Jujus

March 22, 2018March 22, 2018Na'ama Yehuda Anecdotes of Life, Funnies, Life and love, Professional Development, Speech Language Pathology, Things Kids Say, Writing Tags: belief, Central Park, children, Magic, Postaday, speech therapy, Talisman, The Daily Post, Things Kids Say 1 Comment

Photo: Samantha Mars

She dragged her book bag up the stairs.

Step, bang. Step, bang.

“It looks heavy,” I noted.

“Yeah,” she huffed and paused to frown in the direction of the patchwork of princesses on the backpack. I found myself wondering whether she was directing discontent at her idolized figures not using their royal powers to, at the very least, summon genie help to manage gravity.

“Want me to help carry the bag for you?” I offered.

She raised an eyebrow as if the mere thought of my definitely-not-princess hands handling her bag was beneath the Disney figures that dignified it.

The first-grader lugged the bag another step and stopped, perhaps to reconsider if there are times when commoners’ help is better than none at all. “Yeah,” she nodded.

I walked down to take the bag from her. The thing was heavy!

“What do you have in there?!” I asked. “Rocks?!”

“Aha,” she nodded sagely, skipped a few steps up ahead of me and swiveled her head to look back at me. “Come faster. I want to show you.”

I lifted the bag (and an eyebrow) in her direction and she giggled. “Sorry… Thanks.”

Once upstairs she indicated I was to clear space for whatever that was, then ceremoniously unzipped the top of her school bag and pulled out a succession of boulders. She placed each with care onto the desk. Several pounds of them.

I waited. The lot looked to me like run-of-the-mill New York stones: mostly dark gray schist dappled with a bit of quartz glint.

She leaned back in her chair and waited. Clearly a reaction was warranted.

“That’s a lot of rocks!” I managed.

“Not regular rocks,” she admonished. “These have magic.”

“Oh?”

“Yeah,” she proclaimed. “They have real magic. And gold, too. Inside.”

I tilted my head a bit to one side and nodded my interest.

She narrowed her eyes at me, weighing the merits of talking to grown ups about matters of magic and gold. “They can even make your wishes come true …”

“But … ” she regarded me before adding, a bit haughtily and perhaps to punish me for my lack of immediate awe, “you do have to believe in them, so they’ll only do the magic for me.”

For The Daily Post

Invisibly Small

March 21, 2018March 21, 2018Na'ama Yehuda Anecdotes of Life, Funnies, Life and love, Muse and Flow, Quotes, Speech Language Pathology, Things Kids Say, Writing Tags: imagination, Invisible friends, play, Postaday, Preschoolers, The Daily Post, Things Kids Say, Toddlers 1 Comment

Photo: Smadar Halperin-Epshtein

They can hide beneath blankets

They can scoot behind doors

They can crawl under tables.

It’s no challenge at all.

They’re a lion

A princess

A pirate,

A ball.

He has friends you can’t see.

They are there

“They’re just small.”

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“I Am Waiting”

March 18, 2018Na'ama Yehuda Anecdotes of Life, Life and love, Muse and Flow, Photography, Professional Development, Reflections, Speech Language Pathology, Things Kids Say, Writing Tags: attachment, Learning to wait, parenting, Patience, Postaday, The Daily Post, Things Kids Say, Toddlers, Transitional Object 2 Comments

Photo: mostlymommyhood.com

“I am waiting,” she crouched with jaw ensconced by tiny fists supported on little elbows pressed into small knees.

Her eyes did not leave the circle of translucence and white suds.

“It will be a while,” her momma said. “How about we go have a snack? I think we still have some cookies left.”

“But I’m waiting,” the toddler admonished, as if the wait itself precluded any other thing from being done … not even the consumption of normally-tantrum-before-dinner-worthy cookies.

Then again, maybe this wait indeed required full attention. After all, it was her terry friends being tumbled, wet, forlorn and all alone, so far away from hug and hand.

For The Daily Post

For Photo and how-to: http://mostlymommyhood.com/2012/11/17/the-friends-get-a-bath/

And Suddenly

March 10, 2018March 10, 2018Na'ama Yehuda Anecdotes of Life, Current events, Life and love, Muse and Flow, Photography, Reflections, Things Kids Say, Writing Tags: Change, learning, Life Lessons, Postaday, Realizations, surprises, The Daily Post, Things Kids Say, wisdom 3 Comments

Photo: Atara Katz

“And suddenly,” she said,

“Life is not simple anymore.

Or was it never

And I just did not seem

To know?”

For The Daily Post

A Meter Above

March 2, 2018March 2, 2018Na'ama Yehuda Anecdotes of Life, Current events, Life and love, Muse and Flow, Photography, Reflections, Writing Tags: From the mouths of babes, Poetry, Postaday, Quotes, speech therapy, The Daily Post, Things Kids Say, Truth, wisdom 2 Comments

Photo: Pinterest

He came in with a poem.

“I used to hate this stuff,” he noted, holding the page face down so I won’t peek while he explains. “But after you showed me ‘A Light in the Attic’ and told me what all this poetry word salad stuff means …” He grinned, pleased at being able to insert one of the expressions from last week. “I think it’s kinda’ fun, actually.”

He lifted his hand from the page, but left it hovering an inch above the white expanse. “You might not like this,” he warned. “It’s sort of a rap song. You know. People my age like those …”

I chuckled. “I know I’m much older than you but I actually don’t mind rap. It’s only when the language is really inappropriate that I don’t care for it.”

He peered at me, only half-convinced. “Anyway … no cuss words here. Even my mom said it’s fine. The first words are from her fridge magnet thingy.”

He turned the page and cleared his throat. “But tell me if you really like it, okay?” he glanced up, suddenly a lot less certain and a lot more the little boy. He took a deep breath. “Here goes …”

“As above

So below.

We learn more

As we go.

So make sure

To go slow.”

For The Daily Post

The Conversant

February 23, 2018Na'ama Yehuda Anecdotes of Life, Funnies, Life and love, Muse and Flow, Reflections, Speech Language Pathology, Things Kids Say, Writing Tags: children, conversation, Dolls, Funnies, Oops, parenting, Persuasive speech, playing, The Daily Post, Things Kids Say Leave a comment

Photo: A.Cohen

She’s an expert on all matters

Hearts and rainbows

And the crucial importance

Of having everything that glints.

She can wax poetic

On the concept

Of shiny polka dots in pink.

She’s conversant

Beyond measure

On the value of more dolls.

Especially after three had suffered

Unrelenting awful hair-days

Due to dunking

At the sink.

For The Daily Post

Suspiciously Quiet

February 14, 2018Na'ama Yehuda Anecdotes of Life, Funnies, Life and love, Reflections, Things Kids Say, Writing Tags: Makeup, Mischief, Oh-oh, parenting, Suspicious, The Daily Post, Things Kids Say, Toddlers, Too Quiet Leave a comment

Photo: Pinterest

The quiet lingered enough to have the mother lift her head from the small screen of the phone.

“Emma?” She inquired.

A longer silence returned no response.

She rose and walked toward the child’s bedroom. The three-year-old was outgrowing afternoon naps but sometimes still could be found slumbering amidst her toys.

The door was open. The girl’s room was empty. She peeked into the bathroom. Empty, too.

“Emma!?” Her voice rose. This time in alarm.

A faint shuffle came from the direction of the master bedroom. Nothing more.

“Emma, where are you?” She demanded.

“Here …” The extra pause and small voice held suspicious hesitation.

Urgency made the few steps feel oddly prolonged. The woman felt heartbeat pulse in the space between her tongue and throat. She pushed open the door …

The child’s cheeks were mascara blotches, her mouth and chin bloomed various shades of lipstick. She had a second set of eyebrows. Her little feet sported rose hues that merged into the floor. The room reeked from a cacophony of perfumes, nail polish, and something that smelled suspiciously like aftershave.

“Hi,” the little girl managed, guilty as they come. “I … I was getting pretty so it be your party.”

For The Daily Post

Mnemonically Challenged

February 11, 2018Na'ama Yehuda Anecdotes of Life, Current events, Life and love, Muse and Flow, Professional Development, Reflections, Speech Language Pathology, Things Kids Say, Writing Tags: Just listen, Memory, middle-school, Mnemonic, speech pathology, speech therapy, tests, The Daily Post, Things Kids Say 2 Comments

Photo: teachingmomster.com

“I failed the test,” she sighed and let her book bag slump to the floor.

“What test, and I’m so sorry.” I responded.

“Social studies. History stuff. I studied so hard!” She plunked herself into the chair. Dejection personified. “Who put all those stupid names and dates in there, anyway?”

“Names and dates can be really difficult to remember,” I noted. “I find it helpful to connect them with the story of what happened, or with something else to remind of what the name or date relate to.”

“Yeah, well,” her eyes rose to meet mine, accusatory at my not understanding she just needed me to let her vent. “But you are not mnemonically challenged!”

For The Daily Post

Life, Simplified.

February 9, 2018Na'ama Yehuda Anecdotes of Life, Funnies, Life and love, Professional Development, Speech Language Pathology, Things Kids Say, Writing Tags: babies, Birth, Child's perspective, Funnies, life, speech therapy, speech-language-pathology, The Daily Post, Things Kids Say 6 Comments

Photo: King College, London

“It’s not hard,” she said. “Here, I’ll show you.”

“You make a circle …” she demonstrated. “Then you make eyes and mouth and little bit of hair and hands and legs. See?”

She held the drawing up to show me. Lines for arms and legs sprouted out of the crooked circle ‘head,’ topped by a few smaller lines of a sparse mohawk.

“Then,” she planted the paper back on the table, “you go to the hospital and the doctor makes magic and it’s a baby.”

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It’s a Puzzle!

February 2, 2018February 2, 2018Na'ama Yehuda Anecdotes of Life, Life and love, Muse and Flow, Professional Development, Reflections, Speech Language Pathology, Things Kids Say, Trauma and Development, Writing Tags: children, Comprehension, Funny, Language, listening, Nature, Puzzled, speech therapy, The Daily Post, Things Kids Say Leave a comment

Photo: Amitai Asif

“Can animals be naked?” he asked, his little forehead creased in perplexed concentration.

“Naked how?” I responded. “Animals don’t usually wear clothes. People may dress their dogs with coats or booties if its raining or snowing, but even that only sometimes.”

He waved me off. “I’m not talking about dogs, even.”

I smiled. The kindergartener’s contenance was a smaller version of adolescents’ exasperation at the ‘know-nothing-adults’ they are somehow expected to live with.

“Oh, okay.” I conceded, “I guess I misunderstood. What did you mean, then?”

“Other things. Like, um … snakes.”

“Snakes?!” I repeated.

“Yeah.” He moved his head up and down for emphasis. “Because I think maybe a snake took his clothes off and ran away and now he’s naked.”

Comprehension slithered in to lift my confusion. “Was this when you went to visit your grandma in Arizona?”

He nodded again. “It looked like a snake but it was only snake clothes.”

I grinned. “I think you saw a snake skin shed! How cool! But don’t worry, it still has skin on its body. You see, when a snake’s skin is too small for it, it grows new skin underneath and then it wriggles out of the old skin and sheds it inside out like a sock.”

The little boy narrowed his eyes and inspected my expression to see if I was perhaps pulling his leg. What he saw in my face must’ve reassured him.

“Good,” he said. “Because I didn’t want everyone to see his privates.”

For The Daily Post