Category: Neko

Every week, Neko’s preschool talks about a letter of the alphabet. A few weeks ago, it was the letter F. Sometime during that week, a firefighter came to visit and brought with him his fire truck. A few weeks later, we were introduced to the book, “Dot the Fire Dog.” Between Dot and the visit by the fire crew, Neko has now developed a full-on fire phobia.

At first, I think it really was fear of fire. When she woke from bad dreams, she was visibly shaking and crying real tears. But now I think we’ve moved on to a new phase that involves 30% fear and 70% desire to stay up late and get extra attention from mom and dad.

I keep finding these articles on parenting sites that encourage me to recognize my daughter’s fear and not minimize it. But omigosh if I have to talk about the safety of our house, smoke detectors, fire extinguishers and the like one more time I might need one of those coffees with Bailey’s that is really more Bailey’s than coffee and a long, hot bath.

We have entered this magical stage in life when all of a sudden Neko draws or makes or says something, and we do a double-take because there’s actually a good amount of thinking and planning behind it. It really is amazing, watching her brain tick away as she thinks through things at a completely new scale.

I turned around in the middle of trying to unpack a box in the basement, and Neko had built this structure with blocks. “It’s a museum,” she said. She had carefully built a grand entrance, prominently featured on most museums we visit, and then several rooms that lay beyond. There were doorways, and one of the rooms, she pointed out, was a theatre. She used every single block in the bag to build her museum. I can’t imagine what it would have become if we’d had more blocks.

We cracked out some Model Magic today. It had been sitting in a bin for some time, so we were a bit challenged to find some that was easy enough to work with. But Neko was determined, and came up with these two pieces.

One is a snake, which is pretty obvious. The other is a person, which would be much more obvious if I hadn’t photographed it upside-down.

We’ve loved the Wiggles for some time here. Tom and I were skeptical at first. We resisted, but finally gave into the Wiggly Way. You know, you have to respect four guys who banded together to sing about fruit salad and crossing the street. Plus, they can laugh at the whole ridiculousness of it, too.

Anyway, some time in the last year, Neko wanted a mask of Dorothy the Dinosaur (sidekick of the Wiggles). Tom made up this pretty good one, seen here. We taped a Mickey Mouse hairband to the back, and for the lifetime of the mask, this is how it has been held on. This may not seem that impressive, except this thing has been worn constantly. For hours at a time. She’s watched whole tv shows through those little cut-out eyes. Somewhere along the way, the mouth fell off, but a strip of green painter’s tape fixed it right up, and it went right back into action.

The most interesting thing about this mask is that she really believes everyone thinks she’s Dorothy when she wears it. When she flips it up in front of Shep, she smiles and says, “See, it’s just me!”

Last week we spilled some coffee on it. And then the mouth fell off again. I sort of feel like it’s time to slip it into her memory box while she’s not asking for it. But first I may have to set Tom to work on making a perfect replica.

I remember from my childhood having hours on end where I played with my sisters. So far in my parenting career, I haven’t seen a whole lot of what I remember. Playing has been a lot of parallel play and negotiating whose turn it is to have what. I know they’re still young, but I’m ready for that “playmate” thing to kick in.

Recently, Neko and Shep have been playing together a lot more, but Neko is clearly in charge, and after a while it often ends in tears because Shep doesn’t want to do what Neko is telling him to do or Shep is being two and Neko doesn’t like that.

Today Gregory came over to play. We’ve been in playgroup with Gregory for some time now, but, historically, playgroup for Neko is often a time where she goes into a fabulous new house, finds toys she’s never seen before, and hides in a corner, glaring at anyone who approaches her. Okay, this was true more of when she was two and three, but I see that tendency flare up every now and then.

Neko is very imaginative in her play. She makes up all sorts of games and play on her own, but I’ve rarely seen it with other kids besides Shep. But today, for one of the first times, she and Gregory played creatively together. It started with the railroad, delivering boxes from one end of the track to the other. But then I brought out the Playmobil grocery store, and then they started delivering groceries from one end to the other. So then they needed houses to deliver to, so we brought out houses, and then they decided today was Thanksgiving, so it was really important for everyone to get their groceries before the store closed. Suddenly there were construction vehicles and airplanes and the post office, and all kinds of deliveries and activity going on.

This kept them busy for nearly two hours while, thankfully, Ellery and Shep napped, leaving them undisturbed. There was even a point where, noticing I wasn’t needed any more, I slipped away and unloaded the dishwasher and folded some laundry. And at that moment, looking back at them hard at work, I started to think I’m beginning to see those play-filled Saturdays I remember from my childhood.

Being a dinosaur? Very hard work.