Brown day.
July 23, 2010

*** Don’t forget to enter this week’s AWESOME children’s book giveaway for the Stella and Sam collection, an awesome, award-winning picture book series by Marie-Louise Gay.

Two or three times a week, Charlotte and I have a color day.  Color days are exactly what they sound like – days when we focus on one specific color.  On Purple Day, for example, I point out purple flowers on our walk and show her the purple skin on the eggplants at the farmer’s market.  On Green Day, we picnic in the park.  The park is full of green grass and green benches and green leaves and green slides.

We started having color days several months ago, but let’s be fair.  My daughter is one.  It’s not like the kid gives a flying fart that the truck is blue or the lemon is yellow.  In general, color days have sort of fallen under the category of mindless moronic things I do, sandwiched between making faces at Charlotte in the mirror and jumping around like an ape to make her laugh at the park.

Then came yesterday.

Yesterday was Brown Day.  Brown chair.  Brown shirt.  Brown twigs.  Brown eyes.  Brown this, brown that, brown the other thing, and I took her a little farther than usual on our daily walk so that I could show her a brown horse.

Lately, Charlotte has been very into pointing.  She points at everything and shrieks DAT!, which I think means WHAT IS THAT?! in some sort of strange toddler-glish.  So she points and demands DAT! and I answer.  That’s a ball.  That’s a shoe.  That’s an avocado.  That, well, that’s squirrels doing the nasty.

So we get to the fenced-in area where the horse lives and it is a huge color day success.  Charlotte is pointing around screaming DAT! DAT! DAT! and I’m listing things off as fast as I possibly can.  That’s a brown horse!  A rancher!  A brown saddle!  A brown horse brush!  A hose!  The rancher is wearing brown boots!  Brown pants!  We’re standing on brown dirt!

And that’s when it happened.  I’m looking at her and she points at something and says BOW! BOW!  Suddenly, I am overwhelmed with pride.  It takes every last bit of restraint I have not to start bragging to the rancher that my precious, perfect child is saying brown.  She’s identifying a color, ON COLOR DAY, and I’m so freaking excited that I can hardly stand it.

Then I followed her direction to see what she was pointing at, and, Internet?  THIS SHOULD TAKE ME DOWN A PEG OR TWENTY.  My kid was pointing at horse poop.

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(18) Comments | Permalink
Filed as Parenthood Motherhood Charlotte Charlotte's toddlerhood; 12-24 months Poop 

  1. By Tracy on July 23, 2010

    That is freaking awesome. All of it. I adore the idea of color day & am going to start it myself. Ellis knows most of her colors, although everything still tends to be GREEN! or BLACK! when asked. So yeah…we’re not quite dialed in on the colors yet. But, she can sing a wicked ABC song!

  2. By Tracy on July 23, 2010

    PS, I don’t remember where we were supposed to let you know, but I’ve got your Odin on my homepage :)

  3. By Megan R. on July 23, 2010

    Finnley still speaks only fancy gibberish…so pointing out actual brown horse poop and saying “bow”...GENIUS!  Consider yourself lucky!  ha!

  4. By Claudia Guerreiro on July 23, 2010

    hey, horse poop counts as brown. good job Charlotte!

  5. By Cambria on July 23, 2010

    They are sponges. Fun! Great game, proof that your work is paying off.

  6. By on July 23, 2010

    Way to go Charlotte!  Too funny.

  7. By Kayla on July 23, 2010

    So, I’ve been reading for awhile, but I think this is my first time commenting.

    I’m not a mom, not even close, but I think Charlotte is just precious, and you are hilarious, and I adore that you see books and reading as vital to your daughter’s development.

    I’m de-lurking today because this particular paragraph - “Lately, Charlotte has been very into pointing.  She points at everything and shrieks DAT!, which I think means WHAT IS THAT?! in some sort of strange toddler-glish.  So she points and demands DAT! and I answer.  That’s a ball.  That’s a shoe.  That’s an avocado.  That, well, that’s squirrels doing the nasty.“
    pretty much had me rolling on the floor.

    and the end of the post, of course, was priceless.

  8. By Mallory on July 23, 2010

    That’s so awesome (and funny)! I’m totally stealing the color day idea. Des could care less about colors, but probably because I don’t point them out too much.  But I’m thinking this color day just might work.

  9. By on July 23, 2010

    When Jude was a bit younger, I used to do colors all the time. We focused a lot on yellow at first, then red and green… And then I got the ‘app’ on my iPhone that was toddler flas cards and it had different categories, one of which was ‘colors’ ... And it was in the ‘advanced’ category…. He was something like 9months at the time… Too soon? LOL great idea on color day though!

    As for ‘dat’, Jude used to do a ‘wassat’ that eventually get shortened to ‘dat’ and was totally his version of ‘that’.

  10. By on July 23, 2010

    Charlotte is only one, right? And you plan to homeschool her? That kind of accelerated learning works just fine if you home school because your child can learn at their own pace and aren’t held back by the masses. However, if you are planning to plunk her into public school and you’ve done what you are doing now…she’s going to be one very frustrated and stifled little girl. I from which I speak….

  11. By on July 23, 2010

    I need to proof-read myself!! I was saying that I know from whence I speak….truly.

  12. By on July 24, 2010

    Hahahah this made me laugh “That, well, that’s squirrels doing the nasty” LOL

    Way to go Charlotte…poop is indeed brown. Too funny.

    Also Lynn, I was talking by 9 months (like almost real sentences), reading on my own by 2, my little brother was doing multiplication by the time he was 3 and we were not home schooled. Yes, I was bored in school but my brother was the laziest little kid out there. If you have involved parents who continue to encourage self-teaching and challenge you at home, then it’s not the end of the world.  So I say, accelerated fun learning is where it’s at and I wish more parents did it!!!

    Personally, I’m not for homeschooling at all. School is vital for lots of skills like athletics, socialization and MATH & SCIENCE.

  13. By Sarah Christensen on July 24, 2010

    Lynn and Corrine - We have not made an ultimate decision about how we will educate Charlotte, but we are leaning towards home-schooling.  Yes, Corrine, public school can be great for many things, but we live in southern California.  It’s not exactly known for its brilliant educational system, is it?  We cannot afford private education.  Near us, most physical education programs have been suspended and about 1/3 of our local elementary schools no longer have science programs.  My husband is a math and science nerd, I’m a language nerd - there is no doubt in my mind that we could do a splendid job.  What we cannot provide in the home, such as socialization or access to athletic programs, we can provide through community or private programs.

  14. By infant bedding set on July 25, 2010

    Great idea—Color Day. Your child must be really cute saying “bow” “bow”. Doing things repeatedly with toddlers can really help. I always talk to my niece with “*something* please.“ She wants to watch ABC elmo on youtube, before she just points on the monitor, but after telling her ABC, and then Elmo, and then please each time she wants to watch(which in a day would be a lot, really, she is obsessed with the furry little red puppet). Anyway, after a lot of times she eventually said “ABC pwease…“
    I wonder if she’s ready for color day. I’m excited to try!

  15. By on July 25, 2010

    Hooray Sarah! You nailed it right there…I could not have said it better.

  16. By on July 26, 2010

    Ohh….I forgot, the US school system and esp California. good point. How can schools cut science?!

    And in your situation, both you and Donald have skills that I don’t think most parents have (math, science, languages). You may find that Charlotte *wants* to go to school though. I

    I lived in a community where everyone homescholed except my mom. All those kids eventually went to “real” school for secondary school. NONE of the kids who were on strict diets and/or homeschooled are interested in that lifestyle at all (we are all in our late teens to mid 20’s). You may also find that Charlotte doesn’t learn certain skills from you very well (ie. my dad is an engineer, he should have been able to help me with my Math homework; we fought constantly).

    School is sort of a right of passage and homeschoolers DO miss out on certain things. Although I am all for enrichment and parent-teaching as supplementary.

    Although my original observation wasn’t about your choice or Charlotte… I just don’t like when people make sweeping statements.

  17. By Melissa on July 26, 2010

    I love this idea.  I am constantly looking for ways to improve the speech of my 2 year old.  See, we have 3 and it is hard for me to remember to do the things I did with our first child.  She is highly intelligent.  I loved your statement of “happiness” when your dd “knew” brown!  I could feel your excitement!  Love your blog.  Keep it up!!

  18. By Christy on July 29, 2010

    I love the idea of color day! I’m going to try it.  Colors and smells are something I have been having trouble working into my daughter’s day to day life.


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