Baby Squared

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• Activity of the Week: Happy Birthday To You

  I haven't done an 'Activity of the Week' in a while, I guess because with the weather being better and the girls being more self-sufficient, it hasn't been as much of a challenge to figure out ways to keep them entertained. And actually, this particular activity is one that they pretty much came up and do all by themselves. I just keep them supplied with the necessary materials, and suggest helpful enhancements from time to time, when they'll let me.   See, Clio and Elsa are obsessed with birthdays. This began shortly after their own birthday, back at the end of the December, and kicked into high gear when they went to their friend Amelia's 2nd birthday in Februrary. The obsession has manifested itself in a variety of ways: first, they just sang the Birthday Song constantly. Then, they started constantly asking for / calling everything sweet "Happy to you" cake. (We successfully introduced the idea of *pretend* happy to you cake, as well.) The, for a while, they wanted us to draw birthday cakes for them. If you looked through our recycling bin anytime this March through May, you would find page upon page of crayon drawings of birthday cakes -- usually double tiered, with lots of fancy, squiggly decorations, and candles, of course. (I really honed my birthday cake-drawing technique. If for some reason you ever need a drawing of a birthday cake, I'm your gal.)   Pics after the jump    Read More... Posted Jun 08 2009, 07:06 AM by Roper with | with 7 comment(s) Filed under: twins, writing, toddlers, twin toddlers, entertaining toddlers, activities for toddlers, toddler artwork, balance, working moms, being a working mother

• My stinky winky daughters

  I thought that the whole phase of finding it funny to say things like "stinky poo poo" and "Pee-yew, stinky winky" and so on, came later. Like, at three or four or later. When the sense of taboo around these kinds of things was a little more developed. But apparently, two-and-a-half is not too young for kids to have a sense of the silly stinkies.   As usual, of course, we are partly to blame, for asking such stupid things as "who made a stinky poo poo?" And their regualr babysitter is apparently a big "Pee-yew"er, because sometimes when I change the girls' diapers or take their socks off they'll say "Pee-yew!" followed by a giggly "Adriana say that!" I suspect she is the one who put "stinky winky" into their vocabularies as well, because I don't recall either Alastair or I ever saying it. But this morning, the girls were drawing all manner of stinky-winky animals: a stinky winky penguin, a stinky winky whale, a stinky winky sheep. Our friend the stinky stinky bat was back, too.   Pic after the jump!  (Not of the stinky stinky bat)   Read More... Posted May 31 2009, 04:53 PM by Roper with | with 13 comment(s) Filed under: poop, twin language acquisition, toddlers, twin toddlers, language acquisition, toddler artwork, teaching your kids a foreign language, billingual kids, potty mouth

• A Toddler Art Critique with Enaj Repor

  In my last post, I mentioned some of the quips Clio and Elsa made recently while we were drawing pictures. And, of course, the only thing more fascinating than hearing about the adorable things other people's kids say is looking at their fabulous artwork, right? But instead of just blathering on about Elsa and Clio's blossoming artistic abilities, I thought I would change things up a little by inviting world-renowned toddler art critic and scholar Dr. Enaj Repor (she's, um.....Turkish) to provide her professional commentary on some of the girls' recent work. So, without further ado: Enaj?   Thank you, Jane. Greetings, Baby Squared readers. I'm mildly pleased to be here. Before I discuss the specific works in question, I'd like to make a few comments on toddler art in general, specifically that of toddlers in the 24 to 30 month-old range, into which Elsa and Clio fall. At this age, children are not yet capable of representational art.  Except in very rare cases (see my book, Look, Mommy, it's a Cantilevered Bridge: Studies in Accelerated Juvenile Artistic Development, 2002) they lack the necessary eye-hand-mind coordination to recreate recognizable images and objects.   Objets d'art after the jump   Read More... Posted May 06 2009, 01:49 PM by Roper with | with 13 comment(s) Filed under: twins, twin toddlers, crayons, entertaining toddlers, toddler artwork, art, first artwork