Wednesday, May 18, 2005

Kid Stories

Enough physics. Let's talk about my kids.

Noah's latest words:
AArduur : Arthur
AArduurREEE! : Arthur Read
Bobelboo : D.W.
(similarly for Buster, Binky, and Mr. Ratburn, all of whom he can identify by sight. As children in the Amazon jungle are trained by older siblings to identify and forage edible fruits and tubers, so it is with Noah and Arthur characters).

La-la-la : Moo Baa La La La, or, by extension, any of the works of Sandra Boynton
La La : go for a walk (from the Swiss-German "loufe")
Lorlor : our friend Laurel; by extension, anyone with bangs, such as the New Kid in "Arthur and the New Kid"
Bye : Bye. Noah pronounces this with double-take-inducing accuracy and casualness.

It's always a bit of a riddle describing this age, because those of you not observing Noah closely won't see what the big deal is if I tell you about what he can suddenly do.

Like, the other day Noah was wailing pitiably in the car, and I was driving and Esther was not there, and Aviva, who normally could be counted on to engage him (if he's crying, and she sings him the A-B-Cs , he quiets right down) was wailing herself (we were having a pretty rough, nap-less day), I said "Noah, have a drink of your bottle, that'll help."

And he did. Fished around for the bottle, found it, drank, calmed down.

And three weeks from now I'll be looking at this like, so? Of course he had a drink. What's the big deal?

But, you know, the first time something like that clicks, it's pretty amazing. That's half the high of parenting right there: the constant thrill of the rapid expansion of the capabilities of someone you love. The privilege of coming along for the ride as they conquer vast swathes of new territory in a merciless blitzkrieg....

(And they were in a much better mood by the time we got home, thanks for asking...)

Noah is all about the walking, a.k.a. the La La. Pretty much any time of the day or night he'd like, if he had his druthers, to be heading to the park to walk around.

He loves his shoes. "You mean there are instruments to make one's feet invulnerable and stable??! Brilliant!!!!"

Old pictures I've finally dug off the digital camera:
Back in December, Noah's birthday, Caroline's visit;
Noah napping, Aviva the Diva; more recently, a tea party with Skylar ; an AVi of Noah reading.

I started teaching Aviva Logo a week or so ago. Turtles and squares and triangles. Possibly I've been reading too much Patrick O'Brian, but I felt like a post-captain addressing the helmsman:

Me: "We've got to get her head around, or this triangle will never close. Left by how much?"
Aviva: "Forty?"
Me: "Try it and see."
Aviva: LT 40
Me: "We're too far! Pull back!"

She loves it. It's just as she always suspected: numbers are power. Numbers, in life, are what makes the turtle move.

While I was away at Wiscon helping to midwife the Infernoqrusher movement and talking about sex, the kids were hanging out with their second cousins Will and Carissa at my sister's baby shower: 1 2 3 4 5

Metafiction in Oberwil:

Aviva: Daddy, can I go to Arthur's house in Ellwood City and watch Aviva videos?
Me: Aviva videos?
Aviva: Yeah.
Me: Okay, let me get this straight. In your world, Arthur is a made up character on TV, right?
Aviva: Yeah.
Me: And in Arthur's world, you are a made up character on TV.
Aviva: Yeah!
Me: And how are you going to get to Ellwood City?
Aviva: On my rope swing.
Me: Okay, you can go. BUT! I don't want you watching Aviva videos about things that haven't happened yet.
Aviva: What do you mean?
Me: You know, like 'Aviva Goes To Kindergarten' or 'Aviva's Sixth Birthday Party'
Aviva: But why?
Me: Because, it's not good to know the future. If it's something bad, you'll just worry about it, and if it's something good, you'll just be impatient.
Aviva: Oh. Okay.

See, I've read enough children's books and YA fiction (viva Susan Cooper!) to know that I should always operate on the presumption that anything Aviva tells me about traveling to other realities might in fact be the case.

Just to be on the safe side.