matching tracksuits

fun in threes, sometimes fours

the girl

Treasure

Sunday 06 March 2011 | 1 Comment

A four-year-old has treasure stored up in every corner of the house. There's the princess umbrella that sits in the toy basket downstairs, ready for deployment. There's the scooter downstairs, festooned with princess regalia, parked by the pink bike. There's a bookshelf packed with books, new and old, tall and short, thick and slim.

And then there's the jewelry.

All L's treasure had its own, proper, fitting place before today except for the jewelry.

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A small but colorful cardboard from Ikea held L's beads and rings, her bracelets and necklaces, her charms and her gems. And so when she saw the jewelry box at Barnes and Noble this afternoon, there was no question. She'd come with money sent from Poland with the intention of buying a book.

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She left with a new treasure,

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to hold all her other treasures.

Games with Nana

Friday 11 February 2011 | 0 Comments

Shadows

Monday 07 February 2011 | 1 Comment

It was a mystery: walking down the street in our home outside of Rock Hill, I found that no matter how I jumped, sprinted, or turned, my shadow stayed with me.

It's a novel observation, but one we all experience. So ubiquitous is the discovery that are shadows are inescapable that it finds its way into our cultural imagination. Recall that in Disney's imagination, Wendy first meets Peter Pan when he's trying to capture his shadow.

Yesterday, the Girl discovered her shadow is relative.

"Tata, look! My shadow is big

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and then it gets really little."

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The rest of the swing time, L kept her chin buried solidly in her right shoulder as she contemplated the mysteries of her ever-changing shadow.

Slip Sliding Away

Saturday 29 January 2011 | 0 Comments

Stepping onto the ice for the first time in probably twenty-five years can be a bit of a stressful experience. My mind turns back to the last time I ice skated: I recall being fairly confident; I remember the importance of having tightly-laced boots; I think about how I was finally able to skate backwards the last time I ever went as a kid. Or was I? I did go only a handful of times, after all, and most of those times my attention was not on the ice but on those on the ice around me -- usually on specific person.

Maybe I only imagined I could skate, because the instant I step onto the ice, I'm fairly certain this is the first time I've ever ice skated.

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Yet I watch the Girl, who truly is on the ice for the first time, and I realize that perhaps I haven't forgotten everything. I push off and begin to glide -- I realize I have.

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Perhaps because I have more experience and a more developed sense of balance, I'm not as bad as the Girl: her feet are slipping this way and that, forward, backwards, left right. She looks like she could have been the model for some cartoon about a character's first time on ice.

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By the end of the hour, though, she's able to skate glide by herself from me to K and back again. A few more times and she'll be asking when she can try her first jump.

Ice Skating

Sunday 23 January 2011 | 0 Comments

Zoo and Playground

Saturday 22 January 2011 | 0 Comments

Dancing

Wednesday 12 January 2011 | 0 Comments

The Girl loves dancing. We've known that for some time, and made videos and photos several times.

It's such an odd thing for me, a complete non-dancer. She can hear music that she likes, and she'll jump up and start dancing -- in the kitchen, in the living room, in her room.

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I imagine if any of her favorites came on the radio while we're out shopping, she'd dance about there as well.

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She dances to anything. K puts on Polish folk music and within minutes, the Girl has burst into the living room and is dancing. Anything by Chopin gets her swaying almost majestically.

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Elvis Costello can get her feet moving so fast it looks likes she's running in place.

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It is the ultimate sign of a love of music.

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Our hope is that it will last and deepen over the years.

Baking with Nana

Wednesday 05 January 2011 | 0 Comments

2010

Friday 31 December 2010 | 0 Comments

Twelve months of the Girl -- as the years pass, the significant changes do not occur within such a relatively short time span, and they're more and more invisible to the camera.

January 17
January 17
February 13
February 13
March 15
March 15
April 3
April 3
May 15
May 15
June 22
June 22
July 7
July 7
August 28
August 28
September 15
September 15
October 15
October 15
November 25
November 25
December 27
December 27

Puzzles and Dolls

Wednesday 29 December 2010 | 1 Comment

“Do you dream of being a princess?” coos one of L’s Christmas gifts before offering game-play options.

Why does L have such an obsession with princesses? It’s not like we initiated it, though we’ve done very little to encourage or to discourage it. (Relatives are a different story!)

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Granted, L has watched the films several times: Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, The Little Mermaid, and several other princess films. She has a few princess books — usually thick books we refer to as “the princess collection” and “the other princess collection.”

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“Do you dream of being a princess?”

My concern is not necessarily the notion of being a princess; it’s the notion of being a twenty-first century princess, a highly sexualized image that encourages girls to flirt in grade school and has teen fashion magazines offering advice on the cover for how to have a “sexy beach” hair do.

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“It’s a long way off,” some might say. “She’s only four.” When I hear stories of six-year-olds getting cell phones, though, I realize the pressure begins shortly.

Or perhaps it’s already begun, the pressure to meet society’s standards of what a “Real Girl” is like. Perhaps that’s what the princess obsession is all about.

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Perhaps. It’s somewhat depressing to think that we’re entering a period during which peer pressure is as influential as — if not more than — parental influence. There’s a balance there that we are just beginning to feel out. Its contours are still nebulous because the actual relationships and ratios are still unclear. In the end, it’s all about awareness.

If only it were that simple.