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June 29, 2006

Swimming

So many little things to report. We started swimming lessons on Tuesday. Jeff's away so I took Ethan and Linna (good thing it's not the sort where a parent needs to get in the pool too). Typically, Ethan didn't want to go, even though I'd cannily gotten DDR out of the way before I started work in the morning. I admit it - I bribed him with a trip to McDonald's, or "Old McDonald's" as he calls it. The big draw right now is that they have cars from the movie Cars, which Ethan really liked. But he had fun once we were there, of course. The lesson was cute - 5 kids and a teacher. They sat on the steps to start with. They blew bubbles, practiced putting their faces in the water, and kicked both being held by the teacher and while holding on to the wall or sitting on the steps. Ethan did great and I was so proud. He's at this interesting age where he seems to go back and forth between being a very little kid and a much more grown-up kid. I can't explain very well, but seeing him in a little class with a teacher showed both of those sides of him. He paid attention raptly, and giggled at the silly little kid games. But he also was much more observant about the other kids than he ever used to be. It gave me a pang because I can so easily imagine him going to kindergarten, and that's both exciting and sad. Kindergarten! My baby!

As I said, Jeff's out of town this week. It hasn't been too bad, but I think Ethan really misses him and that makes him a little more difficult. Last night was pretty bad. We had a mighty struggle about getting out of the bath - he never wants to but last night he absolutely refused. I tried to coax him out with various tricks that often work, but finally I had to just physically take him out, which he did not like at all. I suppose all almost-4-year-olds like control, but I think Ethan REALLY dislikes when physical control is taken away from him. He does NOT like to be pushed (he gets that from me). So he was quite upset, but I think he was partly just tired - he was crying to go back in the bath and get the bath toys out again, but at the same time he was hugging me and laying his head on my shoulder. Poor kid. I ended up nursing him down very quickly in his own bed, then just put some pajama shorts on him while he slept. I had to reread some of the Dr. Sears stuff on discipline to try to get some more ideas... I think a key one for me is to listen more, talk less -- sometimes we both get frustrated because I keep trying to get him to talk to me about his feelings and he doesn't want to - THAT, he gets from Jeff. And to make sure we connect using eye contact. That goes for Linna too - I get so much less time with her now that I'm working again.

Parenting is hard.

Posted by ktingey at 01:26 PM | Comments (0)

June 25, 2006

Hot, hot, hot

A couple of quick notes while it's almost cool enough to stand being upstairs - at 9 pm.

Friday evening we went to fly kites at the park, since it was sunny and windy. And not too hot - that started Saturday. Ethan's kite is so easy to fly - it practically flies by itself. For a while he and I lay down in the grass and just watched it bobbing around up there.

Yesterday we were putting away the laundry on the bed (it can turn into quite a pile, let me tell you). Ethan found three of my nursing pads, and started saying "boob pads!" over and over, because we laughed the first time. Then he started pretending to play checkers with them.

Today we went to a sushi boat place for lunch, which Ethan really enjoyed. Near the end - during the red bean ice cream, perhaps - Ethan wanted to play "I Spy," which is one of the "thinking games" he likes, along with 20 questions. He said he spied something shaped like a circle, and I was trying to guess what it was. I asked if it was one of the blue lamps hanging from the ceiling, and he said "No, Mama, that's a sphere."

It was hot enough today that after we got home from lunch, Jeff filled Ethan's little pool up, and he went in nude. Ethan, that is, not Jeff. Jeff just put in his feet and splashed around. I laid Linna down on a blanket, and she was quite happy.

Posted by ktingey at 09:19 PM | Comments (0)

June 16, 2006

So...

The other day Ethan had 19 stickers on his chart. Just so you understand, when he gets 20, he gets a special prize. In the beginning the stickers were for all kinds of behaviors we wanted to encourage, but then we focused on potty training instead, so it's all about that. Anyway, he gets a sticker for all day with no accidents, and it was nearing the end of the day. So we were talking about how he'd get a sticker, and then get his prize. He said, "Yes! Because 19 + 1 is 20!" Now, that's nothing new, but then he went on: "And 18 + 2 is... 20. And 17 + 3 is... 20. And 16 + 4 is... 20!" So it seems like he figured out something significant about addition.

Posted by ktingey at 01:12 PM | Comments (0)

June 07, 2006

THE polyglot

Last night we went to dinner at La Buca on Burnside - in the Laurelhurst area, where we go to the park but never to dinner. It's a cute little area, and it was pretty good food in a casual atmosphere. Lots of babies and kids. (This concludes the restaurant review section of the entry.)

So we're heading walking to the restaurant from our car, and Ethan asks me what language "la buca" is. I tell him it's Italian. Then he asks me what it means, and I say, "It means mouth."

He says, "Actually, Mama, it means THE mouth."

Posted by ktingey at 02:16 PM | Comments (0)

June 06, 2006

Brags

I don't know why, but Ethan continues to surprise and amaze me with the things he knows. Today he was trying to looking at the clock trying to figure out what time it was, and he was doing pretty well. He knew that 1 o'clock was coming up after 12:59. He asked Brittain how late she was staying (5 o'clock), and when Jeff asked him how many hours away that was, he held up 4 fingers almost immediately. The other day, there was something similar - did I mention this already? - Jeff was telling a story about someone who was "almost 20" at that time, and Ethan interrupted with, "So she was 19?" Clever, clever.

We were playing Cranium again over the weekend, which can be a little challenging, because of course Ethan doesn't know any of the people in Star Performer. Anyway, I was supposed to draw a laundromat, so I drew a bunch of boxes with circles in them, and Ethan guessed they were washing machines. Jeff asked, "What's that place called that has all the washing machines?" and Ethan answered, "Home Depot!"

Last week Brittain and Ethan were playing Cranium Big Book, in which you make up your answer to the question, and the other player has to guess it. The question was about what character in a movie you're most like. Ethan chose Buster Keaton.

We made beanbags over the weekend, which was a fun little project. Ethan and Jeff like to play a game that involves throwing them into the laundry basket. They're so much easier to throw and catch than a ball, I don't know why we didn't think of it before.

Posted by ktingey at 01:05 PM | Comments (0)