October 31, 2011

  • 10-31-11

    Grant’s so funny these days.  He talks all the time, and some of the things are pretty silly.  I know I’m going to do a poor job of remembering it all, but at least I’ll try. 

    For example:  The other night he didn’t want to go to bed.  He’d been playing with the black iPod touch (the “blackpod”) and was displeased when I took it away so he’d go to sleep.  He started throwing a little tantrum yelling, “I’m mad!  I’m mad!  I’m mad!  I’m not tired!  I’m not tired Mommy!” on and on.  This was funny because it was just like what Madeleine would say.  But the fit didn’t last long, and then he was on to one of his favorite pastimes:  looking at the clock.  “What clock is it now, Mommy?”  Then I would tell him the time, and he would say, “I’m glad!!”  and then, “What comes next?” Then I would say what came next, and next, and next, till the clock changed, and we’d start all over, “What clock is it now Mommy?”  This (Saturday night) was the first time I remember him using the line, “I’m not tired.”  Then yesterday (Sunday) morning, he started saying, “I’m not tired!” anytime he was displeased with something.  Ironically, he often meant that he actually was tired, such as at church when he didn’t want to walk anymore and exclaimed “I’m not tired!”  Then he demanded to be carried. 

    Just now Madeleine has asked about making cookies for Halloween, but I told her that we were going to make cupcakes with grandma instead.  She moaned about it a bit, and then very poutily said, “I wanted to do them the last Monday in October...”  (Imagine her lower lip sticking out in a huge pout; I’m not sure it actually was, since I was not looking at her, but it sure sounded like it would be.)  It cracks me up when she says things like that.  The other day I had pulled down a random cup to drink from, and she looked at it and said, “I sure like that cup for football season.”  I looked at the cup, and it was the one from the WSU football game that you get with hot cider in it, and it has football pictures on it.  It amused me that she knew the term “football season”, knew that it was football season, and figured that that cup went very well with football season. 

    Yesterday in the car Madeleine was having me ask her math questions (7+2 and that kind of thing).  When she was done, Grant wanted questions too.  He doesn’t know math too much (just 1+1, mostly, or if you show fingers he can count), so I started asking about what letter made which sound.  I know that he knows a lot of letter sounds, but he knew almost every single one I asked.  He had trouble with short e, w, and y, but every other one he knew.  Oh, and I think he said “key” instead of K.  But I was really impressed, because I haven’t worked with him on that.  I suppose it’s from playing Starfall?  Starfall really works on letter sounds.  He also is obsessed with their math games (we bought the “more starfall” access, and it has all sorts of games that he loves).  Oh, yeah, he learned how to use the computer mouse in the last month, popping bubbles on Starfall.  There are a hundred bubbles to pop, and it counts down from 100 to 0.  He started popping bubbles randomly, and now he’s precise and does it in rows, starting from the bottom. 

    Grant wasn’t as verbally advanced as Madeleine, and I think Brian thought that maybe he wasn’t as smart.  And then I’d say that boys often don’t develop verbally as quickly as girls, but it doesn’t mean that they’re not as smart.  But lately Brian has been quite impressed with him.  He’s really learning lots. 

    Ooh, and Brian said if I really wanted a third child, he wouldn’t deny me.  How sweet is that?    But probably when I was 35, so you’re all going to have to wait.  And by then I might not want one.  I was just talking with my grandma about how I want people to come visit me when I’m 80.  How’s that for a good reason to have another child?  Try to ensure lots of grandkids to come and visit me when I’m old?  Obviously that’s a great reason.  ;-p  But as my kids are starting to get easier, it seems like maybe… maybe it wouldn’t kill us to have another.  My kids are getting easier.  They play together.  They’re more capable.  It’s nice.  So obviously we should throw all that peace away and have a new baby.  ;-P

    I have a “bad parenting” story that I want to write down (it’s not really that bad, don’t go call CPS on me), but I’m starting to think of when my kids are older and if they really want all this stuff on the internet.  Hmmm.  I might have to start making everything protected, so I can still keep a faithful account of my children’s shenanigans without forever embarrassing them before they’re old enough to open their own Facebook account. 

    Anyway, I can’t think of much else now, and I really need to go wake up a sleeping kid so he’ll still be tired enough to take a nap today.  We have trick-or-treating to get ready for!  Yay!

    Happy Halloween! 

     

    P.S.  More links for Mom:

    http://legoleaks.blog28.fc2.com/blog-entry-2481.html  (translate that one; it says "tile art" which I found exciting)

    http://oxane.tumblr.com/post/11877844343/underneath-a-flower-by-eilonwy77  (that one has a bunch of "reblogged from" notes, which means it was posted in all those places).