we got the beat

To be an English-speaking child is to have poetic meter -- and one meter in particular -- drilled into your head almost daily. Technically speaking, it's either "tail-less" trochaic tetrameter or "headless" iambic tetrameter: seven syllables, four stresses. It's the meter of most nursery rhymes:

"London Bridge is falling down."
"Mary had a little lamb."
"Twinkle twinkle little star."

And of the playground rhymes Evan brings home from school:

"Give me something good to eat."
"Eenie meenie miney moe."
"I see someone's underwear."

And it remains with us throughout our lives. In high school:

"We've got spirit, yes we do."

In the military:

"I don't know but I've been told..."

Even in seven-digit phone numbers: listen to yourself saying 353-2915, and you'll notice you're stressing the first, third, fifth and seventh syllables.

Sage seems very sensitive to the rhythms of the world. When we're driving around, her backseat monologues may be a mixture of sense and nonsense, but they're pretty consistently tetrametrical.

Tonight Sonja was reading to Sage from a book of children's poems. Then she let Sage "read" to her from the same book, and every sentence seemed to have four beats to it. She even managed a rhyming couplet. I give you Sage's first original poem:

I lie down in the deep dark woods.
I see a flower and the flower is good.

great minds think alike

William, Eric, Evan and, yes, Sherman Alexie at the View Ridge Halloween party.

didn't see that one coming

Eric: "If we were to get a new pet, what kind of pet would you want it to be?"

Sage: "A Cinderella snake."

mr. roboto

Evan: "I had a dream last night that there was a gas leak under our house, and I was covering my mouth and nose and trying not to breathe. Then I remembered I was a droid."

that girl

Tonight Sage looked out the window at Evan and his new friend Alex, who were running around in the front yard, chuckled, and said, "Those boys."

flour children

Update: "Sage is painting herself with red icing!"

Evan's knack for ending discussions

Eric: "Your shirt's on backwards."

Evan: "I like it that way."

***

Evan (holding up a stuffed frog): "Where did we get Poopyface?"

Eric: "Do we have to call him Poopyface?"

Evan: "Well that's his name."

great balls of fire

Evan: "Would you be scared if a big fiery ball suddenly landed in our front yard?"

Eric: "Yes I would."

Evan: "But you wouldn't be if I got out of it and said, 'Hey, do you like my new invention?'"

stolen shots

it's all over now, baby blue-green

I'd like to solve the puzzle

Evan (laughing): "Um, Hannah's little sister put an egg in Hannah's mom's shoe."

Sonja: "Oh no."

Evan: "And you can pretty much guess what happened then."

Sonja: "Yep."

Evan: "I'll just give you one little hint: SPLAT!"

Evan has cracked the code

"Hey Mommy, when S-a-g-e-g-o-e-s-t-o-b-e-d-c-a-n-w-e-w-a-t-c-h something?"

Sage-isms

Cradling three sippee cups in her arms: "Okay, we're gonna play Who Has More Cups Than Muffy?"

Dancing in the kitchen after helping Daddy turn on the dishwasher: "I'm dancing because I'm proud of me."