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.

summer fun, kid's books, and role-play

Every weekend in August, Lilly and I have been getting out for some summer fun. We've been to the Walker Art Center, the Como Park Zoo, the Children's Museum; to a fun day event for my job at Laura Baker, the nature center in Faribault, and more.

A couple weekend's in a row, Lilly and I stopped in at Garrison Keillor's Common Good Books to read kid's books and found a really great new picture book that I'd recommend called The Woods. Actually, Lilly and I often stop in at the Wild Rumpus children's bookstore but have just recently visited The Red Balloon Bookshop for children too. I think these stops to "read books" are more for me than her (as might be the case for all the other stops elsewhere) because Lilly really just enjoys being out and about doing new things wherever.

Here's a video of Lilly "role-playing" at the Walker Arts Center; that is, learning to wield a sword, something I was a bit hesitant to have her do. But, while she did want to "hit" things with it for about a week afterward, the fun has apparently waned.

when not reading to my daughter

A couple weeks ago I was washing dishes in the kitchen when I overheard Anne reading books to Lilly in the living room, out of sight. One was a book (Roar of a Snore) I enjoy reading to Lilly, which I read often enough that to hear it read by someone other than me was a bit strange at first. I suppose this would be the case, usually, because no two people read a book aloud in the same manner, with the same tone and inflection, etc. But to hear it being read to Lilly by someone other than me was the strange part; or rather to hear Anne interacting with Lilly, through the medium of this particular book, and creating a totally different experience out of it was what made me pause for a moment and really listen to Lilly in her lived experience, practically out of my control as she was learning and growing.

To be sure I can expect more moments like this, but it was, as far as I can recollect, the first time it hit me so strongly; that Lilly is out there on her own, no matter if she is with Anne or me; that Lilly is and will continue to be always just out of reach.

Now for the living-in-the-moment experience: it wasn't any jealously or loss that I felt at that moment, when I listened to this from the other room, as Anne took on the role which I felt was reserved for me, between Lilly and me; but instead it was one of those moments that makes being a father--I mean one of those moments that has been for me as a father--the very elusive essence of fatherhood, that indescribable something about fatherhood. In that moment as in others I was opened to the "whole new kind of love" which I had been warned of.

Anne and Lilly read a number of books that evening as I washed and dried the dishes. Perhaps it's nothing special, really, given the routine-ness of it all; but it will, for me, always be a part of my fatherhood, and stand out as a night to remember.