In this running series, I’ll document my daughter’s verbal pyrotechnics. My focus will be on less what she says than how and why she says it. Tonight, my daughter uttered the following sentence: “Mama has good ideas, but I have genius ideas.” My wife’s idea? Make S’mores using our fire pit. My daughter’s idea? EatContinue reading “Rhetorical Moves – A Running Series”
Author Archives: Jonathan Sircy
Library
When I walked into my daughter’s bedroom this morning, I saw this. I asked my daughter what was going on. “It’s a library,” she explained. This evening, she had a book reading at this kid’s library, and she read me The Diary of a Worm. She was a great reader and effectively sold the book’sContinue reading “Library”
Among the Wolves
After picking her up from school on Monday, I took my daughter on a 45-minute car trip into the heart of Greenville. I thought the trip would be a perfect time to get her back on the audiobook train. After explaining where we were going, I gave her the Little House on the Praire play-awayContinue reading “Among the Wolves”
Rhetorical Moves – A Running Series
In this running series, I’ll document my daughter’s verbal pyrotechnics. My focus will be on less what she says than how and why she says it. My daughter doesn’t like carrots, but they’re on her plate every night. Typically, we give her one more carrot that she will eat, then talk her into consuming whatContinue reading “Rhetorical Moves – A Running Series”
The Play and the Poster
My wife’s old high school put on a production of Beauty and the Beast. My daughter really wanted to go. On Friday, she announced that we just had to go that night: “It’s the last show! Tonight at 7:oo!” I told her that if the last time to go to the show as that night,Continue reading “The Play and the Poster”
Cuddles
My daughter brought home the following book yesterday. The premise is that the cat doesn’t want to be cuddled…until he does. Then he goes back to not wanting cuddles. My daughter, who loves cats, is very un-cat-like in her desire for affection. Today she was flummoxed by a game she was playing. Her melodramatic-the-world-is-crumbling reactionContinue reading “Cuddles”
Test Drive
My daughter’s getting started early. Yesterday, she steered a golf cart around her great uncle’s property for twenty minutes while I worked the gas pedal. I was impressed with her skills, and we laughed a lot. Here’s hoping that we do enough of these sessions over the next decade that I’ll be properly inoculated whenContinue reading “Test Drive”
Playaway Audiobooks
On our weekly trek to the library, my daughter’s desired book–Saving Winslow–was not available in codex form. It wasn’t available in audio CD form either. All the library had was an Mp3 Playaway, a tiny box the size of a back of cards. The listener can listen to an entire book with just a AAAContinue reading “Playaway Audiobooks”
Recovery
My daughter attended an Easter Egg party at her cousins’ house this afternoon. By hour two, she was sugar-laden and tired. The party culminated with an egg-fetti fight. Each attendee received a carton of eighteen egg-fetti eggs with which to bombard the party’s other attendees. Soon, the egg-fetti war reached a stalemate. Teams were perchedContinue reading “Recovery”
Hostess
Tonight, we entertained my wife’s college friend and his wife. My daughter was enchanted with the wife and played hostess the entire night, showering this guest with art, affection, and relentless attention. At times, my daughter’s attention was excessive. It made me wonder which was preferable: my daughter never coming out of her room whenContinue reading “Hostess”
Learning Together 