There is so much that I want to write about, and I have had so little time! Yesterday we went to the Burlington, VT air show and thoroughly traumatized the kids. Everything was great until the Thunderbirds showed up (the part we were most looking forward to). Then they did this super low fly by as a surprise to scare the audience. Well, yeah, it sure scared the wits out of Carter. I got his ears covered, but it was still outrageously loud. He erupted in tears and would not stop. And Ava was apparently not a fan either, though Peter had her up front so she could see better.

So, we will wait patiently for the Saranac Lake Airport air show next year, since that one has quiet planes, sitting on the ground for Ava and Carter to explore. They did not have one this year because of runway construction. Bummer.

Onto other topics: Reading. I put 2 words up on the refrigerator, AVA and MOM. I then asked Ava what they were. “Ava and Mom” she said with a big grin. Then I put up STOP. She got that one too. Aside from my excitement that she was getting the idea, this totally rocked my convictions about how kids read. Because when I put up another easy word (I cannot remember which one, but it was not familiar to her in written form—something like BAT or ME) and asked her what it was, no dice. I did not expect her to get it, but when I showed her how to sound it out (I know it is very early to ask her to do that, I was just seeing what she would do…), she did not get the idea. Even when I said MMMM EEEEE…MMM EEEE…MM EEE…M EE…she still did not ‘hear’ the word that I was saying. This experience will be familiar to Michaela and my mother—remember “Bird-duh”?

Originally, when I had heard the debate about phonics vs. whole language, I had a hard time accepting that kids really did recognize whole words and that teaching the sounds of letters was not as important. To be precise, I thought that both approaches sounded pretty good, but that both should be used in tandem. But I did have more doubt for the whole language approach. It must just be my scientific reductionist nature. But now I have more doubt for the phonics approach. Not that phonics should not be a part of the learning process, but I am gathering that it might be something that comes to be understood after the gist of reading is obtained. And then that night, as I read, I tried to think about how I was reading. This was remarkably hard, and I was already biased, but I certainly do not piece together each letter individually, even with a new word. The only time I do that is when I am really trying to grasp the pronunciation. I am fairly certain that I am looking at the word and breaking it into familiar letter groupings. It is all very interesting. At least I have been doing what the whole language people advocate, just because it is fun to have Ava interact with the books that I read to her. Always question your assumptions.

But then, she is doing the virtual opposite when it comes to music. She listens to her songs and asks me what each and every sound is. I do not ever remember thinking about this. To me, music was a whole experience, and I never analyzed it. But I am not auditory in the least. Ava is. And she listens so carefully, and I have to really be on my toes, because I need to know what each and every instrument is (and explain it to her too). I find it very interesting that she can hear individual layers of sound in a relatively complex song. And that she is motivated to do so.

The other day she asked me “mommy, what is a train?” I said “you know what a train is!” And then she said “NO! A TRANE!” And then I remembered to substitute ‘c’ for ‘t’ and realized that she was talking about a crane. I had to talk about cranes (the machinery) for hours. And only now am I wondering if she meant the bird. I will ask her tomorrow.

Carter is really truly walking now, albeit with a lot of falls. But he can navigate turning and relatively long distances. The funniest thing is that we have a radio flyer trike (it is essentially a ride-on, with no pedals) that he zooms around on, with remarkable agility. We actually have two, since the first was Ava’s and we had a real proprietary issue with it. Now they both roll around the house at crazy speeds. Ava got hers at 18 months, and was not proficient on it for a while after that—or at least not motivated to be proficient since I made the mistake of pushing her on it in the beginning. Carter, on the other hand, screams and pushes at your hand if you so much as dare to help him. He is also a big fan of driving the chairs and small tables around the house. Between him moving furniture for ambulatory purposes and Ava moving furniture for architectural purposes, my living room is in a constant state of upheaval.

As for our various science projects, we now have 4 chrysalides (yes, I looked up the plural form of chrysalis, because chryisalises was just not right—what I learned was this: chrysalis has only the Latin plural, but chrysalid, which means the same as chrysalis, takes the English plural, chrysalids), and there is one more caterpillar doing its thing. Our robins have grown up and left their nest on top of the exhaust fan, a remarkably interesting place to build a home. I wonder if they will always have a fondness for the smell of bacon. Our garden is growing, though nothing is quite ready, so interest has waned.

Rose has a sore foot and we brought her to the vet only to learn that it was potentially an osteosarcoma. Potentially means most likely. So on Wednesday she is going in for x-rays to confirm and surgery to amputate her toe. She got some killer pain meds and is suddenly the dog she used to be. I had attributed her odd behavior to age, and now I am realizing that it was pain. Poor thing.

One last note: Everyone must must must read “Garbage Land” by Elizabeth Royte. Aside from being ridiculously entertaining, it is a real eye-opener.