PrairieTide
Monday, May 19, 2008
 
Katie's Newest Lines


"That's my mommy!"

"Where's daddy?"

"No potty!"

"Mommy has a big bum!"



Ah, such a sweet child... For a while there around her second birthday, Katie always refer to herself by name. She'd say "Do you want a snack, Katie?" It's like she was saying the phrase she wanted YOU to say to her. "Hey, Adult! Ask me if I want a snack, already! I'm starving here!"

Lately she's been trying out pronouns, though "you" and "me" and "I" are a bit of a confusion. For instance, when I go to put her in her carseat, she'll say, "I help you. I help you. I HELP YOU!" At first I thought she was offering to do something for me, but what? I'm not the one who needs to be strapped into that darn carseat! With the urgency heating up with each repetition, it was time for some mom quick thinking. Then I realized what she was asking was a little assistance getting her small bottom into that big, clumsy seat. She's mimicking what she hears, and what she hears is the adults in her life saying something like "Do you want me to help you?" which is close to "I help you", kinda.

Today, during our morning carseat strap-a-thon, I said the usual, "Climb into your seat, cutie-patootie". Once again, she looked at me like I was crazy. The seat is bigger than her by half, so I'm not sure why I made a point of asking her to climb into it by herself each day. It must be something I read in that Montessori book. Anyhoo, I do it every day, and she looks at me like I'm crazy, and then usually says, "I help you." But today, ah today. Today was special. I still got the "crazy lady" look. But she found a new word today. She said, 'You help me" thereby getting the "you" and the "me" in the right place. Brilliant child.

Monday, October 15, 2007
 
City Museum

Here's the view of the outside of the City Museum in downtown St. Louis. I took 24 college students to the museum (what a fun part time job!). This is a great place! A group of artists designed the museum entirely out of recycled materials. At some museums, you look at art. At this museum, you play in the art.

The two airplanes you can see in the foreground are linked by a series of catwalks and slinky-like climbing tubes. I scaled the catwalks and made it to both planes, but nothing could entice me to cram myself into a slinky suspended from a chain four stories above the earth.

While climbing in one of the planes, I cracked my head on a metal beam. My head ached the rest of the day (oy!). Most of the students got some sort of bump or bruise while playing in the art. Art can be dangerious business.

Sunday, September 30, 2007
 
Camo

Take a close look at this picture. See anything unusual?
Randy just showed this picture to me on the Internet. It's worth sharing!

Wednesday, September 19, 2007
 
Groovy

Like the tie-dye t-shirts? The students I work with wanted to do tie-dying at the party we held a couple of weeks ago. I wanted to practice a little before the big event, so Randy and I made these four t-shirts for Katie.

We ordered the dyes from the Dharma Trading Co. (Lost fans will be relieved to know this company has no connection with the Dharma Initiative). They are chemical-reactive dyes, which results in a lot brighter colors than the old Rit dyes we used at Girls Camp.

Using these dyes is a bit complicated. You need to soak the cloth in a soda bath before applying the dyes. Preparing the dyes takes some time, too. One of the students who made a shirt got a small burn on her arm from the soda bath (she was wearing gloves, but the liquid splashed over the top of her glove). So while the students at my college loved this project, I'm a little hesitant to do another round without some assistance from one of our chemistry professors.


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