Language Arts

Communication is what holds us together around here: finding out what one person needs, how they are feeling, who got kicked at recess. It’s all vital. All vital.

Alice has been pretty good at communicating. As an infant, she had a special way about her that made it somewhat easy and clear to understand exactly WHAT she was wanting or needing. As she’s grown, her vocabulary has blossomed. She apologizes, thanks, asks, and even, “okey-dokey!”s. She sings and screams. She fights and fits.
The thing is: she is VERY particular. She likes to have certain things JUST SO, and if you don’t get the message, she blows a frustrated raspberry, pancakes herself onto the floor and shakes her little head and back forth.
See, SOME kids would just say, “no.”
But Alice? She wants to make darn SURE you know she asked for a sippy but didn’t want THAT sippy nor did she want WATER.
Raspberry, pancake, shaking, crying… Mom puts the sippy next to her and quickly walks away because she will not be manipulated by raspberries or pancakes only to find that as soon as she leaves, Alice has quit shaking her head and is sipping a sippy.
Women.

As hard as she tries (my great-grandmother would say, “bless her heart”), she still can’t get some messages clearly across.
Like, “meh meh.”
WHAT does that mean? Can you translate? It took me awhile…

Alice is very selective (this we know) and her TV choices are no exception. First, it was ONLY the movie “Frozen” and then it was ONLY the television show, “Good Luck, Charlie.” Since coming home from Disneyland, she would only watch, “Mickey Mouse Clubhouse” and now it’s moved on to “meh meh.”
Please watch the first six seconds:

It took several sessions of
“Charlie?”
“MEH MEH!”
“Mickey?”
“MEH! MEH!”
and me scrolling through icons on Netflix and watching her reaction (tossing herself as far DOWN as she could in her high chair when I pulled up Mickey and Charlie and perking up and wiggling her little legs when the penguin popped up).
“Is THIS meh meh?” I asked, clicking on Pingu. The theme song rolled and she cried out in joy, “MEH, MEH! MEH, MEH!”

Translation victory.

In Kindergarten, Trenton was given a little stack of “heart words.” They are heart-shaped flashcards with words on them… words he will learn by heart.
Love.
Like.
Can.
To.
The.
Dog.
Cat…

He’s been working diligently to memorize his heart words by heart, and two days ago he sat at the table mumbling and writing and giggling.
He’d only peek over his shoulder at 20-second intervals to call out, “Don’t look, Mom!”
And the ending result? Only one of the MOST ADORABLE LOVE NOTE I’VE EVER GOTTEN:

I’ll be one sad lady when my kids get too old for construction paper.

We all know there’s more going on around this place than just PEOPLE. And even the pup struggles sometimes with how to communicate.

His eyes pretty much got the message across. Poor, gently puppy who just wants his food but not as much as he wants to NOT HURT THE HUNGRY KITTEN.

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