First Word

During the morning dance of chaos, Lucy asked me how to spell the word toy.  I told her, and she repeated the letters under her breath.  She does this often, whispering things to herself -- talking to herself.  A few minutes later, she asked for some paper.  I ran downstairs to the laundry room and grabbed the first thing I could find and gave her the paper, secretly thankful she was passing the time before school doing something besides watching TV.  Twenty minutes later she proudly showed me 20 pieces of paper with the single word T-O-Y written on them.  She had written her first word!  So much excitement in the house these days. 

She took all the pieces of paper and handed them out to her friends at school, so they would know how to spell the word too.  Later in the day, she asked for more paper and made more flyers with the word toy carefully written in the upper left hand corner.  We went out to dinner to celebrate (or just an excuse to get out of making dinner?), and she handed out the flyers to everyone in the restaurant.  On our way home, she handed them out to neighbors in the streets.  This is from a girl who doesn't like to wear dresses or put her hair up because "people will say things to me" (read, compliments). 

Up until a month ago, she would have nothing to do with writing.  Hated writing her name, wouldn't do it no matter how cleverly I tried to help.  All her letters were upside down and backwards.  You could see the struggle and frustration.  Often she scribbled lines on a page, probably liking the way it feels, but resembling nothing. This is a major development in Lucy's world.