I can do it!

Elisabeth has been timid to try this hanging aparatus, as it rotates with the weight of the child. Finally she tried it, and (not surprisingly) was just fine. She announced with glee, "I can do it!"

Leap forward in figrative drawing

This is an enormous leap forward for Elisabeth in drawing what she sees! Until now, her drawings have consisted essentially of girls, flowers and rainbows. If you asked her to draw you somethinge else, you'd get a girl, a flower or a rainbow (or maybe all 3). Now maybe you'll get a mantid instead.

Hopscotch

I was quite surprised to find that Elisabeth can no do the entire hopscotch board without extra little jumps!

I think I need some onion food

On Monday, Elisabeth had her first filling. We went to the pediatric dentist a month or so ago, and were horrified to learn that she had several cavities. So we scheduled an appointment to have them filled as quickly as we could, and Monday was the big day. She was very brave, and the filling went really well, although her lip is swollen from the procedure.

On the way home we were talking about good foods to keep her tooth healthy and she announced,

"I think I need some onion food."

[She hates onions!]

The end of an era

Today Elisabeth had her first ever haircut!

She's reading!

This morning on the bus, Elisabeth and I looked at her latest issue of Highlights, which just arrived in the mail. It contains an array of simple poems, stories and visual puzzles for young children. One of the pages was a very simple, six-sentence story about a dog. I encouraged Elisabeth to sound out the words and read them.

She took the sounds one at a time, put them together, and read word after word! We kept reviewing the phrase of each 5-6 word sentence, because by the time she reached the last word, she had already forgotten what the first two words said, and had to sound them out again! However, I was amazed, because this is the first time that she has read a story. She has been decoding simple words for some time now, but hasn't shown interest in decoding even simple sentences - until today.

What a world of fun is just around the corner!

Wipe clean books

Elisabeth received two wipe clean (dry erase) books for Christmas that we have been using frequently. This is one of the first times that she has written her name with only the first letter capitalized.

Web 2.0 parenting

I have loved spending the past two and a half years with Elisabeth and watching her explore and develop on a daily basis. I have loved taking thousands of pictures and keeping this blog to be able to record our memories. Learning how she is developing, and finding appropriate ways to encourage and stretch her has been a delight.

As I spent hours perusing book lists, searching the shelves of libraries and bookstores, and wandering (mostly frustrated) through toy stores, I wondered if there was a service that told you what skills your child was currently developing, and recommended great books, toys and activities for each developmental stage - in short, a service to make parenting simple, so parents could spend more constructive time with their kids.

So I looked, and came up empty. There are lots of lists: lists of milestones, lists of books, lists of toys, and lists of activities. But no one had pioneered web 2.0 parenting, by providing parents a simple, customized, interactive environment to learn about and support each stage of their children's development.

At the same time, my childhood best friend, Jonathan, had seen that although parents (like me) take thousands of digital pictures, and there are many services for printing and sharing photos on the web, no one seemed to realize that the rate of computer replacement by home users would mean that parents needed a better and more reliable way to store their memories and photos for the long haul.

Thus tumblon was born. We could provide parents a simple, customized, interactive environment in which parents could learn how to support their child's current development and save those memories in stories, photos, and videos. It would be an interactive online 'baby book' so that grandparents (and other friends and family) could enjoy all the memories 24/7 - and for many, many years to come.

As an educator, I believe that parents are the key players in the education of children. I also believe that their greatest responsibility lies in the first five years of life (thought it certainly doesn't end there), as those early years mold the character, shape the personality, and even affect the intellectual capacity of children. So the prospect of creating a service that enabled parents to fulfill their responsibility, celebrate all of the milestones along the way and create a rich archive of memories is a dream come true.

In the not-so-distant future, that dream is going to come true when we launch tumblon. There is a teaser site up now, where you can sign up to learn more. And I'm posting on the founders' blog as we get closer to launch. Before too long, I'll start posting on my new tumblon blog, so you'll know that the transition has arrived, when this blog redirects you there!

Snappy

Elisabeth has developed a fascination with snapping. She practices snapping her fingers throughout the day, without any sort of encouragement. She has the motion now, and can make a soft snapping sound. I don't think it will be long before they're nice and loud.

Goldfish

When I arrived at Elisabeth's school today, her teacher greeted me at the door. She asked Elisabeth to show me what she had done in school. She pointed to the word "goldfish" (clearly in her handwriting) on the bulletin board. The letters were well-formed, and I affirmed her work, thinking that was what we were observing. Elisabeth's teacher then explained that not only had she written the word, but she had spelled it by sounding it out. Previously, we had been working on words like "sit" and "bat", so "goldfish" is a major milestone!

Bach at bedtime

In the quest for peaceful transitions to sleep, we have encouraged Elisabeth to listen to music while she goes to sleep. A week or two ago, I asked her if she would like to listen to Bach's cello suites while she went to sleep. She didn't protest, and drifted happily to sleep. The next night I asked her what music she wanted, and she requested Bach.

Now Bach is her regular request at bedtime. (I don't blame her. The cello suites are my current favorite as well!)

That's what's SUPPOSED to happen at night

Last night as I lay sleeping, I heard little footsteps padding into our room. I looked up and asked Elisabeth what was wrong. Without answering, she walked over to the tissues, took one, and padded back to her room. She climbed in bed, and that was the last noise I heard until 7:15am.

In my mind, that's what's supposed to happen in the middle of the night when a child needs something!

She walked home from school!

We live about 2 miles from Elisabeth's preschool, and until now have used the stroller to walk to and from school. Last week, we had dinner with friends who have a daughter 10 months younger than Elisabeth who regularly walks 2 miles from their home to her school. Inspired by her stamina, I decided it was time to let Elisabeth try the walk.

On Tuesday, she walked all the way home - without a single complaint! Yesterday we tried it again on the way home, and I was the one trying to keep up with her. She would run ahead and stop for me to catch up, and then start sprinting again.

Needless to say, she sleeps well at night!

"I love you Daddy. You do good ponytails."

For almost my entire life as a father, I have been known by my daughter as the one who hurts her when putting in ponytails. In my opinion, I have dramatically improved over the span of her life. (I think I was really bad at it for the first year or so that she had enough hair to gather into pigtails, and then a ponytail.) However, I retained my distinction as the one who hurts her head.

So this morning I was shocked when Elisabeth came out of her room, climbed onto my lap on the couch and said,

"I love you Daddy. You do good ponytails."

That is a major milestone for me!

Sketching

Elisabeth's artistic abilities have skyrocketed over the past three months or so. She's gone from mostly unintelligible scribbling to writing her own name, several other names, and several familiar words, and drawing pictures that can easily be recognized. This week at her museum class, they looked at Willem de Kooning's work. Elisabeth's sketch was decidedly more representational than de Kooning's.

My Days . . . My Pictures

Elisabeth received a brilliant gift for Christmas called My Days . . . My Pictures. It is a small spiral-bound drawing pad that has a prompt for each day of the year, such as: Draw a picture of yourself. Not only is it fun because there is something new to do every day, but parents can see incremental progress over the course of weeks, months and the entire year. We have noticed changes just within the first eleven days of using it (a great witness to the power of practice!).

One of the prompts in the first week was Draw your Dad. Elisabeth has decided that all the people she draws need to have either a pony tail (on top in a bunch) or pig tails. So, notwithstanding the fact that I don't have long hair, Elisabeth announced:

"I'm drawing Daddy with pigtails!"

I expressed my consternation, and Elisabeth changed her course:

"I'm giving Daddy dreads!"

I hope that the pictures of me eleven months from now will be a closer approximation of my actual appearance.

Skating

Last year Elisabeth was able to stand on skates on the ice without falling. This year she's skating forward!

A birthday without a post?

How could I neglect to record and celebrate my daughter's birthday? Well, she got sick at preschool (which meant an early trip, and abbreviated in-class celebration), and we came home to find that the roof had sprung a leak. So there was not much time for anything.

Now the roof is patched, and Elisabeth is in bed, so there is a bit of time.

I have loved the past year for a multitude of reasons:

• Bedtime is now a peaceful, happy routine.
• Bathing is happy, as getting water in your eyes isn't the end of the world.
• Elisabeth loves to help: cleaning, doing dishes, etc.
• She can make responsible decisions.
• She can make a polite request instead of falling to pieces.
• She can enjoy a book that doesn't have pictures on every page.
• She can solve problems rather than simply reporting them.
• She can share, even when she'd rather not.
• She initiates sharing!
• We can enjoy talking about a shared experience.
• She is even more affectionate and articulate. (Elisabeth regularly comes up to one of us, unprompted, and says, "I love you, Mommy [or Daddy]!")

I am so thankful for my daughter, and for her fourth year of life. What a wonderful gift of grace!

4 years ago....

Tomorrow Elisabeth turns 4....

E-X-I-T . . . exit!

Today Elisabeth picked up a book and read, "E-X-I-T . . . exit!" Rebecca and I looked at each other to ask, "Did you teach her that word?" and we both shrugged our shoulders at the same time.

I don't think we're far from being frequently surprised by the words she can decode.