My Little Gentleman, Or, Who Are You, and What Did You Do With My Tantruming Son?
WV started preschool at his new school last week. But before that, this preschool likes to ease your child into the first day of class. I understand easing. With an overactive, very spirited, tantruming, tornado of a three year old son, I have become very practiced at the art of the ease. (Wally, when we go to play with the neighbor, you can't argue me when it's time to go in. Wally, now that…
Tea Party: About girls in pretty dresses, and boys, and garden hats.
Wally Ben's preschool last year hosted a tea party (an annual tradition). The class anxiously awaited this day, where they read a book about proper manners, ate mini snacks, and sipped from tiny china cups. Teacher Penny said the boys looked forward to it the most. So when the new church we've been trying hosted a tea party for 2-5 year olds, I thought this would be a great chance for WV and me…
Kids Say the Darndest Things: Summer Edition
Wally has been even more interesting lately in the way he thinks. He has been trying to understand and reason his way through the stuff of life lately. Most recently were about 100 straight questions about digestion. A snippet of this conversation is below. As a non-scientist, I tried to work with him to tell him how it is, but even I can't answer some of the things he wonders. Note to self: read…
Kids Say the Darndest Things: Kid Logic
My Auntie Sara and I were talking a few months ago about the amazing logic of kids. Ever since Wally turned 3, he is trying to reason out the world, and sometimes the way he makes sense of things is funny, but it really does make good sense. Without further ado, a few quotes, some classic kid logic, some adult-speak, and some just goofy. On moving WV: Why are we moving? W4: We are getting a…
A Child's Love of Books
Since Wally was able to crawl toward books, he has at every opportunity. At 12 months old, he would find the mouse on every page of "Goodnight Moon". At 15 months he'd be too quiet out of my sight for a while, and I'd find him surrounded by a pile of books he was paging through. By 20 months old, when he started talking, he had entire books memorized. He gets this love of books from me—evidenced…
First Day of Preschool for Our Big Boy
We had our first First Day of School today. Wally Ben started preschool. I hadn't planned to send him this early—he won't start kindergarten for 2.5 years. But the kid has been so darn bored during Vivvi's morning nap, and he is attending preschool at my church with teachers I love, and he has so much energy that isn't being burned by watching an hour of Sesame Street. And he is so smart and…
Kids Say the Darndest Things, November 2012
And for you today, we have a random assortment of recent thoughts from our 3 year old. --------------------------------- On the Lawn Maintenance Business. The lawn maintenance workers were doing fall cleanup, leaf-blowing outside. W4 was leaving for work. WV: Bye Daddy, have fun at work! Say hi to Bill and Marc for me! [He says this every day about the guys Daddy works with.] Daddy: Okay! WV: Say…
Sometimes I could lose my mind, Sometimes I could eat him up
And now for a new blog feature, in which I vent about a frustrating experience that only a child could cook up, but then wrap up with something redemptive that only a child could cook up. The most frustrating thing for me currently is leaving the house when husband Wally isn't home. Not only do we have to do the shoes and coats thing times 3, but we have to get all of our many bags (diaper,…
Taking on the Big Brother Role
Someone asked me the other day a common question: how is Wally Ben handling being a big brother? And the honest answer is, "Like a champ." Before Vivi was born, we wondered if our little drama king would be okay with being dethroned. You can't really guess with a guy who occasionally, mid-tantrum, will run to the nearest mirror to watch himself cry. But he actually seems to love his new role as…
Kids say the darndest things: Conversations with a Two Year Old
WV is two, which means he works things out with two-year-old logic. Which can be rather amusing sometimes. Here are some of Wally Ben's thoughts from the past few months. On old people illustrations: My automatic Nook screen saver is black and white illustrations of old authors. Most of them are looking old and grumpy. Wally was messing with my Nook and thought he figured out how to switch to a…