The Mamas and the Babas

good logic

"Mama, why do you put my bed up when I am sick" (so his head is high.)

I explain about colds and drainage in his throat.

"If my nose has stuff in it I can breat through my nose.  But what if I need to talk?

pause - thinking about this own question, and then "I will just talk very fast!"

First icecream truck

true home schooling

Tonight after dinner Gabriel threw three balls out into the yard ( a tennis ball, a football and  whiffle ball).  They all landed at different locations.  Which one is the closest?  which one is farther? which one is the farthest.  Suddenly, this became the coolest game ever - and lasted us all the way to bedtime.  :-)

Garden!

An "if-then" day...

Today was poke-poke testing day.  We are very very lucky in that Gabriel is an increibly compliant kiddo.  On the occasions he doesn't want to do something I ask of him, usually it just takes being a little silly to get him on board.  Sometimes I need to pull out the "first this then that" routine.  90% of the time encouragement, silliness, an/or telling him why something needs to be done is all we need.  Someday, though...someday he simply doesn't want to be so darn compliant!  I don't blame him.  I wouldn't want to follow my directions all the time either.  Anyway, we got through the day with only one consequence actually occuring (out of about 9 "if-then"s (as in, "if you don't turn that off now - after he's been told twice already - then it's going in time-out.")  He knows we follow-through once the if-then's come out - hence the working 90% of the time.  It's also why I don't use it right away when I trying to get him to do something, though.  I know its a power move.  A necessary power move often, but still.  It must be a pain to be under someone's control all the time, so I try to use encouragement/fun/silliness and simply expalining *why* we need to do something before I threaten a conseqence.  Ty is wonderful at getting down to his level and explaining *why* we need to do something - she remembers how important that was to her as a kid (and how little anyone actually repected this.)  I want him to grow up feeling respected (even he isn't making up the rules.)

gabriel updates

Lately Gabriel has been affirming his relationships with the most important people in his life asking "we're buddies, aren't we?"

Grammer changes!  going backwards to go forward.  Gabriel picked up language quite quickly - and even used past tense appropriately (i.e. run vs. ranned.)  Lately he has been saying the "wrong" word (runned, bringed, builded, gived, losed, throwed), but for the right reasons - his brain is finally setting down grammer rules (instead of simply repeated words he has heard.)

Bedtime routine has become: 2 treehouse chapters, brush teeth (where he requires me to "count" to 10 for him to get into the bathroom and to 3 to open his mouth to brush them...this used to be my 'if-then' back-up but now he asks to do it.), read one small picture book, sing the "rover song while tossing Rutherford up in the air using blankie as a tramoline (lately Rutherford has been accompanied by a soft ball as well), then the Shema (if I can get him to settle down.)  Oy.  Then baba goes in to say goodnight and, after about 5 minutes of quiet, I return.  By this tyime our little guy is usually much more settled and sleepy.  I give him hugs and kisses on his pillow (and sometimes lie down beside him for a few moments.)

and so it begins...

Tonight we were at the ER with Ty (to check out a possible blood clot) and to pass the time Ty played the game "Grizzly M*nor" on the no*k.  He LOVED it.  Curled up on the hospital cot with his baba, helping her discover clues.  Cutest part was the conversation he had with her as we walked out of the ER - so exited and full of ideas of where to find the next clue!

today

A good day!

Slept in the big bed for the last half of the night (as always).  He wakes up one of two way: bouncing and ready to play, or snuggling back under the covers. This morning it was back under the covers.

Played batman and "the bad guy who steals stuff" in the backyard.  I had to do dishes and told him we could play anything he wanted when I was finished - baseball, kite flying, ping pong.  But nope - batman!  As I did the dishes he got set up - put on his spiderman mask and red fireman jacket and then went out to hide things in the backyard so I could "steal" them.  It was actually a lot of fun playing with him.  At one point I sneaked around the bushes outside where he had forgotten there was an entrance.  He got a huge kick out of it - and snuck behind those same trees a few moments later to find me and scare me riht back. 

Spent a good  hour in the kitchen with baba making spagetti and meatballs.  He was sooo proud of himself!  "And I put the sauce in by myself...for real!"  I sat in the living room folding clothes and enjoyed listening to them talking to each other. 

And tonight..after reading a Jack/Annie story about Charles Dickens, he saw a picture of the author and remarked "I know why he has a beard.  He likes to look so fancy."

Kite flying

First sprinkler!

First swim lessons!

TMI for facebook...

Commentatry his bed tonight:

Gabriel "I farted."

Us: "ewww"

Gabriel: "The house needed some flavor."

 

Sun today!

Sounds to remember: Gabriel giggling so hard and falling over as his baba tries to tag him with the ball!

Pics of the week...

Stand back worry monsters!

Gabriel's first swimming lessons are tomorrow morning.  In bed tonight he said "I think I might be a little scared when I wake up tomorrow." and then immediately turned to rutherford (his lovey giraffe) and said "Rutherford, do you know I am taking swimming lessons tomorrow!!  With no flippers or goggles or tank.  I'm not learning swimming to swim a lot I am going to learn so i can scuba dive!" I then played Rutherford and the conversation went like this:

Rutherford: "Wow.  That's so cool!  I think I would be scared to do that.  What will you do if you feel scared tomorrow?"

Gabriel: "I will tell Nana 'STAND BACK and the teacher will teach me."

Rutherford: "That's awesome.  You know you can do it!  What if you still feel a little scared with the teacher? Than what will you do."

Gabriel: "Push through it!"

Rutherford: "Yep - just like you did at Hebrew school."

Gabriel: "I cried at first there."

Rutherford: "But now you love it."

Gabriel: "Yep!"

Friends

For our little family we've been quite social these past few days!  We had a wonderful shabbot dinner at "Sarah and Elijahs" house (Gabriel's label), poor Boris doesn't even get a mention.  Sarah set up a fun scavenger hunt for the kids in the backyard ("find 10 things that start with B").  Elijah found most of them as Gabriel was busy making sure all the found items were lined up at the door *just so*.  Then saturday Gabriel and I met up with Laura and Kijan at Emerald park.  The boys played great together - a big difference from our last visit here.  I think being at the park was helpful in that regard - they were abel to both play together and go their seperate ways when needed.  Highlights: racing the cars down the slides together, playing hide&seek (Gabriel was excited to play but was a little too easy to find for Kijan - he is used to playing with older kid), and the boys pretending to fly airplanes together.  Then this morning we played with Sarah, Elijah and Ezra in the school playground right after Hebrew school.  Gabriel thoroughly enjoyed playing with Elijah - they especially enjoyed findiing new and interesting ways to go down (and up) the curvy slide.  I think this morning was the first time Gabriel played solo with another kiddo for more than an hour without any interactions with adults. It's so much fun to watch him build his confidence in friendships.  I was pleased to see him being *himself* this morning as well - silly grins, playful poses and all.  I'm also glad that Gabriel is coming to me for help when he needs it. On the carride home he told me that Elijah wouldn't let him "go first" on the slide.  "I said I wanted to go first too but he said that he wanted to go first one more time.  But then he went first again and I never got to go first."  So - we practiced saying "no, its my turn."  He's such a kind, sensitive kiddo - being raised mostly around adults who are also kind.  He doesn't know how to handle it when someone isn't fair to him!  On the other hand, he has his own "how to be kind to friends" skills to work on.  The other day we had a wonderful time playing with Tavi and Malachi (who is definitely both boys favorite playmate)  As we walked to our car later we stopped and watched a train, after which he said "ha, ha, Tavi didn't get to watch the trains but we did."  We talked a bit about how that might make Tavi feel and how he would feel if someone said that to him. 

 

well, this is true

Lately, Gabriel has been asking me to lay beside him in his bed at night.  Usually I will -  I actually enjoy the few minutes of laying down next to him, listening to music (he is listening to mozart as he sleeps now due to our latest Jack&Annie story). I also like to watch him close his eyes and start to sleep.  Tonight, though, a little voice in the dark commented "mama, its hard to sleep when someone is looking at you."

Moments today

vacuum creature

roller skating. rolling up to me and falling in my arms...then leaning in close for hugs and kisses; and "don't catch me baba - I will just fall in the leaves"

discovering that carrots are actually the ROOTS of a plant.

Bath time scuba diving and water creature

still testing limits at brush teeth time.. 1-2-3. then in bed telling me he *was* ready for brushing teeth, he just didn't have his mouth opened yet. 

listening to Louie Armstrong "It's a wonderf ul world"

hearing grunting and hacking in his bed. Baba: "Gabriel, what are you doing?" Gabriel: "Trying to get my head on the pillow."

 

 

Ant watching