Some Notes

I wanted to make note of two cute things that happened this week.

1. Whenever I need someone to watch the baby, hold her or play with her, I can always depend on Maggie. She is more interested in babies than my others, and she has a natural, gentle nature that makes her comfortable and good with them. ("Ge" for Maggie, was Ella's first word.) The other day, I was trying to bathe kids and I laid Juliet on the bed. She was in a good mood and I felt bad just abandoning her like that, so I asked Maggie if she would go keep her company, which she readily agreed to do. When I finished what I was doing, I came in to check on Juliet and Maggie said, "Watch this mom." She then proceeded to stick her tongue out slowly, going in and out like a lizard. Juliet watched her intently. Then, to my complete surprise, she copied Maggie and stuck her tongue out, then in and out again. I was amazed and said to Maggie, "do that again," which she did, and the same scene was repeated. So Maggie taught Juliet at only 2 months old her first trick, a communication of sorts, with her tongue. It was all really quite cute.

2. In preparation for Kindergarton this fall, I recently started teaching Xander to read, spending 30 minutes in the afternoon with him and working on sight words before reading very basic books. He has been making good progress and it is gratifying to watch his pure joy and amazement as he reads the simple words on each page. The other day he was really excited while reading and exclaimed, "I'm so smart mom," which is exactly how I want him to feel about himself as he embarks on his scholastic journey at SAS. It is quite a demanding program and a 8 hour school day (when you factor in the bus ride.) Right now, however, he is attending a more local preschool with Singaporean teachers and children, apparently with a little different vocabulary. Yesterday after a few pages of reading, he stopped and asked why some of the same words started with uppercase letters while others were lowercase. I pointed to a period and explained that after a period the sentence ended and a new one begins with uppercase. He looked really puzzled for a minute then laughed and said to me, "you said period mom. That is so silly. Don't you know that is called a full stop?"