Our Poppy Voice

Poppy turned 1 last week and, to be honest, she can't really say anything yet.  We try to convince ourselves that some of her mumbling translates to 'yes', 'yea', 'all done' and 'dada'.  And since I am marginally convinced that she's saying 'yea' sometimes, I'll give her that one.  It's less clear whether or not she's purposefully saying 'dada' as opposed to merely repeating the sound that arrives when one puts together the letters d and a.  She is constantly going 'da.....dada...dadadada..dadada...da' – so, admittedly, it's a bit of a leap to claim that Poppy is addressing her father when she creates this sound.   

Nope, Poppy can't speak for herself yet, which is why Matt and I have taken to speaking for her/as her via a near constant stream of voice-over narration.  We narrate what we imagine she would say in any given situation.  Our 'Poppy Voice' sounds like a cross between Cartman and a gay uncle on helium.  If she knew what we were doing she'd be embarrassed.  But since she doesn't know what we're doing, we're able to adapt our Poppy character to suit ourselves.  

For example, Matt sees Poppy in the finance world someday...hence his Poppy character dabbles in quant strategies*.  

Poppy via Matt (I'm paraphrasing of course): 'Oh my goodness guys, I've been looking at this new Kangaroo Cocktail quant strategy and I think that it could be really interesting as long as it's optimized for curve fitting...'


(For some reason, it's less annoying when it's Poppy who is talking about innovations in quant strategy algorithms.)

Sadly, our Poppy voice-over narration has become a near perpetual practice.  It has also become a medium through which Matt and I voice our own thoughts, desires and fears – even when they have little to do with The Pop-Tart.  As such, Poppy is a baby who plays many roles– 

Poppy via me: 'Oh my goodness daddy, don't forget to assemble my little red radio flyer wagon wagon today like you said you would.'

Matt: 'Don't become like your mother Poppy.'

(For some reason, it isn't less annoying when it's Poppy who is nagging.)

I'm not sure if Matt is doing this for points or if it's what he really thinks Poppy thinks, but Matt's Poppy is often very complimentary of me.  She says things like:

I wonder what the real Poppy is going to say-

*As Poppy would say, 'Quantitative investment strategies are proprietary algorithmic models that are typically run by highly educated teams who use them to increase their ability to beat the market.'  

The Sparknotes for Bringing Up Bébé

This is the first in a series of posts discussing Pamela Druckerman’s newish book Bébé Day By Day: 100 Keys to French Parenting.  

Pamela Druckerman's timely reaction to the success of Bringing Up Bébé  was to follow that bad boy up with the publication of its Sparknotes.  Bébé Day By Day  is a distilled version that leaves out her personal backstory (I for one genuinely enjoyed the backstory but I can see how others might have wanted her to just get to her practical points).

This book's 140 pages (the pages themselves are small...it only takes an hour to read unless you attack it with a highlighter as I did) were gleaned from the hindsight and constructive commentary that surrounded Bébé N˚1 in 2012.  The result of the distillation is a concise, useful, and practical text.  

http://www.pameladruckerman.com/

http://www.elizabethstreet.com/discoveries/moms-night-out-bebe-day-day-book-party


http://www.amazon.com/Bebe-Day-Keys-French-Parenting/dp/1594205531/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1366466819&sr=1-1&keywords=b%C3%A9b%C3%A9+day+by+day

Dallas' O Magazine

A new issue of D Moms is on the shelf.  They seem to be carving out a niche for themselves as a kind of localized Oprah magazine: inspirational features and profiles of Dallas mommies spliced with jewelry recommendations and the occasional weight-loss pointer.  

I really like Erin Matthew’s ‘Looking Back’ piece on p112:

‘Quality time doesn’t mean going somewhere or doing something. Your time together doesn’t have to feel fancy. All your children really want is you…’

This one resonated with me because sometimes (read: often) I’m not quite sure what I’m supposed to be doing with Poppy, ya know? Plus, I like the word ‘fancy’.

http://moms.dmagazine.com/2013/04/the-springsummer-d-moms-magazine-is-on-newsstands/#comments