in the span of 6 weeks carter has gone from saying practically NOTHING (and that which he said was in a secret mommy-carter language) to using pronouns, correct verb tenses, expressing abstract concepts, and being completely obsessed with naming things:

"mommy? this? name is?"

"mommy? him? name is?"

"mommy? her? name is?"

he also likes to describe himself: "carter--fast eater! num num num num!" (a la cookie monster). "me! BIG. hockey player!" (mom silences internal scream of anguish). "mom! watch this!" (please let him not be more than 3 feet off the ground)..."mom! i tooting!"

the use of the personal pronoun 'I' is a very recent development. before its introduction, he spent hours practicing in his car seat. "I. i. IIIIII. i. I. i's? i. I."

and as of yet, he has not identified "mine" as the appropriate 1st person posessive. he still likes "me's"

he still does not understand that i don't automatically know the name of every human we meet or see, but i have suggested that he can ask them. he has not taken me up on that. and interestingly, he identifies adults by their status as parents of kids he knows. even in the absence of the child. so, instead of trina, he says 'chase's mom' and instead of jim he says 'sophies dad' -- i should not be surprised, i do the same thing. i have to drum parent's names into my brain. it is all so interesting. he is so so so interested in how everything connects. AND he is unbelievably affectionate. which is so great.

speaking of learning, ava 'reads' over my shoulder when i read the dragon book--Eragon. There are NO pictures, and the text is microscopic. but every night she scans the pages intently. months ago she started grilling me about how much we had already read, and how much was left, and then one day asked me basically where i started on the page, and where i went, and when i turned the page (--ie, left to right, top to bottom, then to the top again, etc), and then 2 nights ago, she asked me about the spaces--she noticed a dash, and she said "there's a space..." and i explained that it was a dash, and that the empty spaces between the letters were the "spaces" and that they demarcated the words, and then she asked me about a period, and then a comma. She has also asked me about the groupings of words that are the paragraphs. it is very interesting, and a curious way to approach reading--sort of like from the outside in. it is clear to her that reading involves a lot more than just stringing together the sounds of letters. i think this is good. she can recognize familiar words, and she is completely obsessed with writing, but the code has not yet been broken.

however--perhaps this is not revolutionary--but the other evening i stopped at a coffee shop, and she said "mom! it's open! that sign in the window says "open!" that is not a word that we have discussed ad infinitum, and i have never said "this sign says open..." it could have just as easily been the name of the store--it was not a typical generic open/closed sign.

so, it is all starting to gel.

tomorrow ava returns to school, and then we will go ski, i think. last time we went, ava and i were in the chair lift and there is a section of woods that is officially a blue square trail--the 'glades' -- lots of little kids zoom in and out, and she begged me to go do it. i hedged, hemmed and hawed. then when we got off the lift, dad was all for it. ok, with his agreement, i was fine with it, albeit a bit nervous.

it was like she had done it a thousand times. zoom zoom zoom. pick a line and stick it. trees? what trees? wooo hooo! i was literally gaping.

she does not rave about skiing like she raves about skating, but my god. next year she will be hucking herself off cliffs. her father put it best:

"i see a full-face helmet in her future..."

personally, i see 2 full face helmets. carter starts skating next week. test runs demonstrate that he is desperate to fly across the ice. no matter the consequence.

it is so illuminating to watch them take control of their bodies and minds.