I keep meaning to post about an evening with friends from a month or so ago. We’d gone over to have pizza with a family we met through Hallie’s old Little Gym class. Hallie and her friend get along well and the family has a little boy Travis’s age, as well as a baby girl. We had a fine evening, but it gave us a look at a very different approach to parenting.
After dinner, we went to the playroom and the mom put on an animated Nutcracker movie for the girls to watch. At several points during the movie (part of which Hallie found pretty scary and we sped through), the girls would start talking and getting out toys and getting into some imaginative play. Each time the mom would say, “Don’t you girls want to watch the movie?” or “I thought you wanted to watch the movie–why don’t you be quiet so you can watch it.” When the movie was finally over, all the kids got really engaged in “cooking” and “serving” hamburgers at the toy BBQ set and had a ball. Wish they’d been doing that the whole time.
Meanwhile, the dads were upstairs around the pool table. We sent the boys up there with them for a little bit at the mom’s suggestion that the boys play airhockey. Well, the airhockey table was full-sized, and to play at it the kids had to stand on chairs. Their little boy climbed right up on one chair and started slamming the pucks around while the mom went to get a chair for Travis to stand on. That was the point when I politely suggested he come back downstairs with us.
I don’t know how much more we’ll do with this family socially. They are very nice people but their home is a lot different from ours. It may be that the girls will end up in school together. And they get along great. But this was just another warning flag to me of all the things Hallie’s going to get more and more exposure to when she starts kindergarten and when she’s going on more “drop-off” playdates. There are a lot of things about her starting school that I’m excited about. This isn’t one of them!
More than once I’ve listened to the following type of exchange between Hallie and her peers. They’ll be making a point about how many of something they saw: “I saw 100 butterflies” or “There must have been 76 airplanes!” But kids this age don’t seem to have down the relationship between different numbers. So Hallie’s friend might say, “I got 99 pieces of Halloween candy.” And Hallie will respond emphatically, sure she’s declaring a higher number, “Well I got 54(!) pieces of Halloween candy!” Some of these exchanges go back and forth a few times, with each kid sure they are trumping the other. From the tone of voice they almost convince you that 36 is a lot more than 1000.
For several weeks now, Travis has been more interested in roaming his room, climbing in and out of his bed, and playing with his toys than in sitting in our laps at story time. Yesterday, he was either extra sleepy or just feeling snuggly and I managed to corral him at both nap and bedtime. I love that cozy time with him! It made me realize how big he’s getting and how much I miss having him in my lap at those times. Hallie’s still eager to sit in my lap once in a while, so I know I’ve got a while longer for both of them. But they are getting big so fast!
We still haven’t gotten Travis used to eating apples with the peel on. He loves apples, but if I slip in a slice with peel he eats everything else and then spits the chewed up peel out with an emphatic “Blah!” I’ve given in, and I cut slices for him with no peel. On the way to Warrenton, the kids wanted an snack and I pulled out the apple bag. Half the slices had peel (Hallie’s) and the rest were peeled for Travis. Travis politely asked, “May I have apple with some no peel on it?” He repeated this construction over and over again, any time he wanted apple slices. Today we even heard him talk about a toy car that wasn’t running, saying it had “some no batteries” in it. Right now I’m hoping that he’s about to have a night with some no wakeups in it!
We thought we’d figured out how to make Thanksgiving Day run smoothly. We had the big meal scheduled for 3:30 and we planned to put Hallie and Travis down for naps a little early so they’d be up in time to eat with all of us. The first part went smoothly–we put them down around 1:30 instead of 2:30. It was all downhill, though comically so, from there.
I knew we should have separated them for naps like we’d done the day before. But Hallie begged to be allowed to sleep with T in “their” room. So I gave in. The two of them chattered nonstop for 90 minutes. By the end of an hour we heard enough pauses that we thought they were settling down. But then Travis would pipe up again, and again, and again. He was the main culprit; I’m sure Hallie would have slept or at least stayed quiet without him there. And probably T would have slept if he hadn’t had an audience.
Either way, we laughed at their antics over the monitor and finally threw in the towel. They were happy to join the action and didn’t seem too worse for the wear. But after the Naylors left, we could see Travis winding down. About 5:30 or 6, he kept disappearing around the corner. I’d go find him two steps up the stairs (that’s as far as he’s allowed to go alone). He’d look up at me and say, “Please have quiet time?” It was so sweet and so pitiful. And I wouldn’t let him do it. I knew a nap at that hour would destroy bedtime, and it was too early to put him to bed for the night.
We managed to get him engaged in stuff and he hung in there like a champ, even doing some dancing and some pretty vigorous play with Gup. After Mark did Travis’s stories and I did Hallie’s, Hallie got up to go to the bathroom. I was worried we’d get T charged up again. But there was no charge left. He was out cold! Literally seconds after his head hit the pillow. They both had a good night, and slept until close to 8 every day we were in Virginia. Lots of energy gets expended on those trips!
As Travis continues discovering language, he comes up with some pretty entertaining phrases. Lately he’s been narrating whatever it is he’s doing or about to do. But instead of saying, “I’m going to do xxxx” or “I’ve got to do xxxxx” he routinely says, “I forgot to do xxxxx.” He’s getting “I’ve got” mixed up with “forgot” and his statements are funny. We’ve heard “I forgot to close that door,” “I forgot to use the bathroom,” “I forgot to read that book again,” “I forgot to hang that ornament on the Christmas tree,” and many, many more.
We decorated our Christmas tree today. Travis was really excited about a glass airplane ornament Grandma and D-Daddy gave him last year. And he was pretty mad when we told him he couldn’t hold it because it was breakable. He fussed and fumed for quite a while. Then he started finding things all over the house and telling us whether they were breakable or not. “My toy airplane isn’t breakable.” “That Christmas tree [statue] is breakable.” When he finds a new word he likes, he loves to test out its meaning again and again.
We’re back in town after having a terrific Turkey Day (sans turkey) with my family in Warrenton. Hallie and Travis had a BLAST! They loved their time with their Gum and Gup and seeing Wesley and Uncle David and Aunt Anna and the Naylors. We got in a swim at Gum’s gym, some time at a couple of playgrounds, a really fun hike in the woods, lots of time playing in boxes, a visit from my friend Amy and her six-year-old Shelby (Shelby and Hallie warmed up to each other quickly and then kept us in stitches for an hour with their “performances”), lots of yummy food, and even a date night for me and Mark.
We planned ahead a bit better this time and talked with Hallie a lot about when we’d be leaving and when we’d be coming back. (It didn’t go so well at first, since Hallie just declared, “It doesn’t matter because I’m not coming home with you. I’m going to live with Gum and Gup.” But it got better.) We also really hyped the fact that we’d get to do some decorating when we got home. Our departure was much smoother than last time. We didn’t have any actual tears until we got home. At that point Hallie was pretty exhausted and pretty sad about missing her Gum and Gup. But a phone call and a good night of sleep seemed to help. All in all the kids were fantastic travelers and great guests. And as usual we got the royal treatment from G&G. I’ll post a few other anecdotes separately. There were lots of quotable moments.
Hallie’s school had their “fall feast” today. Like last year, the kids all dressed nicely and ate a mid-morning feast provided by the parents, using nicely set tables with cloth napkins. This year also included a performance to which guests were invited. The kids have been working on it for weeks.
Mark, Travis, and I joined other parents, siblings, and grandparents crammbed into one end of the classroom. I snapped pictures like crazy while Mark videotaped the whole thing. The kids performed a couple of songs and a couple of dances. They were the same ones I’d seen them do at graduation last year, but it was still fun to watch. Also, each child got up in front of the whole group to recite a poem he or she had learned. Some had partners and others went solo.
Hallie did one verse of a four verse poem with three of her classmates. She did a fine job and looked pretty comfortable up there. I thought that was all she’d do. But at the end of the performances she was called up again. This time she recited “Way Down South” alone, and she did a GREAT job! She spoke loudly, clearly, and even tossed a good bit of “with feeling” in the right places. We were so proud of her! The only other time I’d seen her recite alone, she was very softspoken and clearly nervous. This time she was so at ease up there. I’d have been proud of her no matter what, but it was a treat to see her do so well. We’ll have fun looking back at that video years down the road.
The last couple days have been a bit rocky around here. Hallie hasn’t been listening very well and I haven’t been very patient (huge understatement). Tonight was the exact opposite. Hallie took a nap, which is very unusual (and I’m sure why she was still awake at 10 tonight). From the time both kids got up, they were just perfect with each other. Hallie “read” an I Spy book to Travis about a dozen times, with appropriate teacherly comments and encouragement.
We had a fun, peaceful dinner and Hallie offered to help clean up. The kids sang songs and danced and played together after dinner. Later on, as we got ready for bed, I reprimanded Travis for slamming a door. I asked him to show me how gently he could do it. He proceeded to do it perfectly. But before I could commend him, Hallie leaped up, threw her arms around him, and said, “That was WONDERFUL, Travis!”
He beamed, she beamed, and I didn’t have to say a word. We’re having more and more situations like that where Hallie’s taking over my role (both as cheerleader and enforcer of rules). It’s like having an echo in advance of what I was about to say. I’m sure there’s a word for that but I’m too tired to look it up!
I keep thinking of more sweet and funny interactions they had tonight. In a nutshell, they were just a delight. Now if only Hallie’s finally fallen asleep . . .
Last week Hallie learned to read English. This week she’s working on Italian!
We have several photo-illustrated books Gum and Gup bought Hallie on our trip to Italy. Travis pulled one out today, which got Hallie interested in them. We read one at naptime, and she got another one out tonight. I was trying to get both (pretty manic) kids ready for bed on my own while Mark is traveling this week. At one point, Hallie wasn’t getting dressed like I’d asked. I stopped to focus on her and realized she was busy sounding out four and five syllable words in Italian. And pronouncing them pretty well!
I know the basics of sounding out words are the same no matter what the language. But she was getting through some pretty long words. And in some cases getting the Italian pronunciation right where it differed from how it would be read in English. She was positively gleeful with excitement as we called Mark to tell him. And then, before bed (already 30 minutes overdue) she asked if she could call Uncle David. She was so eager to tell him that “now we can BOTH read in Italian!” that I couldn’t turn her down.
She was so keyed up I wasn’t sure she’d ever fall asleep. I walked by her room around 9:20 and saw the light on. When I went in, she declared, “I have to have my light on. I can’t do anything but READ!” She was still flopping around at 10, and I’m hoping she’s finally conked now. What a lot of excitement she had tonight! I don’t think anyone is more proud of her than she is of herself.
