murumatsu | Entries tagged with kids

or, why I am often impressed by the after-school program...

The playground areas are completely flooded right now as the snow melts. I could easily imagine the staff just telling the kids to stay away from the playgrounds. Instead, when I went to pick A up, I found them all outside sailing little boats they'd made in the wonderful temporary "pond".

been meaning to say, I am so impressed with A's drawing and coloring skills. Her people and animals are so lively (though with the animals the exact species may be in doubt!) and when she's in the mood for it, coloring in of pictures is pretty much grownup-quality--very smooth and regular and in the lines. (no, I don't urge her to do it that way at all; that's just how she does it). And they have stories behind them--I admired a little person she drew in a very small notebook she got at a birthday party today (hosted by a mom far braver than I--no way would I invite the whole class!)
and she then colored it and added some details--"It's you, Mom, in a fancy red dress with a flower on it putting a carrot in Daddy's lunch".

We will not here go into how long it takes her to get moving in the morning. Arrrgghhh.

Looking longingly at Oceanana ...
if we wind up going to NC in June rather than April, as seems likely, it might be a possibility.

Little one is growing up so fast...
--Ten minutes of demands for "Cookie! Cookie! Cookie!" in the middle of which I ask her "Are you turning into a cookie monster?"
A few minutes later, after finally calming down with a (non-cookie) snack, she declares with a great sense of offended dignity: "I NOT a cookie monster!".

--Whenever coming upstairs from the basement, she mysteriously turns into a cat and starts going up on all fours: "Meow! Meow! I'm a kitty!" (She does not do this going downstairs, or going up to the attic..)

--When playing with the pieces of a game that you make towers with (Chameleon), telling me in detail which tower is bigger, which is smaller.

--She is normally charming, but can have a meltdown about almost anything given the right (wrong?) conditions. Like the fact that the snowman already had a carrot nose and didn't need another.

I made a turkey tonight (and the rest of what should have been Thanksgiving dinner, had we been at home rather than at a pyramid-shaped restaurant with good company and uninspired food). This brought up some hard questions..
A: "Did someone have to kill the turkey so we could eat turkey?"
Not sure what to say to that other than yes, and that's why some people don't eat meat, and we should say thank you to the turkey...

..that's the way A sings it, and since I have been unable to clearly explain what a "bonny" is, she's still convinced it's about a rabbit..

E is home sick today, currently asleep in the beanbag. I really wanted to go out and do stuff today, but oh well.

I hope this does not indicate some vast difference in how we are raising the kids..

When she first saw donuts, A used to call them "bagels" as that was what she had first been given of that shape.

This morning, when I was getting some bagels ready for breakfast, E took a look and happily said "Donuts!".

at E's 2-yr checkup a few days ago, she didn't get any shots, but they needed a bit of blood for the lead test (I'm all for getting that checked, given the age of our house). She was quite unfazed by the finger poke, watching the lab tech get her blood, etc. So the lab tech said to her "You could be a health care professional when you grow up!" (She also kept calling me "Mom" and i had to restrain myself from commenting that I was NOT her (the lab tech's) mother).

more things Eleanor is saying these days:
jacket
at (=hat)
walky (where do all these "y" endings come from? We don't use them to her, but she adds it to a lot of things..)
milk
shoes
apple
duck
lala (=crayon, no, I have no idea why)
up (climbing up stairs)
appy! (="pick me up!")
yah (=yes; it is wonderful to have a POSITIVE word at last!)
Sometimes she even combines words:
Bye-bye, Daddy!
And she sings the alphabet song (which she has been doing for a while, but now you can start to make out the words).
Peculiar toddler quirk of the month: right now she LOVES cabbage.

Edited to add:
forgot a few:
fishy
Sissy (=sister)

went to the school choice fair today, it was pretty much a complete mob scene. We did manage to get the all-important cards you need to send in. I'm still not quite sure what your chances of getting a school other than your designated community school are, and the whole thing was kind of overwhelming. Am I being a bad parent when I have doubts about what otherwise seems like a potentially good school just because of the schedule (starts at 7:10 am!)? Should we be looking at private schools more?? I was somewhat relieved after the 2 school visits that we did last week to find that they do still have art, music (including band), recess, etc, but I don't have any feel for how good the schools really are. I grew up in a smallish town with good public schools; there were maybe 2 or 3 private schools anywhere in the area, and you simply went to whatever school you were in the district of--none of this crazy open enrollment stuff. I'm just hoping whatever decision we wind up making for next year works out OK. It's going to be a big change from the great daycare/preschool that Amethyst has been going to for years.

Current Mood: anxious

words I left off the previous list (reminded by hearing most of them this evening!)
baby
uh-oh
owie

just some random thoughts...(this was started a while ago, abandoned, and actually recovered, to my amazement)

We built a snowman at the beginning of the month after the first big snows. The poor guy is now buried up to his neck in snow, between being on the edge of the thrown snow zone from driveway shoveling and the several additional snowfalls we've had since. Of course, maybe for a snowman this is like going to a spa..mm, just chillin' out...

Actually, I'm hoping it doesn't warm up as much as forecast for the end of the week, or we'll have a grand meltdown and refreeze.

When I was growing up, Christmas was this huge big glittery thing that wasn't for us (to the point that when we once visited some friends of my parents who had a tree decorated with candy canes and offered me one, I was doubtful that it was OK to eat it--surely it couldn't be kosher if it had been on a Christmas tree! (Yes, they let me have it)). I have no direct experience with the Santa myth, or with the tooth fairy, for that matter. I don't want to deprive my kids or anything, but I have no idea what to say when Amethyst asks why didn't she see Santa bring the presents. Anyway, it was nice to be here for Christmas, rather than in the middle of the huge frenzies that tend to happen in Wisconsin.

after i finish this I am going to start writing down stuff for next year. Not goals necessarily, just things that need to happen, or that I want to have happen (and that I know won't happen unless _I_ take responsibility, much as I might desire otherwise..)

Just got in touch with some old friends from Louisiana who are up here for a bit; should actually get to see them Wednesday, which will be great (I haven't seen them in two years or so).

Last night, Eleanor managed to communicate that she was hungry and wanted a snack, that she wanted something out of the refrigerator--cheese--this particular cheese--it needed to be in a bowl--and then something in this cup, too...all done with only a few words, but there is clearly a lot more going on inside that than she has words for.

her vocabulary right now:
Mama/Mommy
Daddy
Hello
Bye-bye
Night-night
lemon
cookie
cracker
puppy

very incomplete lists--
Children's books that I don't mind reading over and over again: Anything by Grace Lin or Bernard Waber. The Rosemary Wells McDuff books.

Children's books that I can't stand reading over and over again: Anything about Dora. And anything involving short stories based on Disney princess movies.

The challenge is to get more of the first category than the second when visiting the library..

This morning, to wake Amethyst up, I sat down on her bed and rubbed her back and told her it was time to wake up.
Her response?
"I'll wake up when you stop WRINKLING me."

I think Eleanor sees the world like this:
--Almost anything might be a puppy
--Animals are puppies
--Dogs are definitely puppies
--German shorthairs (the kind of dog Grandpa has) are MOST DEFINITELY the epitomy of puppyness
We went to a calendar store last night, and she was delighted to see the huge section of dog calendars ("Puppy!!"). She was happy to glom onto any of these (the displays went right down to the floor, and I'd forgotten the Ergo...), but when I showed her the German shorthair calendar, man, getting _that_ one away from her involved many wails of dismay, much kicking, flailing, etc, etc.

Slowly, she is learning more words. A few days ago she was in the kitchen with me as I got her a snack. "Cookie? Cookie?" she said hopefully. Upon being handed a cracker: "Bye-bye!"

..that about describes my new computer at work. It won't let me map drives. Thus, I can't install any of the vast quantity of missing software, some of which was SUPPOSED to be included but of course wasn't. They just better not be too serious about when they plan to take the old one (which dies frequently since it hasn't got enough memory but at least has what I need on it) away...

went to the Farmer's Market (it's downtown on Thursdays) at lunchtine. One stand had a very large pumpkin with a sign: "Pet me". Very soothing (though I am trying to guess if it's a new pumpkin or the one from last year--do they keep that long?). They are also getting creative with the flower bouquets--I saw some including decorative cabbage.

Eleanor will be full-time in the toddler room starting tomorrow. They said that yeserday she was the only one to fall asleep at naptime all by herself, just climbed onto the cot and laid down and went to sleep when covered. Not something she has EVER done at home!

Amethyst's class went to Emma Krumbee's (apple orchard/farm) earlier this week. It's kind of freaky that she has now gone places I've never been. Apparently the high point of the trip was getting to feed a goat. They didn't actually get to pick any apples, but we'll do that when we go down to Fireside.

At this age, Amethyst loved stacking blocks as high as possible.
Eleanor just wants to knock over the piles, which she finds hilariously funny.

At bedtime, Amethyst chose "I'm a Big Sister Now" as her last book. It was somewhat distracting reading it while having the little sister busily removing books from the bottom shelf!

Eleanor is starting to pull up--just to one foot and one knee right now, but that'll probably change soon.

I was sucked into yet more of the project from hell, whose perpetuators always want stuff at the very last minute and have no clue what they're asking for (when I received a list of files that were part of the patch, some commented out, and said that I needed to know what to do with the commented out ones before I could proceed, I got a one line answer: "Proceeed")
Later I got an email that literally said "I will be here for another five minutes if you have any questions". (of course it takes more than 5 minutes before you even GET email)
It is extremely frustrating to work with people like that.

Amethyst, gettig ready for a bath the other night, carefully laid her clothes out on the floor: "Look, I made a body with no head!"

It is so impressive to me that it is obvious now that she thinks about things and plans things. For example, a few days ago she was playing with a little foam airplane (one of those pill things that you soak in hot water til a shape emerges) while we were driving to daycare. She said that she was going to draw an airplane. Whne I told her about the new 800-passenger Airbus and how it was a problem becaseu it took people so long to get on and off the plane, she said that only one person should be on the plane and the others should drive instead.

We met a neighbor at the grocery store on Wednesday. She mentioned that she was pregnant "and the doctor thinks there're five". Yikes. I don't even want to think about what having quints would be like (not to mention the probable medical problems).

That seems to be how Eleanor moves. She isn't quite crawling, and she doesn't exactly scoot on her bottom; if you watch her, she doesn't quite seem to go anywhere. But if you stop watching her, she is suddenly three or four feet away doing her best to get into mischief (puzzle pieces are so TASTY, don'tcha know).

Amethyst is developing a somewhat disturbing fascination with sharp-edged objects. She is very happy to have her own pair of scissors at home and has learned to use a vegetable peeler; I gave in to the begging this afternoon and let her help cut up potatoes with a real knife (under very close supervision).

Must go change clocks.