Joe Bill and I make it a point to teach Sydney and Baby James new words when we’re with them. The four of us have fun doing this. So far ‘vocabulary’ is about the only word that Syd couldn’t say the first time I threw it out to her. I’ve told you before that both Syd and Baby James can belt out 19th century composer Tchaikovsky’s name. He wrote many famous pieces including “The Nutcracker,” “Swan Lake,” and “The 1812 Overture.”
One night I gave them a name that I thought that they’d have a hard time saying: Rimsky-Korsakov. But they handled that Russian composer’s name quite easily. He’s best known for having written “Scheherazade” in 1888 about a legendary Persian Queen storyteller from “One Thousand and One Nights.”
Often I ask them: “Sydney, and or Baby James, can you say such and such?” And then they pronounce the word.
Right after I asked the kids to say Rimsky-Korsakov’s name, while we were driving them home at dusk, suddenly I saw a strange guy standing in the middle of the street in a dark place where he easily could have been hit by cars going in either direction. I blurted out: “He’s stupid!”
Well, the next thing I hear from the backseat is Sydney Marie Stewart very clearly and very loudly asking her Kid Brother: “Baby James, can you say STUPID?”
Much to my horror, of course, he could!
I guess I’m lucky that she didn’t ask: “Baby James, can you spell STUPID and can you use it in a sentence?”
I’m very careful about what I say in front of the kids and I never curse because JB and I know that Syd can pronounce just about everything!
Sydney’s also a smarty pants when it comes to computers. City owned Recycled Reads, our favorite bookstore, has 2 brand new multicolored computers for kids that IBM donated. Syd spotted them and quickly sat down. I couldn’t help her but one of the city librarians from another branch taught Syd how to use the computer’s mouse. But the librarian didn’t know how to play any of the games.
It took Syd no time at all to figure out, by herself, how to play the games. One lady stood for a long time just watching and marveling at Syd’s abilities. Syd is like her college age Aunt Kendall, who told me when SHE was 3 years old: “You, watch. I teach!”
I’ve included some pictures of Syd using the computer in the Latest Photo section. I thought you might enjoy looking at a variety of other cute photos of darling Syd & adorable Baby James.
Love, D2
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