Writer's Workshop

For years now I have said I want to be a writer. I want to write a book. Sometimes I even get brave and say I don't just want to write a book, I will write a book! Someday. Later. It's always someday later. And so, nothing happens. So I just set myself a new goal. I will write every day. Even if it's completely worthless, at least it's still good practice and gets me in the habit and sooner or later something will come of it.

Luckily my sister is also interested in writing. Actually two of them are. So here's the fun we've been having lately...

I got this book at the library called Fast Fiction. It has over 300 prompts in it and what you have to do is set a timer for five minutes, randomly select a writing prompt and then go from there! The writing prompts are very general ("write a story about a wish" or "write a story about forgiveness... death... flying... a lost object... a color... waves... etc." so you could come up with anything, and it's great because in five minutes you don't have time to be critical or second-guess yourself (my biggest writing hang-ups). There's no time to worry about impressing anyone or trying to sound clever. In fact you don't have time for anything but writing - if you're going to finish your story before the time runs out.

We have done about 10 exercises now and I am loving it. Most of what I come up with is not amazing, but some of it is surprisingly good and all of it is great practice. And already I'm finding bits of stories or characters that could eventually be part of a short story or even a novel. Very exciting.

It's also been nice to write with a partner because we can share and compare our stories and ideas and talk about what we like and don't like about our own and give encouraging feedback to the other person. Plus it helps me to not cheat or give up.

So maybe I really will write that book. Someday. Sooner!

Look Who's Talking... And Other Stuff...

Fair Warning: This is going to be an extremely long post. Okay, you may proceed...

Daphne knows a few words now... I've tried to spell them as she says them... and more or less in the order that she learned them...

dada - for dad (her first word of course - somewhere around 9 months I think)
'sthat? or wathat? or zat? - different ways of asking "what's that?"
dah - for dog (but also cat, sheep, any animal really... but mostly dogs)
poop - which is exactly what it sounds like
mope - this means "no"... except when it means "yes" (hint: she usually says it with a smile to mean yes and a scrunched up face to mean no)
mama - FINALLY (at almost 14 months old)... she could make the sounds for a long time but just didn't connect them with me... I try not to be bitter about the fact that she learned "dog" and "poop" before "mama"...
boo! or boh-oo! - for balloon (always said with as much excitement as possible. She will spot a balloon from across the grocery store, and she will spot every single one of them.)
gleez or cheez or (more often now) peez - for please
oop - for Snoopy (her favorite stuffed animal toy)

boom - for spoon
dot - for Uncle Josh (if he's not around when we visit Grandma's house, she stands at the bottom of the stairs, looks up and yells "dot! ...dot! ...dot!" until he comes down.)
gee - for her Aunt Katie (so far she only says this when asked, but you can tell she knows who it refers to. Daphne has the hardest time with goodbyes when Aunt Katie is involved and often ends up running after her and crying.)
dot-dot - for Grandpa, and a few other two-syllable words, whether or not they sound anything like "dot-dot"
pee-pee - for peekaboo, could get confusing when we start potty training!
There are probably other words but those are the most recognizable at this point. Otherwise, she's pretty good at getting what she wants with pointing and gestures and grunts (like when we get in the car and immediately she starts dancing and pointing behind her, which means she wants Dada to turn on some music). It's fun learning to communicate with her and seeing how happy she is when we finally realize what she's trying to tell us. I have a feeling she'll be a nonstop chatterbox as she gets older.

Some of her other new skills include spinning around in circles, blowing bubbles with a bubble wand, sliding down the stairs at lightning speed, giving hugs and kisses (or making Mama and Dada kiss by pushing our heads together), giving "high fives" (if Dada asks for one she ALWAYS will give one to Mama too, she's very fair) and feeding herself with a spoon (as long as I get the food on it first). She always has to have her own spoon, even though I still do most of the feeding. She won't let me get more than two bites in if she doesn't have her own spoon to "help" me with.

Also...
She loves walking outside and picking up rocks and leaves and slugs.
She gets excited about birds and bugs and airplanes flying by.
She loves music and dancing.
She will eat just about anything. But mostly just wants to eat what we're eating.

She folds her arms when it's time to pray. Or even if she just thinks it might be time to pray (like if there's a group of 2 or more people that suddenly gets quiet. Or if she finds my scriptures.)

Sometimes she'll pose and make goofy faces for the camera, but mostly she just wants to hold it and push the buttons.

She loves cell phones.
She is a great sleeper - about 10 hours a night with a 2 hour nap most afternoons. She is also a busy sleeper, tossing and turning and always waking up far from where she fell asleep. And almost always on her stomach now. Occasionally with her butt in the air.
She likes sitting in her Bumbo chair. Especially now that she can get herself out of it.

She likes dumping her toys out as soon as I clean them up and pulling all her bibs out of her cabinet in the kitchen (the only one without a safety latch).
She likes to climb into things...

Or climb on top of them...

When she wants you to come with her somewhere, she will reach up for your finger, grab it and lead you along. But if it's too far away she will eventually reach up for you to carry her while she points in the direction she wants to go.

She like to wear things in unusual ways.

I promise she made me put every one of those bibs on. She just got sick of it during the few seconds it took me to find the camera.

Blanket Toga. She asked for this as well, despite the confused look on her face.

She likes to play the piano.

She likes reading books. On her own...

Or with a friend...

She loves bathtime and hates "time to get out of the bath"time. Even when the bathwater is up to her neck and the jets are on! (of course this was just for fun to see how she liked it, usually she only has a couple inches of bathwater.)

While she mostly enjoys taking things apart, she is starting to try to put them back together. You might say she did this one "wrong"... I say she is just showing signs of artistic genius.

And that's all for now... If you stuck with us through all those pictures, you must love her almost as much as we do!

Daphne's Good Reads

As I was wasting more time on goodreads.com today, Daphne decided to show me her displeasure at being ignored for a few minutes. She must have a healthy sense of irony.

And now she's eating the pages of a magazine so I better go.

Good Reads

I just joined goodreads.com at the recommendation of my piano teacher. I'm not sure how I feel about it. I like the idea of being able to keep track of the books I've read and make sense of the thoughts I have while reading them - but is it just going to become a time-waster? I just spent a good 45 minutes writing a review of a book I finished last week. Was that really necessary? It reminds me too much of facebook (not that I have any "friends" yet on goodreads, but I could someday and then I wonder if it will just become me doing this for other people rather than for myself. Just to be like "hey look at me I read all these books and I have really insightful things to say about them!") Maybe I should just keep track of it for myself in a notebook or a word document or something private. AH! I don't know. Time for bed.