Dallapè Dirt
May/June 2000
It’s a….

      We have had the ultrasound that tells us the gender of the baby, and we are happy to announce that Rio is going to have a little BROTHER! Yes, we are expecting another boy. Considering the good luck we have been having with the first, we are looking forward to it.
     Of course, this means we have to come up with a name, which is where YOU come in! (See the "Name the Baby Contest" on the next page!) Everything is going well. Suzanne is finally over her queasiness, which lasted a rather long time. We have gotten out all of Rio’s old clothes and put them in the dresser—how nice it is to see those tiny little rompers again! We found that we won’t need anything new, with the exception of a stroller (we sold our old one because it was so big and cumbersome) and gates for the stairs, since we didn’t have stairs when Rio was a baby. Suzanne has patterns for a sling, nursing clothes, diaper bag, and patterns for cloth diapers and diaper covers, so she plans to make all of those rather than buy them.
A Visitor  In April, Suzanne’s sister, Allie Bettonville, came for a month-long visit. Of course, Rio was just thrilled to have someone new to play with, and Allie loved being with him too—those two have a special bond. While she was here, we went to the Children’s Museum of Utah (where Rio had a great time doing various scientific activities) and a local farm with animals, tractor rides, and cows that children could milk, as well as some other fun places. We mostly just talked, since Allie is not the type who has to be on the run all day. She babysat for Rio when Jerry & Suzanne went to a symphony concert, and she played with Rio on his swings a lot. Suzanne helped her to learn to sew, and Allie made a shirt—it was nearly finished by the time she went back to California.
How’s the Weather?  After a lovely, long cool spring, summer is about to show. The temperatures are sometimes in the high 90s, and we have had to put the air conditioner on a few times. Salt Lake City had a tornado last month—it touched down just a few miles from our house! In fact, we were ALMOST in the tornado’s path. Luckily, nobody was hurt.

About Rio…Rio continues happily with his life, learning and being funny all the time. He recently read his very first full book. Suzanne found some early readers at the library, eight pages with two or three sentences on each page, and Rio pretty much read the whole thing, without much help. He used to know only the upper-case letters; now he knows all the lower-case ones too—including how to write them—and he knows the "TH" sound. He is always popping open a book and reading various words from it, and writing random words on paper. He has a tendency to misspell some things, which we find charming, since it shows that he is really thinking of how something should be, rather than just asking us to spell everything for him. (For example, he drew a picture of C3PO and Keith Lockhart, and on the back he wrote, "Sy 3 Py O" and "Cyth.") He has taken to initiating school himself most days—he’ll announce that he wants to do school, will disappear into the school room for a while, and then will re-emerge with workbook pages completed or some cut-and-paste project that he came up with. He is still very informed of his future brother (he calls him Ahab!), and excited and helpful about the new baby. Rio is a very independent little boy—he likes to get his own snacks from the refrigerator, to call people on the phone, and to go next door by himself to see his friends.

Reader Profile
Meet…Poppy Price

     In this issue, we are profiling one of our youngest readers. Poppy Price, age 3 ½, is the daughter of one of Suzanne’s "cyber friends," Alison Tooth. Suzanne and Alison met through a parenting newsgroup, and became friendly through e-mail. Poppy lives in Oxford, England, with her mum Alison, dad Chris, and her younger sister Tilda. They are expecting another baby in the fall. Now, in her very own words, is the story of Poppy Price…

NAME: Poppy Llywela Price.
AGE: 3.
BIRTHDAY: When it starts getting cold.
PLACE OF BIRTH: In hospital in Oxford.
CURRENT RESIDENCE: Hurst Street, Oxford.
FAMILY INFO: Mummy—Alison, Matilda Ellen Gwenllian, Daddy—Chris, Nanny, Gammer, Gaffer, Lee—Uncle, Grampa and Suzy.
JOB: No, I haven’t got a job yet.
PETS: 4 cats—Dolby, Theta, Daisy and Ming.
HOBBIES: I like having cuddles, I like doing messages to people, and what I like best is sitting down and watching films.
DEFINE YOURSELF IN THREE WORDS: Poppy Llywela Price—that’s three.
GREATEST WISH: Watch films!
WHAT MAKES YOU HAPPY? Watching films.
WHAT MAKES YOU SAD? When I can’t watch films. [Here her mum interjects, "Beginning to see a pattern here??"]
HOPES FOR THE FUTURE: I hope next weekend I can go swimming with Daddy.
MOTTO: pppooooouuuuuuuuuyyyyiiiiillllllkkkkkkjjjjhhhhhhggggggggrrrrrrrrrttttttttssssspppp77777777 1234566788999001111111111111mmmmmmmmmm nn n nnn n n nnnnnnnnnnn.
ANYTHING ELSE YOU’D LIKE TO SAY? Please wrap this baby up nice and cuddly after you’ve had it—bring some clothes and wrap your baby up nice and warm. Protect this baby from the jeopardy of this family. Keep this baby from number one house ‘cos this baby might get frightened. poppy.

     Now that we know the baby will be a boy, we have been thinking about names. So far, we are stumped. Rio has had an easy time of it—as far as he’s concerned, the baby’s name is Ahab (sometimes he is called Arthur as well). But we would like a bit more help than that, so we are having a Name the Baby Contest for all of our readers to enter. Here’s the deal:
     Send a list of five names. Keep in mind that we’d prefer something interesting to compliment "RIO," and that we don’t like common or trendy names. If we choose one of yours, you will win a FABULOUS PRIZE! The best entries (regardless of whether or not we use them) will get a mention in the newsletter. Heck, we’ll even give a mention to the worst names! So send in your entries and have fun!

When talking about the baby, being told that he was too small to be born yet, Rio asked how much a small-year-old weighs.

When Dad put hot peppers on his pizza, Rio insisted on trying it, even though Daddy said it would be hot. Rio took a bite and, trying to be brave but with a growing panic on his face, said, "It’s spicy…" and, wiping his mouth to get the pepper off, "It’s a LOT spicy!" Then, after holding his tongue in a cold drink for about three minutes, not wanting to admit that he had been defeated, he calmly said, "Well, I’m finished."

While in bed: "Mummy, I have some snuggling for you!"

When Mum asked him if he thought she was pretty, he said no. "Do you think I am ugly?" Suzanne asked, and Rio replied, "Yes, but I’ll still keep you."

A Great Time to Be Alive
By guest columnist Karrde

     May was a terrific month for fans of the greatest movie saga of all time—Star Wars. It marked the one-year anniversary of the rebirth of Star Wars with the release of The Phantom Menace, the 20-year anniversary of the release of The Empire Strike Back (considered the strongest of the four films by many fans), and the announcement of Hayden Christiansen as the new Anakin Skywalker.
     In the next few weeks, filming for Episode 2 is set to begin in Australia, with some sequences also being shot in Italy and Tunisia. Although filming will be completed by the end of September, post production will take nearly two years. The film has a tentative release date of May 2002 (25 years after Star Wars). I will update the progress of the film over the course of the next two years, giving you news, gossip, and editorials. Until that time, this is Karrde signing out.

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