When you ask James how old he is he says, "Three and older."
The other week, October 19th, they had Montessori Morning at school. Doug went to this because I took Cillian to his post-op appointment. I'll do the MM in the spring. I was so sad to miss it. But, I know that there'll be another one in the spring. It's just for parents - no siblings - which I totally get - it's just we have to have Doug home for days like this. Doug and James had a blast. I think Doug had a wonderful time. It's really such a wonderful day for parents and for the kids too.
The teachers invite parents to come into the class and read favorite books of their child to the classroom. James wanted me to read "Roadwork" to his class. He sat right by me and was so proud. One child asked me, "Are you James' Mommy?" And I said yes - it was so funny to be asked that. It was a lot of fun to do.
This past Friday, Doug had off and took James to the Museum of Science and Industry - to say that they had a good time would be a gross understatement. This museum has trains, submarines, a weather area, a water area - it's like Doug and James Heaven. Here are some photos Doug took.
For a while now, we've been watching "videos" as James says on the computer. It's You Tube. I type in old Sesame Street clips via sesamestreet.org and we watch them together. He loves them. I love them. They bring back such wonderful memories. Some of the new clips are great too - I love the Ok Go Primary Colors song. It's catchy though and it is very hard to get out of your head. We watched a new Sesame Street episode and I was "meh" about it. Thing was, so was James. He likes the clips better. Why is the new Street like all Elmo? Who is Horatio? Why is Horatio so annoying? Why can't the bear talk without an impediment? It's not even a consistent impediment?!? Ug. We turned off the tv because James had just completely lost interest and said "I want to watch videos on the computer." We don't just sit there forever though, we set a timer just like with the ipad. This clip brought back a lot of memories for me - do you remember this one?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MYXJlfcfFKU
This is just a free association remembering type of paragraph right now - it's almost bedtime for James, he's in the bath and I've only got a few minutes - here goes nothing. James brings in plates etc to the sink now (thank you Montessori). He doesn't want the sippy cup anymore but this is tricky because it was so easy to leave the sippy cup in the fridge for him to grab and drink when he was thirsty. Leaving cups in there has proven to be tricky. James is very outspoken and kind of bossy...You have to wait your turn. You can't do that. You don't say that the right way. These are just a FEW of the things he says to complete strangers. Their faces are priceless and mine is usually bright red. I'm not even sure how to tackle this. James has his First joke! Want to hear it? I mean read it? I'll write it how he and I would have the exchange
James: knock knock
Mom: who's there?
James: sock. you say sock who? sock-it-to-me!" and then he laughs hysterically
Okay, James is being tucked in by Daddy so I am back at the keyboard.
James is hard to get outside and play but then when we're out there - he doesn't want to come in. At all. James also very much likes to get his way. James wears his backpack and jacket into the classroom at school. I think it's for comfort and Helena says it's fine. But then school picture day came. It basically came down to the fact that we bribed him to not have his backpack and jacket on for school photos. I promised him a cookie if he didn't wear them. I told Helena I bribed him. She laughed. I think she thought I was joking. I was not. I told James if he didn't I would throw the cookie into the garbage in front of him. Guess what? I'll let this photo tell you what happened.
Thank Goodness he was able to not wear his coat and his backpack. I asked him how it went and he told me that he told the photographer that he had taken enough photographs of him. AND that if he didn't stop, he'd get a not listening and have to sit in time out. Apparently, that man laughed at James. James then told him that he was going to take all of his cameras away. I guess the assistant with the Elmo puppet intervened and calmed my son down. Nice memories there.
The stereo in the car has been broken for a LONG time. The speaker (the amp?) makes this loud womp womp womp sound over and over again when the radio/cd player is on. It used to not come on all the time but now, if you turn on the radio, it's on almost immediately. So, for one day we drove in silence and that was hard. James kept asking to listen to music and I kept having to explain why we couldn't listen to music. After about 76 of these back and forth exchanges, my eyes started twitching and I thought - MY PHONE! PANDORA! So, it began. Pandora. What station? Then I thought of the happiest, most child friendly songs that wouldn't drive me crazy from listening to them every day. Enter, the Walt Disney Pandora Channel. It has been so much fun. Like, we arrive to school every day with huge smiles on our faces.
It's also been a great way to introduce James to some Disney characters before we start watching the movies. It's been tough to decide which movies to watch - some of them are actually pretty frightening for a child and involve the death of a parent. Sometimes a pretty violent death (e.g. Lion King, Bambi). Anyway, James has favorites and always asks to listen to specific songs and I try my best to explain what Pandora is to him. He LOVES "Arier" (Ariel) and his favorite all time song is "part of your world." Two of his other favorite songs are "Just Can't Wait to be King" from Lion King and "Hawaiian Rollercoaster" from Lilo and Stitch (which just happens to be one of mine and Doug's favorite Disney movies). He also loves anything Julie Andrews sings - Do Re Me, Spoon full of Sugar, Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious, etc. And finally, he loves the music from the Jungle Book. He really likes Baloo a lot. He's been singing the songs around the house - the lyrics he sings are so so so cute - here's a sampling:
"Do a deer, a female ear ... a drop of golden suuuuuuuuuun ... I call myself .... I can ruuuuuuuuun"
"It's the bare accessories, the simple bare a-recipes .... forget about your life."
"Sick of swimming ... ready to staaaaaaaaand. Mom, why she sick of swimming if she a mernaid?"
"Oh I just can't wait to be a lion!"
"Bibbidy Bobbity Boos"
"Hallaloonyas Hallaloonyas" (Hallelujah, Hallelujah - from Shrek) - it literally makes me tear up when he sings this one - it's that sweet to hear.
I try to have mornings with James on the weekends - like we do errands and then we go out to lunch together or if Doug's home and it's not too cold out and dinner is almost finished (prepped but not cooked or is finishing cooking etc), we'll go for a quick walk around the block before dinner. I miss him. Does that sound weird? It sounds horrible to me - I miss my own child because things are so crazy at home. Oh well, at least we do see each other. I just feel like I haven't spent one on one time with him in so long. This weekend was so nice. It was great to go out to lunch with him and just hear him talk and people watch together. I hope that doesn't sound selfish.
So big brother is adjusting to little brother. We're not all the way there but we are SO much better than we were. And yes, the little we've gained is really that much better.
Some of his questions are really funny and some are really hard to answer. "Why does my underpants have a pocket?" "Why are the Bears uniforms blue and orange?" "Why is it windy? Why is that the weather today? Why?" "Why is this called cream cheese?" "Why is there a hole in my bagel?" "Why is there space above the wheel on the bus?" "Why are the lights red, yellow and green?" "Why did the cop pull that person over right there?" "Why are his lights on?" Any help? Anyone? Bueller? Bueller?
James loves to color and draw. He has drawn his first person drawing which is so exciting.
He also draws smiley faces now. And at school, I have to brag here. I really do - promise. In Montessori's 3-6 classroom, the 3 year olds usually spend most of their time in the 'practical life' area of the room - polishing, using tongs, washing, cutting, art, doing step by step works that involve a number of steps to complete the task from start to finish. Lately, James has been telling me about works and bringing home works that are from stations for the older children. He traces letters to spell his name. He does the play-doh work where you make the play-doh into a long snake and then mold it into the shape of a number. I saw these works with Doug when we visited the classroom last year. I was really really proud of him. I'm so interested to hear what he's doing in class - he hardly tells me about it - He tells me it's a secret. We have parent-teacher conferences on the 9th of November. I am so curious to hear what's been going on in there :) Oh, I do know one thing, he talks about this girl (Anna *****) he calls her by her full name and Helena told me he kisses her on the check every single day before he leaves. Oh. My. Gosh.
I can't believe I haven't done a long post like this for James in so long. Oh well. I decided to pull an old school blog style here and post some of our favorite photos from the last few months. Love you all and miss you all :)
 |
| Climbing? |
 |
| Collecting leaves for school with Mike Mike who was here for the Baptism |
 |
| walking in the city |
 |
| Dad almost 'threw' James into the fountain |
 |
| James and Mom |
 |
| Leaf collecting before school |
 |
| My dimples on my son :) Ah, genetics |
 |
| My son, his city |
 |
| Puddle jumping 3 year old style - you go all in all the time |
 |
| this was from when Liddy was still in town - James and me and Doug went out and kicked the ball around |
 |
| Liddy was in town - Mom and James went to the farmers' market and then the playground |
 |
| Riding all by himself down the sidewalk |
No comments:
Post a Comment