Saturday, October 6, 2012

Poet savant, or song memorizer?

Olivia and I were in the kitchen this morning. She was making thank you notes for her birthday presents. She asked me to write this down for her--she wanted to put it in a card for her sweet friend, Luc:

Should I tell you the secret?
I have been floating
Beyond the sky
Like fire.

What do I do with this?? I have emailed her teacher to find out if it is a song, or song snippets. In "Stripes" class at school they learn about God. Is this one of the songs they learn? I am so floored by the beauty of this utterance, it's bordering on agitation.

The beauty. That child. The beauty . . .


Friday, October 5, 2012

Siblings (and babies)

This video captures siblinghood. First, one sibling engages in sweet, meaningful play with parent looking on (and recording) . . . but it turns out, the toy belongs to THE OTHER SIBLING. Olivia's body position, negotiating voice are both impressive. Unfortunately poor Shepard does not prevail in this exchange, even though I think that he was able, with my intervention, to retain Baby.

Olivia and the Beach Donuts

At Dewey Beach, most things come in size L. When we first went there, I had spied The Fractured Prune, but didn't muster enough momentum to get over there to get some donuts. Well, with my trusty assistant in tow, we went to investigate the mysteriously-named shop in our 2012 trip to Dewey. And boy was the payoff . . . large.

Shepard loves "Tats"

Not surprisingly, Shepard loves cats. (Note to self: post link to earlier Earl-tackling videos starring Olivia.) Here, in August of 2012 (at 15 months), Shepard communes with the cat statues around the fountain at Betsy Ross's house in Philadelphia. (Apparently she also loves cats.) Then, in September, upon waking up from a nap, Shepard has a catfest, including the wonderful naming (and naming, and naming) of Cat, and then the [priceless], true-to-life imitation of Bella's meow.



Olivia's Kindergarten Class: "Voiceprint"



Olivia's class records their likes. Olivia is second-to-last in the class lineup. I won't give away what she says she likes doing first . . . and then repeats at the end. But I will tell you I almost cried.