Mommy Wisdom 3-9-09

Mommy Wisdom

1. Let me put this delicately. A parent who is extremely congested and can't smell should pay particular attention to any children in their care who are wearing diapers.

2. If you don't want your child to start saying, "jackass," don't let them watch "Pinocchio." Who knew?

How well does your child know you?

This is a "note" that I saw someone do on Facebook, but I thought I'd post it here instead. I asked these questions to Xander and here are his responses.


1. What is something mom always says to you? "I don’t know."
2. What makes mom happy? "Jumping up and down."
3. What makes mom sad? "Hitting."
4. How does your mom make you laugh? "Tickle me."
5. What was your mom like as a child? "Jumping up and down."
6. How old is your mom? "10 years old."
7. How tall is your mom? "40 and a half tall."
8. What is her favorite thing to do? "Run around the whole room."
9. What does your mom do when you're not around? "Play with Jack."
10. If your mom becomes famous, what will it be for? "Playing legos is what you would be famous for."
11. What is your mom really good at? "I usually tell daddy that you’re good at checking your computer lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots of times."
12. What is your mom not very good at? "Hitting me."
13. What does your mom do for a job? "Checking the computer Email."
14. What is your mom's favorite food? "Macaroni and cheese."
15.What makes you proud of your mom? "Tickling me."
16. If your mom were a cartoon character, who would she be? "Shrek."
17. What do you and your mom do together? "Play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play play."
18. How are you and your mom the same? "We both spin around."
19. How are you and your mom different? "We lay down differently."
20. How do you know your mom loves you? "Jumping up and down is how."
21. What does your mom like most about your dad? "Rolling around."
22.Where is your mom's favorite place to go? "The googly eye face place that has googly eyes with slinkies on them that have eyes on them for people to wear."

Conclusion? My child is strange.

Like father, like son?

This morning as Alexander and I sat eating oatmeal, he said to me, "Mommy, I'm sad because I can't ever see my face or my eyes." I replied, "Mmm... yeah. What about when you look in the mirror?" "No, that's not real. It's only a reflection." Huh. True that. Anyway, I found that conversation interesting enough that I recounted it to Justin when he came downstairs, who then reminded me of the first paragraph of his novella, "Reflection."

"In the mirror is the only true image of yourself, in a mirror: a tool, according to legend that can be used to summon the devil to make a deal. However, one will never be able to look upon themselves with their own eyes without one, and at that point they must ask themselves, 'is this image truly me'?"

Weird, huh? ;)

Playwise Kids saved the day!

We (I) had a severe case of cabin fever this morning, so we made a spontaneous decision to head to Columbia to Playwise Kids to play. It's a great big warehouse-sized place with a bunch of different play areas for kids- mostly centered around pretend play. There are about 20 different areas, including a space room, an ambulance and a fire truck (both full-size), some playhouses, an art area, a train area, a puppet theater, a grocery store, a castle, a dress-up and dance area, a computer lab, tons of different things to build with, etc. Even in 5 hours we didn't have time to fully explore each area.

The boys stayed in their favorite area, the "beach" for almost 2 hours before we even moved on to anything else.

Alexander was a supreme charmer today, "adopting" three little 2-year-old girls as his "daughters," making a "team" with a boy his age and burying treasure in the sand together, and just saying adorable things, being sweet and helpful, and generally convincing the other parents that he is an angel! It boggles my mind how he can be such a well-behaved child at times and then... well, that's another blog. He also chose a *lovely* outfit to dance in, and I practiced a skill all parents need to master: holding in the laughter.

Jack generally had a great time as well and conked out on the way home, as expected. Sleep well tonight, guys!

Communication!

I am proud to announce that this morning, Jack spontaneously signed his first sentence: "Read book." We were relaxing on the couch before Alexander woke up, and he suddenly started signing. At first I didn't understand and asked him what he wanted. He got up and started walking towards the shelf. I said, "Oh! Do you want to read a book?" and he grabbed a couple of books and brought them back to me. Then I asked him, "Can you sign 'book?'" and he signed it the way he had a few minutes before. Same with "read." This was especially surprising since he had never used either of those signs before, although I've showed them to him often. This is sort of his M.O., though, to do things later than Xander did, but to do them suddenly, more completely, without practice. Interestingly, Alexander's first sentence was also signed as opposed to spoken. He signed "More eat." I'm super excited about Jack progress this morning, since in the past 3 months he has added NO spoken words to his vocabulary, and up until this morning, he had added no signs in the past 3 months, either. Perhaps this is the beginning of a "spurt." I hope so!

Snow Angels

This morning we got outside early enough to enjoy a light dusting of snow before it melted by midday. There was just enough for a mini snowman. While I am anxious for Spring, I do love snow and could stand to have a really deep one before the season's over! If you look closely at the picture of both boys, you will notice that Alexander has, indeed, just poured a shovel-full of snow on his brother's head. Ah, yes. Brotherly love.

Air and Space Museum

On Friday Justin took a day off from work for a special family fun day. Playing into Alexander's love of all things "space," we ventured to DC to visit the Air and Space Museum. I'm embarrassed to admit, given our proximity to DC, that this was our first trip to any of the museums with him (although we have frequented the zoo), and the boys' first ride on the Metro. Everything went much smoother than even we expected. The boys both seemed to enjoy the Metro ride, Alexander pretending to drive the train, exclaiming that we were in "Geotown," and practically squealing with excitement every time we went into a tunnel. Jack was content to sit in his stroller and check out our seat neighbors. The museum was great, too, with lots of hands-on things for the kids to explore, Alexander's favorite food (McDonald's), and a treat of astronaut ice cream for the ride home. Alexander even got to touch a real moonrock (not quite like the ones Mommy made for his birthday party!). We will definitely be returning in the future to explore the exhibits more in depth.