Ever Think About It That Way?

Aren't you fascinated with the things young children say?  Here's a little peek into our preschooler's mind.

At a family gathering at Iris and Doug's home on Sunday afternoon, Daniel was yelling calling very assertively from the dining room.  Six year-old niece Zoe came to the kitchen.
Zoe:  Auntie Sandy, Daniel wants you.
Me:  What does he want?
Zoe:  He wants GiGi to come.
Me:  Why?
Zoe:  (whispers very close to my ear) So we won't have any more ear hurts.

One Tuesday, Daniel found a young friend walking out of the library with her siblings and mother.  He chatted her up about his crocodile backpack and the colors of her tie-dyed tee.  When we got to the street, he wanted to hold her hand to cross into the parking lot.  By this time, we knew that the kind, patient 7 year-old was named Tatum.  Chatterbox and I realized that we were parked right next to Tatum's van, so I thanked her for helping Daniel be safe in the parking lot and said good-bye.  Daniel said, "I wanna' go in Potato's car."

Will stays home with Daniel now that Cecilia has a summer job.  D's voice is so much lower and huskier now that he spends more time with Papai.

~> <~

Papai is great at sound effects and dialects.  Daniel has started to make this sound like a young goat.  Hard to describe, but  it's almost like the second half of Woody Woodpecker's laugh.  D uses it when he laughs mostly, but I've heard him use it as an embellishment on the end of some words too.  It's just a little strange . . . huhuhuhuhuhuhuh!

On the freeway with D in the back seat, we talk about the colors of cars a lot.
Daniel: GiGi!  Look at all the different whites, GiGi!

~> <~

Inviting Daniel to help pick up outside, I was tossing balls in a bucket.  He stood his ground with arms crossed.  "Congratulations, GiGi!  Good job." 

~> <~

One week, the favorite statement was (with one finger raised an arm's-length in front of his face), "I have an idea!"  Nobody can pinpoint the source of that one.

~> <~

Unloading the car--
GiGi:  I'm going to carry your bag with my purse and keys.  Will you hold your cup, please?
Daniel:  (turning two chubby little empty palms up) My hands are full.

Back story:  For 2 years now, the naptime routine with GiGi includes a story and several songs, ending with the old hymn There's Something About That Name.  It starts "Jesus, Jesus, Jesus.  There's just something about that name.  Master, Savior, Jesus--like the fragrance after the rain."  Okay, so last week we're singing Baa Baa Black Sheep--
Daniel:  Baa baa black sheep have you any wool?  Yes sir, yes sir.  Three bags full.  Master Savior, one for my dame . . ..

As bossy as His Twoness has become over the past couple of weeks, he still has such a tender heart.
Example One--
We were watching "Davey and the Giant Pickle," the VeggieTales cartoon story of David and Goliath.  When the little tomato Davey flung that stone and toppled his wart-faced green opponent, Daniel started wailing.  He was so sad that the pickle was hurt and fell down!  (Never thought of it that way . . ..  Did you?!)

Example Two--
After trying to take a walk on an August Texas morning, I coaxed D to play in the hose on our shaded patio.  To cool down our core body temps, I sprayed the hose in the air to make it 'rain' and began to sing, "It's raining!  It's pouring!  The old man is snoring.  He went to bed and bumped his head, and didn't get up in the morning."  After a few more rounds, my buddy clouded up.  With big tears and an anguished face, he kept repeating, "GiGi, don't sing he bumped his head."





And finally, words I never ever thought I'd hear from the mouth of The King of the Sleep Fighters.
Daniel (when finished with lunch):  I wanna' take a nap!

A Grands' Trip to the Children's Museum of Houston

A Grands' Trip to the Children's Museum of Houston

(with cousins on holiday from their home in Switzerland)



Daniel and HeyYea wait for tickets and cousins.

Here come Mia, Dodo, and Zoe!
Nana parks the car.

Zoe, Daniel, Mia
6, 2, 4

Let's pose in front of the purple one!

Uncle Steve starts the teasing.



One
 



Two
 



Three
 

Zoe talks to a member of the Justice League
while all of us are assaulted /enveloped
by the colors, sounds, and motions.

A game explained--roll the dice and fill your fingers
with spider rings.  First one to 10 wins.

D's turn.  Put down your cars . . .
 

Four spiders and a race car



Zoe has six now.

The girls spin golf balls into a vortex.
D collects as many as he can hold.

Round and round and round

 

Nana tries to help with Zoe's hoist.

Dodo and Mia are a good team.



See the Giant Phone Man
in the background?

Daniel gets a boost to study
the Giant Phone Man up close.
Entire body is covered with all kinds of old phones.
Hair?  Phone cords, of course!

 

HeyYea shows D how circuits work.
Awesome!

Lights flash and propellers spin when
positive red and negative black get plugged in.
They stop when disconnected.
I've got the power!!

Exploring how a guitar makes sounds
with a moveable fret and a pick on a crank.

Lots of boys building



How about a conveyer belt and shape sorter?

So many moving parts

Testing weight, mass, and density,
D pumps some steel.

A thoughtful look at fluorescence

Spin the discs and watch
centrifugal force at work.

Who knew science was so much fun?!

Make steel shavings climb up
inside the jar with a big magnet.

Texans Nana and Dodo enjoy their Swiss grandgirls
over a hand-pumped rocket launch.

BTW--so many activities didn't make the photo stream . . .

I was too busy helping a dad build castles with heavy foam blocks so our guys could launch balls from a catapult to knock them down.  And you know it takes four hands for a two year-old to cut paper.  D kept saying, "I'm playing with scissors!"  He's been taught well and remembers too; but I encouraged him that it was ok when a big person helped.

At one point, I confirmed the source of that oh-so-familiar, um, odor; I gave D a 2-minute warning to say goodbye to the circuit boards so we could break for the change that refreshes.  Out of the corner of my eye I saw a young mom with babe in arms next to me.  She was holding him across her arm to check the back of his diaper.  I turned to reassure her.  "It's not you--it's us!"  She and I chuckled.  Ah, the things that strangers find to connect over . . ..

Objects were launched, bikes pedaled, atoms built, train gears manipulated, pinwheels constructed, boats floated.  We were all worn down from the assault of wonder.  HeyYea had waved the white flag about 45 minutes in.  D and I found him 'saving us a table' in the hall just outside the labyrinth of exhibits.  People-watching and iPhone Solitaire had kept him patiently and comfortably occupied.

Though the girls wanted to stay and finish constructing a cardstock cube, I told them that Nana had forgotten to eat breakfast (the truth--it happens a lot when herding cats) and was really, really hungry.  Immediately Zoe put down her scissors and was ready to go without a peep.  She and Mia love their Nana!

Team Bingham and Team Beatty parted company at the Pay Station in the Children's Museum garage.  We had a DEFCON 1 Hyundai backseat meltdown over the. missing. red. racecar.  [It was apparently one of the seven D could not possibly hold at the same time].  This was exacerbated by the torture of being safely strapped into a comfortable car seat in a shaded, air-conditioned vehicle.

In all fairness, everyone has an expiration date.  It didn't negate a bit of the wonder-filled morning we spent with family.

Our Friday afternoon agenda:  home and lunch and quiet naps complete with visions of spiders, golf balls, flashing lights, red positive/black negative, spinning propellers, launching objects, guitars, blocks, boats, trains--all floating down from the curly head of the Giant Phone Man.  Awesome!!

Cows and Cars and Scary Green Monsters, Oh My!

Hola! Hello!  It's me, Daniel. I have a story to tell you.  Ready?  Once upon a time . . .

 

Since I was just a baby, Mamae has taken me to the Library for story time and books.  I like books.  You need to be very quiet when someone reads a book to you, so I put my finger up to my mouth--shhh.  We don't have to be still all the time.  We sing songs and dance too.  It's really good free fun.

 

Mamae went to work this summer.  She cannot take me to story time any more, but Papai can!  One day, he invited GiGi to come.  The Library at Lone Star College is very close to GiGiHeyYea's house.  Papai and I were late, but when we went into the Children's Library, GiGi was there listening to a story about monsters.

 

There was a crazy song that GiGi had already taught me called Skinnamarink.  Our storyteller showed us some ways to move our arms and sing faster and faster.  Crazy!

 

After a few more stories and songs, our storyteller showed us how to make a scary green monster face.  My friend Eleonor was there, and I gave her a hug.  Then we made scary green monster faces together.  Together is lots of fun.  I like together.

 

When it was time to leave, GiGi and I walked up to thank our storyteller and show her my scary green monster face.  GiGi taught me to say, "Hi, my name is Daniel.  What's your name?"  That's what I did, and guess what?  Our storyteller's name is Ms. V.  I said, "Thank you for the stories, Ms. V." and then Papai, GiGi and I all went to GiGiHeyYea's house to play with cars.

 

  

 

It's OK.  It's just me--
not a scary green monster.

I had to stop and watch a butterfly
in GiGi's garden.

I shared my scary green monster face with HeyYea
so he wouldn't be afraid.

Ms. V's monster had a blue nose
and only two yellow eyes with black inside.
With a blue tongue and 4 crazy eyes,
mine is scarier.  Rrrahhhrr!!!

Next time on Tuesday, Papai took me to the Library to meet GiGi so she and I could go to story time.  I think Papai had to do some work.  We were late again, but Papai and GiGi knew there was another story time in a little bit.  GiGi said, "Let's have an adventure and then we'll go to story time."

GiGi showed me how to find a magic button that opened doors.  While we explored, we found a place that had ginger tea and muffins.  I picked chocolate!  GiGi laughed and said, "The apple doesn't fall far from the tree," but I didn't understand.  Apples are in grocery stores--not trees!  And anyway, what does that have to do with my chocolate muffin?

GiGi let me tell the café lady what I wanted.  Then I got to hand her our moneys.  I gave her just one green and white paper and she gave me 2 papers plus some shiny moneys.  Awesome!  Then I picked a table so we could have our treat.   

Ginger tea is my favorite GiGi drink.
See my chocolate muffin?!

So good!

We played I Spy and talked about the lights on wires up high near the ceiling.  Then we explored outside.  We saw a lake and a fountain and a waterfall.  Guess what?  There was a turtle in the water.  He swam over to us, but GiGi was saving our chocolate muffin for HeyYea.  So he turned into a rock and floated away.


It was a breezy cloudy morning.
We had fun walking around the lake.

This is the first time I've been to college.
Maybe I'll go again some day.

Our adventure took us right to the Children's Library where Ms. V was waiting to take my ticket.  GiGi asked me what the stories would be, and I thought maybe cows.  Ms. V read a book about a pig that said moo and a cow that said oink and how the pig was sad because people laughed at her and how the cow taught the pig to say oink and the pig taught the cow to say moo!  They were friends.  Everyone was happy.  Every time Ms. V finishes a book and closes it, she says, "And that's The End!"

Here's Ms. V

That day we made a cow puppet.  The next time Ms. V read books about rabbits.  And the next time we got to honk! honk! beep! beep! with books about cars.  GiGi and I try to guess what Ms. V will read about each time.  Just last Tuesday Ms. V read fish books.  And we always get to Skinnamarink faster and faster.  It's really funny.  My GiGi said she likes story time just as much as me.

After story time I'm always ready
to go see HeyYea
and play cars.

One day when Papai picked me up
from GiGiHeyYea's house,
he was dressed just like me!

And that's The End!