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Feb. 26th, 2010 11:11 pmThings at work are... interesting. And so you guys get a post about my kids!
The Colin version: Michael is allergic to oranges, so we didn't let Colin try them until he was a year old. The other day I set out a snack for the kids to share: clementine segments and graham crackers. Colin was thrilled. I didn't realize quite how thrilled, until he toddled over with cheeks puffed out like a squirrel in November and, with difficulty, extracted two segments from his mouth and put them back on the plate. He still looked a little funny after that, so Michael made him open his mouth. Two more segments were still in there. At least he seemed to have those two under control. Michael urged him to chew and swallow, and Colin looked at him blankly: Why would anyone want to stop having oranges in their mouth?
Perhaps ten minutes after that, he came over and tugged at my sweater hem. I picked him up to nurse. It felt distinctly strange. So I unlatched him and poked my finger in... and tucked against his gum like a plug of chewing tobacco? One last orange segment.
"You can't nurse with food in your mouth," I told him, and put him down. I don't know which one of us was more surprised that I would make a rule like that.
The Alex version: Alex has two passions right now: Disney movies and the Middle Ages. Guess which one I am enjoying.
During the Snowpocalypse we started burning our way through Edward Eager novels, which have held up remarkably well considering their age. She loved Half Magic and liked Magic by the Lake, but Knight's Castle has woven together her love of Robin Hood and princesses and noblewomen and castles and magic in a very satisfying way.
One of the things I love about Eager is that the characters are so passionately devoted to stories. When I read Knight's Castle as a little girl it made me desperate to go out and find a copy of Ivanhoe. Alex, too. Fortunately I was able to find an excellent, illustrated, considerably abridged version to read to her. (Yes, yes, I know, abridged books are evil. Except that this one removes the anti-Semitism as well as the excessive wordiness, so I can't be anything but grateful.) Alex, probably like generations of little girls before her, admires the dashing Rebecca and can't imagine what Ivanhoe sees in Rowena. Me either. Maybe that part got left out of the abridgment.
Two other books I particularly recommend, if you are looking to either stoke or satisfy a child's love of all things medieval: Margaret Early's beautifully illustrated retelling of Robin Hood, and Castle Diary: The Journal of Tobias Burgess, Page - also vividly (and amusingly) illustrated. That one's a wee bit educational, but still very fun to read and examine the pictures. (Oh, yikes! Apparently they've taken most of the pictures out of the edition I linked to. If you look for this one, get a big illustrated version from the library.)
It's funny to see how factual bits of medieval history get woven together with fiction and with Ye Olde Disney Fairytale Past in Alex's mind. One minute she's defending some implausible detail because that's how it was done in Beauty and the Beast - and yet the next minute, she's correcting me for referring to Jasmine's home as a castle. ("Jasmine lived in a palace, Mom." "And what's the difference?" "A castle can be defended.")
The Colin version: Michael is allergic to oranges, so we didn't let Colin try them until he was a year old. The other day I set out a snack for the kids to share: clementine segments and graham crackers. Colin was thrilled. I didn't realize quite how thrilled, until he toddled over with cheeks puffed out like a squirrel in November and, with difficulty, extracted two segments from his mouth and put them back on the plate. He still looked a little funny after that, so Michael made him open his mouth. Two more segments were still in there. At least he seemed to have those two under control. Michael urged him to chew and swallow, and Colin looked at him blankly: Why would anyone want to stop having oranges in their mouth?
Perhaps ten minutes after that, he came over and tugged at my sweater hem. I picked him up to nurse. It felt distinctly strange. So I unlatched him and poked my finger in... and tucked against his gum like a plug of chewing tobacco? One last orange segment.
"You can't nurse with food in your mouth," I told him, and put him down. I don't know which one of us was more surprised that I would make a rule like that.
The Alex version: Alex has two passions right now: Disney movies and the Middle Ages. Guess which one I am enjoying.
During the Snowpocalypse we started burning our way through Edward Eager novels, which have held up remarkably well considering their age. She loved Half Magic and liked Magic by the Lake, but Knight's Castle has woven together her love of Robin Hood and princesses and noblewomen and castles and magic in a very satisfying way.
One of the things I love about Eager is that the characters are so passionately devoted to stories. When I read Knight's Castle as a little girl it made me desperate to go out and find a copy of Ivanhoe. Alex, too. Fortunately I was able to find an excellent, illustrated, considerably abridged version to read to her. (Yes, yes, I know, abridged books are evil. Except that this one removes the anti-Semitism as well as the excessive wordiness, so I can't be anything but grateful.) Alex, probably like generations of little girls before her, admires the dashing Rebecca and can't imagine what Ivanhoe sees in Rowena. Me either. Maybe that part got left out of the abridgment.
Two other books I particularly recommend, if you are looking to either stoke or satisfy a child's love of all things medieval: Margaret Early's beautifully illustrated retelling of Robin Hood, and Castle Diary: The Journal of Tobias Burgess, Page - also vividly (and amusingly) illustrated. That one's a wee bit educational, but still very fun to read and examine the pictures. (Oh, yikes! Apparently they've taken most of the pictures out of the edition I linked to. If you look for this one, get a big illustrated version from the library.)
It's funny to see how factual bits of medieval history get woven together with fiction and with Ye Olde Disney Fairytale Past in Alex's mind. One minute she's defending some implausible detail because that's how it was done in Beauty and the Beast - and yet the next minute, she's correcting me for referring to Jasmine's home as a castle. ("Jasmine lived in a palace, Mom." "And what's the difference?" "A castle can be defended.")
