(no subject)

[rivka]

I was reading to Alex at bedtime tonight. Colin kept trying to grab the book, and I kept moving it out of his reach. Then he clambered carefully off the bed and left the room. I thought he might be headed across the hall to the study, where a bunch of his toys are.

I kept reading. It was quiet outside Alex's room - too quiet. So after a couple of minutes I went to check on Colin. When I called his name, I heard him on the stairs. I went to the top and looked down.

He had gone all the way down to the living room and gotten his current favorite book. Now he was carefully making his way back upstairs: lifting the book up a step, crawling up a step himself, lifting the book up another step. He beamed up at me. Because SURELY I was going to put away Ozma of Oz and read Peekaboo Morning now. Right? Right?! Now that he'd found it for me?

I am reminded that cuteness in babies and toddlers is a survival mechanism. He's been godawful with his sleep lately, and it's killing me, but ZOMG he is the sweetest sweetie imaginable.

Comments

[wcg.livejournal.com]

That he is. And this is a wonderful little anecdote.

[moobabe.livejournal.com]

Truly, that's adorable. :)

How is Alex liking Ozma? Did you read The Wizard of Oz, first? I have lovely editions of many of the Baum books, but it's been so long since I read them that I don't remember them.

[matthewwdaly.livejournal.com]

I read them through once every few years. Ozma of Oz is my favorite of the lot, but most of the rest come in a close massive tie for second. IMO, The Tin Woodman and The Lost Princess are both quite skippable. The Land of Oz also loses on sexism, an overabundance of bad puns, and libels the Wizard, but makes some points back on the transgender-friendly climax.

[kate_nepveu]

FYI: a friend of mine is currently blogging a re-read of all of them: http://www.tor.com/index.php?option=com_comprofiler&task=searchByTag&tag=oz

[matthewwdaly.livejournal.com]

That was a good read. I am amused that our opinions are in such opposition: I see wonderousness where she was bored and the deep philosophical questions that intrigued her struck me as the most out of tune. And I had no idea someone could dislike Ozma with such a passion! She almost had me sold until she started putting down Glinda and then I was all "Oh no you didn't!"

It would be interesting to have Alex review the Oz books to get a sense from a thoughtful person more in the target audience who I suspect would be more sympathetic to the naivete of the environment.

[kate_nepveu]

Well, I'm glad you enjoyed it.

[rivka.livejournal.com]

We're only four chapters in, and Alex says it's too early to say whether she likes it. To me it reads much better than the previous one, The Marvelous Land of Oz.

We did start with the first book, yes. And it was a really great read-aloud, much better than I was anticipating. We had an edition illustrated by the fantasy artist Michael Hague; beautiful pictures! We read it twice in a row, and Oz became a really important part of Alex's fantasy life.

[txanne.livejournal.com]

I needed a dose of cute tonight. :-D

[saoba.livejournal.com]

Awww.

[selki.livejournal.com]

*squee!!!*

[ailbhe]

Oh yeah :)

[laurarey.livejournal.com]

I marvel at Colin's mobility. Rachel hasn't embraced the "turn around and go downstairs backwards" skill yet, so I keep her off the stairs. (Plus, we have open stairs through which she can fall.)

She still just goes head first off everything. It's enough to make me cringe every time she does it.

[kate_nepveu]

SteelyKid could go down the stairs herself, but won't; she's very conscious of steps down and always wants someone's hand to hold onto. But she wants to walk down them like an adult and, though she may have had a brief phase of using other methods, mostly always has.

[rivka.livejournal.com]

It's not just his mobility, it's his utter confidence. When Alex was his age, she liked to be within sight of her parents. I don't remember if she could go up and downstairs by herself at 14 months (our house layout was different and didn't encourage it), but if she could she probably wouldn't have.

But yeah: he goes up and downstairs alone, climbs on and off the furniture, goes into a different room and shuts the door behind him... it's pretty scary.

[laurarey.livejournal.com]

Yeah, Rachel exhibits similar confidence...it terrifies me. She climbed up on top of a storage box recently, then onto the couch, then onto the couch back...then I grabbed her. At Gymboree class, she crawls away from me and explores and crawls on everything. Since it is a really safe environment, sometimes I just sit and watch. She'll get to the back of the room, turn, look at me, smile, and then go back to playing.

We should get these two kids together. :)

[kate_nepveu]

Awww.

And SteelyKid apparently needs this book, so thanks.

[rivka.livejournal.com]

I predict that she will love it, and that you will get very, very tired of it.

[kate_nepveu]

Well, on one hand I haven't pitched _Goodnight Moon_ out of the window yet, but on the other she's not quite in obsessive-re-read mode (her bedtime ritual is still a bottle, since it's the only way we can get fake milk into her), so . . .

[eeyorerin]

I had a student write in a narrative about how when she was a toddler she hated going down for naps until she figured that she could get out of her crib and sit on the floor and read books and then get back into the crib before her parents found out. Then one day her mother wondered why she was suddenly so very compliant and came in to check on her and discovered her on the floor reading, and then the student was utterly confused as to why her mother started laughing.

[kate_nepveu]

Okay, I keep hearing about people figuring out they can get out of their cribs and I just can't fathom how they did, unless they were climbing on stuffed animals left in or something! Did she say how?

[chapstickqueen.livejournal.com]

That is absolutely adorable!