Caroline is busy with a set of anagrams. She is quite fascinated now with learning to identify letters. She recognizes R, Q, O, I and L whenever she sees them (capitals only) and she plays half a day at a time matching anagram cards with letters in her ABC books. With some of them she runs descriptive phrases right along with the name of the letter, as "This is Q -- has a little tail on it."
Ruth: R-U-T-H (yes, I am).
She has learned three words in lower-case letters: Baby, boy and mother. She wants me to spend quite a bit of time teaching her to read. That pastime is at least less bothersome than one she experimented with yesterday: I discovered she had poured Rickie's $2.50 bottle of codliver oil concentrate out into a custard cup (spilling it liberally on her overalls, her little chair, the table, floor and whatnot in the process) and was giving her doll an oil-bath in it! The loss of the oil seems insignificant in comparison with the problem of getting the smell out of the house....Also yesterday I overheard a conversation on her toy telephone. Apparently she's getting tired of always being the one left home with someone to take care of her. At any rate she was saying in businesslike tones, "I wonder if I could get a girl to stay with my mommy?"
She has an imaginary play-mate now, "Bob." She and he are now inseparable. I haven't figured out much about "Bob's" exact shape, size and appearance. But he is ever-present and she holds the door open for him, offers him bites of her apple, carries any new discovery for him to see and now and then tells me with horror that I am stepping on him! Or else that I'm stepping in the river -- we have an imaginary river winding through the house, not to be stepped in under any circumstances.
Rickie is beside me in his basket, squealing and laughing like everything. He gets so tickled sometimes that he laughs loud enough to be heard all over the house. He is such a happy little boy, laughs so much and watches us a lot and takes an interest in the world around him. Sleeps most of the time, of course, but begins to stay awake more and playing during the day. He's growing so fast! His eyes are still dark gray-blue and he's getting more hair of a reddish-brown tint. -- Reported by their mother, Ruth.
Memory Gem
I wish that there were some wonderful place
Called the Land of Beginning Again,
Where all our mistakes and our heartaches
And all of our poor, selfish grief
Could be dropped like a shabby old coat at the door
And never put on again. -- Selected.