Embedded Files
2005—Merry Christmas from the Summerstays! Here are some anecdotes from the past year. Daniel turned three this October. He was late speaking but is catching up fast. (The ones marked Lesli are recounted by Lesli, and the ones marked Douglas are recounted by Douglas.)
January
Lesli: On the subway two women and a little girl were talking loudly and laughing. Doug and I couldn’t help listening. The little girl was telling jokes and her mother and the other lady were laughing at them.
“What kind of music do ghosts like? Rhythm and boos.”
“Who protects the shores where ghosts live? The ghost guard.”
Finally, the little girl said, “How you keep a ghost from seeing you? I mean, how you hide from a ghost?” “How?” said the ladies.
“You hide under the bed.”
There was a pause. Then her Mom asked, “Did you make that one up?”
The girl protested, “No, I didn’t. It’s from a book.”
Her mother said, “Well, don’t tell that one no more.”
Douglas: Lesli was sitting on the couch looking thoughtful, and suddenly she said, “There’s a time and a place for everything—of course, some of the times and places are in Hell . . .”
February
Lesli: We saw an ‘Open House’ sign for apartments one Sunday. Taped under it was a printout that read “Panaromic View of NYC.” Doug commented that he smells quite enough of New York as it is.
May
Lesli: Daniel was whimpering for sympathy and saying in tragic accents, “Tired.” I wonder whom he copied that behavior from? :)
Douglas: Daniel and I were sitting down to eat some ice cream together. Daniel got very distressed because Lesli was missing out, and called, “Mommy! Come On! Dinner! Come on! Dinner!!”
July
Douglas: Daniel drew a line and said, “A ‘I.’” Then he erased it and said, “Bye, ‘I.’” Then he drew another one and said, “Hi, ‘I.’”
Douglas: A few days ago, Daniel saw a woman walking 3 dogs on the street.
He said, “4 doggies.”
Lesli said, “No, three doggies, see? 1, 2, 3.”
Daniel said, “No, 4 doggies. 1, 2 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, FOUR!”
“Well, that proves it then,” I said.
August
Lesli: Daniel loves to point out things that are exactly the same—or ‘zacky same’ as he says it. We were on a walk in Hoboken and Daniel was pointing out two building fronts that were similar. He said, “Look at it! Zacky Same! Look at it! Zacky same!” Doug said, “That’s right, Daniel. That’s a major feature of modern industrial society—‘Exactly the same.’”
Lesli: Doug just came into the kitchen and asked, “Do you have a copy of that document saved anywhere?”
“No,” I said, “Why?”
“Because Daniel is deleting all the letters so he can type ‘Wiggles.’”
Douglas: While walking in Hoboken, we saw some hair lying on the sidewalk. Lesli said, “I hope that’s a wig and not someone’s scalp.”
Douglas: August 8th—Two days ago Daniel was typing in Microsoft Word. As I watched without saying anything, he closed Word by pressing ‘X,’ and when Word asked if he wanted to save his document, he created a folder which he called ‘Daniel’ (he typed ‘Daniel’ in) and saved the file he had typed as “Wiggles.” (He’s two months shy of turning 3 years old.)
Douglas: Today, Daniel wrote “Bob the Builder” on the computer (by himself) by looking at the letters on the logo and typing them one by one. It’s more impressive when you realize it’s mostly lower case and the letters on the keyboard are upper case.
September
Douglas: We had laid some mattresses on the living room floor because guests were coming. Daniel was playing on them, tripped on the blanket, and hit his head hard against the rough stone hearth. He had to get stitches. When we got back from the hospital the guests were all there.
“Did you go to the doctor?” we asked, trying to get him to talk. He nodded.
“Did the doctor give you a drink?” we asked. He nodded.
“What did the doctor say to you?” we asked.
He answered, “Ah doctor say, ‘No more jumping ah bed!’”
Douglas: “It’s cold and raining, Daniel. It’s going to be cold and rainy for the rest of our lives.” Lesli, commenting on the weather and instilling a healthy sense of the futility of existence and despair in the younger generation.
November
Lesli: Daniel had been playing with his motorized construction set and he pointed to the green truck and said, “That’s the baby.” Then he pointed to a yellow truck and said, “That’s the Poppy.” Another yellow truck became “Mommy.”
Later, I said to him, “Come here, so that I can change your diaper.” Daniel said, “No. Want play babies.” (talking about his construction trucks set)
Lesli: Douglas was sitting on the couch with his laptop on his lap doing homework. Daniel came and sat next to him, put his own toy computer on his lap, opened it, and said, “I have to check my email.”
Lesli: My elbow bumped Daniel’s head and I asked, “Are you all right?” He said, “Yes. Ah go doctor and doctor say, ‘No more bump head.’”
Lesli: I was reading Daniel the ABC book and we got to T, which was illustrated with an elephant wearing a tie, and I said, “T—Tie.” Daniel said, “No, a necklace.” “Yes,” I placated, “it’s a necklace. A tie is a kind of necklace.” And I guess it is.
Douglas: I was reading A.A. Milne to Daniel. “Where’s the baby kangaroo?” he asked. I pointed it out to him. “That’s the Mommy and that’s the baby,” I said. He told me that the baby kangaroo’s name was Daniel. I pointed to the boy in the picture. “Who’s that?” I asked. “Christmas Robin,” he informed me.
Lesli: I think Daniel is amazingly good at finding pictures in things and making visual connections. When he eats apples, sometimes he pauses after the first couple of bites and tells me what the bites out of his apple look like, like a ‘T,’ or an ‘elephant.’ The other day, Daniel was looking at a lower case ‘t’ magnet on the fridge. He said, “Look,” turned it sideways, and said, “Lion.”
Daniel came up with this design himself and called it a sheep. It was his first representational drawing other than smiley faces.
Daniel wrote his name in August (2 yrs 10 months)
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