The Easter Bunny presents a bit of a moral dilemma.
Last year at Easter, I noted my discomfort at telling Scott that a magical bunny was coming into our house with candy. This year, we made few minor changes to our approach to the holiday:
1. When discussing the Easter Bunny, R phrased it as follows, "Some people say that the Easter Bunny comes in at night and hides candy in the house." I thought this was a better approach than the outright lie, although the difference will be lost on Scott, I'm sure.
2. We recorded a made-for-TV animated special with an Easter message, told through a young boy and his dog. It was made in the 1970s and the soundtrack was quite a compilation of inexpensively-produced funk music. Scott thought it was just OK.
3. We did a Twelve-Days-of-Easter-ish advent calendar, where each day Scott got to open one of a dozen plastic eggs with a note and little items to represent events in the chronology of the Easter story. The last egg was empty, to symbolize the empty tomb.
4. As is the tradition, we decorated eggs this year, but this time we bought the NASCAR-themed decorating set. I believe that was Scott's personal choice, and does not do much to emphasize the true meaning of Easter (unless, of course, there is a tenuous connection somewhere between the true meaning of Easter and stock car racing).
It was fun to see Katie enter the Easter scene this year, clutching her little basket and toddling around after the big plastic eggs that Scott would point out for her -- he got the little candies and she got the 12 large plastic eggs. It was funny that she didn't recognize the candies inside the eggs for what they were, and was more than pleased to simply play with the plastic cases they came in.
Once again, the highlight of our Easter celebration was the fantastic musical program at church that R organized. This year she conducted all the congregational hymns (with piano & organ accompaniment) and the choir number (in which I participated). She spends most of her free time organizing the music for church, and the effort makes for wonderful results.
Easter this year was one of the few sunny days we have had, and it was wonderful to enjoy the evening together with R's parents out on the back patio of their home. The alleged bunny's visit was only part of a wonderful day for our family, filled with meaning. As they say in Russia:
Originally, Scott's first soccer game was scheduled to coincide with his birthday, and for several months we have anticipated a soccer-themed party that would conclude with a real soccer game. Unfortunately, the spring has been so cold and snowy that the fields were not ready for use and the season had to be delayed one week. Rather than change our plans completely, we made our own indoor soccer pitch and made a go of it. Scott was disappointed that he couldn't play in his game, but the build-up for his birthday had been so great that he was still pretty wound up for the big day.
Before the party was to begin, he was sitting in the near-empty room on his Thomas Train couch watching Yo Gabba Gabba, holding a magic wand in his hand. Once the show was over, his nervous excitement exploded all over and I ended up getting several scratches from that wand while we checked in by phone with his Grandma W.
As each person arrived, he made sure to give a quick overview of the preparations: "I have a cake with ice cream in it and there is a soccer ball pinata in there. Come see." He went out on the lawn to greet cousin H and told him the good news about the cake. H stopped in mid-stride and said, "What the?" and then both boys giggled.
The soccer game in the basement resulted in some of the highest highs and the lowest lows of the day. The lows started on the first charge down the carpeted field, when H plowed headfirst into the wall at the other end. In an effort to cheer him up, Scott pretended to bonk himself on the head and collapsed to the ground (the routine he does to cheer up Katie). This started a trend of Three-Stooges-like slapstick routines mixed into the soccer game, followed by the loudest giggles of the day.
Pin the Player on the Soccer Ball Game
The Soccer Ball Pinata!
Scott and I made this pinata according to last year's formula, with a few small adjustments:
1) we only did 2 layers of paper mache; and
2) we painted it to look like a soccer ball, rather than an Omnidroid.
The other difference is that the kids wore a 'Big O Tires' toque as a blindfold, rather than my UColorado Buffs toque, which had previously been the designated pinata apparel, but could not be located.
With each participant one year stronger and the pinata a few layers thinner, it was destroyed by the time we had been through the batting order only once (last year I had to break it open at the end of several rounds of blindfold-free bashing by the kids). There were a few packets of Swedish Berries inside and a personalized soccer t-shirt for each of the kids. Two years in a row means that the pinata/t-shirt event is officially a tradition.
Another tradition is the discount present-shopping. Once again, we cashed in airmiles for gift cards or bought gifts second-hand to maximize our gift:dollar ratio. We probably overdid it, but that's the result of several months of birthday preparation.
With Scott's affinity for board games well-published in this forum, he received a total of 14 board games on the day (and it could have been higher had we actually given him all of the 9 games we bought from an online classified posting -- a few were held in reserve). The grandparents on both sides helped bolster the game count.
It was uncanny that Scott received a few Toy Story gifts, since he suddenly took an interest in the animated film series last week, when he was sick and watched it all the way through. Gifts with Buzz Lightyear on them were very timely.
Scott finally got the game 'Candyland.' On a trip to the Chapters Kids section of the bookstore a few months ago, I made him choose between 'Trouble' and 'Candyland' and he has ached for Candyland ever since. Personally, I think Trouble is the superior choice, and I think now that Scott has played Candyland he will agree with me, since Candyland has zero strategy involved. I will have to ask him what his opinion is.
The bike was a fun surprise for him, and was nicely complimented by a water bottle and bell from Scott's cousins L & D. Unfortunately, he hasn't felt as stable on it at home as he did in the aisles at SportChek, so we are still working on that one.
The biggest hit was probably the lightning-quick r/c car that he got from his cousins A & H & A. Once again, some misfortune there as the car stopped working before the party was over. There are conflicting reports about its untimely demise, but uncle L is known to be handy at fixing things.
The cake and its origins are worthy of a separate rant entirely, but the short version is that Marble Slab lost our custom order for a gluten-free ice-cream cake and we had to scramble at the last minute. DQ came through for us with this Rolo Blizzard cake and put the soccer graphic and message on it in about as much time as I took me to write this paragraph. The cookie bits between the two layers means it wasn't 100% gluten free, but R just made sure to eat around the offending bits.
Once the party had wound down and everyone had departed, Scott donned his new Spidey PJs to accept a Skype call from his St. George cousins, complete with guitar accompaniment and dance interlude.
The last event before bed was a visit from our home teacher & his babysitter daughter, who brought a trio of Hot Wheels race cars.
As he was heading off to bed Scott said, "I am never going to give up any more birthdays." We didn't know what this meant, but he clarified it to mean that he was never going to miss wishing other people a Happy Birthday, which he has been doing faithfully for the last month or so.
Apparently, he started to feel a bit of a post-party let-down. Once he was in bed and I was leaving the room he said, "I want to be 5 right now. When do I get to be 5?" I told him it would not be for another year, after the rest of spring, summer, fall and winter. This discouraged him a bit, but I reminded him of all the fun things that we would get to do in the spring and summer and that then it would be close to Christmas again.
Happy Birthday, Scotty! We hope you felt very special on your big day. You are such a fun little boy and we love you to pieces.
We are a little sick of this winter that will never turn to spring. Every time it snows we all say, "well, that should be the last one." But it never is. There is always one more, it seems.
But more than the weather, we are sick of being sick. R fired out this Facebook message a few days ago:
Going on Day 75+ straight of having sick kids. After colds, fevers, chills, croup, asthma (?!), teething and strep throat you'd think we had it all. But at our 8th doctor visit today we left with no explanation for Scott's full body rash. Will it ever end?
Scott didn't really like to talk about the rash. You could tell it made him a bit sad and uneasy. Although it wasn't itchy, he woke up two nights in a row at 3:00 am complaining that he was cold -- even though his room was just fine.
He had been on an antibotic called Amoxicillin for his strep throat, but the doctors (yes, there were two of them scratching their heads over this one) hypothesized that it was probably not an allergic reaction to the medication; rather, it was likely a symptom of a viral infection from something as harmless as a cold. After a further few days of our (seemingly endless) quarantine, he was on the upswing and reunited with his cousins for a playdate at Grandma and Grandpa's.
We are hesitant to say, "well that was the last sickness" just yet, since we have all seen what that has done to the weather this spring. Just cross your fingers for us and let's hope there's no snow or rashes for Scott's birthday party / soccer game next week.
Occasionally Scott says something so hilarious that I run for the nearest scrap of paper to write it down before I forget it. As a result, I have various quotes lying all over the house from the past few months, but no dates or context. I rounded up the ones that I could find and here they are:
November 2010
Discussing Hayden's upcoming birthday party.
D: "Does Hayden have to wait until he blows out his candles to turn 4?"
S: "Yes. That's the deal."
-----------
Scott is watching me try an online kids computer game with an "action" sound.
S: "You love action right? [short pause] I love action too."
-----------
D: "Was the dinosaur toy scaring the baby in Jenny's tummy?"
S: "Yes. It was so scared it was trying to climb out her mouth."
D: "When Jenny opened her mouth could you see the baby trying to get out?"
S: "No."
---------
D: "How did you like playing with Alli & Hayden?"
S: "Hayden totally hit me."
December 2010
Lunch is being served.
S: (to mom) "Don't go crazy, Miss Highness."
----------
D: "What time does the mailman come, Scott?"
S: [no hesitation] "Twenty-three-four."
----------
Going out for a snowball fight. I am putting on my coat.
S: Dad, are you going to wear that?
D: Yeah.
S: You have to wear a snow hat.
D: Okay. [puts on a black toque] Here.
S: [puzzled] Is that a snow hat?
D: Yes.
S: [nodding] Oh yeah. That one is for snowball fights ... and pinatas.
Note: This totally cracked me up when he first said it, but then I figured out the connection -- the only other time he saw this hat was when I used it as the kids' blindfold to break the pinata at Scott's 3rd birthday party -- more than 5 months earlier.
----------
Before bedtime
S: You bacon!
D: Why did you say bacon?
S: Is bacon a good word?
D: Yes.
S: What is bacon?
D: It's a food that you eat.
S: Oh yeah! I'm going to eat bacon for breakish in the morning.
D: You'll have to ask mom to make the bacon for you.
S: Dad, tell me all about it -- how to make bacon.
January 2011
Scott came into his room where I was seated on the floor for bedtime story and he stomped on my leg. I told him that it hurt me a lot.
S: [whispering] "Don't tell Mom. Don't tell her."
D: "Why not? What will she do if I tell her?"
S: [still wshipering] "She will just hit you more."
D: [stifling a laugh] "Really?"
S: [still whispering] Yes. So don't tell her."
-----------
Scott is standing patiently while I try to get the broken zipper on his winter coat to zip up.
S: "This zipper is having issues."
March 2011
Watching WALL-E (the Disney animated movie). EVE (the white robot) and WALL-E are in the elevator and then EVE uses her gun to blast the monitor that shows the "Rogue Robot" warning. Scott comments: "EVE is jumpy."
His favourite letter has been "S" for about two years now, and Scott has been able to recite the letters in his name for some time now, but he had never really made an attempt at writing it ... until yesterday.
He has a little conference activity book with a spot for his name on it, and when R pointed it out to him, he just went for it and wrote his name out unassisted. Aside from the backwards "S" he did pretty well. I was impressed.
He followed it up on the next page, where R helped him make a better "C".
We got something like 20 cm of snow in one day -- wet, heavy snow that slowed the city down to a crawl. Fortunately, we could stay holed up inside for the day, nursing colds and watching conference. Scott and I did break outside for a few minutes after lunch to go sledding at the park down the street.
The next day was perfectly clear and sunny, so we took advantage of the snowy playground in our back yard: sledding, snow forts, shovels and slides. It was quite a production to get the four of us clad in our snow gear (Katie had made off with her boots and strewn them about the house), but it was so worth it to see the kids playing in the deep, sticky snow.
Katie is really funny to watch outside because she doesn't move her feet at all. Wherever you put her is where she stays. She learned to walk indoors during the winter and has never gotten comfortable with the uneven surfaces she encounters in the wild. I gave her a little shovel and stood her next to a pile of snow and expected that it would keep her occupied for a few minutes while I played with Scott. Moments later I had to pick her up to move her within arm's reach of the snow, because she just stood there, stretching out her arm and making a pleading noise from the back of her throat.
I didn't get a picture of the other seats in this stall, but the bathroom at the Cross Iron Mills mall in Balzac has a big toilet, a kid-size toilet and then this child jump seat hanging from the wall. When I took Scott in I couldn't help but try Katie in it, even though it was unnecessary, and then I laughed out loud at the sight of this forlorn wallflower.
Scott has been following the calendar pretty closely, and he knows where the big dates fall. For example, he knows his birthday is on the next page -- "the one with the convertible on it" (this year's calendar is classic cars). He also knows that his birthday is in the spring.
Last week I pointed out that it said "first day of spring" on the calendar. At first Scott was really excited, but when I asked him why there was still snow outside he was confused. Of course, winter is supposed to be snowy white and spring is supposed to be green with life. The view out our window looked just as wintry as every day for the last few months, and did not reconcile with the concept of spring that Scott had been taught.
I tried to explain to him that while the calendar does say that it is spring now, sometimes the warmer spring weather still comes a bit late. He didn't quite follow my explanation, concluding instead that the calendar was wrong and it would be spring once the snow melted or once we turned it to his birthday page. Essentially, he thinks the calendar is either lying or incompetent.
In the meantime, he takes advantage of the slightly warmer conditions to help shovel the snow outside. He has found that the packed snow on the driveway is difficult to deal with, so he often goes onto the lawn where the snow is softer and the shoveling is easier. He called me up at work today to tell me that there are now three paths outside:
1) to the car
2) to the big tree
3) to the middle tree
This is good, because sometime I might need to get out to that tree.
Katie is not just a cutie, she is also quirky. In honour of her first birthday I compiled this list of the the funny little things that she does that make her so endearing to us:
The one-shoulder shrug (often with hand on hip)
Downward-facing dog pose
pbtbtbtbt motorboat sound with her tongue sticking out
Vigorous sniffing through her wrinkled-up nose
Pulling her blanket out of her crib whenever she needs it
Pulling her blanket onto her head or rubbing it on her face
Wearing her blanket like a scarf
Wearing glasses/goggles whenever she finds them
Laying her head in my hands
Laying her head down on anything soft (pillows, blankets, people)
Trying to steal Scott's baby all the time
rolling a ball and crawling after it
Just doing her own thing
Pretending to colour like Scott (using anything that looks like a marker)
Crawling around with a marker in her mouth
Wanting to be walked everywhere
Loves the Mickey plane
Learning to knee-walk rather than try regular walking
(Keeping the knee-walk step intact when learning to walk -- right foot always leads)
Stair-climber
Dancing to anything she hears
The "Katie Baby" song
Playing the piano
Playing shake-and-go racers with gusto
Clapping and celebrating all the time
Smooching
Hugs and Snuggles
Patting us on the back when we hug her
First-class sleeper!
We had a party at church with a beach theme to help chase away the winter blues. We pulled out our souvenir t-shirts from Hawaii and posed for a shot in front of the artificial turf. Now if our kids ever ask us to take them to Hawaii, we can pull out this picture and say that we already took them.
You know those people who talk about how great/smart/talented their kids are, and it starts to sound like their kid is the next great hope for humanity? Yeah, well I'm about to sound like those people in a minute.
Since Scott was born, we've been watching to see what talents stick out. At first, it seemed like his caution shrouded most of his capability and we had no idea what he might be good at because he held back all the time. He wasn't a kid that started hitting milestones (like walking, talking, alphabet, singing, etc) particularly early. When he did learn to talk, he seemed fairly expressive, but it was tough to really tell, since he mostly preferred to make silly sound effects and sprint around to fight bad guys (me).
Then lately he's been into numbers. He loves to count everything, and he loves to watch the calendar. He has his own system for referring to the days. He calls today "this day", and refers to all previous and future dates by number (he doesn't use "tomorrow" or "yesterday" much). Such references can be hard to understand if he throws them at you out of context, as he did with this one he asked of R recently:
"Remember on 8 I used a spoon?"
It took R a few moments to understand that he was referring to a day the previous week when he chose to eat something with a spoon -- a fairly inconsequential event to be filed away in the Captain's Log. She gets very similar queries from him each day, reminding her about various events that correspond to dates on the calendar -- like how many times he beat her in a one-on-one game of Checkers or Trouble two days previous.
Speaking of Trouble, our house has been a hive of gaming activity the last few months as we've picked up a collection of board games and card games to give us new and interactive things to do with Scott, since we tend to be his primary playmates. Our list of games that we play has evolved as follows:
Bingo
Go Fish
Crazy Eights
Mousetrap (this one really launched the trend)
Shark Tale
3D Snakes & Ladders
Trouble
Checkers
Cranium (board only, no cards)
Skipbo
Uno
Guess Who?
We picked up Mousetrap second-hand a few weeks ago, wondering if he could handle it, since the rating was above his age. Three days later, he had us playing it with him several times every day, every chance he got. Katie's nap became gaming time and he quickly memorized the instructions on spaces like "take 3 pieces of cheese from the player with the most." He also liked to count all his pieces of cheese.
At first, his gameplay was amateur. Just gaining a grasp of the game mechanics was all he could handle, and we would have to help him along with strategy so that he wouldn't lose every time. Checkers has been particularly challenging for him to move beyond mechanics to strategy, since things change once you get to the other end and you upgrade to kings. However, we've seen his gaming strategy evolving too. It is fairly evident when we play Trouble, since that is one of the few board games we play that is not based entirely on chance -- Snakes & Ladders is light on strategy.
I think Snakes & Ladders really reinforced his counting skills, because the 3D gameboard is impossible to navigate unless you can count up to 70 -- there are so many ladders and snakes in the way that you have to rely on the numbers. At first, Scott would just follow a memorized path to the ladder at square 18 and climb it regardless whether he landed there. But that didn't work when he played with his cousin A who is in grade one and actually knew how to count. He eventually revised his play to follow all the numbers -- all the way to 70.
Sure, kids learn to count. But he also seems to be doing simple arithmetic in his head. While playing Skipbo two weeks ago:
Scott: Two and three makes five.
D: that's right. What does two and one make?
S: I don't know... Twenty-one!
True. I can't argue with that.
For St. Patrick's Day we got a box of Lucky Charms cereal that had a simple board game on the back. Sitting at the table, he announced to us that there were 55 spaces. A few days later, I quizzed him at the Sunday family dinner:
D: Scott, how many spaces are on your Lucky Charms game?"
S: 55.
D: How many would there be if there were 2 more on there?
S: 57.
D: What about if you had 55 and you took 3 away? Would you still have 55?
S: No.
D: How many would you have?
S: 52.
I don't know much about how kids learn, so maybe this is pretty typical, but regardless, watching your child learn things like this is like witnessing a miracle. It amazing how quickly their minds work.
Yes, my son is the next great hope for humanity.
His Skipbo talents will bring world peace.
With spring only a week away, it's time to start thinking about playing outside. Scott and I took down the christmas lights in the front yard, and then we strayed into the back yard, where he discovered a bunch of his toys peeking out from the melting snow. Inspired by his slide and wagon, he cracked open the shed to get his t-ball set out.
He got to play the part of batter, which was fortunate for him because there was still 10 inches of wet snow back there and he was in shoes, not boots. I played the part of outfielder. I was in shoes -- unfortunate for me.
After enduring the endless onslaught of bitter cold and hacking illness, it wonderful to get this glimpse of spring.
