Saturday, July 31, 2010

Daisy finally meets Barbie...

...and it's like they've never been apart a day in their lives.

Sunday, July 25, 2010

Shuh Uh

Today I listened to Daisy talking to herself in the back of the car, saying repeatedly what sounded like, "Shuh...uh. Shuh...uh. Shuh uh."" Turns out she was experimenting with saying something totally off limits and verboten in a way that would somehow make it acceptable. I tried to explain to her that as long as people understand what you are saying (i.e., "Shut up"), it doesn't matter whether you enunicated the final consonants or not.

I should explain that Daisy has developed an enormous fervor for correcting us when we say a "bad word" and will shout across the room if she hears me say something that could even remotely be construed as a bad word--like, "Ask." She herself would be utterly horrified EVER to use a bad word, and don't ask me where she got this. It's not like Mark and I have been pounding the lesson into her at all. I did, though, tell her that the expression "shut up" is extremely rude. So she was experimenting with saying it without really saying it, and it was obvious that repeating "shuh uh" held some kind of tantalizing fascination for her.

Then she said, "How about, 'shut your mouth, please, I want to say something?'" I explained that, noooooo, that would be a highly unacceptable thing to say. I asked her where she had learned the expression "shut your mouth" and she said without missing a beat, "Harry Belafonte." Oh my dear Lord! That's right! I thought. That's a line from one of the songs on her Harry Belafonte albums, "Mama Look, A Boo Boo"... something like, "Shut your mouth! Go away! Mama, look at Boo Boo."

Daisy has a very literal-minded four-year-old's comprehension of "bad words." Although I've tried a bit to explain, she doesn't really grasp the concept that it's how you use the words, and the context, rather than the innate properties of a particular word that makes it "bad." So, for example, she thinks "hell" is a bad word and she always points it out on her CATS album when one of the cats sings, "Have you been an alumnus of heaven and hell?" It's difficult to explain to her how, in some contexts, it would be okay to say "hell." Same with other words, like "freak"... you don't call someone a freak, but you can say, "I'm freaking out." There's no explaining these complexities and ambiguities to Daisy, and she corrects us a thousand times a day. She is also constantly on the lookout for new "bad words" to be severe about, and will often ask with a very serious look, "Mom, was that a bad word?" She asked me today (with some hope, I think) if "dim" was a bad word after I used it.

Sunday, July 11, 2010

CATS and Sensitivity

Okay... so, Daisy is really starting to remind me of me and Mark, and I mean really REALLY. She always did, but lately it's scary. She is sensitive. She has started getting a "crying feeling" when she thinks about sad stories. Her eyes fill with tears when she thinks about sad parts of stories and she wipes her eyes, saying she is trying to "wipe away the feeling." And then she thinks of the same plot points days later and gets the crying feeling again. She is not even four yet and already such an empathizer. I don't mean to be melodramatic, but she strikes me as very attuned to aesthetic experiences. She truly feels for characters and is sensitive to music, even to pretty subtle shifts in the mood conveyed by different pieces. Sometimes after hearing a song just once she'll tell us about it days later--"I'm thinking about that song." She tells me about the things she's imagining while she hears favorite songs, too, and it's very sweet; often she's imagining that she and her friends are performing the music in various settings, or she's performing them with fictional characters she loves. And it seems that nothing gets past her. She remembers even minor moments in stories where a character feels sad or suffers even briefly, and will bring it up days later.

On a lighter note, today we (Mark, Gommy, and I) took her to a production of CATS and she loved it. She was rapt the entire time-- she knew almost all the songs and characters from the album. She asked me a million questions about the lyrics as the show went on (the shrewd girl always zooms in on the problematic lines--what is a fading rose? What does it mean that the street lamp dies? Who is that cat in all the black robes?) and she was nervous that the song "Memory" was going to make her sad. She had had the "crying feeling" as we sat in the audience waiting for the show to begin, as she reminisced about some sad parts of stories she's read, and then she asked me several times whether "Memory" was going to be happy or sad. I tried to explain "bittersweet" to her, but she kept insisting I pinpoint it as either happy or sad. Then, when it actually started, she said with great concern, "Is this a happy song?"

But she was fine, and her eyes were huge throughout the whole show. I wasn't entirely sure that would happen, since the show is longer than two hours, but it worked out well. Then, after the show, she got to meet some of the actors in the lobby, including her two faves. Macavity high-fived her and she had a pleasant exchange with Mr. Mistoffeles. Pictures!

Before CATS--getting ready



Dancing around before CATS

On our way to the show


Daisy and Dada at the show

After the show I bought her her favorite balloons--red ones

Friday, July 02, 2010

She cracks me up

Today Daisy told me that she loved the word "sewer." She loves the SOUND of that word, independent of its meaning. She also loves the word "Liverpool" and the word "pantry." She does not love the word "water." All I can say is... she really reminds me of myself. When I was a kid I had words I loved and didn't love based purely on the sound, too.

She also told me she knows how to talk backwards and said several words backwards ("olleh" and "yliL").

Here are some choice Daisy quotes from today:

1) In response to my saying I will do squeaky character voices but only at home: "Let's say, for the sake of example, that we DID make voices in public."

2) In response to me blowing up some balloons for her: "Finally I got lucky!"

3)"I love these balloons. They are so delicate and smooth."

She also came up to me apropos of nothing and said, "I love you, Mommy." I never get tired of that.

Oh my God... Daisy is accompanying Mark on the kazoo while he sings the theme song of "Cailou" and it sounds great! That is just unbelievable. She has the tune down, the rhythm and everything. I will have to record that and Youtube it.