The Small Family     

Well, I know I promised lots of pictures of our new addition this week, but that is a promise I can’t deliver. Let’s get the sad news out of the way first: Sweet little Miss Nola is not coming to live with us after all. Her owner (Lacy) emailed me on Tuesday and said her boyfriend had finally realized how hard it was going to be for her to give Nola up and agreed that they could keep her. This is good and bad. It’s good because Lacy clearly loves Nola, so I’m glad Nola has a mommy who loves her (and who she loves). It’s not so good because I feel bad for Nola having a daddy who isn’t really overly crazy about her. And, I have to admit, I’m really disappointed. I had told Chris and my Mom all along that it wouldn’t surprise me if Lacy changed her mind about giving Nola up, since she’s clearly crazy about her, but it still was very disappointing when it happened. It’s funny--even though I was prepared for this, I still feel like there’s a little hole in our household. I guess I had already envisioned Nola as part of our family, and it just feels really odd to not have her here. I don’t know how I got so attached to her after just one meeting, but that’s me--a softie for a sweet dog, and she definitely is sweet! There’s a tiny, evil, selfish part of me that hopes Lacy’s boyfriend changes his mind yet again…but I know it’s not at all fair of me to hope that, so I’m trying squelch that nasty wish!

But let’s move on to happier things. I borrowed one of Theo’s favorite sayings for the title of this week’s blog because the kid really did make me go, “Whoa, wow!” a couple times this week.

As most of you know, Theo’s not the hugest talker yet. He has a fair number of words, but he’s not really putting together sentences yet. This is pretty normal--some kids have very little vocabulary by age 2, while others are already making short sentences. So Theo’s right in the middle. I’ve never worried about his language acquisition because it has always been so clear to me that he’s taking everything in, even if he can’t verbalize it. And indeed, he proved me right on that this week.

As I mentioned the last two weeks, Theo’s been very into pointing out numbers when he sees them--especially 6 and 2. This week, that progressed to letters. He started with A and I and then threw in T. So on Friday (when Chris watches Theo for much of the day so I can get a solid chunk of work time), I mentioned this to Chris and said, “How many of the letters do you think he actually knows?” Chris came back to me an hour later and said, “Twenty-six!” Apparently he went through one of Theo’s alphabet books with him. Each page has four letters on it, and Chris would say, “Can you show me the J?” or “Can you point to the M?” He would mix up the order of the letters to see whether Theo really knew them or just had the order memorized, and indeed…he really knows them. Whoa, wow! So we figured, okay, he’s been absorbing all the letters, even if he can’t say many of them yet. So the next day, while at Target, I picked up a set of letters and numbers for the bathtub. They’re different-colored foam letters and numbers that stick to the side of the bathtub when wet. I figured Theo might get a kick out of them, since he’s into letters and numbers these days.

I set the package of letters and numbers in the master bathroom, and Sunday morning, Theo caught sight of them while keeping me company as I got ready. “Whoa, wow!” he said, looking at the package with great interest. I opened the package and set it on the floor for him. The letters and numbers were all stacked in there upside down and flipped in different directions. And as I watched, Theo sat down and started to take them out one at a time and name each one.

Whoa, wow! He can say the letters! And for the ones he can’t say, he was making the phonetic sounds. (For example, he can’t say Q, but he made the kwa sound.)

But wait, there’s more! I watched as he named every single letter and number in the package (0-9 and all 26 letters). Keep in mind that these were out of order and, as I said, upside down and flipped in different directions. I was absolutely amazed to see him correctly name all the letters, even when they were inverted or flipped the wrong way. BIG whoa, wow! I figured the two-year-old brain could recognize letters in the form it has seen them in, but apparently it has the ability to recognize a flipped letter or an inverted one as well!

I actually think Theo may have inherited this ability from me, which kind of tickles me. My Mom used to be surprised that I could read the newspaper upside down as easily as I could right side up. (I used to read the stories upside down while sitting across from her at the breakfast table.) She always said she couldn’t do that, and I figured that most people probably could, but that maybe it was just something my Mom struggled with. (She’s a slow reader, so I figured maybe it had something to do with that.) But Chris tells me he struggles to read upside down, too. So maybe this is not something everyone does. I really don’t know--Chris and my Mom are the only two people I’ve asked. But I’m thinking that Theo may have gotten this ability to recognize and identify inverted letters from me.

This tickles me because frankly, I feel like a jerk for some of the things that I’ve passed onto Theo, even though they’re out of my control. As a few of you know, I have a funky issue with my legs that makes me throw one leg out a bit when I walk. It’s not a huge problem, but it makes it difficult for me to run or walk quickly, and it’s mildly embarrassing on the rare occasions when someone asks me why I’m “limping.” In watching Theo walk, I notice him angling his left leg oddly sometimes, so I’m a little worried that I may have given him that lovely trait. (It’s on my list to ask the pediatrician at his two-year appointment. If he does have the same leg structure I do, I suspect there is probably something as simple as shoe inserts that can help him out. When I was young, it was surgery or nothing. My parents opted to do nothing, as the surgery carried a fair amount of risk. But I suspect now there is probably a much simpler, less invasive fix. Things have changed a lot in 36 years, after all.)

And when Theo was younger and used to freak out in crowds or around unfamiliar people…well, that was totally me as a baby. So maybe he would’ve done that no matter who his mama was, but I can’t help but kick myself for possibly passing that uncomfortable trait onto him. (Luckily, he seems to be outgrowing that and is now a very friendly, sociable little monkey.)

So it’s very nice to recognize a positive trait that I may have passed onto him. That makes me happy. :-) And, it makes me happy to see that Chris and I were right--there’s plenty going on in that little brain of his, even if he’s a little slower than some kids to actually verbalize it.

So as long as I’m sounding like a braggart here (ha! I don’t intend to--I’m just proud of my boy!), let me brag for just a moment more about another wonderful trait Theo has. After all, I mused about his wicked temper last week; it’s only fair that I spend this week musing about some of his great points. We took Theo to the Bay Area Discovery Museum on Saturday because it was a beautiful day, and we wanted to get out of town. There were a lot of other kids there, enjoying the day, and we were both really happy to see how well Theo shared. A couple times he tried to share plastic fish (part of one of the play areas) of his own volition, although the other child was too shy to actually accept them. And a couple other times, we merely had to say, “Can you share X with this little boy/girl?” and he would immediately share whatever it was. Whoa, wow--our boy has a generous, giving spirit! We were very proud of him, and we let him know.

After the Discovery Museum, we drove over the Golden Gate into San Francisco (the museum is in Sausalito) and went to lunch at--where else?--the Ferry Building. I, of course, had a few oysters. Chris almost tried one, but decided against it at the last minute. He says he’ll try one on his birthday if I order them. (We’re planning to go to Suede Blue for dinner, and they have a yummy oyster appetizer.) Then we went to Taylor’s Refresher (which has changed names but will always be Taylor’s to us) and had a hot dog (for me) and a grilled cheese (for the dairy-allergic Chris--he said it was worth paying the price in allergic reaction!). Because it was such a nice day, we decided to walk down to Pier 39 after lunch. It’s maybe a mile and a half from the Ferry Building, but it’s a nice walk. We had thought Theo might like to see the famous sea lions, but by the time we got to them, he was overtired and not at all interested. No worries, though--he had a great time playing at a playground we found along the way, so he was happy.

Sunday morning, Theo, Luna, and I went to a pug meetup with Grandma Diane while Chris attended to the always-fun task of cleaning the garage. (Apparently cleaning the garage is preferable to being around mass numbers of marauding pugs.) Theo had a great time stepping on Grandma Diane’s shadow, and Luna and I enjoyed visiting with our pug-loving friends. The only bad part was that everyone kept saying, “Aren’t you supposed to have two pugs now?” Sigh…yes….

Anyway, that’s about it for this week. Theo starts float lessons on Monday, so that will be…well, eventful. The kid can float, but boy, does he let everyone know that he does not want to do it!! Hopefully we can work him up to graduation level fairly quickly, but it all depends how stubborn he is. (He can float now, but he needs to be able to “save himself” by recovering from a fall into the water and rolling onto his back and then floating for several minutes.) Miss Deborah is switching him to Miss Monica (her daughter) to see whether he perhaps has less of a temper with her, but I have my doubts! Worst-case scenario, they’ll have me get back in the water with him. He’s much calmer with me, but because I’m not a trained instructor, the learning process is much slower when I’m the one working with him.

And one last thing: In this week’s album, you’ll see a very exciting photo. It’s the working cover image for the book I’m co-writing: Fearless Photographer: Weddings. It’s pretty exciting to see my name on a book cover--can’t wait to see the actual book in August! They’re talking about having me co-write a second one (Fearless Photographer: Portraits), so we’ll see what comes of that.

Hope you are all having a great start to May!