I Think I'm Quite Ready for Another Adventure

My parents continuously remind me to experience as much of the world as I can. With that thought in mind, I touched down in Puerto Rico today and will be here through Sunday. It is my second trip to the Caribbean and my sixth plane ride of my life thus far. Last week I was in Atlanta, GA and the week before that I was in Holden Beach, NC. I find traveling to be enjoyable, both the trip and the destination itself, and hope to keep up this frequency for years to come.

Dada

Over the last several weeks I’ve been trying out new sounds. One of my first was “dada,” which, to my surprise, excited my father a great deal. When I first said it, standing in my crib and making direct eye contact with him so to show him that I was indeed expanding my vocal prowess, he returned a great big smile and immediately called for my mother. When she entered the room, I gathered up my voice once again, looked her square in the face, and said “dada.” She smiled, in what I can only assume is approval, and looked at my father. Then, probably being a bit brash, I looked at my giraffe Nelson and said “dada.” As he is a stuffed animal, this elicited no response. My mother thought this was hilarious while my father just rolled his eyes.

Now I’m not quite sure what this meant to all of them, but to me it’s my first steps to being able to speak directly the people around me in a way in which everyone can understand and take pride in.

Hippopotamus the Not But

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Sebastianasaurus

I roar a warning to all the land: Beware! I am now invincible! Fruit fidgets at my feet. Bananas blanch before me. Cucumbers crumble at my cry. All hear this! I am now unstoppable! Plums are putty in my palm. Grapes groan in my grip. Cheerios crack in my claws. All hear this! Start running now! For now I, the great Sebastianasarus, will demolish you with my first terrifyingly tyrannical tooth!

As soon as it stops hurting.

Signifying Something

We all have times in our lives where we feel small, insufficient, and ignored. Where no matter how much we fight to be heard, we are left wanting. Being a child is that feeling all of the time. Your presence is known, but not given much respect. We learn to lash out, yell, scream, and make as much noise as possible to announce to the world that we will be heard. So unlike he who would be King hereafter, my sound is fury because it is new. And as I grow my voice will become as I intend it now - signifying my presence and determination.

Today's Readers Are Tomorrow's Leaders

In the loveliest town of all, where the houses were white and high and the elm trees were green and higher than the houses, where the front yards were wide and pleasant and the back yards were bushy and worth finding out about, where the streets sloped down to the stream and the stream flowed quietly under the bridge, where the lawns ended in the orchards and the orchards ended in fields and the fields ended in pastures and the pastures climbed the hill and disappeared over the top toward the wonderful wide sky, in this loveliest of all towns Stuart stopped to get a drink of sarsaparilla. - Stuart Little, EB White.

I love it when friends and family take the time to read to me. And while most of it is of the ABC and 123 variety, they also read older kids’ books and occasionally books meant for adults. Dad tells me that the more I like being read to now, the more I will like to read when I finally learn. I keep trying to beg him to teach me now, but like many things, he doesn’t understand me. I cope by chewing on as many books as possible.

I am happy for now just listening, even though sometimes I surrender to sleep before they are through. But know that if you are reading to me and I doze off, I am not commenting on your inability to grasp Seuss’ intricate rhyming schemes. It just means I want to better imagine the worlds and characters in the books until I can read about them myself. So until someone finally relents to my pleas for reading lessons, I’ll listen as much as I can, and am happy with just about anyone who wants to take the time to read to me.

My Morning at the Botanical Gardens

This morning my Mom and Grandma Joan took me to meet some of my friends at the South Carolina Botanical Gardens that are at Clemson University. We met at the big red caboose that was donated to the park by the alumni. The older boys we climbing all over it and I can't wait till I am big enough to do the same. Once everyone arrived, I got in my stroller and we started walking. We walked under an arbor with a huge patch of gourds growing on one side. We also walked past many different kinds of trees like pine, maple and oak, as well as other plants like pansies, hostas, monkey grass and many others I don't know the names of. After we had walked for about an hour I got sick of being in the stroller and started to complain, loudly. Mom finally got the message and decided to carry me. She put me up on her shoulders for a little while and it seemed like I could see forever. After walking for a little longer we came to a pond that had ducks, turtles and fish. My friend's mom had packed some seed and bread so we could feed the animals and it was fun watching them all swarm around as we tossed the food to them. It had been two hours since we began our walk and I was tired and hungry. Mom fed me when we got back to the car and I slept all the way home.