Category Archives: Natasha

About our oldest

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We Have a Dog Again.

I’ve started this post four or five times, and it keeps being more of a laundry-list than anything else.

But:

I now have my dog.

She isn’t vizsla (though she does have the compact, muscular body with the short hair– dark brown instead of russet), and she isn’t a Brittany (though she is that size and already proving quite trainable and perfect with the kids).

I just mention the above because those were the breeds I was researching/pursuing the most recently.

A lab-mix, Shadow displays the best of the mellow of that breed, and has learned since Thursday night several things that are very desirable to our family.

She has even managed to not-bother Jay, though that may be as much to Jay’s credit as the dog’s.

It was Jay who emphasized we shouldn’t consider the animal shelter’s 10-day exchange policy as a trial period.

“I expect the transition to be bumpy,” he said. “So we just need to commit to her and go for it.”

Amazingly, the transition has been rather smooth, so far. The girls are becoming more assertive and Shadow is learning quickly.

The one rough spot we’ve had was Friday night when the neighbor across the street brought her dog over to meet our new arrival. That deteriorated into awful barking from both of them, so we didn’t trust them nearer each other.

We neither of us lost control of our animals, but neither dog really listened to our embarrassed orders to be quiet or “nice” either. We might try again in a week or two, to see if Shadow being more settled will make a difference.

In the mean-time, I’m going to begin classes with her, and I’m hoping the presence of a more experienced dog-person will make a difference in canine introductions. There have been no problems with people.

Both girls have really embraced their role as the dog’s boss (something in question earlier in the week), and Natasha’s favorite thing right now is “walking” the dog– holding her leash and pretending to chose which direction they go in. She frequently tries to “sneak” the leash out of my hand when I’m talking to someone, but I will only let them walk together in the fenced yard.

Sometimes Shadow indulges Natasha’s preference, and sometimes Natasha is reminded the dog is stronger.

It is very fun to watch them together.

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Just Noticed…

The girls were watching me get dressed this morning and Natasha said, with some surprise:

“Your baby tummy is gone! What happened to your baby tummy?”

What I would call my baby tummy is not gone, but I felt such a sweetness from the comment, drawing as it did the direct connection between baby and belly, and my daughter’s delight in what my body had been able to do.

“Where do you think it went?” I asked her.

“It went away when Elisha was born,” She said, authoritatively. “But why?”

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Natural Storyteller

Natasha has for a while now been “reading” familiar books aloud (something that Melody is also very prolific in), but in the last couple weeks she has also begun inventing stories based on the characters or components of what she’s read, and what she’s thinking about.

I used to say I loved the girls’ original songs because they let me see the girls’ minds. Now Natasha’s stories are letting me do the same thing.

One thing I’m very thankful for is that she prefaces her stories with “I dreamed” or “Here’s a story.” She also “reads” her creations from blank or wordless books.

A friend has a son with a similarly vivid imagination, and a tendency to tell stories as if they actually happened, no matter how fantastic they are.

With Natasha there’s never been (as far as I can remember) any confusion for her distinguishing between “real” and “imaginary” in the stories she relates.

I wonder if that’s a personality thing (I distinctly remember having Bible stories and Greek myths in separate categories in my mind), or the result of reading a lot…

Most likely (now that I think of it) it’s the result of telling stories of our day and story-stories too, exampling the difference. And maybe from fracturing the story-stories, too (The three bears going for a walk and discovering a moss-covered rock).

I like to think that we have to have a strong grounding in what is before we can play with it, and maybe that makes the play more fun and at the same time keeps reality secure.

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One of Natasha’s Stories

She told this to me and Melody during lunch on Friday 4/14. We were at the church that morning for Jay to do some work, and sat longer together than we would have at home, having other things to do.

Once there were 9 children, all in the same family.

One day they they all made hot chocolate for a snack and decided to go for a walk in the woods, because it was too hot.

While they were out walking…

THREE BEARS came into their house and drank up all the cocoa!

When the 9 children got back they saw all the cocoa was gone, but the Daddy said, “That’s okay, we can make some more.”

But the teapot was out of water, and there was no cocoa in the box.

“That’s okay,” said the Daddy. And they all went to the store to buy some more.

But there was no chocolate at the store either!

So they all went to the Easter palace to visit Papa, and found chocolate easter eggs all over the yard.

Before the children ate them, they found Papa and told him about their day, and he told them about his day.

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General Update

We are (Lord willing!) coming out of a black hole of sleeplessness.

Natasha was having frequent night terrors, Elisha would wake 4-6 times in the night, and Melody would take forever just to get to sleep.

Melody still takes the longest of anybody to pass-out, but she’s generally quiet about it, and now that I’ve quit trying to shift the kids’ schedule earlier, Natasha’s been napping again and the terrors seem to be past.

For a week or two, I was attempting to nap the girls from Noon-2, hoping the earlier nap would help them sleep earlier at night. The mixed results (they would go down earlier, but wake more in the night) have since made it not worth the effort. The rhythm we fall into naturally seems to work much more peacefully.

~ ~ ~

In other news, Melody has become the resident singer. She will join in whenever I start singing, and keeps singing even when she doesn’t know the words. ;o)

Natasha is more disinterested now, in general, but has learned all the words to “Papa’s Song” (the first verse of The Star Spangled Banner). She’d be interested in learning more verses if I knew them, but since we returned the picture book to the library before I memorized all the lines, I don’t have whole verses to offer her.

Elisha signs and says “All done,” now, and sometimes tries to use it when I’m changing his diaper. He loves to clap when we’re singing, and sometimes tries to sing along too.

He crawls everywhere, “cruises” along whatever furniture he can grab, and will stand independently for a brief time (he pulls himself up than lets go, grinning ear to ear before he plops back to his bottom).

We’ve tried to get him to walk with the toy hippo Gma H gave Melody when she was learning to walk, but I think the wheels are still a bit too fast for him. He ends up leaning forward until he’s walking on his knees.

Everybody is glorying in the warming weather, asking frequently to go outside (the girls) and dashing cat-like onto the front porch (Elisha) whenever the door is left open.

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Socratic Parenting

I just noticed this morning how many questions I use with the kids when I’m redirecting and/or annoyed with them.

When they’re mindlessly mouthing random objects:

Is that food? Does it belong in your mouth?

Seeing their use of books as stepping stones across an otherwise clear floor:

Are books for standing on?

Through squalls of desire for the latest must-have object:

Would you like a timer?

This is how an object changes hands. Sometimes the have-not will be so worked up and angry about not getting it *now* that she’ll screech No! and the result (her sister gets it even longer) just ramps her further until her focus changes.

They have both reacted this way, but it’s the best thing I’ve figured out so far, and when no one’s overtired it works really well.

Natasha will occasionally give the object to Melody because of the melt-down, so she gets enough reinforcement to try each time. I don’t really want Natasha to be less generous, but I’d really like to quit feeding the fire.

When one comes to tell me brokenly (and usually loudly) of her sister’s insensitivity:

Have you told her that makes you unhappy?

When the other refuses to modify her behavior:

Would you like it if she did that to you?

This latest still means nothing to Melody, but Natasha seems to just begin to understand it. I’ve only said it a couple times, but she has looked cowed, obviously seeing it that way for the first time, and has usually changed her behavior.

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We’re in Chaos Here

…but at least I can still feed them well.

We had ham and chix chowder for dinner and homemade choc ice cream for desert.

While finishing up in the kitchen I had fun thinking about the different things being said around our front room (one of them was me, and one was Jay. The rest were Natasha. Melody is currently on a nodding kick, where she seems to be resisting our family’s tendency to use words so much).

  • “Respect her ‘No,’ Dad.” (Melody wasn’t in a mood to be teased and said so).
  • “Give her time, she just woke up.”
  • “Play Fives…with the pickle.” (“And the tickle?”)
  • (“Ew, yuck, I don’t like that.”) “That’s not something you can say to your mom. you can only say, ‘Thank you, very much!’ And eat it all up.”
  • Please don’t break your neck. That would make me very sad.

Natasha has begun to invent in her conversation. She told us all about her telephone conversation with Uncle Benjamin while we ate dinner. Bet you didn’t know he’s got three kids (he hasn’t told her their names yet) and he broke his arm last night.

How did he do that? Well, there was this tree, with spiky things sticking out of it. And Benjamin wanted very much to hug his mom, and was running toward her very fast and banged into the tree… and his arm fell off.

(This injury was why he didn’t have time to list the names of his children.)

But he was very happy to see his mama, and hugged her anyway. With his only-one arm.

Yeah, it might have been messy, but he was getting it taken care of. That’s why he couldn’t talk on the phone long. And his kids were staying with Abby and Hannah while he got fixed up.

We are just going to have to start recording dinners. It was a total hoot.

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Hot chips

Jay bought two varieties of Dorito chips while we were out shopping yesterday. Both of them spicy.

Our girls love doritos, so when Jay opened a bag tonight he gave some to each of them. Poor things! They wanted so much to eat them but they were too hot. Jay said they’d take a little nibble, then guzzle down their water (or milk) and ask for more.

They got through about a chip and a half this way, before they gave up.