new haircut, starting ballet, first letters, and a book deal!

We're in the midst of a series of milestones over here. Lilly recently had her very first haircut, she's started reading and writing letters, she's learned her first ballet moves, and I've signed a contract with a publisher that will release my first book sometimes this fall.

Lilly's hair didn't really start growing until around when she turned two. But by the end of last fall, it had gotten really quite long, and a bit unruly. We've been holding on to those baby curls though. However Lilly's hairdresser assured us that her curls wouldn't go away from a little trim, and we're please to say they haven't.

Lilly has always loved music and dancing and recently she announced that she wants to be a ballerina (and a fisherman, she added). With no end in sight to her ballerina craze, we decided to make a commitment to ballet lessons. She got fitted for ballerina shoes, and we got her a leotard and ballet tights too. Ever day after school and lunch, I give her a short hour ballet lesson. It's been fun for me to refresh my ballet memory and it gives us something to do together other than just playing all afternoon (which is not always so rewarding for me).

We also spend a good chunk of time reading books each afternoon. And we practice writing. Obviously, I love writing, so it's been a real joy to share the wonder of letters with Lilly. She's always loved books; we've always read lots to her; and even on her own she will often enjoy looking at her books, many of which she knows by heart. But that she now can point out what certain letters are, and that she even knows how to write many of them, is just so amazing to me. I didn't learn how to write until I started elementary school at age 7. That didn't necessarily deprive me of anything in the long run, but Lilly is clearly enjoying exploring this new chapter in her life opening up. She loves making her own books (a new author in the family!), and she has a passion for mail, collecting and writing letters.

My writing and Lilly's writing (her name) in my notebook.

And to conclude on the topic of books and writing: I this week signed a contract with a publisher for my book, After Pornified: How Women Are Transforming Pornography & Why It Really Matters. The publisher is Zero Books, a UK-based publisher with a transcontinental focus: half of its authors are based in the US. I'm really excited to be joining their team of authors whose discourse is "intellectual without being academic, popular without being populist." Zero Books is the Culture, Society, and Politics imprint of John Hunt Publishing, which has several other special focus imprints in addition to their General Topics imprint O-Books.

I'm sure there are many other firsts I could mention. We took Lilly to see her first feature film in a movie theater (the new Muppets movie, which she loved for all its singing and dancing). Last weekend, Lilly went to her first unattended-by-her parents birthday party, providing Leighton and I with the opportunity for a little date. And yesterday, Lilly had her official Early Childhood Screening that is done by the public school system in town; I was very proud of how well she did.

And then there all the things Lilly's learning in school now, doing lots of good work.

Cooking class at school (every Thursday)

I joined Lilly's class before Christmas to teach the children a Norwegian Christmas carol, singing and dancing around some evergreen boughs, replacing the tree.

Å jul med dine glede -- Oh Yule with your joy

And in January, the children celebrated Chinese New Year, including by doing a Chinese New Year Lion Dance:



Please visit Montessori Children's House Community page to access their online photo album (regularly updated with more photos) where you can get more snapshots into Lilly's life and work at school.

Band-Aids

Quite a while ago we got some "Hello Kitty" Band-Aids. Lilly became a bit obsessed with these and wanted a plaster (band-aid) even if she didn't have a scrap or cut. Come to think of it, she's rarely had to use a band-aid because of a scrap or cut. Almost right away I figured this was going to be an expensive game to play, so it seemed like an opportunity to get craftsy and make our own band-aids with paper and crayons and tape...

Lilly then became obsessed with this, so we I spend a lot of time these days designing our own band-aids...

Lilly makes movies

Last Saturday, Lilly and I spent the day in the city while mama got some time to work. It was the frist Saturday of the month, which is the Walker Art Center's "Free First Saturday" with family programs geared toward kids: the theme this time happened to be "Going to the Movies." The main activity was in two parts, 1) make a clay figure and 2) have it animated in stop motion. Lilly was a bit too young to participate in this without help from papa. When asked if she'd like to make "Frosty" out of clay she said yes, so I made with a version from the materials we were given; and when after waiting for quite a long while in line it came time to animate, I tried to get her to help as much as possible by having her stick letters to the backdrop and push the car along. Unfortunately the art center didn't think of offering to send these animations via email so kids and parents could enjoy later. But I took a video with our digital camera, which I've cut and looped on iMovie!



Lilly and I will be spending more time together now that Anne is working more mornings. Today, along with other arts and crafty things, we made another movie! First we made a drawing of "Old MacDonald" and his animals, which we then took a video of while singing the song. And finally I've imported it onto iMovie to cut a few clips together, but haven't got it finished to upload onto YouTube. It's silly, really, but it was something to do.