Words of a Child

Rowdy Rebel read to me for the first time tonight. At first, he was pretending to read.

It’s a story called “The Big Hungry Bear.” It’s about a mouse that finds a strawberry and ends up sharing it with a bear.  Kids LOVE that story. I never really got into that story for some reason, but I’ve read it with the boys a million times.

Tonight Rowdy Rebel pointed to the title, and started telling the story, “The mouse finds a strawberry and pretends to share it with the bear, but really he eats it.” (Actually the mouse DOES share with the bear…but not in Rowdy Rebel’s version.)

So, then Rowdy Rebel asked, “Is that what it says there Mommy?”

I said that was very close, and then I pointed to the word “big” and said, “Let’s try just this word.” I started to help him, but he sounded it out himself.

Then he kept sounding out all kinds of words in the story. Then he recognized the word “strawberry” on different pages. Goodness. That was fast! They’ve been teaching them to read in his pre-school–but apparently, it all came together for him tonight.

What a milestone. Makes me want to cry:)

Filed under: Uncategorized | No Comments »

Deep Thinker has caught wind of the economic troubles in our country. He’s all about money. He was the first one in his class to learn how to add all of the coins to make a dollar. Each day, he has a new idea on how he’s going to make lots of money. The other day, he decided to buy a packet of seeds and sell each one for $10–he figured by the time he sold the pack, he’d have college paid for!

Anyway, he was asking some questions about why everyone keeps saying the economy is bad. I was explaining it the best way I could without scaring him. I said that prices are high, and some people are losing their jobs. He seemed to get it. He had lots of questions. He also had solutions–for example, that people should just GIVE farmers gasoline and equipment; this way, they could charge lower prices for the food they grow:)

Rowdy Rebel was listening to this conversation. At one point, I was explaining that when a person loses a job, he or she has a hard time paying for things like a house or apartment because they aren’t getting money.

I wrapped that statement up by saying, “A lot of people are having a hard time now.”

Rowdy Rebel piped up and said, “Well, not caterpillars. Also, not snails. They aren’t having a hard time because all they do is eat GRASS.” (Don’t worry–you didn’t miss anything. The comment made no sense whatsoever. Also, snails don’t eat grass. And then he started talking about how if it’s a big snail, he keeps it as a pet, and if it’s a little one, he steps on it.)

In our home, when everyone stops screaming andthrowing things long enough to have a serious discussion, this is usually how it ends up!

Filed under: Uncategorized | No Comments »

My husband’s work hours have gotten easier, so now when he comes home, I get to take walks! I take the baby and Rowdy Rebel for a walk first. We walk for about 45 minutes. Then we come back and I take Deep Thinker.

I love walking with them one at a time. When we all talk together, they usually end up competing to talk first, yell at each other, and argue a lot. When I talk to them individually, I get to learn all about their thoughts, how school went, and things like this. Also, I like the questions they ask me.

Oh, one other problem with group talks is that when Deep Thinker is around, Rowdy Rebel copies his answers to every question, no matter what the question is.

While we’re walking, every once in a while, we stop at a nearby store and buy little toys or games. The other day Rowdy Rebel wanted to buy Connect Four. I thought he’d like it, so we bought it and have been playing together. He loves the game but still can’t plan strategies on his own–though he does understand when he has connected four and loves winning.

Today we took turns playing. Deep Thinker ended up helping Rowdy Rebel during one round. Their goal was to defeat me. So at one point, Deep Thinker helped Rowdy Rebel line his chips up so that he had two rows of three chips. Even if I blocked one row, he’d win by compleing the other row.

Deep Thinker said to Rowdy Rebel, “Look! You have two ways to win!” Rowdy Rebel looked at the board and seemed real smug.

Rowdy Rebel was so excited he almost yelled as he gloated, “Mom, I’m going to beat you. I have TWO ways to win! TWO of them Mom.”

Then he quietly asked Deep Thinker, “And what are those ways?”

Filed under: Uncategorized | No Comments »

Bully stories and movies scare me. As a parent, especially a parent of boys, one of my worst fears is that my children will be bullied in school. This fear grew exponentially before my first son (Deep Thinker) was even two! He was so passive that he let other children take his toys, moved out of the way of any child walking in his direction, and other things like this. It worried me a lot.

But as he’s grown, his self-esteem has blossomed. We talk a lot about fairness–what’s fair to him, what’s fair in general, and how sometimes things just aren’t fair and a person has to figure out how to move on. He gets a lot of it. Because he likes things to be structured, he follows the rules of fairness–and as a parent, it is one of my greatest pleasures to see that he expects other people to be fair with him, and he has developed strategies of ensuring this outcome even in unrehearsed (and sometimes intimidating) situations.

SO, today, when I picked him up from school, he pointed to a boy who was still waiting for his mother. He said, “That’s Dennis. He hit me in the face with a backpack today.” I was NOT happy–but still curious about how my son responded.

“Yeah, that was mean. What did you do?” (Technically I should ask my son why Dennis hit him with the backpack. But if you knew Deep Thinker, you’d understand that he doesn’t provoke others. EVER. Except his brother and me.)

Here is the rest of the story in Deep Thinker’s words: “Well, I told him I was very angry but didn’t want to hurt him. Then he started laughing at me and talking like a baby saying ‘oh, are sad that you don’t know kawate? you fink you want to twy to hurt me?’”

“So, then I grabbed his shoulders, you know, where your nerves are. And I grabbed them so hard that I could feel his heart beating. And it was beating really fast because he got nervous! Then I PUSHED him really hard and said ‘Don’t you EVER bother me again.’”

“Then he said ‘okay.’ After that we were standing in line and he was shaking because he was scared of me. But he said it was because he was cold from the wind blowing.”

Deep Thinker proceeded to explain how Dennis always bothers other kids in the class and then acts nice when parents see him. He said Dennis tries to act like a “gangster.” Anyway, I told Deep Thinker that I am pretty sure Dennis got the point, so when he sees him in school, he can say hi and just kind of let the air settle.

Then, Deep Thinker asked, “But what if Dennis thinks I’m being too nice, and he decides to bother me again?”

I told him it sounds like he’ll be able to handle the situation.

Filed under: Uncategorized | No Comments »

Deep Thinker and I had a great discussion the other night. He asked me if I believe in aliens.

I don’t like to confirm questions like that. I like to hear what he thinks. So I gave a vague answer, and he looked perfectly satisfied with it and kept right on talking.

He said, “Well I definitely believe in aliens. If there aren’t aliens, then what are all the PLANETS FOR?” And as he asked this, he threw his hands in the air and wrinkled his eyebrows like anyone who doesn’t believe in aliens is absolutely crazy.

Then–I loved this part–he really started theorizing. “The aliens would be smarter than us.” I threw out the thought that well, if they reached earth, that’d probably mean they’re smarter, since we can’t go further than the moon (at least any aircraft with a person inside).

Then his eyes got really wide, and he said, “Hey, to them, WE’RE the ones from outer space. That means we’re aliens.”

Filed under: Uncategorized | No Comments »

When I tuck the boys in bed, every night I ask, “What do you guys want to talk about?”

Rowdy Rebel ALWAYS says “Let’s talk about birthdays! When is MY birthday?” Then I tell him, and then he tells me what kind of party he wants. His face lights up completely, and he gets that far away look in his eyes like he’s staring at heaven.

Usually, though, there are no birthdays to discuss that are actually coming up! Tonight, I got to say, “Let’s talk about my birthday!” Rowdy Rebel was very happy to plan my party, the type of cake I will have, and what presents they will buy me. I think my family is going to get me a Nintendo DSi bundle. That’s fine. The boys will all really enjoy it:)

Filed under: Uncategorized | No Comments »

My boys were on “Baby Madness and Candid Kids” on the Discovery Health channel last night. It’s a cute show that shows children’s quotes and their responses in funny scenarios. Some children were asked to take long phone messages. Others were told not to touch a huge Lego model, and then the supervising adult steps out of the room.

Deep Thinker described a few different things. When asked to describe his little brother (Rowdy Rebel), he said he’s “violent.” When asked about babies, he explained that they poop–and then shared further information on the various colors of baby poop. Finally, when asked about the differences between girls and boys, he explained that girls wear bras, have bigger boobs than boys, and “that’s about it.”

He wrote about “Baby Madness and Candid Kids” on his blog:)

Filed under: Uncategorized | No Comments »

This is so fun. I have to write reviews on American Idol as part of my job–it’s a funny and fun part. Technically, I don’t have to watch the show to do the reviews, but I thought I’d try to see if the boys might like it.

And they did! So we’ve been watching it together. Deep Thinker likes Allison Iraheta. Rowdy Rebel likes the contestants Deep Thinker Likes. I like Adam Lambert, the wild guy.

Tonight we watched and Deep Thinker said the funniest thing! We watched all of the contestants, and heard the judges’ comments. And at the very end of the show, Deep Thinker looks up and says, “Ya know who’d probably be real good on this show?”

And I asked, “Who?”

His answer: “Barack Obama.”

I laughed aloud. Then he followed up, “OR Abraham Lincoln!”

Yep–seeing Abraham Lincoln sing a song on American Idol sounds pretty fun. I wonder what song he would choose…I’ll ask Deep Thinker.

Filed under: Uncategorized | 1 Comment »

Aunt Super Cool gave the boys a bunch of scientific magazines for kids. They have awesome pictures of things like gross bugs, animals, all the types of things little boys love to learn about. We try to read each night we can. I let the boys take turns choosing which book, magazine, or article we’ll read. It’s so fun to see what the boys choose and listen to their reactions to the things we read.

The other night, it was Rowdy Rebel’s turn to choose. I wasn’t surprised when he wanted to read an article that displayed a huge photograph of a horrible looking spider with fangs and fur. We started reading the article and then Rowdy Rebel started screaming, “How BIG is the spider? How BIG is it??!” This particular spider is one of the biggest in the world, about 10 inches across the full span of its legs.

I said, “It’s about this big,” and showed the boys a span of about ten inches using my hands. Then I asked, “What would you do if you saw a spider this big?”

I thought I’d get fun responses of screams and jumping up and down. Instead, Rowdy Rebel said, “I would STEP on it! I would squish his head!” I thought that was pretty gross, and explained it’s also not very nice–no need to step on bugs, just walk away from them! Then I turned to Deep Thinker…And I saw that he had tears streaming down his face! He was so sad it concerned me. I asked him what was wrong.

He cried out, “Why would you DO THAT? You can’t just kill an innocent creature! It’s like at school, when kids find lots of ants, they just step on them over and over and over! The ants didn’t hurt anyone. They’re just innocent creatures crawling around on the ground…” I tried to comfort him by saying the bugs don’t feel pain.

He eventually calmed down and felt a little better. Rowdy Rebel reacted to the whole thing with wide eyes–he knew he’d upset Deep Thinker, but was thoroughly confused about why. He quietly whispered with a concerned look on his face, “But Deep Thinker, no one likes spiders.”

Filed under: Uncategorized | No Comments »

The three boys and mom (meaning me) are having lots of fun these days! Only this week, I was feeling under the weather. I’m not sure what it was, but it made me feel pretty sick on Monday. Now I’m better.

That day at pre-school, Rowdy Rebel made me a necklace. As soon as I got home, he put it on, and explained to me that it took him a very long time to make, it’s very special, and I need to be careful with it.  The necklace is very pretty! It has little golden square-shaped beads, big button beads, lots of different color, and all of the trinkets are laced around a piece of yarn. I love it.

So, I wore it that evening. But I didn’t feel well. At one point, my face must have shown this, because Deep Thinker asked, “Mom, your eyes are red. Are you going to cry?”

I said no, just that I didn’t feel well. Then I got up and said I’d be right back. I needed to go to the restroom.

Rowdy Rebel asked, “Are ya gonna throw up?” I said I hope not.

Seeming VERY concerned, Rowdy Rebel continued, “Mommy, if you DO throw up, be very,  very careful NOT to throw up on your new NECKLACE. Okay?” Nothing like the sweet words of a four-year-old keeping a close eye on his mother.

Filed under: Uncategorized | No Comments »