This has been a month of drawing, writing, and reading. Your classic family portraits usually make us look like some sort of family of the dead with long eyes and flat smiles. You insist that I have short hair which is occasionally curly. If we ask you about it, you say it's "just for pretend." Some of my favorites have lotsa circles, you explain "here is the hole that your head goes in, here is another hole for your pant legs..." My favorite is the slurping sound you make every time you make a stroke. You love to make drawings for specific people and they almost always addressed with "Tu" which you insist is the "best" way to spell the word. Your modified way of scrawling your name was fine tuned a bit by addressing all those valentines.
You continue to surprise us with leaps in your language, reading, and math skills. You started reading books with your teacher at school. You are so enthusiastic about it, which I think is the part that surprised her the most. You don't easily get frustrated and you really work at it. The first time you read with her you really wanted to keep going even after the fifth book. She rarely comes out to talk to me at pick up, but that day she was quick to come straight out with you to share the news. When Rebecca came to say hello the other day, you ran to get some books to read to her (I feel we owe her a lot for giving you early outlets to enjoy language especially). You wanted to read to your dad after dinner the other day and you said, "Welcome to my library, we have lotsa books and more!" Now the trick is to keep enough new fun fresh books around for you to enjoy (and practice new words before you memorize them).
Along with this growth, seems to be a growth in your need to test boundaries and do everything your way. You sometimes exert yourself for no reason really. Sometimes it's arbitrary things like acting like you don't want to do something that you will clearly want to do, and once it has passed and you can't do it anymore... then you will get upset about that too. Ug. Your dad asked you the other day if it's hard to be told what to do all the time, and I think you had a little breakthrough that we understand that you want to have choices too. You were fussing, and your dad said, "You have until the count of five - I'm going to start the countdown." You got your little pointer finger out and looked at him sideways, and said "You are actually counting up, not down, Daaad!" If something isn't going your way you will turn on the cry baby - Me: "Are you ok?" You: "It's a mystery why I'm crying..." Me: "Is it because you are tired?" You: "No, just because it's my only mystery!" Luckily you usually turn it off as quickly as you turn it on.
You continue to add to your batch of favorite games. You came up with a new version of red light, green light where you shout "ice balls" for freezing and "fire balls" for jumping fast through the flames. I like games that distract you in stores and the easiest one is wandering around reading the dollars and cents on all the signs, which you love especially at Joanns Fabrics where they have big sale signs everywhere. You liked finding "tough ones" which are any that end in something other than 99 cents.
You liked to play pretend games as a family. One favorite this month was the "Skunky Band on the Way" starring Daddy the guitarist, Mommy the drummer, and Aiden the singer. Most of the Skunky band's songs consisted of Oy, Oy Oy! on repeat. Another favorite: "We are the Super Beaters!" (a newer name swapped out from the more benign Super Healers!) "The super hero family that saves the earth from the moon crashing into it!"
You were very excited to take Peek-a-boo, your class fish, home from school for vacation week. Your teacher wrote a little note to tell us that you told everyone who would listen that you "don't need a dog anymore because now you have a fish to be part of your family!" You came home and immediately added Peek-a-boo to your family drawing. You did assure me that you understood that Peek-a-boo was headed back to school after the week. You then wanted to take photos on your camera of his "big adventure" at our house. The first photos you took ended up being accidentally deleted, but you eventually were excited to create a new set of photos and tell another story. You agreed to take the book to share with your class as long as you still got to keep it. Somehow it got a little tear in the corner, so now you call it the "fishy adventure book with an oh-well rip."
Mo Willems may be your favorite author of the month from school yet. You love the Pigeon the most, but Gerald and Piggie are close seconds. You like to read them like they are scripts, where you are Piggie and I'm Gerald and we go back and forth. I think that your dad has the best expressions. Another new favorite is a counting book about a cookie jar that you picked out and your very nice Gran bought for you at the bookstore. You say, "Looky at my Cookie Book!" Your favorite repeated part is - Who stole the cookie from the cookie jar? Aiden?! Who me?! Yes you! Couldn't be! Then who? - The end talks about sharing the cookie, which you get inordinately excited about. I can't count how many times we've read that book.
You had such a nice visit with your grandparents during vacation week. Despite your occasional protesting and testing boundaries, you kept up your energy for tons of fun. You would sometimes just get arbitrarily bossy, like when you would say Gran isn't "a kitty cat because they only say that in England, here in Massachusetts it is just cat." We trekked all around for different events. I never quite know how you might react to events. The latest is that you play shy - The magician asked for volunteers and you just sat nicely and shook your head no. During the Animal Experience event, you were almost always looking away from the animals and occasionally breaking out random yoga moves. You did agree to stroke the hedgehog after the show.
You had this conversation with your dad:
Dad: What kind of animals did you see at the show today?
Aiden: I'm not going to tell youuuu...
Dad: Well, how will I know?
Aiden: You'll have to dream about them.
We were out and about a ton this month, but you were occasionally a bit of a homebody. I can understand this some of the time because who wants to sludge around in the mucky slush anyway. But you'd get creative on how to convince us you didn't want to go anywhere: "I have to stay home to protect my things from the cats - they like to eat my things!" Then when you changed your mind and did want to do, "Since the cats have food now, they won't try to eat my drawings or paper!" I'm pretty sure the cats haven't actually bugged your stuff, so who knows where this came from - I'm guessing some book or something.
As we drove home from school one afternoon, you started telling me about the President. You explained that he has a family "just like all people throughout the world." And everyday he goes to "his special place to work called the White House, which is his workplace." "He does important work there just like we do at school during our work time." "His name is Barago Obomo...I mean Ba-rak O-ama...I mean, what is his name again?" "He has an oval rug at his workplace, just like we do at school!" "Abraham Lincoln and George Washington aren't here on earth anymore, but Barack Obama is!"
You're pretty aware of your baby brother on the way. You will occasionally snuggle my tummy "to get close to talk to my baby." You love cruising in circles on your new caboose stroller leaving tracks in the carpet while you try out all the positions. You like to sit, stand, and crouch while growling at the pretend baby in the seat in front of you. You call the growling "cooing" so I guess you really are starting to get the idea behind this baby coming. You have a buddy at school that is becoming a brother soon too. When I came to visit your class this month, you told him that I had your baby brother in my belly growing right now!
Now that I get to spend tons of time with you alone, I recognize that you have different play styles with me versus your dad. For instance, while you love pretending to race down the slide on daddy's lap, you love to hunt for clues with me. We played hours of a clue hunting game where you would record different clue pictures in your notebook and then we'd try to figure out what the clues meant. One of your favorite giggle games was when Daddy would sing a song, you would jump, and daddy would pretend the cd player skipped by shaking his voice. You laughed and jumped and laughed and jumped over and over. If I open my mouth to sing a song, you usually say "Please don't sing that song - You ruin it up!"
This month you had some funny word switch-a-roos. Like at the pet store you saw some "chi-wow-wow doggies" or your slippers became your "magic monkey feet" that help you swing from tree to tree. You made me laugh when I said I felt so tired I might fall asleep, and you immediately replied, "Mom, humans don't sleep standing up, just horses and cows!" You liked comparisons this month - "That building is as large as the gigantic snow bank at my school!" You had a spill on the ice with your dad on the way into school. You konked right into him and hit your head. You said that you didn't have a headache but that the inside of your brain hurt. You asked me later that day, "Mommy, when will my brain boo boo go away?" As we were driving to the Children's Film Festival I mentioned that the tickets may be sold out. You said, "Well, if we don't get tickets, maybe dollars will do the trick?!"
You tend to imitate some of the ways Mrs. Healey, your teacher, treats you. Like the other day at dinner you were telling your dad that he was adding vowel sounds to his consonants. "Listen closely, dad, it's Mmm, not Maaa" Then telling him that you liked M&Ms even more than him - "Look Dad, read my sign, [holds up imaginary paper] it says I like them the most." You and your school friends love playing in mud puddles at school and heading home with boots "full of wet." With the return from February break, your calendar and routine changed at school. You start your works independently immediately upon arriving now. You reported to me that yesterday was a "ferocious lion" day (rainy and cold) and today is a "quiet, soft lamb" day (dry and warmers) on your class weather chart, which now has a spot to place a lamb or a lion picture depending on how the weather looks. This past month does seem like it came in like a lion with all the ferocious learning you've done. I am also so glad that you like to cuddle up like a relaxed calm lamb. We'll most likely have some slower calm days as your baby brother grows, but I'm so glad you're around with your ferocious energy.
Love, Mom
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