Good news: Milo may not have to fall back on a career in modeling or morning TV talk show hosting or being governor of Texas. He knows words! And urgently wants to say them! And can occasionally be understood!

Recent additions to our short-ish list include: cheese, keys, TV, Elmo (which sounds disturbingly like “mama”), Frog (“Wog” — do we cave and give Frog a nickname?). I got an excited note from his afternoon teachers about how he’d said “turtle” and “verde.” They used exclamation points, which made me think they’re as worried as I am about his talking.

Well, anyway, he totally talks now. Am thinking of setting up a Twitter account or some other social media presence for him (beyond this blog, of course — he needs real readership).

We had Lu’s parent-teacher conference with Ms. B. and got some feedback on Lucy that was not entirely glowing. Her behavior is better — less talking and distraction-causing. Her academics are great and…not. She’s reading very well (fourth grade level) and doing well in math. Yet her writing is not up to the level of her reading, and she rarely pursues the extra-credit math someone on her level should be doing. Her work is sloppy and rushed. Simply put: she is under-performing.

When we asked about whether to nominate Lucy for gifted and talented, we found out that the spring nominations had come and gone, and Ms. B. had decline to nominate her because, while Lucy is very intelligent, she has lacked the focus to demonstrate her abilities. This is mystifying, frustrating and complicated for us. Are we laid back — assuming all this academic stuff will come out in the wash, it’s only first grade? Do we go all Tiger Mom — pushing her to achieve her true capacity and more? When we tried to gently but firmly address the issue of focus and effort with Lu, she said, “I’M HORRIBLE. YOU ALL THINK I’M HORRIBLE.” And then we all felt horrible.

So when, the next day, her piano teacher called and said she’d nominated Lucy to audition for the Austin Girls Choir, we were all thrilled to have a something positive to focus on. Lucy auditioned on Sunday and got in: talent, achievement, success, hurray! Her second practice is tonight and she loves it already. We still have to figure how to approach her academics, but for now, here’s hoping they give choir scholarships.

I found this scroll rolled up and tied with a ribbon:

It reads:
The Secrets of Lucy Land
1. Every person in Lucy Land has powers. Even Lucy.
2. Lucy is in charge.
3. You will lissin to Lucy.
4. Noboty nose about Lucy Land.
Lucy Sugawa 2011

Ed. note: Lucy’s power is not spelling.

Duck has been missing since Friday. We’re pretty certain he’s in this house somewhere (as he is no longer allowed to leave), and besides, nothing is officially lost until it’s been gone for a good week (a rule that applies to car keys, cell phones and credit cards).

What we’re less certain about is whether we’re actually looking for him. For one, Lucy has not been sucking her thumb much at all in his absence. For  two, she is missing him, but not desperately. She seems almost nostalgic. Last night, as she whimpered a little, I told her lost Duck stories, like the time I went through the trash at Ski Shores to find him. Or the time we left another, earlier Duck at Guero’s, his dishrag-colored self surely tossed in with the rest of the restaurant laundry. We imagined that some busboy would be wiping a table and look down to find Duck smiling up at him: why is there a duck on the end of my dish rag? Or maybe he’d be folded around the silverware, a Duck napkin. We laughed thinking about what Duck might be doing out there on his own.

It really would be so BORING if he were just crammed in the couch cushions or under our bed.