Beach combing

Not the best day for it, but we went to Alki and enjoyed low tide.

This picture to the left was taken seconds before we learned that a little crab can really pinch little fingers. Mason started flashing his "crab" and "hurt" signs with a look of confusion.

We were soaking wet and cold, but had a lot of fun. We're looking forward to Alki this summer!

Geek patrol

Kenzie loves her Leapster. I just bought her the new cartridge called "Kindergarten." I thought I would get a head-start on her and opened it while she was napping so I could take it for a test drive. Erroneously I thought I could help her. I actually found myself feeling like an out-of-touch parent trying to figure out a video game, secretly give myself a pep talk while she watched me fumble before taking over, "come on - you have a Computer Science degree - how tough can this be?"

Smiley

Eye to Eye

Crash

Mason was in a car accident today--he's completely fine. He was riding with a friend when another car ran a red light and totalled the car they were in, deploying their air bags. Quite a scare, but when the paramedics showed up they checked him out and he's completely fine.

When I came home tonight I asked him, "were you in the car today?" He responded in the affirmative by showing the "drive" sign. (Like you're holding a steering wheel.) I said, "what happened?" He responded with the "hurt" sign.

Yes, the car got hurt. But, thank God, he didn't.

Bed signs

I was rocking Mason to bed tonight when he sat up and gave me the sign for "Grammy/Grampy" (hand extended with thumb hitting forehead repeatedly). He didn't want to rock, just kept signing for them. I tried to get him to lay back down and wasn't sure what he was trying to say until he signed "phone." So, Kenzie brought us a phone and we called. It seemed that he just wanted to say goodnight because he heard both of their voices and then waved bye-bye. Then he was okay rocking again.

A minute later he sat up and gave the "hurt" sign (two index fingers bumping together) and pointed to his mouth, right where a big molar is coming in. I got up and gave him some medicine, then we finished rocking and he went to his crib.

It occurred to me later how amazing that whole scene was. Without speaking a word he told me that he wanted to call his grandparents to say goodnight, then that he needed some medicine for teething. I love sign language for babies...

Queen Bee knows best

Kenzie came running in from playing outside, "Mom, I was scared of a bee but Ama told me that the bee was just looking for a nice flower to get some pollen."

What a great teaching moment I thought, "That's probably true. The bees take pollen from one flower to another flower to feed the flowers so they can grow."

Kenzie, astonished and very upset, replied "Umph! No!! You're not right. The bees take the pollen to the queen bumblebee. The queen uses the pollen so that she can make honey. That's the way it works, Mom."

I explained that there are bumble bees and honey bees. Honey bees make honey but other bees don't. I also explained that bees eat pollen for food, and they also help by spreading it to the flowers.

Her response, demonstrating that she didn't believe a word I said, "Mom, flowers already have pollen."

Dog tale

We looked at this picture and then Kenzie told me this story about it.

Once upon a time there was a little dog walking through the forest. It had beautiful kind eyes. He was looking for his mommy. And soon he found his mommy. And then he and his mommy settled off to their home and to go eat dinner because it was about to get dark. And then it started raining and there was lightening and it shot across the sky. Then the little dog was scared of the lightening. So the mommy took him for a listening walk. Then when they got back home there was no lightening or thunder.

The end.

~Kenzie

Perspective

In preparation for school, Kenzie announced, “Maybe Aidan will want to play with me today, maybe he won’t. If he doesn’t, it’s okay because I’ll just play with my other friends. I have lots of friends. And if Aidan doesn’t want to play with me today, maybe someday he will and we’ll play again if I want to.”

After work tonight I asked her...trying to be subtle..."how was your day?" "Great!!" was her reply. I pushed a bit, "who did you play with?" With a great sense of satisfaction she said, "I just played by myself. I didn't play with anybody. Aidan didn't want to play with me today and that was his choice. It's okay, though. If Aidan doesn't want to play with me then I just won't play with him." She seemed really convinced of that.

I suggested that next time, if she wanted, she could ask another kid to play with her. She said, "That's a great idea! Maybe next time I'll ask one of my other friends to play with me!" I hope it lasts!

Scrub-a-dub-dub

Fadin' Aidan

I called home today to hear Kenzie absolutely sobbing in the background. Cindy finally convinced her to talk to me and tell me what was wrong. After an extended period of time hearing her cry uncontrollably, she told me, "Aidan didn't want to play with me today. He was playing with some other girl that he didn't even know. He didn't even know her name!" In reconstructing the scene of the crime, I learned that it was a girl from another class (presumably older) and he wouldn't have anything to do with Kenzie.

She said, "He wouldn't even talk to me. [sob, sob] I tried to ask him why, but he kept saying 'no' to me. Friends are supposed to like each other. I wanted to play with him." I reassured her that it's okay for people to have lots of friends and it's okay for Aidan to have other friends. She responded, "Yes, but friends are supposed to play with each other."

Trying a different approach, I tried to get her to list with me the friends that she has, to help her realize there's more to life than Aidan! That seemed to help as we ran through the list of names of other kids. Then we talked about how she can't control Aidan, but she can choose how she reacts to it and how she behaves. Her response was, "If he doesn't like me then I won't play with him. If he's not going to like me then I'm not going to like him." Alright, but maybe we're going too far...I tried to bring it back into perspective by telling her that we can talk to our friends if they hurt our feelings. Her response, "but he wouldn't let me get close to him to tell him."

Stay tuned for more preschool drama on Thursday.

It's apple juice, I promise

"Mason, where's your sixpack?"