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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 June 29, 2006 01:26 PM