Montessori Spanish Lessons

Josh and Lola and I went to our favorite Mexican restaurant last night. At dinner, we were talking with the waitress, who is Mexican-American. She likes Lola's name because of its Spanish connotations. We told Lola to say "Gracias" when she received her food. She didn't say it, but a little later, when we were in the car on the way home, she said, "I want to go to mis casa." At first, we couldn't really believe what we had heard, but Josh said, "You want to go to your house? Mi casa?" and Lola nodded and said, "Mi casa." A minute later, she said with no prompting, "Gracias." The story behind Lola's precocious Spanish is that they have a Spanish teacher at Montessori who is starting the toddlers on Spanish words, so Lola must have heard us saying Spanish words at the restaurant and made the connection between "gracias" and "mi casa." Yay Lola!--K

Lola's Latest Art Installations

The first artwork shown below is Lola's arrangement of Mommy's shoes. She is a master of shoe "chi."


This artwork, created tonight, was invented by Lola, who laid out the miniature soccer goals and then directed Mommy to lie down with her head inside one. Lola then lay down with her head in the other, and chose books for both participants to read out loud ("Thelonious Monster's Sky High Fly Pie" and "Close Your Eyes"). Like mother, like daughter. In the ages before Lola, Mommy was once accused of mental incompetence by a fool who didn't understand why Mommy liked to lie on the floor, in squares of sunlight.--K

Lola the Storyteller

I've met a lot of kids who are Lola's age and have large vocabularies and high-level conceptualization. The one thing we notice about Lola that is definitely advanced is (surprise) her independent storytelling ability. From blog evidence I have seen, I can confidently say that she shares this ability with her cousin Brooke. We always make an effort at dinnertime to talk only at Lola's level, so she won't have to sit and eat while she's being ignored or bored. Tonight we asked her to tell a story. What kind of pet would she prefer? "A horse." What is its name? "Herrot." (The parents gave each other the look at this point--kids usually can't invent names at this age, and we had never asked her to do it before.) What color is he? "Yellow." What animal is his friend? "A cow." What's its name? "Sophina." (Parents look at each other again). Does she have goat friends? "Yes." What's the goat's name? "Sophina." What's the other goat's name? "Sophina." Well, she's definitely got good taste in names! By the way, no one around her has a name anything like "Herrot" or "Sophina." Even her books don't have anyone by those names.--K

Lola and Leo, Together Again

The last time Lola visited Leo, we forgot the camera, so it's been a really long time since we photographed the two of them together. They are such big kids now! Below the Leo reunion pictures are a few of our family at home.--K

She Came Home Different: Montessori, The First Day

Well, we didn't know what to expect, but at the end of the night we can say that the first day of Montessori did make a difference in Lola. Usually, she comes home at 3 p.m. from her high-play, low-learning daycare with a desire to read books all night and tell stories about toys. Today, after she watched real parrots in their cage, and learned how to make an alligator out of her hand, and learned other things we can't drag out of her, she wanted to come home and run around on the neighborhood playground, circling another little girl named Corina. I foresee that playdates are going to be much more important than they have been in the past. She just asked for her library books, but it took her a lot longer to burn off her residual playing energy!--K

Lola's Thought For The Day ("On Alligators")

LOLA: "They bite anything they want to bite."

PARENT: "Do they bite people?"

"No."

"Do they bite poodles?"

"No."

"Do they bite fish?"

"That's not funny."

Savannah: The Fourth Day

Here are the pictures from our final day.
Below: Why my father should visit Savannah (lots of pubs, especially this Scottish one)
Lola gets melancholy at the fountain.

A container-shipping boat that we watched pass from our seats on the ferry.

Lola was almost overwhelmed by her first boat ride.

Montessori Gives Josh His Comeuppance

Josh and I went to Lola's Montessori Orientation tonight. No Lola allowed! It was for parents. We learned that we will be buying a lunch box for her and packing it every day. Josh said to Lola's new teacher: "Well, I'm a control freak, so I love the thought of packing her lunch myself every day." Without pausing for an instant, the teacher replied, "Well, don't get too excited, because soon she'll be packing her own lunch." Facial, Josh!--K

Savannah: Third Day, Beach and All

On Sunday morning we drove out to Tybee Island and Lola had her first beach vacation.

When we returned to the city, we braved the outdoor seating at a good pizza place in 90 degree heat. Then we headed for the museums, but Lola made a stop at the Cupcake Emporium where she and Mommy shared a strawberry cupcake and Daddy opted for coconut.

Grandma kindly offered to come with Kathy to the Owens-Thomas House (1816-19), the third of the museums on our list. It was furnished in authentic period style. Kathy couldn't miss the tour: her research specialization is the period between 1780-1830. Here are pictures of its garden and the back of the house. Here, we were told a crazy story about Walter Scott (the novelist) being given an American plantation. Kathy immediately started checking out the story, but now thinks the guide was tired and babbling because she could not find any evidence of such a huge gift.

Here is the garden and former slave quarters, where undoing a 1910 drop-ceiling exposed the largest expanse of haint-blue paint they know of (we saw the paint, but should we believe the claim of its largeness after the Walter Scott problem?).

After the museums, Lola returned to the hotel pool, where she met a nice Polish-American girl, Nina (Ninotchka), about 10 years old, and her family. The day before, she had met a huge crew of Irish step-dancers, who had loaned her some nifty pool toys.

Savannah: Dinner at Elizabeth's on 37th

In the picture below, Mommy and Daddy are waiting to bid Lola goodbye and drive to Elizabeth's, the best restaurant in Savannah, for a delayed anniversary dinner. Lola, Grandpa and Grandma had a great time in the hotel restaurant, we heard later. Much was made of Lola by the chef, and Lola even shared shrimp-grits with Grandma (Lola has a vexed relationship with grits, but not with the wonderful Grandma).
The woman at the front desk of our hotel warned us that Elizabeth's was in a "transitional neighborhood," and that parking was limited. She suggested we take a cab. I told both desk clerks that we had lived in New Orleans, and the second desk clerk (not as silly) said we could drive. Here is our Camry, parked right in front of the restaurant and its sign. The neighborhood is about as "transitional" as a boutique district in Uptown New Orleans (in other words, perfectly normal).

Josh took a picture of Kathy in front of the restaurant, which looks like a cross between a "cottage" (small mansion) and an estate (gigantic mansion) in a Merchant-Ivory film.

Josh had parmesan-encrusted snapper, on top of Zinfandel braised short rib ragout, made with low country rice and field peas. Kathy had crab fried rice (nothing like the lowbrow version) and scallops with a touch of cucumber sauce.

Savannah: The Second Day

We spent our second morning ambling around the squares and fountains of Savannah. This one is Wright Square.
This sign says "Push Button For Everything to be OK."

Lola and Daddy on the stairs to the slide at the Forsyth Park playground.

We would like to live in this neighborhood.

Lola, Daddy and Mommy are dwarfed by the huge Forsyth Park fountain.

This is the facade of a Masonic temple.

Daddy and Lola throw coins into the fountain.

Lola tries on Grandma's hat.

Lola at the fountain again (these pictures aren't in chronological order).

What surprised me about Savannah is the English style of some of the oldest architecture. New Orleans has nothing like it. This is the courthouse.

Lola and Grandma are attempting to wake up here, in the Express Cafe where we started our day with a good breakfast.