|
|
|
|
|
| Winter, 1991 | Age: 1 yr 5 months | |||
| (17 months) |
In the kitchen
one day, I am holding Kelley and stirring something on the stove.
I tell Kelley it is wonderful! and I ask her, "Can you
say 'wonderful'? She
looks at her fingers and holds some up and says, "One, der, free!"
| Spring, 1992 | Age: 1 3/4 yrs | |||
| (20-22 months) |
Lora has a cocker spaniel puppy that she has named Hobbit. Each time we go to visit, Kelley has her own, unique name for the dog that sounds very similar to "Hobbit" but is very appropriate for that visit. For instance, the first time we went to visit after Lora got him, Hobbit apparently assumed that Kelley, being the smallest kid in the group, was another puppy and kept trying to get Kelley to play with him by jumping on her, knocking her down and roughhousing with her. Thus Hobbit became "Stop It." We would hear Kelley running away from him crying, "No, Stop It! No!" The next time we visited Kelley had one of her currently favorite dolls with her and Hobbit kept stealing it from her. At every opportunity (which is quite often when you are waiting to catch a toddler off guard) he would snatch it and then trot off with the "Baby." He was always just ahead of her, as he led her out one kitchen door and in the other, going around and around through the kitchen, through the mobile home, out the doggie door (patiently waiting as she crawled through behind him), splashing across the wading pool and the other little kids in it, back in through the doggie door... Little Kelley would be right behind the whole time, hollering at him: "Gimme dat, Drop It!" Once when we went to visit, Kelley brought with her a beautiful balloon she had acquired from somewhere. She was in tears as she told me what "Pop It" had done to her balloon... And then there was the time when Kelley witnessed Hobbit going #2 on the concrete driveway and he became "Plop It"...
| June, 1992 | Age: 1yr 11mos | |||
| (23 months) |
The Court
Reporting firm of which Jack was a partner had recently moved their offices to
the elegant building at 555 W. Ocean which also housed a bank and expensive
restaurant. It was about 7:00pm when
I was leaving one evening with the girls, and everyone but the security guard
had deserted the building. I got a
glimpse of how Kelley's sense of humor was developing when I stepped out of the
elevator with Katie at my side and Kel in my arms.
She took one look at the guard and threw both arms and her body toward
him and cried, "Help me! Save
me!"
| Summer, 1992 | Age: 2 yrs |
Kelley's first
real phrase is "Gimme dat!"
Her second is
"I can't reach it!"
Kelley calls
her Granny "Grampa"
and she calls her Uncle Kevin "Uncle Papa"
and Aunt Lora "Uncle Mama"
Kelley loves
"Atban" (Batman)
| Fall, 1992 | Age: 2 yrs |
Kelley ends
most questions and sentences with "Mom," only the "M" that
begins "Mom" disappears and the rest is sort of run on to the end of
the previous word. For example,
"Night-om!"
| November, 1992 | Age: 2 yrs |
After changing
bedrooms with the girls, I hung my big mirror at the head of my bed.
One morning I woke up with Kelley standing on my bed, her face about one
inch from the mirror, and informing me, "I'm me, Kew-wie,
om!"
| Early December, 1992 | Age: 2 yrs |
After 6 or 7
months of periodically emphatically exclaiming "CA-WATT!" (which my
unimaginative brain could only interpret at this time as meaning
"carrot") when she was excited, I finally realized during a louder
than normal discussion with Jack that Kelley was ordering us to be
"QUIET!" Sure enough,
thinking back, this would happen whenever she thought an argument was ensuing!
| February, 1993 | Age: 2 1/2 yrs |
Whenever we go
to Long Beach we cross the San Gabriel River just before getting off the 7th
Street off-ramp. As soon as she
sees the sparkling river, Kelley excitedly exclaims, "Wahdees, wahdees!"
Kelley prefers
the view from above and is constantly asking, "Carry me up"
Kelley loves to
sing and watch "Ee - ee - a - pooh"
| March, 1993 | Age: 2 1/2 yrs |
"Ee - ee -
a - pooh" becomes "Shampoo"
| April, 1993 | Age: 2 3/4 yrs |
I show Kelley
her first snail crawling in the grass.
"That's a snail," I tell her, and she asks "Why?"
Garden Grove
| June 14, 1993 | Age: almost 3 yrs |
Kelley gets
hold of my tambourine, turns it over in her hands, searching, then looks up with
a puzzled expression and demands, "Hey!
Where's batteries?"
Coyote is
"ky-dodie"
| September, 1993 | Age: 3 yrs |
Kelley finishes
dinner before the rest of us, and so we ask her to tell us a story.
She runs upstairs and gets some big paperback books Jack has gotten them.
She sits at the end of the table and opens a book and begins - "Now
then...."
Every story now
begins with "Now then..."
| August 25, 1993 | Age: 3 yrs |
For quite a
while Kelley is terrified to go into the bedroom she and Kate share because she
is convinced "ET" is in there.
| May 16, 1994 | Age: 3 3/4yrs |
Kelley asks me, "What's a pickle pine?" I finally figure out she means porcupine!
| May 21, 1994 | Age: 3 3/4yrs |
Kate, Kelley
and I are in the upstairs bathroom. I
ask Kate to go tell Papa the Yellow Pages are downstairs.
She goes to the top of the stairs and hollers, "The Yellow Pages are
downstairs!" then comes back into the bathroom.
I ask her, "Did he hear?"
She doesn't know. So I tell Kelley, "Go downstairs to where Papa is, look
at him and tell him 'The Yellow Pages are in your office."
She says, "Uh-huh" and goes half-way down the stairs and yells,
"Papa, the blue pencils are downstairs!"
| May 23, 1994 | Age: 3 3/4yrs |
Got some
Wheaties at the market last night in hopes of trying to wean the girls off of
sugary cereal. Not much luck,
though. This morning I poured
a bowl for Kelley who tasted it then informed me, "It's too healthy for me,
Mom."
Kelley and I
are in the computer room singing "My Grandfather's Clock."
After we finish, she asks me where the clock is.
"Is it at Jack's?" A long time ago I told her about the clock
Jack and I used to have up the hill and
I'm impressed
that she has remembered, but I have to answer her,
"No. I think Jack's
ex-wife has it." "What's
her name?" she wants to know. "Ingrid."
"Can we go see Anger?"
"Ingrid."
I repeat, and she asks again, "Can we go see Anger?"
I decided not to
correct her and just told her I didn't think so...
| August, 1994 | Age: 4 yrs |
Kelley sees ants on the wall in the bathroom; "There are lots of ants!" I ask her how many and she tells me, "There are two of them!"
I take this opportunity to engage in a little number lesson. Holding up my fingers, I ask her how many.
"Four," is the reply.
"No, two." I count, "One, two."
She nods, understanding, and repeats the word: "Two."
Wow, she's already got it! This is going to be a breeze, I think to myself.
"OK, how many arms do I have?" I ask, holding my arms out from my body.
"Six," she says.
| July 7, 1996 | Age: 6 yrs |
Kelley explains
a new kitten's gender to her friend, Taylor.
"No, stupid, he's a girl
! "
| July 18, 1996 |
Age: 6
yrs |
Kelley is
helping me with the dishes and wants to know where Katie is. "She went to run an errand with Jack."
"Where is "Runanerrand?" she asks.
Momentarily confused, I don't answer immediately, which she takes to mean she is
wrong in assuming "Runanerrand" is a place and asks, "I
mean, who is Run and Erin?"
| October 9, 1996 | Age: 6 yrs |
Kate has been
pretty sick, and is staying home from school.
As I brush Kelley's hair, getting her ready for school, I tell her we are
taking Kate to Dr. Kurtz today. Kelley
is quiet a moment, then comments, "I hope Dr. Kurtz doesn't have to put
Katie to sleep."
I howled!
And then I asked her where she heard that, and does she know what it
means to be 'put to sleep'? "It means when you're dismissed," she answers.
You can't get
more to the point than that, can you? She
is spooooooky!
| October 18, 1996 | Age: 6 yrs |
Kelley is at
her dry erase board. She asks me to
spell my name, so I say, "L" and she writes "L."
I say "i," and she writes "i."
I say "n," she writes "n," and so on until she has
written my name, "Linda." "There,"
she says proudly, and pointing to her work, reads "Mama!"
I am putting
the girls to bed that night and am in Kelley's room.
Kate has followed me in and wants to ask me something, but spells it out
so Kelley won't know what she wants: "S-l-e-e-p
w-i-t-h m-e?" she
spells. But Kelley pipes up, "Does
that spell "sleep with me?"
Katie and I
look at each other in amazement!
A few mornings
later, I am in a hurry and Katie is in my way -- I keep tripping over her, so I
tell her, "move, move, move!"
From the other room we hear Kelley's voice: "Em-oh-vee-ee!”
Again, Katie and I stop and look at each other in amazement!
I tell Rich when he gets home about it.
Later that day I hear Kelley boasting to Papa about how she can spell,
and then shows a sample of her skill: "Em-oh-vee-ee,"
she proudly spells for him, then adds, "It spells, 'Get outta my
way.'"
| January 20, 1997 | Age: 6 1/2 yrs |
At the kitchen
table, Kelley is telling about two male deer fighting over a girl, and how they
got their antlers locked. Well,
David the Gnome comes and has to saw apart the antlers, then of course lectures
the two young bucks, and Kelley finishes her story with "…and the two deers never fighted again."
"Fought,"
I say.
"What?" she asks. Papa explains, "There's no such word as fighted,"
and I add, "Fight -- fought."
Kelley
understands immediately, and nodding, says, "And they never foughted
again."
| February 23, 1997 | Age: 6 1/2 yrs |
For bedtime, I
agree to read out of these journals for the girls.
We had been talking about Kelley's ability to "know" things.
After discussing many of them, Katie says, "Kelley's sort of like a fortune
teller." Kelley, very seriously leans toward me and confides in a voice
that is half boasting and half amazement, "Um, Mom...
I don't use a crystal
ball..."
| April 12, 1997 | Age: 6 3/4 yrs |
Kelley still
can't ride a bike, so when Kate and I were going to ride ours around the block,
Kelley said she would accompany us by running.
"Honey, you can't run that far," I told her.
She insisted she could. "No
you can't, Kelley," said Papa. "Yes,
I can," Kelley insists. "I
know I can!" I tell her I
don't think she can even make it to the corner without stopping.
She says she can, keeps insisting she can go around the whole block.
I finally bet her she can't go around the whole block without stopping.
If she wins, we go bowling. If
she loses, we don't.
We're going
bowling.
She was
incredible! About halfway down the
second half of the block, I was telling her it was OK to stop, we would go
bowling anyway, I was very impressed, but she kept on going, didn't stop once,
until she got back to our lawn, where she collapsed.
She had paced herself very well!
I was extremely impressed!! She
is such a determined person!!! A
little while later she wanted to go again, and we had to almost order her not
to.
After she had collapsed on the lawn and Papa drove up in the motor home (he had been following), we all sat on the little brick retaining wall and talked. I mentioned I was concerned about Kelley's scar where she had had stitches when she was about two-and-a-half, just above her eye. Talk turned to how brave Kelley had been when she was in the emergency room. I asked her if she remembered. "I think so," she answered. "Was I dead?"
| September 21, 1997 |
Age: 7
yrs |
After catching
a lizard that I spied in the garage while doing laundry (OK, it scared the hell
out of me and I didn't want to come upon it by chance again!) the girls and I
decide "Lizzie" needs a larger home.
As is usual for me, I dive headfirst into this project.
We go to Pet City and purchase a ten-gallon aquarium, and some ground
cover, and send Jack off to get wood and screen so I can make a lid.
We are getting ready to put the contents of her new home inside, and are
discussing how we will arrange it for her: A
beautiful pond to drink and bathe in, a bridge to go over it, a beach to lay on,
moss to hide in, a mountain to climb.... Kelley
throws her arms wide, then hugs herself as she exclaims, "It will be a
habitat of love! "
| October, 1997 |
Age: 7
yrs |
At the girls' request, I am regaling them with stories of their births. As I begin the part about the labor, I ask Kelley, "Do you know what contractions are?" I ask her. "Oh, sure," she nods her head. Then a little unsure, "Um, well, sort of. You mean, like contraction and addition?"
I am cleaning
Kelley's ears when she reminds me, "Be careful, Mom. My ears are sensible."
| December, 1997 |
Age: 7
yrs |
The girls and I
are making paper ornaments (snowflakes, angels, etc) for our tree, but Kelley is
worried: "How will we make the
angel's harnesses?" (halos)
| June 15, 1998 | Age: 8 yrs |
I'm helping
Kelley with her report on a famous person.
She has chosen Michelle Kwan, the young Olympic Silver Medalist Champion
Ice Skater. I ask Kelley if she
knows what a "role model" is, and she answers, very seriously,
"Uh-huh. It's someone who
stands like this (she poses) and wears beautiful clothes."
| August 15, 1998 | Age: 8 yrs |
Rich was in an irritable mood as we walked toward the checkout stand in Sam's Club. Kelley had been walking with us, only she was sort of hopping and dancing and singing a little to herself. Rich snapped at her, "Why do you have to do that?" She answered, "Because it keeps me amused."
| October 15, 1998 | Age: 8 yrs |
Jack's here.
After dinner tonight we are all mulling around the table.
Papa wants a cookie, and since he has gone to the bank today, I am going
to make him pay for one. I ask him
how much money he has and Kelley answers, "He has $16.00."
He says that is right, and how did she know? Well, we all think she must have been peeking in his wallet
earlier, but she is very adamant that she has not. (Now that I think about it,
she wouldn't have had a chance to, since we were not with him all day and he had
been to the bank without us.) Kelley
explains to us that she just sort of has this….power….and starts to tell us about one time she knew about a
tattoo that a guy had on his arm…. But
I am very intrigued about how she knew how much money Papa had and I want to
explore this a little further. "Kelley,"
I cut her off. "Let's
try this." I'm going to give
her a chance to prove her psychic abilities by telling me how much money I have
in my wallet. (Only first, I have
to count it to see…) Okay, now I
know, and I am thinking the number really hard….
Can she tell me how much I have? She
looks really hard at me….. starts
to say…a number…..then stops….then…"Th-"
She falters, says it again, "Th-….
I think it's…. Is it in
the thirties? It's
thirty-something." I am
TOTALLY incredulous!!!!!! I have
$31.00!!!!!!
There is
absolutely NO WAY she could have known that.
Jack and I had just come from the market with the girls, and Kelley had
been two aisles away, reading a book at the time I paid for the groceries.
Heck, I didn't even know how much I had!
Ok, Mr.
Doubting Thomas Jack decides to try the final test.
How much does HE have in HIS wallet?
(But first he has to count it…) I
go over and watch him count it…. 47,
48, $49. Okay, the test is on.
I think the number really hard to Kelley….
After a few minutes of theatrics where she is agonizing over the
telepathic message I am sending her, she announces, "It's in
the…forties… It's…$48."
Even Jack
is amazed!
But wait
-- there's more!
Jack and
Papa leave to go get milk at the store, and I come in here to write this all
down. While I'm in here I call to
the girls to come and see the pictures I have captured from video today.
I tell them to turn around so I can surprise them.
Now, they know the pictures are of Molly, Granny's new kitten.
But they don't know that what I have been wanting to show them is a
fantastic picture I got of our little hamster, not Molly.
As they're waiting, turned away from the computer (which is irrelevant
since I have so much stuff running at the moment that I haven't been able to
access the picture I want yet anyway) Kelley says, "I bet it is a picture
of the hamster." I am amazed,
again, but I don't say anything. "Okay,"
I think to myself. "I'll show
the picture of the hamster in the ball with Molly."
That is the only other shot of the hamster I got.
Then Kelley says, "Or it's the hamster in the ball with Molly."
I think I'd better try to keep my thoughts pure when I'm around Kelley...
| October 2, 1999 | Age: 9 yrs |
Saturday Evening. Richard feels he has been unfair to Kelley, who spent the whole day cleaning her room as per his instructions when, at 6:45pm it dawns on him that hwile she has been cleaning, Katie has been playing with Kate and Hannah, friends from across the street. He calls her over to apologize. "Kelley, I'm afraid I haven't been fair to you. I told you to clean your room and Katie didn't have to clean hers."
Kelley shocks us with her reply. In a good natured voice she states, “Oh, well, Katie’s was pretty much already clean. She keeps her room pretty much clean and I don’t. I should always keep mine clean, too.”
Seeing the
looks on our faces, Kelley admits:
“I say these words because I want a movie.”
Katie, Richard
and I burst into laughter, while Kelley stood there beaming.
(By the way --
she didn’t get a movie that night)
| September 3, 2000 | Age: 10 yrs |
Kelley is sitting at the kitchen table
drawing. Pouring Rich a cup of coffee, I suggest the family might want to go to
church some Sunday, but the only church Rich will agree to go to is, of course,
a Catholic church. I counter with
Lutheran and we're off on a religious debate.
A few minutes later, when I am in the office, I hear Rich laughing and
say, "Where's Mama? She has to
see this." He comes into the
office to show me how Kelley has perceived our discussion. Here is a scan
of her render:
| September17, 2002 | Age: 12 yrs |
Kelley sees Papa and I hugging, then a little while later when she and I are alone she asks me, "Um....do you think Papa's ever had sex?" I turn to her with a straight face and answer, "You know, I don't know. I'll ask him."
| September20, 2002 | Age: 12 yrs |
Papa has been on another health kick. First he got a heart monitor that is strapped around the chest that sends a signal to a wristwatch that has an audible beep whenever your heart beats. Then he got a treadmill which has a heart monitor built in. Then he decided he should wear the heart monitor while he is using the treadmill to be sure they both are correct....only he doesn't always take it off after he walks on the treadmill. So today we are all going somewhere in the car and he is wearing this monitor, and his wristwatch is going beep- beep- beep- beep- beep- beep- .... and driving me crazy. I finally ask if he can do something to stop that thing from beeping. He says 'sure.' From the seat behind me I hear Kelley's not so muffled giggle and ask her what's up. She tells us of the mental image she just had of Papa saying "Ok." and making it stop beeping by pulling out a knife and stabbing himself in the heart then slumping to his death, still behind the wheel... It was a riot, the way she told it!
| October 28, 2002 | Age: 12 yrs |
On the way to school I tell the girls about Senator Paul Wellstone who has just recently died in a plane crash with his wife and daughter. I tell them a little of his background, how he was a grass-roots college professor whose class everybody wanted to be in because he was so neat, how he turned out to be one of the most well-liked representatives etc. Kate comments, "Why is it the really cool people always get killed?" From the seat next to me Kelley gasps, then shrieks, "I'm going to d-i-i-ie!"
November 11, 2002
In helping Kelley with a report for her core class, we go on the internet looking for clarification. The first site we come across looks good, so I start to read aloud. The text runs remarkably parallel to Kelley’s report… I look at her and pause in my reading. "What?" she asks indignantly. "I haven’t ever been to this site!” I look at her again and she insists, “Really!” I reply, “Oh. They must have copied this from the same place you did.” She answers, nodding, “Maybe…”
November 30, 2002
Kelley used to make fun of Kate's Rock and Roll, preferring classical music instead. This afternoon when Papa came in from the garage he found Kelley at the dining room table doing her homework. Rock and Roll blared from a radio nearby. I heard Papa complaining to Kelley, "How could you go from classical to that?!" Kelley replied, very matter-of-factly - "Evolution, Papa."
December, 2002
On our way to visit
Granny, Kelley is sitting in the backseat, and Kate is up in front next to
me. As we turn on to Ocean Blvd. I notice it is one of those days when,
although clear, you can't see Catalina at all.
"Well, Catalina's
gone," I comment.
From behind me, Kelley asks, "Where'd it
go?"
I can't resist: "The Japanese towed it
away."
"They did? Wow!"
"Yeah, they got a really big grappling hook and what,
about 10 ships, Kate? Is that what the papers said?"
Without missing a beat, Kate answers. "Yeah, I think so."
"Yeah, I guess they brought over something like 10 ships," I continue, "and
hooked Catalina up and pulled it
to Japan. Where have you been, Kelley? It's been in all the papers
and on the news and stuff."
"I guess I didn't hear about it." she answers, then
asks in a worried voice, "What about the people who live there?"
I admit I don't know, but add, "I think that's one reason Uncle Curt moved back here. They've been
planning to do this for a long time, and I guess they finally did it."
When we get to
Granny's, Kate and I get into the house before Kelley, because she's looking
for Siameezer, the cat that hangs out in the alley by the garage there. We quickly clue Granny and
Don in on the deal with Catalina. A few minutes after Kelley comes in,
Granny casually tosses out, "So what do you think about the Japanese towing
away Catalina?" Kelley jumps right in with her opinion of how terrible
it is, and asks Granny about the people who lived on the island.
"Oh, they towed them away too," Granny tells
her. At this information, Kelley gets herself so worked up she decides she
has to call Uncle Curt to let him know. He wasn't home, but Shelly was
home. She said she would tell Curt
so he could fly back and take his tug boat to go tow the island back.
Kelley seemed okay with that until Granny finally couldn't do it any more and
told Kelley we were only joking...
Kelley wouldn't speak to me the whole way home, but it was worth it!
December 24, 2002
I
did it again. Poor Kelley... She is talking to me while I do some
last-minute stuff for Christmas. She says excitedly, "I can't believe
tomorrow is Christmas!"
I turn to her and say, "You know all about Leap Year,
right?"
"Um, sort of," she answers.
"You know that every four years February has 29 days
instead of 28, right? And how on Leap Year it's okay for girls to ask guys
to marry them, and stuff like that?" She admits she is a little fuzzy
on Leap Year facts, so I fill her in, telling her that because they add an extra
day to February, that bumps the holidays for the rest of the year a day
later.
"You mean Christmas isn't until day after
tomorrow?" she gasps.
I look at her little face, horrified to think that there was
yet another day to go, so I have mercy on her. "No, Leap Year
is next year," I tell her. Relief washes over her. "I can't
believe you didn't know about this, that they didn't teach you in school,"
I comment casually.
Kelley is doing the math, then says, "Four years ago
means the last one was in 1999. I had Mrs. French for my
teacher." We both realize that could have explained it, because
neither one of us thought too much of Mrs. French, but I tell her, "Oh, you know, that was when all that Y2K stuff was
going on, and everybody was so obsessed with that, they probably just didn't
think the Leap Year thing was a big deal," and she agrees.
Later, in the kitchen, I tell Papa, Jack and Kate about this
latest conversation Kelley and I have had. A few minutes later Kelley comes in, and the subject of Leap Year
'somehow' gets
brought up. "Oh, yeah, Papa," Kelley says, eager to
impress him with her new knowledge. Very seriously and matter-of-factly
she explains,
"What happens is all the holidays are a day late, like 4th of July isn't
until the 5th of July, and Christmas isn't until the 26th of
December!" Then a thought strikes her -- "What about my
birthday? Is it going to be a day late, too?" She looks
worried. "Oh, you don't have birthdays on Leap Years," I
explain. "No one does." The look on her face -- it's all I can do to keep from
totally busting up, when Jack has
to spoil the fun.
"They're pulling your leg, Kelley," he tells
her. She doesn't understand at first, then takes a look at us, all
grinning (except for Jack, who thinks I am mean), and wails, "Ohhhh, you
tricked me again! Waaaaaa! Why do you do this to me?!"
And goes upstairs to her room and wraps herself in her bedspread...
Boy, kids can be so much fun!
| March 29, 2003 | Age: 12 yrs 8 mos |
Around 8:30 on Saturday night Kate and I raced out to the pet store to get a net for her new fish. We planned on coming right home, and told Rich, Jack and Kelley so. However, the pet store we usually go to had closed at 8:00, so we went to a little "dive" pet store on Katella that we new was there from driving by every day on the way to and from school.
To make a long story short, here are the facts:
Saturday night, about 8:30 pm. Kate and I race to the pet store, promising to be right back.
Pet store is closed.
On a whim, we decide to go to Barnes and Noble.
On a second whim, we drive by Kate's friend, Amanda's house to see if she wants to go with us. It is after 9:00 pm.
Amanda is ecstatic, and her dad agrees to let her go.
In front of B&N, I tell the girls to go on in while I call Rich to let him know where we are. Kelley answers, and I speak briefly with her then Rich comes on the line. I tell him we are at B&N, but don't say anything about Amanda being with us.
After he hangs up, Kelley is still on the phone. She wants to know who Kate is with, is she with any of her friends? Is she with Amanda?
Tell me, why on earth would she think that, knowing we had just run out to the pet store and then decided to go to B&N on a whim, at this late hour, would we arrange to pick up Amanda and take her with us? Weird...
| May 6, 2004 | Age: 13 yrs 8 mos |
Kelley seems to be going through a pronunciation-challenged phase... For example, she told me they watched "A Polo 13" in school today. (Apollo 13) Later, she asked me what "swaydo" meant. I asked her to spell it and she did: "P-s-u-e-d-o. The 'P' is silent."
A few weeks ago she told me she had watched a movie with "Joe Quinn Phoenix" in it. (Joaquin)
This afternoon she asked me if I was familiar with Vivaldi's Winter "Large - O".
May 15, 2004
Rich has started talking to himself again, and sometimes he gets quite animated. This morning Rich had a guy come over to look at maybe putting in a new kitchen sink. He and the guy were in the kitchen, I was down at the bottom third of the stairs, nearby so I could hear and participate if Rich needed me to. The girls were each in their rooms with their music going, so were unaware anyone was here. Kate came out of her room after a while and sat on the stairs and we talked quietly, while Rich and the guy, who was just about as loud as Rich is, continued their discussion from the kitchen. After a few minutes, Kelley came out of her room and stood at the top of the stairs. "Who's here?" she wanted to know. "Papa's talking to himself," Kate replied. "Yeah," I joined her. "Only now he's using a different voice when he answers himself. I'm starting to get worried about him." Kelley cocks her head and listens for a minute. On cue, Rich's voice can be heard, though not really the words, and then the other voice is heard when he stops. "That's Papa??" Kelley is incredulous. "No way!" She heads down the stairs and Kate and I shrug and make way for her. While still on the stairway, about a third of the way up, it is possible to peer around the corner of the wall and see part way into the kitchen, and this is what Kelley did. It was absolutely perfect timing, too. She could only see Rich, who was leaning with his arms crossed against the stove, but no one else. It really did look like he was talking to himself. She looked at us with huge eyes. Then turned back just as the other voice started. Only Rich's mouth didn't move.... Another Glare and Another Gotcha.....
| August 19, 2007 | Age: 17 yrs 1 mos |
Today Kate told me about a conversation she had with Kelley yesterday. Apparently Kate was trying to tell Kelley something about the Dead Sea Scrolls, but Kelley was having a hard time understanding her. "The what?" she asked. "The Dead Sea Scrolls," Kate repeated. "The what?" Kelley asked again. Kate repeated it again and Kelley, finally understanding, laughed and said, "Oh, I thought you were saying 'Dead Sea Squirrels'!"
| March 30, 2010 | Age: 19 yrs 8 mos |
Kelley is standing next to
my desk and I have just started to tell her about something I recently read
about a family whose son had a preternatural ability like she did when she was
young, when, for seemingly no reason, she lost her balance and began to fall
over backward. I grabbed her as she flailed about,grabbing me and the desk and
the chair and anything else she could, while exclaiming, "It's my psychic brain!
It's too heavy to handle!"
Then, after I wrote this I called her to come in and read it for accuracy and
amusement. I decided to edit it. Just as I started to type the word "flailed,"
she said, "What, are you going to add "flailed"? I said, "Yes!!" and in a
retarded used car salesman voice she replied, "Whoa!!! Psychic!" and pointed to
her brain.
As she left the room I called to her, "Wait, don't you want to see?" and she
answered, "Why? I already know what you're going to write. I'm psychic,
remember? Zing!"
I totally LOL'd!!!
| December 1, 2010 | Age: 20 yrs 5 mos |
On the way home from taking the girls to the dentist, they are in the back seat of the truck and Rich is in the passenger seat. I'm driving. Up ahead a couple of cars is a Penske rental truck just like the one Curt rented to take all his stuff back to Oklahoma in two years ago. The back of the truck is open and you can see it is empty.
"Oh, look," I say, "it's Uncle Curt. He's finally returning the rental truck." Not realizing (as usual) that I'm joking, Kelley asks, "You mean he still has it?"
| July, 2011 | Age: 21 yrs |
Kelley is finally learning to drive. Kate, Rich and I are all a little nervous when we let her take the wheel because she has this little problem of slowly veering towards the right side of whichever lane she's in. I try my best to keep calm whenever she starts drifting, and say, "You're starting to drift, Kelley. You want to get over...get over...GET OVER!!!" as she is headed for the cars parked along the curb in the neighborhood. A few days ago I let her take the wheel as I gave her a ride to Bri's house. We were going up Valley View and she was in the right-hand lane. Up ahead was a bicyclist. Sensing my apprehension, Kelley assured me, "I know, Mom, I have a tendency to veer toward the right..." and then minor panic crept into her voice as she informed me, "...and I'm veering right for the bicyclist!"
|
|
||||
|
|
|
