Tomorrow at 5:06 am, JediBoy will turn 5. Here’s how he spent his last day being four…
Slept in his bed, listening to the Jim Weiss King Arthur cd, all night until around 5 am, when the sun came up. He got up then to pee and came into our big bed for snuggles. He went back to sleep between us.
Woke up for good at about 8 am, in time to say a few words to PisecoDad before he headed out the door. Came down to me on the couch in the living room and we looked at a big pile of garage sale book finds from this weekend that we hadn’t read yet. I pulled out two Brand New Readers (Puddles and The Big Fish, both featuring the Mouse from Pizza, one of JediBoy’s favorites) and said I’d read them to him the first time. That’s a big part of the idea of the Brand New Readers, that reading them is based on familiarity and repetition. They’re not meant to be phonics readers, so the parent is encouraged to read them to the child once or even several times before the child takes it on as his/her own.
But JediBoy knew the format of these books and knew they were books for him to read aloud, and so he did. He needed me to tell him the words “puddles” and “catches” (he said “caught”), but he did the rest independently. And they were funny books, especially The Big Fish, and we laughed aloud together.
Then he asked me to read him The Magic School Bus Chapter Book #2: The Search for the Missing Bones. We hadn’t read a MSB chapter book before and towards the end it was a little heavy on the details, he started moving around more and watching out the window, but the plot held it together fairly well.
When we were done with the book, about 9 am, he said he wanted to fight, and so he took his inflatable sword upstairs where his stuffed dragons are, to battle.
The battle took about half an hour, during which time I was able to read a little bit and check my email and Google Reader. I saw that the new Country Fair of Homeschooling is up - celebrating diversity - and I’m eager to check that out when I have more time to myself with the screen.
We spent the next hour in the living room, doing several different things. We munched on yesterday’s leftover doughnuts (PisecoDad loves ‘em, bought them for Father’s Day, and always buys more than we could possibly eat in one day). JediBoy is a doughnut sampler, really, and rarely eats more than half of one doughnut before choosing another from the box or asking if anybody would like to trade. We played with his new Pixter toy - this was one of those 50 cent garage sale purchases made mostly to keep JediBoy happy while I continued to shop. It’s a touch screen electronic toy with games and drawing, and kept us entertained for at least fifteen minutes this morning. That’s worth fifty cents, isn’t it?
As JediBoy continued to play Tic Tac Toe with his Pixter, I started sorting through the bottom shelf of our small bookcase in front of the window. I’d been keeping his phonics readers and Hooked on Phonics sets there. JediBoy hadn’t asked to “work” on reading since before Memorial Day, when he finished the Kindergarten level and dipped his toe into First Grade. Of course he’s been interested in reading signs, video game text, simple books and other print materials, but he hasn’t gone for the phonics stuff. But of course it’s more interesting while I’m trying to pack it away, so he asked to do a few pages in the orange workbook - ch- and th- blends, a story, and a little work on the next page of blends - about 15 minutes of interest. I was very impressed that he remembered the story very well, since we’d only read it the once.
This does leave me with the question, though, of whether to put it away as I’d planned to, leave it where it is for a while, or try and find a new home for it. Hm.
JediBoy started digging in the closet - I’m not sure what inspired this - and he came out with the bin that has his disc shooters and ping pong ball catapult in it. I’m sure that bin hasn’t been out since well before the new year, so it was all exciting to him. Fortunately (for me) the disc shooters were out of batteries. He contented himself with playing with the ping pong ball catapult, and then taking it upstairs to launch balls at his big castle.
We played a few hands of Go Fish with the deck he’s liked most this week - the drawings are of aquarium fish (zebra danio, red platy, angelfish, clown loach, etc.) and he has finally really figured out how to remember what I have in my hand, based on what I’ve asked for, and he squeals and laughs in maniacal delight when he asks for a card he’s certain I have.
Then, around 10:30, he said he was hungry again and made his own way into the kitchen to have a second breakfast of yogurt and something that sounded crunchy - dry cereal, maybe, or crackers? I try not to pry. We had a talk about whether or not he’d like to get his hair cut today before doing pictures tomorrow, and he said yes.
I ran a bath for him, so his hair would be clean for the hair cut. He played and I sorted bandaids - he’s been on a big bandaid kick this spring and I was shocked to see that of normal, finger-size bandaids we were down to about 20. I’d had a huge collection from my heparin days, when we’d routinely pick up a box of fun bandaids every time we went to the store.
We left around 11:30. He was fine getting his hair cut - the woman we usually go to wasn’t working today so he had a new stylist. That just meant he was shy and suspicious instead of happy and outgoing. But the hairs, they still were cut.
We walked over to big box store to pick up bandaids. I was looking for storage bins too, but of course the kind I saw there two weeks ago were gone. JediBoy loves pushing the cart, testing video games and wandering up and down the toy aisles, asking for a treat. I had to patiently explain to him (about a hundred different times) that tomorrow is his birthday and he will be getting a pile of treats then. He wore me down: besides the box of 100 generic bandages, we also bought a box of 25 Dora ones.
I told him I’d take him out today to a buffet, since they always ask how old he is (and charge accordingly). He chose Chinese (no surprise) so as we ate I told him the story of the summer he turned 3. He really loved the Chinese buffets and we went often, because kids who are 2 and under are free. In the month before he turned 3, I think we went two or three times a week, trying to cram in all his free meals! Today he laughed when he told the server that he’s 4, and we shared a knowing smile. He wasn’t feeling particularly adventurous, though, and just had pizza, teriyaki chicken, sweet and sour chicken, and green beans. And ice cream. One scoop of each of the six kinds of ice cream.
His fortune said:
After lunch, we stopped at the playground on the way home, even though my back is still sore. (But much improved from yesterday, thankfully!) He played a bit - we were the only ones there and he enjoyed having the freedom to crawl slowly up the tunnel slide, and slip slowly down the twisty slide. It occurred to me while we were there that the big climbers have stickers on them that say “For Ages 5-12″ - so tomorrow he’ll officially be big enough to play on the climbers he’s been using since he was 2. He is one of the more hesitant kids, though, and won’t try thinks like the caterpillar ladders or monkey bars. He likes to take things at his own slow pace.
We took our usual fifteen minute settling-in time when we got home sometime around 1:30 - I checked the mail, he checked in on toys that might have missed him in his absence. We were both ready for a rest, and he’d been wanting to watch Dumbo for a couple weeks, just never at a time that was convenient. (Five minutes before we have to go to soccer: Can we watch Dumbo?) This was a perfect time. We stayed in the office together - me back and forth between the couch, watching Dumbo, and the desk, checking emails and Google Reader.
Next, around 3 o’clock, we spent some more time just hanging out in the living room. We read another book from the garage sale pile - Arthur’s April Fool - and then JediBoy said, “I really want to learn more about animals!” He went into the office where I’ve shelved our non-fiction zoology books, and he returned with DK’s Animal Kingdom and a small green book by Weekly Reader from the 1960s called The Tall Grass Zoo. We read The Tall Grass Zoo, which is a peaceful and nearly poetic look at the animals (insects, spiders, toads, newts, etc.) you might find in your backyard. Naturally, we were inspired then to go bug-hunting. We trapped a nice silver and black Daddy Longlegs and gave it a leaf and a cotton ball soaked in sugar water - JediBoy was fascinated to see the spider dip its leg into the sugar water and then put its leg into its mouth to suck the sugar off.
By about quarter after four, my back was quite sore and now my poor, mistreated left hip was tired from taking all the extra limping and aggravation. I retired to the couch with a couple of magazines and the latest Daedalus catalog. JediBoy played with a variety of things, including his inflatable swords and his latest Lego acquisition, the Harry Potter Gringott’s set we picked up on Saturday for $2. He spent long periods of time lying on his back in the living room, talking and singing to himself. Lately he’s done a lot with combining movie or storybook dialogue with characters from other realms. Things like I’m Todd! And I’m Copper. Hi there, I’m Bambi! He carried the story on from there.
He’s also been singing a lot of Laurie Berkner. I made a cd for the van that is a full 80 minutes of music from two of her cds - Buzz Buzz and Whaddaya Think of That? He’s been asking for that cd most days when we go out and so we get snippets of songs throughout the day.
PisecoDad came home and we ate a variety of leftovers from the past few days and chatted about our days. JediBoy got out Shadows Over Camelot and played, with us a little, and by himself when we got distracted. (PisecoDad had to go order a cake for tomorrow and take one of the inflatable swords to Uncle J. who is working on a costume for JediBoy.)
Once PisecoDad came home, he and JediBoy spent about an hour working on making a house out of a cardboard box (the very box that delivered the inflatable swords, actually). It took a little convincing, but JediBoy did eventually agree to simply draw the lines for windows and doors and let PisecoDad actually cut them out. JediBoy designed a house with one door, four windows (one rectangle, two circle, one oval), a trapdoor and a chimney. He patiently added all kinds of crayon decorations around the outside, including a flowerbox with flowers.
A bedtime snack, lingering on the couch with PisecoDad and a pile of books (JediBoy snatches one that PisecoDad is setting down. Is this The Hobbit? The Hobbit! Cool!). A phone call from Grandma that gets JediBoy worked up about his party on Saturday and our eventual visit to Guatemala. The start of a bedtime routine.
One last day at four. Sniff. The years have flown by so fast, and yet - a day is a span of time no one is wealthy enough to waste. The days are so good.
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