The beauty of blogging is being able to capture, with the 26 letters of our alphabet and a wonderful invention called a camera, irreplaceable moments in time. Tonight I want to capture something about each of my sons at this unique stage of their lives.
Josiah:
~ loves Pig Latin...Jeff taught him the basics of speaking in Pig Latin, and the secret-code nature of it quickly intrigued Josiah...besides speaking in it on occasion, he also has written some notes to Jeff in Pig Latin...I'm dreadfully slow when it comes to understanding it, but I'm getting pretty quick with one phrase: "I-ay ove-lay ou-yay"
~ loves poker...poker!...is that legal for a 7 year-old to play?? :) ...Josiah saw it on a Star Trek DVD he watched, so he wanted to learn how to play it (he's a huge fan of games)...Jeff taught him, and that was it: now Josiah plays poker!...we have, however, eliminated the betting aspect of it; he can't even bet with pennies; he was mildly disappointed but got over it without too much ado...poker is actually a great game because it can be played quickly and can be stopped whenever desired, unlike Skip-Bo or Phase Ten which can stretch on and on (although both Josiah and I really enjoy both of those games, too)
David:
~ loves learning to read...I could write a whole post about this; but briefly, David kept asking me to teach him to read, and I kept putting it off...his persistence paid off, and I finally said, "OK, you're only 4 years old, and I wasn't planning to even attempt this until the fall; but if you really want me to, I'll get out our trusty Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons, and we'll start"...there's nothing like such an enthusiastic teacher, right? ;) ...wonder of wonders, miracle of miracles, he's doing FANTASTIC with it...every morning when we start school, he begs to do his reading lesson first...I'm incredibly proud of him
~ loves the fact that he was born in Israel...in our family, three of us were born in Virginia, two in California, and only one in Israel...recently David has enjoyed telling various people that he was born in Israel, and it makes me happy to see him take such joy in that specialness...he's quick to identify an Israeli flag when he sees it (like in a row of flags in the sanctuary of a church we recently visited), and the picture below shows his attempt at drawing the Israeli flag...I'm not sure if he even realizes that the star in the center of Israel's flag is called a Star of David...appropriate, isn't it?
Tobin:
~ loves to go to the bathroom in the bathroom...I wasn't even considering diving into the whirlpool of potty training with him at this time, since both Josiah and David were quite a bit older before they ever achieved any success in that department...but shortly before his second birthday, Tobin started indicating when he needed to go; and when we put him on the potty, he went!!...although I want to take advantage of his current interest in all things toilet-related, I haven't yet made the leap to fully commit to this...I need to be more consistent with this so that he will be, too; but some days, that's easier said than done!...still, I'm so proud of him for his success so far with this
~ loves to hug and kiss his brothers...sometimes, his hugs and kisses look and feel more like a tackle; but the thought is good...and he can finally, truly kiss--not the sniff/kiss he used to do--but a real kiss!...it's delightful to see him toddle over to Josiah or David and, without any nudging from me, express his love to them in such a sweet, innocent way...plus, now when I'm holding him and I give him a big hug, I can feel him squeezing back...learning how to hug and kiss is one of the most important lessons in life :)
Shav:
~ loves baby food...I had not planned to start him on baby food at such a young age; but when he hit that fussy-and-not-going-to-sleep-through-the-night stage at about 5 months, I quickly decided that it might be worth it to start him on solid foods to see if it would help him sleep better...obviously, that wasn't the magic cure to his sleep woes; but he does like to eat! :) ...I started him on rice cereal mixed with water, then eventually added sweet potatoes, carrots, bananas, squash...now I mix his rice cereal with apple juice (and I happened to lick my finger today after I spilled a drop of it there, and I was reminded of how unappetizing that stuff is! but I haven't told him that, and he gobbles it up)...green beans was his newest food, and I thought he might resist that since it's not as sweet as the other things I've given him; but I was wrong--he ate it just fine
~ loves me!...he's not yet shy about being handed off to others; but when I leave his line of vision, he's been known to mildly protest...and when he's tired and/or fussy, I'm the one he wants...what a privilege to be so loved and needed!
What a privilege to be the mother of these four little men!
4 comments:
You really know your boys inside out!
That's interesting that David really wants to read. My Samuel is like that and I've been putting it off, partly b/c reading does not come easy to Kathryn so have still been wanting to focus on that...partly b/c of the coming baby, etc...Well, the other night he asked me if I was going to make him wait until he was 5, or teach him before that :)...and he picked up one of the easy readers and just started reading it :). So, I'm going to start the "100 easy lessons" too with him...He had a hard time going to sleep the first night b/c he said he was so excited about reading :).
I think is pretty funny how three of your paragraphs started with "I hadn't planned..." Kids are like that aren't they? Sometimes we just have to go with the flow.
That's funny about the poker, too. Mike taught the boys how to play Cribbage when they were really young. My sister-in-law was surprised because in her church growing up the conservative families thought card playing was wrong. The thought never crossed my mind. Of course, I was raised working in the Catholic bingo hall, so I might be a bit tainted!
Michelle, that's really interesting about Samuel. I didn't think second-borns were supposed to be so motivated! Maybe Samuel and David didn't get that memo. :)
Katie, "I hadn't planned..." to write about how I hadn't planned these things. In fact, I didn't even noticed my repetition until you pointed it out; and I had to go back and read my post to see if you were right. :) You were! But you're right--kids ARE like that!
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