Sept 30, 2008 6:09 PM
For the past few months, multiple members of the family have noticed the startlingly similar appearance of Kirsten and Scarlett.1,2 They both seem to be developing at prodigious rates that just leave their sibling in the dust. Dad said, “They both have legs that could support elephants.” We are pretty sure this was meant as a compliment but you won’t hear me saying that to anybody over age two.
So the questions becomes is this the “Arnaez” look, and can we say that their speed of development is due to some “Arnaez” gene?3 Or is it that they are females and Arnaez. There is something very interesting going on in these two. There are a couple of pictures of them both staring directly into the camera and an expression that could be read as “Really? Youse taking my picture?” — It’s a wiseguy look, coming from these baby girls.4
I thought Maconnel, when he was 3 or 4 months old, looked like Ivan, especially when Mac got mad and turned beet red. Now I keep thinking Scarlett looks like Ivan too and I wonder if that what an “Arnaez” looks like.5
As for the Mac update, today when I got home from work, I walked into the living room and Mac was sitting in a chair, sort of bouncing up and down, and was singing the “ABC song (won’t you sing with me.)” He has a low, almost comically low, singing voice for a little boy,6 and while I’m sure he sort of understands what counting is: He will count his cookies, his grapes, the fresh blackberries that are just ripening7 and the steps as he walks down them; I don’t think he conceptually gets the alphabet in any meaningful way, but heck he has to start somewhere.
- I keep thinking they look like Ivan. [↩]
- I was going to post the picture, but I suspect both Laura and Jenn would have some serious objections. I’ll email you the picture if you like — just let me know. [↩]
- It is at this point that Jenn will like to point out my essentially epistemologically solipsistic philosophy or as she puts it: “Egocentric.” [↩]
- I wonder, if like Scarlett, Kirsten has started saying, “Da-da” at a very early age and pretty much conquered any sort of independent will that said Dad had. Perhaps mine only lasted a few minutes, and was quickly wiped away, knowing that this is a very little girl, and I am her dad. [↩]
- So then I start thinking and wondering well if Ivan looks like an “Arnaez”, what do I look like? I suspect I look like my mom’s dad, but I’m not sure. [↩]
- I finally got it on tape [↩]
- We had a scare recently when I unwisely introduced him to the concept that he could eat berries. We spent the morning picking blackberries and eating them, and eventually we ran out of pickable berries, so I turned around to head home, but Mac found another set of red berries, later identified as Rockspray Cotoneaster, and proceeded to start eating them. Anyway, we called poison control and they mentioned they contained cyanide and we would need to watch Mac for any signs of sleepiness. I’m still kicking myself thinking that Mac would be able to tell the difference between Cotoneaster horizontalis and the Himalayan Blackberry:Rubus armeniacusn
But as Rousseau said:
S’il tombe, s’il se fait une bosse à la tête, s’il saigne du nez, s’il se coupe les doigts, au lieu de m’empresser autour de lui d’un air alarmé, je resterai tranquille, au moins pour un peu de temps.
*trans*
If he should fall or bump his head or make his nose bleed or cut his fingers, instead of rushing to him with an with an expression of alarm I will stay calm, at least at first.
—Émile, ou De l’éducation — Livre second
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