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September 27, 2006

Board games galore

Have I mentioned the "basement games?" Dad brought up a bunch of games from Tulip, at Jeff's request. Things like Sorry, Clue, Monopoly, Othello... all the old favorites. Well, Ethan's been having a field day with them. He'll play them all day long if we let him. At least there's a lot of choices now, so Mom and Dad don't get too bored. Mancala is my favorite one to play, because the stones are so nice. But he doesn't like that one as well as some of the others. He's always begging to play Monopoly - so far we've always played the shorter version where you start by dealing out the cards. It still takes forever, but not as long as Risk, which we've only done once so far. He also loves Acquire, which Jeff's dad gave us a few years ago and we really hadn't played until Ethan got into it.

I guess the good side of all these capitalist-oriented games with money is that he's gotten even better at adding, subtracting, and making change. And he's really internalized the way that knowing 2+2=4, for example, helps him know 20+20=40. I mean REALLY. Yesterday he was doing one of his running commentaries in the morning, I forget what it was about, but I heard him say, "So, what's 20+20+20+20? 80!" Or.... what was the other one? Oh, yeah, he can figure out how to give Daddy $75 in Monopoly money in about 2 seconds. Three twenties makes 60, plus 10, plus 5. Boom. He uses counting by 2's to count by 20's, he counts by 50's to add stuff quickly. It makes sense - it's just building on what he already knew. But it still surprises me sometimes.

Posted by ktingey at 10:05 AM | Comments (0)

September 25, 2006

Ohayo Gozaimasu!

Ethan and I had a date on Saturday. We had two tickets to PT's concert (titled "Ohayo Gozaimasu!"), and Jeff and I were supposed to go. But we couldn't find a babysitter (our own fault for leaving it too late), so I took Ethan with me instead, and bought a ticket for Jeff for the Sunday matinee. Ethan and I started our date by getting some ice cream at Ben & Jerry's (he needed a little inducement to get him away from the house). He sat on my lap so he could see better, and I could feel his reactions to the show. He loved it. He kept drumming on me, and bouncing. He especially liked the crashing Chinese cymbals, but really he loved it all. (Though he liked the slow bits less, he told me.) A few songs into the second half, he fell asleep and stayed asleep -- through the rest of the show, including the very loud HA! ('course, since I was pregnant when Kristy and I wrote it, it's always put him to sleep), the walk to the car (VERY logn with a 40-pound kid in my arms), the drive home, everything. The next day he wondered how we got home.

Now he's perhaps interested in taking the kids' class, which now is for kids as young as 4! So we'll sign up for that and see how it goes.

And oh yeah - I loved the show too.

Posted by ktingey at 04:19 PM | Comments (0)

Picking potatoes

Yesterday was the most gorgeous fall day, sunny and fresh. Ethan and I picked the potatoes from his garden. (Though I tell you, getting him out of the house and away from his games is a struggle no matter how nice a day it is.) We both put on our gardening gloves and scrabbled in the dirt. Every time we found a potato, Ethan just giggled. He loved it. Especially because some of the potatoes were very funny-looking, with noses and extra heads. Then we also dug up all the volunteer potatoes from the shady part of the garden where they'd grown (presumably from the compost I added there), and there were TONS. BIG ones, too. Some of them slightly squarish from where they were pressed up against the side of the bed, which is tiered. We picked a huge pot of potatoes, probably about 25 pounds worth. Now if we can just find the right place to store them, we'll be in potatoes for a long time.

Anyway, the best part of it all was Ethan's laugh every time we found more potatoes. Potatoes are just a fantastic kid crop, I think. Even though you have to wait until the end of the season, the reward is great.

Posted by ktingey at 10:09 AM | Comments (0)

September 18, 2006

Harmony preschool

This is old news now, but a few weeks ago Ethan started at his new preschool. He'll be going to Harmony Montessori 5 mornings a week. So far, he really likes it. He spent a lot of time sewing the first few days. He loves to explain how they do things at school.

Posted by ktingey at 02:17 PM | Comments (0)

Dance addendum

Later that same day, Ethan and I were making pesto, which he loves. He asked me what kind of cheese I was using, and I told him it was Parmigiano Reggiano. He likes it, and kept wanting chunks of it. Then he started a new chant and dance that went like this:

"Parmigiano..." (hip, hip, hip)
"Reggiano..." (hip, hip, hip)

All done with his coy little half-embarassed, half-proud smile that shows he knows what he's doing is cute or funny. And it was.

Posted by ktingey at 10:19 AM | Comments (0)

September 11, 2006

Dance, baby, dance

A few days ago Ethan did a fantastic dance. I've heard rumors of his fantastic dances in preschool, but this one I saw. It was to the Beatles, "You Never Give Me Your Money," which goes on and on and changes tempo a lot. He started out slowly, using his hands and his whole body, standing on one leg, all kinds of stuff. His head even got into it. It looked like modern dance. Then as the music got faster, he got crazier and crazier. I loved it and he had fun too.

Posted by ktingey at 11:31 AM | Comments (0)