I kept meaning to post about what happened with Rilla’s newborn hearing screen back when she was born, but I forgot. I have finally remembered, and it’s over at Lilting House, and it’s a piece of advice I think is important enough to want to point any readers who happen to read this blog and not that one toward.
And also: could she be cuter?
And this
turned into this.
Happy birthday, Rilla-my-rilla. Your big sister isn’t the only one who finds you irresistible.
Oh, sure, you can toss off a nice "Mama" or "Dada" when you feel like it, but your REAL first word, and the word you prefer to use ninety percent of the time, is "This." As in: I want THIS or I’ve got THIS or THIS is mine. Such a useful word, adaptable to so many purposes.
THIS can’t be beat.
"Supposing I said there was a planet without schools or teachers, study was unknown, and yet the inhabitants—doing nothing but living and walking about—came to know all things, to carry in their minds the whole of learning: would you not think I was romancing? Well, just this, which seems so fanciful as to be nothing but the invention of a fertile imagination, is a reality. It is the child’s way of learning. This is the path he follows. He learns everything without knowing he is learning it, and in doing so passes little from the unconscious to the conscious, treading always in the paths of joy and love."
—Maria Montessori
(With thanks to Donna G., local Montessori teacher and my fellow speaker at a recent alternative education panel, for bringing it to my attention.)
And in that vein, here’s what Rilla learned yesterday.
Deliciousness, doubled.
It’s just, it’s just:
How can I not share this?
This thumb-sucking business is exhausting work.
