I don’t want you to believe that everything is horrible in our house.? Honestly, it isn’t.? We have very good days.? In fact, the trusty husband was gone Sunday through Thursday and in the grand scheme of daddy being gone times this was a rather good one.? Wednesday was a little rough, but we managed.
The boy is getting better at dealing with the dog.? There was that one week like he looked like he’d been attacked by a rabid animal, but mostly the scratches are under his clothing so we look like better parents.? No seriously, the dog is huge and the boy is not.? She jumps up on him and she’s all feet and legs.? Her feet go straight for his face.? It isn’t pretty.? Of course this results in screaming… oh wait, we’re here to talk about the good things.
At the preschool Christmas party I go downstairs to join the festivities and the first thing the boy says is, “me and Norma are going to marry ourselves.”? Really.? Evidently, the boy is madly in love with one of the girls in his class.? I don’t blame him.? She’s a tall blonde that is cute as a button.? Of course all of the girls in his class think they are in love with him.? Mah boy’s a lady killah.? Later, during the party, I ran into the boy and his girl and she was fawning over him.? I said, “Norma, I hear you and Oleg are going to get married.”? “Yeah, but not until we are older,” she replied.? Now that’s the girl I want my boy to marry.
The boy is now very much into pretend play.? Previously he’s been very focused on repeat play.? The pretend play is coming along, but we are now able to nip some of the repeat play in the bud.? Not that repeat play is bad, but here is one example of where it’s not that great.
The trusty MIL’s car was hit by a FedEx truck while parked in their driveway.? It is a very long story that I’m not going into right now.? In any case, the boy saw the smashed car and heard us talking about how grammy’s car was in an accident.? Immediately following the boy started playing car accident with his matchbox cars.? We had to explain to him that car accidents are a bad thing and that people can get very hurt and that there will be no fascination with car accidents in this house.? Now you might be saying, “but Elle, that’s how he processes things.”? Yes, you are correct.? The boy uses repeat play to process events in his life.? However, if we don’t help him process through some things they become obsessions.? This is why he’s fascinated with washers and dryers.? 2 1/2 years later it is very annoying.
The boy tells long and involved stories.? The other day we were on our way to school and he was telling me some story about red cars and blue cars and rental cars (also stemming from the aforementioned car accident and resulting rental car).? Then there was something about washers and dryers and he may or may not have thrown in a pine cone or twelve.? It is basically the same story over and over again in different orders.? It always involves those things and we never know if there is an actual point.
Other good things… he eats well.? Apparently not enough right now.? He tried to melt down the other day and come to find out it was because he was hungry.? He had just had a snack.
He is not yet reading, but very close to it.
His drawings are becoming much more evolved.? He is very specific about the correct color of things.? It’s quite funny.? Trees cannot be purple.
He likes games.? He got kids Rummikub for Christmas and he loves to play it.? I actually like to play it with him.? I can’t wait until he’s older.? He will help to satisfy my persona board game obsession.
He really is a very good boy.? I’m trying to focus on the positives.
It’s hard to focus on the positives when you have to clean up the negatives first. My thought process says, “I can’t sit and enjoy my kids because because there are dishes in the sink, dog hair all over the house, laundry to wash, food to cook….” Get the point? I’m beginning to understand why people hire nannies and housekeepers.
Trees can so be purple! This spring when our plum trees leaf, you are bringing the boy over to show him a purple tree. Well.. anytime before the fall and it looses it’s leaves you can bring him over to see a purple tree… two in fact!
Joel, you are forgetting that I have two giant plum trees in my front yard. They just can’t be purple in his drawings.