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September 30, 2005
This and that
It's been a while since I entered anything at all, and even longer since I updated pictures. Must get on that. I have so many pictures!
Our boy turned 3. It was a big deal to him, actually. Ever since then there have been a lot of things he wants to differently "because I'm big now." Like sleep in his own room (sometimes), try the potty, and (this one is odd) call me "Karen" instead of "Mama." I'm a little distressed about that last one, actually, so we'll see what happens. He mostly still calls me "Mama," but he says he wants to call me "Karen" because he's big now.
Many months ago - back in June, I think - Jeff started a new bedtime ritual. Every night he tells Ethan a story about Robbie the robot, and rubs his back. It always starts the same: "Once upon a time there was a little house, and in the house lived a little boy named Ethan Paul Tingey Hopper. Ethan had a very special friend named Robbie the robot. Robbie had a square head, a little neck, a square body, two big feet, two squiggly arms, two little hands, one antenna - boink! - and an orange button that when you pressed it, he could do amazing things." And it goes on from there - all kinds of wacky things happen. At the beginning the stories were very grand in scope -- once there was a very biblical flood, and Ethan and Robbie had to build an ark. Another time they went on a slide down to the middle of the earth and found the dinosaurs down there. But sometimes the story is simpler: they meet a bird who's lost his voice, and they have to help him find it, that sort of thing. Or Ethan's house is broken and Bob the Builder comes to fix it. Or Robbie eats something and shrinks very small, and Ethan has to find what will make him grow. Actually, I've missed most of the stories, because almost as soon as they start, I fall asleep. It's very effective, and very odd because normally it's hard for me to fall asleep. Unfortunately Ethan usually wakes me up again after it's over, but it's still nice.
We've started our wee preschool, and had it here for the first time this week. There are six kids including Ethan. We did a lot of singing, and made tambourines out of paper plates glued together with dry pasta inside.
Ethan's been drumming a lot more since the big Portland Taiko concert last weekend, which he attended. He lasted through most of it, but fell asleep during the last climactic piece.
And I'm feeling great these days - still have to be careful in the morning to eat right away, but I have lots of energy. My tummy's getting bigger every day. Ethan felt kicks for the first time last night. I think he thought it was a little weird.
Posted by ktingey at September 30, 2005 11:40 AM