when we were camping, i took carter into the tent for 10 minutes or so, so he could nurse in a bug-free environment, and i told ava that she needed to be in a spot where i could see her from the tent. which gave her a lot of latitude, and excluded basically only the road leading to the campsite. she puttered around a bit, then without any prompting whatsoever walked over to the fire pit (no fire in it) and got one of the little kid-chairs positioned around it. she then walked with it down a little path that led to the water's edge and put the chair down facing the water, and conveniently, the sunset. then she sat down and watched the water and the sky. silently. for the entire time--at least 10 minutes.
i cannot imagine a bigger incentive to take your kids camping.
when i asked her what she was watching, she started telling me about the ripples on the water and how she was trying to figure out what they might be--fish or bugs or the wind--she was not sure. but she thought they were fish.
yesterday as i was trying to plant the last of the seedlings that we got from the franklin county soil and something or other conservation project, she started telling me a story about some coyotes that she was going to hunt and when she got them she was going to take care of them because they were puppies and their mother was dead because a bad hunter got her but she was a good hunter and now she had six puppies and they were right there do you see them mommy aren't they cute? and they need to be taken care of and fed and watered and (insert 15 minutes of more of the same) and now their mother has been deading (her verb use is still evolving) for six years but now she is alive and she did not turn into dirt, can you believe that and now she can take care of her coyote puppies..
meanwhile, carter busied himself with shoveling dirt into neat piles all over the yard.
i keep trying to not worry about his talking or lack thereof, but every once in a while i get concerned. but then i think about the complexity of his gestures, and i am pretty certain his language development is just fine. problem is, i am fluent in his gestures--i know the difference between medicine and helicopter, though they both involve frantic zooming of his index finger. medicine is held down low, because you smear diaper rash medicine on one's bottom, and helicopter is held up high, because, well, duh. today he was looking at his picture dictionary and he pointed to an iron. i asked him what it was, and he held up a lock of his hair. "that's right!" i said, because to him, an iron is what mom uses to straighten her hair. the fact that he does not know it is usually used on clothes, particularly the ones with the shape that was illustrated in the book, is testament to my particular brand of domesticity. he has all sorts of different ways of communicating, and my personal favorite is when he has a hair in his mouth. he opens his mouth, sticks his tongue out, says "eeehhhhhhhhhhh" and then points to his hair, then his mouth. today in the car i said something and then said "yes" --and got out of the car to get them. just as i was getting out, i SWEAR he said "yes" -- i poked my head back in and said "what did you say?" and ava said "he said yes!" and i asked him again and i could have sworn he blushed and he just shrugged his shoulders and shook his head. could it possibly be performance anxiety?
