Kylee goes to Florida

Who’s a lucky girl. Tomorrow, she will be joining the ranks of the Snowbirds again and having fun in the sun. This will be her second visit, and I don’t doubt that she will appreciate it more than the time before.

She has been counting off the sleeps for over two weeks now, and is finally down to one. Will she miss us? Yes, most probably but one can only hope that she doesn’t too much and that she gets maximum pleasure at the Disney park in Orlando.

Do I wish that I was going too? Yes and no. I am a Brit and was brought up with Rupert the Bear, not Mickey da Mouse. Florida is probably more humid than I can easily cope perhaps, and somebody has to remain behind to keep the flag flying and enjoy the warm – cold warm – cold weather which SWO is presently experiencing.

On her return from her visit last year, she had a play routine centred around the facial and speech idiosyncrasies of a Florida waitress. When serving us pretend tea and snacks, she would adopt a pose and voice which was definitely not her own, and we did smile (no offence to the waitress in question, whoever you are).

It will be interesting to see what she comes back with this time. When I was a kid, I came back from vacation with sand in my shoes. How boring was that??   

A new world opens up..

The world of elevator buttons is now within reach, I am not making reference to public elevators in malls, hospitals etc. The reference is to apartment blocks with aging elevators which are not generally ‘disabled’ friendly. Invariably, small children can’t reach even the lowest of the buttons, which is as well really because the alarm button is always one of them.

Kylee is not so small these days. On tiptoe, she can reach the G button, and of course the alarm button. She has almost outgrown the five point harness in her car seat, has been in Junior Kindergarten for a while now and is getting way too smart for a four year old.

Do we all grow up this fast? I don’t remember being particularly ‘squeaker toy’ savvy when I was her age.

When she reads a book, she puts her own words to the story, and will tell you that you can do this with books. One might get the impression that she has no real reading skills, yet when she clicked on a link on her computer, she came to me and told me that she needed adult supervision to complete the task, which is exactly the wording of the message on the screen. When I was at school, I was struggling with the content of the ‘Janet and John’ reading primer.

Wish that I had done it sooner..

A while ago now, I set Kylee up with her own computer. It’s not bad and is actually my old production machine.She picked up on how to use the mouse very quickly, manoeuvring it around with her right hand while using her left to click on it. You should try it.. very difficult, but she was doing it so adeptly.

So, one day, I was surfing through hardware websites and I came across keyboards and mice suitable for kids and noticed that one or two keyboards had built in trackballs. A good idea, yes, but as Kylee was doing so well, I drifted over them.

Just recently, I visited somebody who had a Logitech Trackball laying idle, and it got me thinking again. I asked if I could borrow it with a view to seeing how Kylee would get along with it, and I was offered it to keep for free.

I came back home, connected it and showed it to her. She seemed unimpressed at the time, but after she saw me do some updates on her computer, and decided to try it out for herself. Amazingly, she is now using the computer more than she has ever done.

She has developed a method of cupping the front leading edge in her right hand while using her left hand index finger to click on stuff. Now she can move the pointer with unerring accuracy and clicks away on her games like a pro. She still asks me to come look at what she is doing but now hardly requires any assistance to get her out of messes caused by trying to negotiate the screen with a regular mouse.

She has even taken to teaching her younger cousin how to use it. In case you don’t know what a trackball is…

This is the Logitech T-CM14 Marble Mouse, a PS/2 connected two button type. Newer versions of this have four buttons which could introduce problems, and I think that it would be best to disable two of them in the mouse control panel or give them the same function as the main buttons.

Kylee’s JK teacher teaches her songs, dance, and the normal education given at Junior Kindergarten. I am no expert in that field, but what I can do is introduce her to technology, get her beyond the fear that some have with it.

If you think that your child/grandchild would benefit from one of the above, they are available new for around $30 or just like the one above for maybe $18 on eBay. Trust me, they are worth every last cent.

Kylee is good at the games I have installed, but she also tells me when things are not right. She has been around me fixing computers and her own use of a computer to know when the computer is not doing what she knows that it should. How is that for just four years old, eh..

She even complains about slowness sometimes and she has a pretty good dual core, 4gb machine which can run high end games way above the stresses that Purble Place puts on the machine. I guess that I will have to upgrade her to a quad core for her fifth birthday.

Looking back at my life at four, I struggled to get a clockwork train to traverse the lounge floor, let alone have any real grasp of how it worked. 

Kylee goes to school..

Just Junior Kindergarten for now (three days, two days over two weeks), the age when school is fun and one makes new friends daily. She is growing up quickly now, and it will not be long before peer influence starts to show.

For sure, I will miss seeing her on a daily basis throughout the week, but we all have to learn to learn, not just academics but how to co-exist and work as an individual and as a team.

I can honestly say that I am amazed at how quickly kids pick up on what we do. I am sure that I was never as aware of my surroundings.

This is Kylee shopping in the local mall’s Dollar store. See how she examines products before depositing them into the basket. There was a time when she would see cookies, and just drop them in. Now she studies each pack. This photo was not posed and she was not aware that my cellphone had photo ability, by the way.

At  little under four years of age, I don’t remember ever doing this. Maybe I wasn’t allowed to pick stuff, or I just wasn’t interested enough. I do know that Kylee was putting the same amount of care into product selection as she does with everything else, which is why I think that she is so remarkable.

She has an old head on her at times, but equally displays the fun and exuberance one would expect from somebody so young.

And yes, we bought everything that she put in her basket.. and no, she didn’t buy the whole store, just a few carefully selected items..

Learning to use a computer..

A few months ago, I set up a computer for Kylee to use. I had a spare desktop type kicking around, and it seemed a shame to waste it. A laptop would have been good but desktop keyboards and mice are more robust.

She had shown interest in what I was doing on mine and was always eager to ‘help’ me fix client computers, so that is why she has full use of her ‘own’ now. The computer is not too bad at all, a 64-bit system running XP for a short while until I installed Windows 7. There is a suite of games called Purble Place, ideal for Kylee to cut her teeth in the use of a keyboard and mouse.

Even using a laptop mouse, Kylee still uses it two handed and it is amazing to watch her complete online jigsaw puzzles, play the Dora games I bought for it, go through the Purble Place games, make up pictures in Microsoft Paint. I can take credit only for introducing her to computers. The rest is all hers. I only have to show her once, and she is good to go from there on.

Kylee can even tell when all is not well with the computer, and will either reboot it or ask me for my opinion. She will be a guiding force for other children when she goes to school and I hope that they have Windows 7 at her first school. Kylee will advise the IT department on where they should be heading re hardware and software.

Oh, and she knows how to print pictures off too. Soon, she will have her own email ID which I will add to my account. Typing out coherent messages are presently beyond her ability, but it will not be too long before she can do it, and the email ID will be ready and waiting.

Some might think that the above is excessive, but I don’t. Nothing is too much for Kylee, space and finances permitting.

Almost a year has passed..

.. and a third birthday! Kylee stands at 37.5 inches now, can walk, run, climb, reach almost anything in the place, and is learning to ice skate.

Her powers of hearing and general observation have always been top notch, but now she understands enough around her that it is impossible to get away with anything. She is always alert.

So what else is new?

Her tastes are changing in what she watches on Treehouse TV. Last year, it was 'In the Night Garden', then Barney and 'Toopy and Binoo', and now Dora, Diego and 'Max and Ruby'. She seems unmoved by anything which includes bears and other animals, and it is reflected in her choice of favourite toys. She has been bought bears but ignores them except for one recently. I got it for her before she was a year old, and it is only now that she is starting to carry it around with her.

Mickey and Minnie Mouse have caught her attention too, but the reality is that she only likes the Mickey Mouse and the 'hot diggety dog' songs. There was a Mickey Mouse ride in one of the malls close to us that she liked, but not to ride on unless she shared with another child. On her own, she would sit on the ride and give Mickey a hug, but that is all. No coins required.

The ride has been removed from the mall for reasons unknown, but it is still referred to as the 'Mickey mall' and she still likes to go there. I get some Eastern Indian snacks for lunch, and the same stall just happens to sell kiddie size ice cream cones which go down very well. In the mall is also a 'dollar store' which has baskets on wheels and with long handles, ideal for a three year old to drag around and load up with goodies. Her favourites are 'ring pops' and Maynards Gummy Bears, and she always picks a chocolate bar for me.

I have always encouraged her to share stuff, primarily by example. I try to share whatever I have within reason for a three year old and she is very comfortable with the concept and is eager to reciprocate. Her stock phrase is "I like to share with Babba". This extends to any foodstuff, including her favourite ice cream. She is a very good sharer with everybody, but take liberties with her and you will get the 'look'..

Kylee likes to be useful. It started with cleaning things, the TV screen, the floor etc. She is less inclined to cleaning these days, and has turned her efforts to helping me fix things, to cook with me and bake with her grandmother.

Out and about, she is a pleasure. She likes visual stimuli and is easily pleased. She is as happy to wander through a mall, looking in shop windows, walking backwards, twirling like a ballerina, using hand cleanser stations, sharing a bag of Maynards Gummy Bears as she would be walking through Toys 'R Us. She just likes the thrill of going out and doing grown up things. Even grocery shopping has its pleasures, like the cart at one store which is dressed up in a racing car body.

Her speech is remarkable. Gone is the baby babble. There are still one or two words I don't always understand, but one can have a regular conversation with her now, and she puts herself across, thoughts and feelings, exceptionally well. She also likes to sing, and while travelling around in the Jeep, she gives a full show of talk, songs and general observations as we pass landmarks.

She continues to be kind, thoughtful and caring, and is a truly magical child. Yes, she has her spats now and again, but with so many places to go and so many people to see, sometimes the frustration of having to wait for the 'olds' to catch up is more than she can stand.

Kylee is the ONLY person who gets a hug from me. I am not a 'huggy' type person at all, but in her case, I always make an exception. It is an important part of being one of Kylee's buddies, and I am honoured to be on her buddy list.

It sounds like gobbeldy-gook..

.. but babies have a language which they all seem to understand, a unique combination of fairly basic monosyllabic tones and gestures made with the face and eyes. This is quickly followed by rapid fire gobbledy-gook as they learn to move their tongues around their mouths. As unintelligible as it may sound, there is structure in it, and because I was watching Kylee to see what she would do next, I began to tie sounds to needs and wants. I never did reach full fluency, but it made for less fractious times than there would otherwise have been.

As time progressed, the rapid fire talk was replaced by properly structured statements. For instance, she hurt herself on something in the kitchen area, and when asked where she hurt herself, she replied ‘on the cupboard’. This was one large step especially as at the age she was, multi-syllabic words are not supposed to be possible. I have learnt that anything is possible in the world of a toddler.