It was a grand day indeed. Jamie woke up on Christmas Eve saying he wanted to go to bed right away so Santa would come sooner (I'm not sure what would have happened if we'd tried to put that into practice.). But we counted the hours down by watching NORAD's Santa tracker throughout the day and this year they both went to bed right on time so as not to risk being naughty. There was some concern because there are some little girls on our street and there was a fear that Santa might mix them up and bring the boys princess dolls or some such horror.
But happily Santa nailed it as usual and the boys were very pleased with their loot. They managed not to get up too early, with Jamie waking around 6:30 and Connor soon after. The bunny was a little cranky at first and I think may have forgotten it was Christmas but as soon as his eyes scanned the room full of presents he perked right up and it was on. Most of their presents had been unwrapped before it was light out. For Jamie the big item was a Nerf gun (shoots soft darts with surprising velocity). He has actually handled this responsibility well, meaning that he hasn't been shooting Connor with it. Connor got a smaller version and a number of other things. Curiously, he greatest excitement was opening his stocking when he found a Matchbox old-time pickup truck. Frankly it was a bit of throw-in, but the minute he saw it proclaimed "Ohhh!! It's just what I always wanted!!!"
The rest of the day was pretty good, there was only limited crashing and most of the toys managed to make it through the day without breaking so all in all a success!
Sunday, December 26, 2010
The Reader
I don't why we don't pick up on this pattern until after the fact, but Jamie has once again disproved the notion that you have to walk before you can run. Just as he waited to walk until he was an absolute expert and could zip off in a hurry, Jamie seems to have waited to start reading until he could read almost anything. The penny has dropped suddenly and he is a reading machine, tearing through one chapter book after another.
This has coincided with and partially contributed to a shift in sleep patterns. It used to be that Jamie would drop off to sleep the second he got in bed and Connor would be awake for hours. Now, having done with naps, Connor tends to sack out very quickly, while Jamie will now lie in bed and read for hours if we let him.
This has coincided with and partially contributed to a shift in sleep patterns. It used to be that Jamie would drop off to sleep the second he got in bed and Connor would be awake for hours. Now, having done with naps, Connor tends to sack out very quickly, while Jamie will now lie in bed and read for hours if we let him.
Sunday, December 5, 2010
Snippets from the road
I obviously have a lot of material to catch up on, going back to Halloween and Jamie's birthday, so I'll try to get some of that up soon. For the moment, I'll just offer a few details from our Thanksgiving travels.
First of all, I will say that the boys are really seasoned, skilled travelers. As should any traveler, they learn from past experiences and plan accordingly to avoid discomfort. Thus, at the very beginning of the trip, Jamie counseled all of us, but Connor in particular, NOT to sit at the back of the shuttle bus from the parking lot. As he learned this can lead to carsickness and vomiting while waiting in the check-in line (good times!). So, wisely they sat in front and all was well. Also pleasing is that some line has been crossed and the boys have actually become a help, at least some of the time, in carrying the masses of stuff we need to bring. Jamie likes pulling a suitcase on wheels very much and so Connor has to as well, which is a bit of an adventure, but the fact is, it made things genuinely easier. Granted they tend to weave a rather twisted line through the airport, so we don't move too fast but it certainly beats Sarah and I lugging three bags each. Once we got on the plane, the boys both settled in immediately with their entertainment devices and snacks and were as happy as clams. Connor as usual asked about the plane "blasting off" and I had to hush them a bit because as we were just about to "blast off" they began saying gleefully, "We're gonna blow!!!!" Makes people nervous.
Connor also produced a couple of funny neo-logisms along the way. First of all, he kept asking if we were in Baltimore yet, except he struggled with the name so started calling it "Voldemort," from Harry Potter. So of course soon we were all talking about going to Voldemort. Second, he christened the headsets for watching movies "earrings." Picture this said about 50 times: "Daddy! My earrings fell out again!" Grrr. Once we got to Voldemort (Frederick really) he saw some horses pulling a carriage down the street. Remembering that we had seen something similar in Houston as well, he remarked intelligently, "Those must be very energetic horses to have come all the way from Houston!"
But really travel was simple and we had a great time at Nonni and Diddy's. They had a great time raking leaves then jumping in the pile and also discovered a "secret garden" in Nonni's backyard. "Do you think she knows about it?" Jamie asked me in a hushed tone. Given that she built it with her own hands, I assured him, yes.
First of all, I will say that the boys are really seasoned, skilled travelers. As should any traveler, they learn from past experiences and plan accordingly to avoid discomfort. Thus, at the very beginning of the trip, Jamie counseled all of us, but Connor in particular, NOT to sit at the back of the shuttle bus from the parking lot. As he learned this can lead to carsickness and vomiting while waiting in the check-in line (good times!). So, wisely they sat in front and all was well. Also pleasing is that some line has been crossed and the boys have actually become a help, at least some of the time, in carrying the masses of stuff we need to bring. Jamie likes pulling a suitcase on wheels very much and so Connor has to as well, which is a bit of an adventure, but the fact is, it made things genuinely easier. Granted they tend to weave a rather twisted line through the airport, so we don't move too fast but it certainly beats Sarah and I lugging three bags each. Once we got on the plane, the boys both settled in immediately with their entertainment devices and snacks and were as happy as clams. Connor as usual asked about the plane "blasting off" and I had to hush them a bit because as we were just about to "blast off" they began saying gleefully, "We're gonna blow!!!!" Makes people nervous.
Connor also produced a couple of funny neo-logisms along the way. First of all, he kept asking if we were in Baltimore yet, except he struggled with the name so started calling it "Voldemort," from Harry Potter. So of course soon we were all talking about going to Voldemort. Second, he christened the headsets for watching movies "earrings." Picture this said about 50 times: "Daddy! My earrings fell out again!" Grrr. Once we got to Voldemort (Frederick really) he saw some horses pulling a carriage down the street. Remembering that we had seen something similar in Houston as well, he remarked intelligently, "Those must be very energetic horses to have come all the way from Houston!"
But really travel was simple and we had a great time at Nonni and Diddy's. They had a great time raking leaves then jumping in the pile and also discovered a "secret garden" in Nonni's backyard. "Do you think she knows about it?" Jamie asked me in a hushed tone. Given that she built it with her own hands, I assured him, yes.
Saturday, November 13, 2010
Time and space
As with many four-year-olds, Connor's sense of these things in very much still in development. About a month ago, Pops was coming through Houston on business and stopped by. Now, we had already told them some time ago that Nana and Pops were coming for Christmas. At this point, about September, Connor had said, eagerly, "Is Christmas TOMORROW???" This is about the conception of things he has, today and tomorrow. Anyway, when Pops walked through the door a couple of weeks later, Connor turned to us, his face bright with glee, and said "Is it Christmas???!!!"
Similarly, for all of his ongoing fascination with the continents his sense of place is a little vague too. There is constant confusion between the categories of North America, the United States, Texas, Houston and our neighborhood. Because he knows that we are in North America, for instance, he assumes that other things similarly favored by geography must be quite close. Thus, he other day he and Sarah were at a doctor's appointment. The office was up on the fifth floor so they had quite a good view of the tall buildings in the Medical Center, about a mile away. Connor became quite excited and proclaimed loudly, "Look!!! New York City!!!" If only it were true...
Similarly, for all of his ongoing fascination with the continents his sense of place is a little vague too. There is constant confusion between the categories of North America, the United States, Texas, Houston and our neighborhood. Because he knows that we are in North America, for instance, he assumes that other things similarly favored by geography must be quite close. Thus, he other day he and Sarah were at a doctor's appointment. The office was up on the fifth floor so they had quite a good view of the tall buildings in the Medical Center, about a mile away. Connor became quite excited and proclaimed loudly, "Look!!! New York City!!!" If only it were true...
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
Sick again!
Well, as I write this I am home again with a sick Connor. Poor little guy has had a rough Fall so far. He got sick Saturday night, was out of school Monday, seemed better Tuesday but is back under the weather again today. Hopefully, he's getting it out of his system before the holidays.
We've had a nice day together, if somewhat disjointed. First, we spent some time sitting on the couch this morning watching a movie. He was on a Motrin high for a while and seemed almost like normal. He spent a good 20-30 minutes playing with Jamie's Star Wars legos. Suffice it to say Jamie keeps a very close eye on Connor while he's around so unimpeded access to the Legos is rare and Connor was clearly enjoying it. I played with him for a while and then went to do some other stuff. When I came back I remembered why Jamie is so watchful. Connor does rather like to destroy the Legos. This creates two related emotions for me: one is fear, because I know if I don't get them fixed we will all feel Jamie's wrath. Two is the dread of fixing them. Just getting them built is one thing but having to re-do the process is almost worse. So I quickly dealt with the carnage and encouraged Connor to be a little more gentle.
It was a nice morning so I thought we'd head to the zoo. Connor fell asleep within moments of getting in the car so I spent a good bit of time sitting in the parking lot listening to him snore. Then he woke up, looked around and asked imperiously "Why are we sitting here??!!!" He refused to believe that he had been asleep, so I let it drop and in we went. It was soon apparent however that the Motrin was wearing off because he was walking around hunched over and shivering a little. So I gave him some more medicine and he sat on my lap and snuggled up to me. This was lovely and lasted for about 10 minutes at which point the Motrin clearly kicked in because his head popped up suddenly and he said "I feel better. Can you stop snuggling me now?!" So we went to see birds, lions, and tigers. Connor's favorite part is seeing where they all live. Still likes to talk about the continents, our little fellow.
So we came home, had some lunch and played some games. Connor beat me in two out of three games in Sorry! He is really pretty good at it, but of course gets mad when he doesn't win or when something bad happens. Eventually it all came to a head when we were well into a game of Candyland. He got sent back to the beginning and almost the next turn I got the much-coveted ice cream float card, which puts you very near the end. This was too much to bear. He stomped off into the other room and it got quiet. I went to see him and he was lying on the couch with his woobie. It was expressed fairly clearly that my company was not desired so I went into the other room to do a little work. After I didn't hear anything for a few minutes I went to check and he was sound asleep, as he remains now an hour later. It's hard to be a sick bunny!!
We've had a nice day together, if somewhat disjointed. First, we spent some time sitting on the couch this morning watching a movie. He was on a Motrin high for a while and seemed almost like normal. He spent a good 20-30 minutes playing with Jamie's Star Wars legos. Suffice it to say Jamie keeps a very close eye on Connor while he's around so unimpeded access to the Legos is rare and Connor was clearly enjoying it. I played with him for a while and then went to do some other stuff. When I came back I remembered why Jamie is so watchful. Connor does rather like to destroy the Legos. This creates two related emotions for me: one is fear, because I know if I don't get them fixed we will all feel Jamie's wrath. Two is the dread of fixing them. Just getting them built is one thing but having to re-do the process is almost worse. So I quickly dealt with the carnage and encouraged Connor to be a little more gentle.
It was a nice morning so I thought we'd head to the zoo. Connor fell asleep within moments of getting in the car so I spent a good bit of time sitting in the parking lot listening to him snore. Then he woke up, looked around and asked imperiously "Why are we sitting here??!!!" He refused to believe that he had been asleep, so I let it drop and in we went. It was soon apparent however that the Motrin was wearing off because he was walking around hunched over and shivering a little. So I gave him some more medicine and he sat on my lap and snuggled up to me. This was lovely and lasted for about 10 minutes at which point the Motrin clearly kicked in because his head popped up suddenly and he said "I feel better. Can you stop snuggling me now?!" So we went to see birds, lions, and tigers. Connor's favorite part is seeing where they all live. Still likes to talk about the continents, our little fellow.
So we came home, had some lunch and played some games. Connor beat me in two out of three games in Sorry! He is really pretty good at it, but of course gets mad when he doesn't win or when something bad happens. Eventually it all came to a head when we were well into a game of Candyland. He got sent back to the beginning and almost the next turn I got the much-coveted ice cream float card, which puts you very near the end. This was too much to bear. He stomped off into the other room and it got quiet. I went to see him and he was lying on the couch with his woobie. It was expressed fairly clearly that my company was not desired so I went into the other room to do a little work. After I didn't hear anything for a few minutes I went to check and he was sound asleep, as he remains now an hour later. It's hard to be a sick bunny!!
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
Sick boy!
Poor Connor has had a tough week. He got sick last Tuesday, missed a couple of days, went back Friday and then had a good weekend, but got sent home again Monday with a fever. Inevitably, we took him to the doctor to be told what we could have guessed: it's a virus and we have to wait it out. Thanks for that. So we've been home with him all week. He has a couple of good hours when the Motrin is working but otherwise there's not much he can do. The only plus of this, and I feel guilty calling it that, is that he gets pretty snuggly.
Nights have been long too because the fever wakes him up but when the medicine kicks in he seems to get an energy jolt and has trouble getting back to sleep. Last night he was due to get medicine at about 10:45 so I was waiting up to give it to him. He emerged at 10:30, however, crying and hot with fever. Once I calmed him down enough to understand him, he told me he was scared because there were "bad guys in his room." All my assurances to the contrary were not enough to calm him down. Worse, he told me, was that Asajj Ventress (an evil character from The Clone Wars spinoff series from Star Wars) was trying to get his woobie! Evil indeed. I told him that was just a dream and he angrily said, "No! It was real!"
So he said he wanted to go into mommy's bed, which he's done a couple of times this week. This can be very cozy at times but often doesn't lead to a lot of sleep for mommy, so I offered to pull a mattress into their room and sleep there. This immediately calmed him down. It ended up being a long night, but it is awfully nice to know that one's presence alone is enough to chase away the bad guys and woobie-stealers.
Nights have been long too because the fever wakes him up but when the medicine kicks in he seems to get an energy jolt and has trouble getting back to sleep. Last night he was due to get medicine at about 10:45 so I was waiting up to give it to him. He emerged at 10:30, however, crying and hot with fever. Once I calmed him down enough to understand him, he told me he was scared because there were "bad guys in his room." All my assurances to the contrary were not enough to calm him down. Worse, he told me, was that Asajj Ventress (an evil character from The Clone Wars spinoff series from Star Wars) was trying to get his woobie! Evil indeed. I told him that was just a dream and he angrily said, "No! It was real!"
So he said he wanted to go into mommy's bed, which he's done a couple of times this week. This can be very cozy at times but often doesn't lead to a lot of sleep for mommy, so I offered to pull a mattress into their room and sleep there. This immediately calmed him down. It ended up being a long night, but it is awfully nice to know that one's presence alone is enough to chase away the bad guys and woobie-stealers.
Thursday, October 14, 2010
Readers and writers
Things continue to go well with school for both boys. While we do have some concerns over the possibility that there is too much "teaching to the test" going on at Jamie's school, there is no question that he is learning a great deal and excelling. It shouldn't surprise us by now, but Jamie's reading has followed his usual pattern: just like he waited to walk until he could almost run, he took a long time to start reading but is now plowing ahead full steam. He's always been great with numbers but it's wonderful to see him working through some pretty advanced reading. It also makes sense in retrospect that he took a while to do it but now works really quickly, because while he can certainly sound some things out, he doesn't usually work that way. Rather he seems to read by word recognition and contextual interpretation. I think he's been storing this stuff up for the past 5 years and now has enough that he feels able to succeed. He does not like embarking on things with uncertain outcomes.
For his part Connor is proceeding by leaps and bounds this year and is now almost obsessively concerned with writing. He learns to write in cursive at school and can render his name wonderfully in cursive, but just lately almost anytime he is able to he grabs a pen and paper and starts writing block letters. Yesterday he was home sick from school and we spent an hour with him just writing each of our first names and last name (including Annabelle). Eventually I think he got tired and started to struggle a little. It's clearly an emotionally charged exercise because at some point he messed up the "b" in Annabelle, he just wailed "I can't do it!!!!!" and started bawling. In typical Connor fashion, too, sometimes he just decides to write an "E" as an "M". Don't be picky.
For his part Connor is proceeding by leaps and bounds this year and is now almost obsessively concerned with writing. He learns to write in cursive at school and can render his name wonderfully in cursive, but just lately almost anytime he is able to he grabs a pen and paper and starts writing block letters. Yesterday he was home sick from school and we spent an hour with him just writing each of our first names and last name (including Annabelle). Eventually I think he got tired and started to struggle a little. It's clearly an emotionally charged exercise because at some point he messed up the "b" in Annabelle, he just wailed "I can't do it!!!!!" and started bawling. In typical Connor fashion, too, sometimes he just decides to write an "E" as an "M". Don't be picky.
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