Storytime



This seriers of pictures will focus on the
fun we've been having settling in. This
first one was taken at Matt's department
picnic, held at the spectacular Purina
Farms. We loved it!



There's nothing more natural than parental pride. We can't help but grin and find ways to slip it into conversations with other parents (or even with our cat) when our child walks and talks, counts to 10 or jumps in a swimming pool.

But I have to say, despite having an early walker and an early talker, respectively, there's not much I've been prouder of in either of my girls' histories so far than their old and new loves of stories. One's enjoyment of reading has morphed into a highly entertaining enjoyment of storytelling, and the other's has become the ability to differentiate between a bunny in one book and a bear in the next--read upside down, no less.

Elise, who only rarely stops squirming long enough to even hear a story, loves thumbing through her board books, exclaiming about the soft-looking animals within and nuzzling them on occasion.

Elise has been waiting her whole life to pet
a bunny. So honored to be with her the
first time.

The storyline Elise likes best is in her bunny book which asks, in the end, "Do you ever wish you could hold a bunny?" (page turn) "Of course you can!" She always cracks up and smiles. I think she wants to hold a bunny, and probably bury her face in it.

Among her favorites is also a certain book with a cow picture in it. The storyline in this one invites the reader to "moo," just like a cow. Elise enjoyed this so much that she sponaneously leads Kalina and I in a chorus of moos every so often.

The baby also shows a fascination for library books that's less than wholesome. After all, what 11 1/2-month-old can resist the crinkly dust jackets and fresh, unfolded pages? Not mine. Let's hope she soon learns to devour books a little more figureatively and a little less literally soon.

Kalina pet the bunny, too. The white
fuzzball is a very soft chicken walking
around.

And since the baby is only 11 1/2 months old, the rest of this post will be about Kalina and some of the cute things she says (don't worry, a certain baby with a birthday coming up will be the star of the show soon enough).

We've all known for some time that Kalina has come up with her share of elaborate schemes for her animals. But did you know that she now labels each of them "stories?" For instance:

Kalina: The next story will be about White kitten's new baby!

Mommy: Sounds like a great story! I'd love to hear it!

Kalina: White kitten has a new baby!

Mommy: That's great! What's the baby's name?

Kalina: The story is just starting.

Mommy: Oh. Well, where did White kitten get the new baby?

Kalina: The story is just starting, Mommy.



Mooo!



I guess we hadn't gotten to the good part yet. Or maybe she's still working on character development.

And then there's Kalina's unquenchable, irrisistable, unstoppable need to anthropomorphize anything and everything. We have a mommy, a daddy and a baby rubber spatula. When Kalina puts away the silverware from the dishwasher, the spoon gives the forks baths and puts them down for bed. Trash jumps into the garbage can for a party. Marbles become inseparable friends. Her pinky finger (Pinky) has a baby named Fan, whose birthday we often celebrate. 

Mooo!

And, last night, as Kalina watched me dredge chicken tenders in flour, then egg, then seasoned bread crumbs, she had her own take on the system. "The egg is the bath!" the girl exclaimed. "And this is where they get dried off," she noted, pointing to the bread crumbs. "And the flour is where they take off their clothes!" The cutting board, where I carefully laid each dredged chicken tender, became the bed. The first four tenders represented our little family ("And Mommy will eat the mommy one, Daddy will eat the daddy one, Elise will eat the Elise one, and Kalina will eat the Kalina one!"). The rest were our guests. "And then we'll eat the guests!" So I guess you could say we had a lot of guests for dinner last night.

It's a good thing she has fun with all these personalities around her, because it seems that this is a mode the girl can't turn off.

At the World Bird Sanctuary within 15
minuts of our house. I didn't expect
Kalina to want to be an eagle, but
after some deliberation, she decided
that she did.

We enjoy watching Kalina play like this, but I admit we're often at a loss for words when she asks us to "talk to the triangle" or rubber band or watermelon, or whatever. Fortunately, she usually feeds us our lines

And finally, the story of Kalina's first movie, Winnie the Pooh:

Taking Kalina to see a movie in the theater was never on my radar until I heard that Winnie the Pooh, in the original style, would be there too. And that it was short, and sweet. I debated the idea in my head for a while, until I'd convinced myself that it really would be the perfect activity for a Mommy and Kalina Date , and that Kalina would be drawn in by the talking animals, and that we could always leave if we needed to. I also noted that it's good for Kalina to face new experiences, but really I just thought it'd be fun to go to a movie with my oldest. Kalina readily agreed, excited to see a "big TV show about a bear, donkey, piglet" and all the rest.

At the elk and bison preserve next to the
bird sanctuary. Note the elk on the hills
Note the giant elk's head in the ravine.
Note that Elise and I headed for the car
when she started to get loud.

Meanwhile, Kalina had been highly involved in drawing up her own random stories about bears seeking honey, friends falling into holes, animals carrying balloons and more.

On the way, I told Kalina what to expect at the theater. I detailed how we'd buy a ticket, find a comfy seat, wait for the movie to start, and sit quietly to watch it (but if she needed anything, she could definitely let me know, as I'd be right beside her). I told her it might be a bit loud. I didn't want to tell her too much, lest she become intimidated and decide we should turn around and just go back home (which she almost did). I didn't want to tell her too little, lest she be caught too much by surprise and want to go back home. It's a fine line we walk, sometimes.

I cajoled the somewhat nervous 3-year-old out of the car before she could protest, and without even digging into the yogurt raisins I'd tucked into my purse so we could snack movie-style. We bought tickets, happily learning that it would only cost us a grand total of $3 to enjoy the show.

It was easy to find seats, but a little more difficult for Kalina's 32-ish pounds to sit in one. It kept folding upwards on her. Having refused a booster seat and my lap, she eventually settled back in a fairly comfortable position and managed to keep the front part from popping up.

Until the movie began, anyway. After two short commercials and one short preview, during which I tensed up at every possibility of seeing something even a bit scary (there was nothing too worrisome), the girl scooted up to the front of her seat and sat there for the entire movie, entranced, until near the end when she stood.

And what was the movie like? A bear sought honey. Friends fell into a hole. And animals carried around a balloon. They all sang and danced and did funny things. It couldn't have been more perfect. I spent the whole thing looking back and forth between the movie and my girl, to see her reaction. She stared, she smiled, she laughed, and she did not cry. We sat through every single one of the credits.

It turned out, too, that there was the exact right number of kids in the theater. They helped us all know when, exactly, to laugh--although at one point Kalina did become that one person who laughs when no one else does. I thought it was cute, even if no one else did.

Although Kalina was a tiny bit confused on the plot when I quizzed her later (what part did you like best?), she thoroughly enjoyed the overall storyline, possibly since she practically wrote it herself ahead of time, as well as the characters. Her favorites alternate between "the donkey who loses its tail" and Tigger.

On the way home, Kalina told me that the movie theater was her new favorite place. Maybe when they play Winnie the Pooh again, we'll see another one. Or maybe The Adventures of an Armful of Cute Kittens? Isn't that supposed to come out next year?

The best part about this movie was the stories it inspired in the next few days. Shortly after our adventure, Kalina decided that Pinky was painting signs for her garden, just like Rabbit did in the movie. What did the signs say, I wondered? A few of Kalina's rules for living:
Don't start a fire if the baby is in the chimney.
Don't fly in the sky unless you have a bird with you.
Don't fall into a hole unless you have a friend with you.
Don't hang kittens from trees because a fire truck might have to come get them down.
Babies shouldn't go high up into trees because they might get stuck.
And many more that I've unfortunately forgotten.

One final related quip. What does Kalina want to be for Halloween? A sign. What should the sign say? "Don't touch any signs."

And that is the cuteness going on right now at our house.