is lost on Hadley, but she enjoyed the rhythm of the poem and liked looking at all the pictures throughout the book.

I think my favorite part of each of these books, and probably my favorite part of any story Hadley and Harper enjoy, is that it gives us a chance to look at an aspect of the world together through an author's eyes. I love sharing that with them.

Catch the Wave

Hadley loves the book Wave by Suzy Lee.  I don't know why for sure, but I think it has to do with the interaction the girl in the book has with the ocean.  Even though there are no words, throughout the story it is clear that the girl and the water are having a conversation. 

I think Hadley's favorite part is the part when the girl sticks her tongue out at the wave that is swiftly sailing towards her.  I like when the wave leaves behind all the seashells after it crashed into the shore.  It seems like a nice ending to a playful game between two friends.

Yesterday I set out a few pieces of blue construction paper and let Hadley make her own "waves" using shaving cream.  Here's what she came up with:

I drew the birds, but Hadley was quick to point out that these were not birds. "They don't have any faces, Mama." 

A Fancy Word for "role model"

Around the time Hadley was about 1 and 1/2, one of her favorite activities was to go to Barnes and Noble and play with the toy train in the children's section.  On one of our outings there, I fell into a conversation with another mother whose child was also playing at the train table.  She asked me how old Hadley was, and when I told her she said, "Just wait 'til she turns 3."  All of the sudden everything is 'princess this' and 'princess that.'"  I nodded along but didn't have much to say about it since I didn't know what Hadley would be like at 3.

But I thought, "So what if Hadley is interested in princesses?  And so what if she still likes trucks and school buses and tools? Why does that matter?"  When I was a kid, I loved dolls.  And Barbies.  And I wanted to be a Laker Girl.  Most of my friends were pretty good athletes, and while I tried to play the soccer, softball,  or what have you, I was more of a hindrance then a help on the field.  I was too busy making up dance routines in my head to watch where the ball was going.  Plus, I was never tough.

I was a little ashamed of my "girly girl" personality.  I didn't tell people I still liked to play with dolls and Barbies past the age when it seemed I shouldn't be playing with them anymore.  And when I got to high school, I secretly tried out for the dance team because I didn't want anyone making fun of me.  (I figured if I made the team then I'd deal with comments later, but I didn't want anyone to make me second guess myself for trying out because they thought it was stupid.) 

All I'm saying is it would've been nice to know a girl like Fancy Nancy when I was growing up.  This girl is fancy.  And she is not ashamed of it.  In fact, she insists that everyone and everything else in her family be fancy, too.  In the first book, Fancy Nancy, there is a great picture of Fancy Nancy showing us her room before she makes it fancy.  Flip the page, and the next illustration is extraordinary.  There's bows on the knobs of her drawers, and Christmas lights on her mirror.  She made a canopy above her bed that's held up with broomsticks tied to the bedposts with fancy bows. I just want to sit down with her in her room and ask if she has any hoop skirts, and if she does, could we play Gone With the Wind together?

Nancy uses words that are fancier then just your normal, everyday words.  She likes to use pens with "plumes," and her favorite color is "fuchsia."  She calls her family "posh" after they dress up in their fanciest clothes to go out to dinner with Nancy.

I like the Fancy Nancy books because Nancy is a strong character who is enjoys herself and the things around her regardless of what others might think.  Why not get ice cream with a ton of sprinkles on it if you can?  Why not wear ballet slippers, butterfly wings, and a tiara to the park?

Hadley likes her, too.  I see her looking very carefully at the pictures when we read Fancy Nancy books.  She cares about this character.  When Fancy Nancy and her family go out to dinner, Nancy has an accident and falls down as several plates of ice-cream fall down with her.  Hadley is so sad for Fancy Nancy.  And in Bonjour, Butterfly!, when Fancy Nancy can't go to her friend Bree's birthday party, Hadley is concerned as well.  But she also admires Fancy Nancy's creativity and resourcefulness.  She studies her accessories and outfits, and looks around her house to see if she can come up with something similar.


I'm not so concerned about what Hadley will become, as I am about who she will become.  I want to introduce her to characters who are interesting, and funny, and unique.  There will be a time in her life when unfortunately, she'll be pressured to be the same as everyone.  She may still be in love with school buses or her dad's screwdriver, but she'll think she can't like those things for some reason or another.  But I hope that by introducing her to characters like Fancy Nancy, she'll have some foundation for knowing that she can be interested in whatever she wants to be interested in.  I hope she also knows that just because she's a girl, she can like tools, or tiaras and I won't care.

A couple of nights ago, Hadley was making a picture for Fancy Nancy.  She was using glitter (of course), and I suggested that we write a letter to go along with the picture she made.  Hadley thought that was a good idea so I wrote down what Hadley had to say.

Here's the picture she made:

We mailed it off and Hadley's waiting for a reply.  I don't know if we'll get one because the only address I could find was the Harper Collins one in New York.

If I were to run into the woman I saw at Barnes and Noble again, I'd say that Hadley does like princesses, and the color pink, and she really wants to take ballet lessons.  But she also loves Goofy - probably more then anything in this whole world - and baseball, and recently took me on a trip to Target to find a dump truck.  And I'm so proud of her for all the interests she has.  She is a unique little girl with a strong personality.  And I hope she stays that way.

Enrichment

One of my memories of being in elementary school, is doing "enrichment" worksheets.  These assignments consisted of exercises that enforced a concept that we students might be having difficulty grasping.  My enrichment worksheets usually had to do with long division.  Sadly, I never fully grasped this concept.

We've been working on a different kind of enrichment in our home lately.  The concept that we're working on is the minute details of using the bathroom.  I should clarify that when I mean "we" I mean Hadley.  Hadley has had the concept down for almost a year now, but there are little accidents here and there, and she hasn't picked up the bathroom etiquette that one needs in life.  I won't go into details, but I would assume that many a parent who's potty trained their toddler can make some guesses as to what I'm talking about.

And that is why I am quite thankful for two books: Potty Animals by Hope Vestergaard, and Oh No, Gotta Go #2 by Susan Middleton Elya.  Both these books deal with the issues a toddler might deal with after she's learned how to go potty, and they deal with them in a fun, friendly, and non disgusting way.  They have two other things going for them as well.  Potty Animals has animals as the main characters, something Hadley thinks is fantastic, and Susan Middlteton Elya writes part of Oh No, Gotta Go #2 in Spanish.  Hadley loves speaking Spanish.  She calls Jesse "Papi."  She'll tell me, "Wow!  The sky is so azul today!"  And if she doesn't know a Spanish word for something, she'll just make it up.

So reading these two stories have been quite fun the last several weeks.  Before naps and bedtime each day, these two have been the stories Hadley's requested.  The Spanish words in Oh No, Gotta Go #2! are ones that Hadley already knows, and if she didn't know them, she had a good time figuring out what they were from the pictures or other English words in the sentences.  And in Potty Animals Hadley loved looking at the pictures of the animals on the playground, or in their classroom.  She is pretty interested in school these days as well, so seeing what kids do in school is fun for her.

I don't know what age it starts, but one of the things I love about books is that if you connect with a character, the story is so much more powerful.  And in these books, Hadley could absolutely understand what these kids were going through.  In Oh No, Gotta Go #2!, the little girl can't figure out why she has to use the bathroom because she used it before they left for their picnic, and she didn't drink any juice or water the entire time.  This is the kind of conversation we have with Hadley all the time.  But it usually ends up with a fight.  However, watching the little girl go through the same thing, and seeing the parents in the book scramble like crazy people to get her home, Hadley could see she's not the only person who this happens too.  She can also see that she's not the only one whose parents lose their minds when this sort of situation occurs.  Plus, it's in Spanish, so it has to be cool.

In Potty Animals, the author dedicates a page to one "habit" that an animal does and discusses why, in a very cute poetic way, why this habit is not appreciated by society - or ones classmates.  For example, please don't walk in on someone else when they are in the bathroom.  Or, understand that as fun as the game you are playing is, if you have to use the bathroom, you must use the bathroom.

Another bonus is Hadley learning the word "lollygag."  One of the animals tends to take more time then she needs to in the bathroom.  The author uses the word "lollygag," and Hadley and I had many conversations about what that means.  I remember once listening to Katherine Paterson speak about her writing.  She said that someone was complaining to her that the words she used in her childrens books were "too hard."  Her response was basically, "So learn the word!"  She went on to say that one of the great things about reading is that we learn new words.

Potty etiquette is not a fun subject.  Frankly, it's disgusting.  But it's something that Hadley needs to know, and we are responsible for teaching her about these things.  I am thankful for these two books not only because they helped me to discuss the subject with Hadley, but they are clever stories with great illustrations as well.  Hadley learned new words, she sharpened up her Spanish, and she is one step closer to mastering a tough skill.  Not too shabby.

It Doesn't Get Better Than The ABCs

Recently, an essay I wrote appeared here. So I thought it would fitting to write about some of the ABC books that Hadley enjoys reading because of the subject matter: the ABCs.

One book she enjoys very much is The Sleepy Little Alphabet by Judy Sierra. The story unfolds as each letter in the book gets ready for bed. They take baths, they jump on the bed, they don't want the lights turned off, they read stories. Hadley's favorite has to do with the letter "u." This letter takes off his underwear before bed, something that gets a few giggles each time.

The last page is my favorite: each letter is cuddled up in bed, and each has a piece of notebook paper for a blanket. This book was published in 2009, and looking at the pieces of notebook paper (even though they're supposed to be blankets) makes me content to know that in a world of iPads and texting, someone else thinks notebook paper is worthwhile. Or perhaps this illustration is a symbol for notebook paper becoming obsolete. After all, the letters are all sleeping on it. I'll choose not to believe that.
















Another alphabet book Hadley enjoys is Chicka Chicka Boom! Boom! by Bill Martin Jr. and John Archambault. The letters in alphabet in the book are pretty rambunctious and try to climb up a tree only to find out the tree coconut tree can't hold all 26 letters. They all come crashing to the ground and the Mamas and Papas (the capital letters, not the musical group) come to their rescue.

I enjoy reading this book because of the rhythm and poetry, and also because Hadley likes to read it along with me. We do have to pause on the page where D has a skinned knee, E has a stubbed-toe, and F has a band-aid on. Hadley is quite concerned about the letters at this point in the story.

Besides the alphabet, another similarity these books have in common is their inside covers. The alphabet covers each of them, and before each story, Hadley tells us that we need to sing the song as we point to each letter. We do NOT begin until we've sung the song.

















Last week I got a Target coupon book in the mail, and in the middle of the book was a page with the ABCs on it. The good people at Target suggested I sit my little one down and try and come up with words that start with each letter. So that's what Hadley and I did. You don't have to ask Hadley twice to play an alphabet game. She did a great job. She could think of words for almost all the letters. And when she couldn't come up with some, she improvised. For example, when we got to the letter n, she suggested we use the word "nagnet."
"You mean magnet?" I asked.
"Yea, just use 'n' instead."
And when we got to the letter t, she told me to write down the word, "tapalope." I asked her what a "tapalope" is.
"'Tapalope' is a word that starts with 't.'" she replied.
She's quick on her feet, this one.

Our completed list:

Attempting to write the word "ball":