May 12th, 2003

A while ago I wrote about waiting for Sophia to tell us that she loves us. For a while she was saying “wa wu wooo” and Kurt said that he thought this was a mangled “I love you”. She didn’t seem to be saying it at the appropriate times, though. Sometimes she’d say this when giving signs of affection like hugs, but mostly it was just one of those nonsense things she said the way she used to say “brrbrrbrrbrrbrr” or “tikitikitiki” when she is doing very important things. And also, she can say “you” pretty clearly in other contexts (though she doesn’t know what it means) so I didn’t think she would have quite so much trouble enunciating “I love you”. The other thing about “wa wu woo” is that she sings it, always the same way, as the same three notes. Well, I think I’ve discovered, possibly, the origins of “wa wu woo”. She sings the same three tones that are used in the latest Zelda game when your character casts the “Wind’s Requiem”. Surely the fact that my daughter sings tunes out of a console game is not a good thing, but I have to admit I’m more tickled than worried about it.

And the other day, when Kurt was leaving for work, she sealed all our doubts by saying “I love you, too” to him after he’d said his goodbyes and I love yous. It was a very sweet moment and she said it quite unmistakably.

Sophia sings to herself all the time now. I discover that she knows new songs by eavesdropping on her playing, as she’s more likely to sing them to her bears than to us. This weekend I heard her sing the complete first verse to “Rock A Bye Baby”, a song I didn’t even know she recognized, much less could sing all the words to.

Yesterday, for the first time in three, maybe four, weeks I managed to read something not Dr. Suess to Sophia for sleep. I picked out a bunch of books from the higher shelves in her closet, books she didn’t have the patience to sit through when she was younger and spread them out before her on my bed. “Hort-who”, she said. No, not Hort-who, I told her, pick one of these other books. She looked at the books. She didn’t protest and demand the familiar, as I half-expected. She studied her options with interest and care. She opened one of the books, then another. She picked one up, then set it down. Finally, she chose Sylvester and the Magic Pebble. “Dis one”. We read it. I’m looking forward to which book she’ll pick tonight.

Continue reading

Most of the items on the list got done this weekend, plus a few that cropped up as things progressed. It was, overall, a pleasant and relaxing weekend with enough things getting accomplished to satisfy me. Kurt was an amazing handyman and worked really hard on some stuff and also made me several super duper Mother’s Day meals. My mother’s day loot included : a really cute bag with an ironed on picture of Sophia, a sappy poem with Sophia’s handprint on it (“Fingers!” she told me, pointing at the fingers of the handprint as we looked over it together), and two cds: 13 Songs by Fugazi and Zerospace by Kidneythieves which I think is a great name for a band. I also got a flower on friday from the people I work with, a lovely peach colored rose. Unlike usually when I get a rose bud and it just wilts and hardly puts out any scent, this one opened up gorgeously and looks great and smells better. I thought it was very sweet of someone to decide to give out flowers to all the mothers.

Continue reading