Baby Bee

My whole life revolves around A, in a way so but I still don't write much about her here.

Lately she seems to just have blossomed.

We play a game with her where we tell her to say stuff and laugh at how cute she sounds. She honestly thinks ladybug is merely a mispronunciation of babybug. And everything small with wings is a babybug.

One morning when I walked into her room we had a small conversation.

Me: Good morning!
Her: G morning!
Her: Ah love you too!
Me: I love you!
Her: Ahma happy girl?!

Is there any better way to start a day? She is cultivating this little personality. Ninety nine percent of the time she is so sweet it is almost surreal. I don't talk about it because I know no one wants to hear me brag on my kid. But man, she is something else. What did I do to deserve a child that makes me so happy?

I wonder sometimes about how God wired our brains to be parents. I have become so patient, so empathetic. That's not to say she doesn't get in some trouble occasionally. She lately won't let me get her clothes on and wants to roam around nekkid while I try to get the day going. She has always had major issues with having her face wiped. It is like some form of primal torture for her. She never wins that battle.

She knows the butones for getting the atencion. She does her ABC's and she knows she can get a "good girl!" even if she can only make it to G. After G it is a random assortment of alphabets. Her numbers are the same way. She can identify numbers and letters correctly mostly, but not reliably. Still she knows mom will become much more interested in her when she chooses to practice.

I am wishing I could stop buying diapers. It was humorous, the other day a mom who had started Infant potty training with her son at 4 months was boasting to me that at 18 months he only needed a diaper at night. But A, at nearly 2 is waaaay less than interested in the pot that has been lingering since October last. So I have begun to ply her with m n m's. I know it has to be her idea. I know it has to be fun. But I can at least make it more fun when she chooses to sit on the pot. As for the mom who did infant potty training, after having read about rushing the kid to the toilet when they make the certain face that meant they were doing something, sheesh, it sounds more like parent training to me. Let her brag, after all the work she probably did for over a year?

Mostly it isn't these "typical" benchmarks that are fun. It is her surprises with what she knows. Like when she tries to stick a pencil in her hair like mom and then get on her little toy scooter and says "bye bye!" so important. It is amazing to me how she tries to act like me, wear my shoes, imitate me in small ways. I realize again, wow, I am her MOM. With all the weight that word carries.

Madness

It is that time here. Standardized tests.

I teach second year ESL kids. Some of them are in an American school for the first time. They are required to take the same reading test as kids who have been in the US all their lives. This isn't really even amazing to anyone anymore. The chance that they will pass the state score at this level is 0.

So it is little to no surprise that (shhhh!) most kids just click through the test and say "I'm done!"in 15 minutes. They have learned the secret. Never mind that they read at a first grade level (at best), and the test is for 10th graders, and many 10th graders cannot pass. Never mind the nearly 50 questions with intense reading. Never mind that they don't usually know the word for "scroll bar" before the test but our monitors are so small that they have to scroll all over the place in 2 different windows to take this test. Just never mind.

I only heard this anecdotally, but another teacher, understandably shrill and about to go crazy, complained about putting having to administer a 70 question computer test to kindergartners, with headphones. Can anyone even imagine this?

It is just confirmation to me that those who make education policy (read: NCLB) just have no idea what kids are like, what schools are like or what will really work.

And by way of qualification, I am all about high standards, and I can even get behind some standardized testing. But agreed with a coworker this year, who when we saw the testing schedule said "Phew! With all this I won't have to write more than 3 lesson plans this year!"

It is true, our ESL kids have to take 3 and a half standardized tests just for their english proficiency annually to comply with state and federal standards. They are not short tests.

In other news, Addy said for the first time tonight "I love you!" over and over and clapped each time. It was awesome. I know she will be pulling it out of her pocket now when she gets in trouble. I can see it now:

"No Addy, you cannot hula dance on broken glass on top of the chair with bare feet while you reach across to pick up a knife on the kitchen counter. Naughty."

Addy continues reaching only now she is looking at me saying "I love you mommy!" thinking that if she is cute enough she may be able to avoid the inevitable impending repercussions of her decisions to do the opposite of what I ask.

Jeff got the tile in the laundry room down, and we will sleep for a second night with no door on the laundry room because we will just have to take it off again tommorrow for the washing machine delivery (I begged him to put it on, every bump in the night makes me wake up with a door off, I wonder why). I was rebuffed firmly. I have heard that robbers don't come when there are people in the house, but if they do come, I just might say "I told ya so", though I have sworn I would never say it. Still J wins the official stud award, he was not excited neither about tiling nor about the washing machine, but it is all over now, and he even painted the laundry room. It was a room we were both pretending it didn't exist. But now it looks decent, new trim, new paint and new tile. No fancy tile though, just cheapest of cheap since this was his first go at tile, though now he is kind of getting into it, looking at fancy tile jobs and making plans.

Admit it

C'mon, admit it. If a little girl pressed her face into your cheek and said "Kiss? Happy! Happy! Happy! Thankyou Momma," wouldn't you play her stupid music like The Wiggles just to see her smile?

I am listening to this stuff, and it is just really a basic cross between the Cab Calloway (which she already has memorized--ok ok, she say's"Hey now!" when I walk to the stereo, by way of request I am guessing) and a few choice Beatles songs (beep-beep, beep-beep, yeah! Baby you can drive my car...) with basic children's stuff in the mix. Brilliant, these guys I am sure are laughing all the way to the bank. Marketing. Good ideas.

What about childrens music selections CD's that aren't vaguely mindrotting to their parents?