Um, At Least I Knew It Was a Mammal?

Any mother worth her salt knows to never, never ask a young artist, "Is it a (fill in the blank)?" You’re supposed to say, "Ooh, I like your sculpture; can you tell me about it?" and let the child’s conversation enlighten you as to the identity of the object she has so enthusiastically and inscrutably rendered.

I, however, have never claimed to be worth my salt. Which is why I am prone to exchanges like this one:

Me: "Ooh, what a great Sculpey lemur!"

Beanie: "Mom. It’s not a lemur. It’s a panther."

Whoops.

Speech Therapy at Home

You know how enthusiastically I recommend the Signing Time DVDs as a resource for developing expressive and receptive language skills in young children, even those whose hearing is normal.

I’ve written, too, about how useful I am finding the Visual Phonics program as an aide to helping Wonderboy (3 1/2 years old, moderate hearing loss) expand the range of consonant sounds he can make.

I’m always on the lookout for useful resources, and this website looks promising: Mommy Speech Therapy. Posts range from practical advice for helping a child work on specific sounds to informative discussions about working with speech professionals, getting a diagnosis, and when to be concerned about things like lisps, pacifiers, and thumb-sucking.

Beauty is in the Eye of the Three-Year-Old Beholder

So my college friends thought I looked a little like Cyndi Lauper. What of it? Wonderboy thinks I’m a timeless beauty. Just now I was reading a USA Today article on Harry Potter, and Wonderboy (in my arms enjoying his morning snuggle) kept pointing to the screen and saying "There’s Mommy!"

It took me a while to realize he was referring to the picture of Nefertiti in a book ad.

Two of my fellow ClubMom bloggers, Tracey of Picture This and Sheri of Little Zygote, are holding a photo contest for kids. It’s called "A Little Perspective" and is for pictures taken by kids 13 and under. Contest details are here. I have a whole file on my computer for the amazing pictures taken by my kids. I love to see how they frame the world. The banner photo at Bonny Glen Up Close is Beanie’s foot, snapped by Beanie, and that is one of my most favorite pictures ever. I confess to also being quite fond of the picture Jane recently took of me and my two littlest ones, the one that is now my sidebar photo over at Bonny Glen.  It’s always nice (and sort of rare, at least in my case) to get a picture where you’re really happy with the way you look. I have a tendency to grin too big in photos and I wind up looking like a gremlin. Or Cyndi Lauper. But that’s okay, because when my son looks at me he sees Nefertiti.