Barbarian Child

Well, I think we've entered into the terrible two phase. This morning when I asked A if I could reconfigure his train tracks and started to unhook one, he shrieked "No!" turned beet red, and threw track across the room.

I'm hoping it's just growing pains or possibly a cold, but the last few days he's been really volatile. On the plus side, he still wants to teach everyone he meets sign language.

And M reports that when A woke up this morning at 3 AM he was as happy as happy could be.

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M and I had a discussion about the words, barbaric, barbarian, and barbarous. Because Fowler says that barbarous has an element of contempt to it, I'm not allowed to describe the child's behavior as barbarous, but I can use the other words.

Picture Post

I know I've been lax posting pictures lately, so here are some from last week.

Extra artsy, in a way that strikes me as disturbingly Victorian.

An entire park filled with equipment practically to himself, and his favorite thing to do is run around for a solid 45 minutes waving sticks

OK. We did manage to get him into the plane on a spring

Why Sticks, Why ?

A survived a trip to visit my sister. She lives six hours away by car. A is a very good traveller, and does well in a car; but I think if I'm the only parent traveling that far again we'll take the train so he can run around more. Oh, yeah; I should officially mark Feb 17, 2008, 5:23 PM as the Official Time that A asked "Why is the sky blue?"

He really surprised my relatives by running almost non-stop for an hour in a park. On both days that we visited it.

In other news, he's really into sign language, and one of the first questions that he'll ask people is if they know any sign language; then he'll run through the signs for Y, bus, U, train, and a few others. Then he'll ask for the sign for things like oven and matches. (By the way, make sure to lock up your matches when we visit, as A is very interested in fire.)

Sticks are becoming a slight problem. A wants to poke strangers with them and whack neighbor's plants with them. Or else he wants to make them (ala Mickey, Donald and Goofy) Musketeer swords. Add to that a thirty-two month year old's (lack of) body awareness and walks outside become hazardous. Unfortunately, the sticks too small to hit people and damage property with turn into cigarettes. I don't know where A picked that up, but I have a sneaking suspicion that the cigar smoking parrot, Jose Carioca, may be to blame. Sigh; if it's not Disney, then it's the construction guys who drive the "diggers."

Loving the Bromley

Today A made the sign for "I Love You." So I made it, too. A immediately wanted to clack "I Love You" signs.

In related news, I sawed down a dying maple tree in our back yard today. I have a feeling that sawing down trees is going to be a major discussion topic for the next month.

Y is for Yikes!

A is about to exhaust the Sesame Street Sign Language book we have. He keeps asking us for the signs for things not in the book. Like ovens.

His favorite sign is still "Y", but I think "yellow" (which is the sign for "Y" while you twist your wrist) is a close second.

In the Wicked Musketeer Department: Today A was clacking a pen and a pencil together as if they were swords (thank you, Mickey, Donald, and Goofy). This wouldn't have been so bad, I guess, except that I'd asked him not to do it (and write with the pencil on paper), and he then started whacking the pencil against the table.

So I told him I was sorry, but that I had to take the pencil because he wasn't writing with it after I asked him to. And I did.

"Poke you!" he said, and sort of ran at me with the pen held like a bodkin.

"Time out!" I said, disarmed him, and plunked him down on the couch.

Please, Goddess, don't make me have to learn Tai Quon Do just to raise my child.

Music Appreciation

A has renewed his interest in sign language. His favorite new sign is "I love you" (see picture). He also likes to wander around asking "Why?" while he makes the American manual alphabet sign for Y. M and I showed him a video of when he was signing for "more cheese" when he was just under a year old -- it's so odd to watch a silent A sitting relatively calmly in a high chair.

M thinks the day is coming soon when we'll cut A's hair. I asked A if he wanted his hair cut, and he said he didn't; but that might change.

A's new fun poem (I'm not sure if it's his favorite poem yet) is A.A. Milne's "Disobedience" from the "When We Were Very Young" collection. He especially likes the last verse, which is supposed to be whispered until you get to the "You-must-never-go-down-to-the-end-of-the-town" part (which you can say loudly). I like it because it's English and droll.

As for favorite songs, A seems to go back and forth between "Kill the wabbit! Kill the wabbit!" (we did get him singing "Yo-ho To-ho!") and Sylvester's rendition of "Figaro" Oh, no; wait -- it's just occurred to me that his favorite song is "Jingle Bells", with which he uses to wake us up.

I'm going to have to teach him the ASL version of that.

Education

We've discovered that in order to get into the various school lotteries, we have to start thinking about A's schooling Right Now!

Well...

let's see. In the Trivium

• grammar -- has an excellent vocabulary; still uses some "-ed" endings incorrectly
• rhetoric -- probably has a good understanding of pathos, but ethos and logos needs some work
• logic -- we're not touching this one with a 40 foot pole other than to try to teach cause and effect

In the Quadrivium

• geometry -- can draw a pretty good circle; still working on letters
• arithmetic -- "two" seems to be a favorite answer to most math questions, or else the series "four, five, six, seven, eight!!"
• music -- got him singing the Revenge Aria from "The Magic Flute" and numerous English Renaissance songs
• astronomy -- can identify the Moon, Venus, Saturn, Mars, and Jupiter; also Antares and Sirius.

I think we should have a liberal arts student by the time he's ready for kindergarten. Looks like I'd better finish work on that monochord.

The Latest Puns

(After poking us with a stick or fork or other handy poking tool): "You weren't expecting Pocahontas, were you, Geronimo?" (This is a quotation from a "Tweety and Sylvester" cartoon).


Asking "Why?" while simultaneously making the sign language sign for the letter "Y."


In other sign language developements, since A is very interested in learning all the sign language he can, and since he's picked up the sign for "I love you" (the signs for I, L and Y), it's only fair that he learn the Vulcan salute for "Live Long and Prosper."