Write is a Right Rite

At the risk of bursting buttons on my vest, I am proud to declare that today, Natalie joined the literate world, officially starting on the road to learning the written language. She knows the alphabet backwards and forwards; she knows the sounds of each letter; and she can even recognize words in various contexts, her name specifically; and she can type her name and the names of our family on the keyboard, but today, Monday, May 22, 2006, she wrote her first letter. Naturally, it was an “N” as that is the first letter I taught her.

We were painting this morning, which means she dips the brushes into a wide variety of colors and smears them on the paper. Since she has deemed that green is my favorite color, I’m only to use green, even if I’m painting a pumpkin. After painting, we got a new piece of paper and began using crayons and markers. I showed her an “N” and made her trace the lines with her finger, which she did.

“Can you draw an ‘N?’” I asked, to which she replied, “No, I need big muscles to draw an ‘N.’” It was logical to her and I wasn’t going to push it, so I let it go; she'll write when she's ready. While I was getting up to get a glass of water from the fridge, she burst with excitement and said:

“Daddy, daddy, I drew an ‘N,’ look!”

Well, everyone… look!