huck blog

2

own very own policeman

September 24, 2008, 7:52 pm

When dealing with three and a half year old children it's very important to teach them what not to say; otherwise your child may say things like “shut up” or call you things like “stupid.” Because no matter how much you protect your little angel from such harsh words, they hear them all the time. Mostly from you. Or your husband. We quickly realized this a few weeks ago when Huck rudely said, “Too bad!” to a friend. During a heated parental moment wherein way too many words spilled forth from my mouth, Huck explained that Daddy says it all the time. And sure enough, he does. All day long Pappy T says, “Too bad!” and “Too late!” or the worst of all: “No way!” Huck loves this last phrase the best. Mostly though he loves to point out when we say it, or any negative thing whatsoever, including the words “dumb,” “stupid” or “terrible.” He gets very hoity-toity and says, "That's RUDE. Do you want a time out?"

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reversible change

September 16, 2008, 8:45 pm

We've been watching "Sid the Science Kid" on PBS and it's teaching us all kinds of interesting things about a subject I used to hate. Last week's main lesson was about "reversible change,” how water can freeze and become ice and then melt and become water and then freeze and become ice again, etc. They explained this concept so clearly and so repetitively that Huck now loves to tell everyone all about it. And of course it's a good way to talk me into making some more homemade popsicles. So educational!

Reversible change is a temporary change that can be undone fairly easily. Something that got me through Huck’s baby year was the constant reminder that all his phases, good and bad, were temporary. He was in a constant state of change, and usually this was good news. Now that he’s a little boy, his phases seem to last longer (the refusal to share, the tantrums, the rudeness), but in the great scheme of things it’s all reversible. Little by little he’s starting to take pride in giving Kadin a pretzel rod without being asked, pulling himself together when he starts to lose it because his computer time is over, making a special effort to say “please” and “thank you” on his own. And then all this can be quickly reversed and he’s back to his caveman ways. No wonder he understands this concept so well.

And so do I. Some days his constant demands make me very tired and ready to move to another country, yet the next day my sense of humor kicks in and I see him for the delightful little dickens he is. My moods and phases can reverse, too, and that’s a very good thing.

Huck loves and hates bugs. He loves pictures of them and learning about them, but in real life he's sometimes afraid of flies, bees and butterflies. Yet he loves the butterfly exhibit at the Bronx Zoo where they regularly land on people. If one lands on us, he begs us to shoo it away and will not relax until it's gone. Then when we leave moments later, all he can talk about is how the butterfly exhibit was his favorite part of the whole zoo. The other day we saw two flies mating on the playground equipment and I was surprised to see him excitedly reach out to touch them, what with his consistent disdain for that particular insect. The happy couple flew off together, still connected, and this tickled him. He turned to me and said with a huge smile on his face, “Mommy! Mommy! Did you see that? One of those flies had a broken wing and so a Friendly Fly came along and let it ride on his back!”

No, actually those flies are making maggots which means more flies which will cause more angry outbursts of "Shoo Fly, Don't Bother Me!" Reversible change is everywhere. Thank goodness.

[ 21 comments ] ( 38 views )

wrong answer

September 13, 2008, 10:27 am

I've been working with Huck on all sorts of things lately, but perhaps most important is the answer to the following question: "How did you get so cute?" Correct answer: "I take after my mother." I thought he finally had this down and was ready to take our show on the road until yesterday when I added a few variations to the theme and got an upsetting result. I asked, "How did you get so sweet?" and he answered, "I take after my dad."

I can see we're going to have to work just a little bit harder on our lessons.

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your average 3-1/2 year old

September 7, 2008, 8:46 am

Huck is three and a half today!

Like all three and a half year olds across the world, he spends most of his days hiding under blankets pretending to be invisible with one hand peeking out (his “floating hand”) while humming scary music and declaring himself Magical. The rest of his days are spent trying to do the splits and admiring pictures of those who have mastered the move, thanks to Google. Any time left over is spent working on his very own Spanish, explaining concepts to me like "bike" is "boik" and "uno" is "du-lass."

Nowadays Huck tells fantastical stories with ease and detail as if they are completely true. Like how he went down to the river all by himself and along came a tour boat with a shark on it who bit his finger but he’s okay. Or how the other morning he and Aunt Jeni watched a movie together and it was the highlight of his whole day. When he tells these tales he has a look on his face like he knows we know he knows he’s making it up, and we have a look on our face like we know he knows we know he’s making it up, but still we play along. Because that’s what you do with a three and a half year old. Like when we played “I spy” on the subway and he spied something invisible and the only clue he gave us was that it was ice. It took us a while, but we found it.

Happy Half-Birthday, Huck, and please continue making your old parents laugh.

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labor free weekend

September 5, 2008, 7:32 pm

We spent a very relaxing and fun Labor day weekend in Winchester, Virginia with my Uncle Ronnie and Aunt Dottie, and as you can see from the pictures below we were almost eaten by a shark, King Kong and other frightening creatures at Dinosaur Land. We also spent the day Saturday at a huge waterpark with Heather, Elliott, birthday boy Bryce and Carter where we took many trips down the lazy river (and where I somehow forgot my camera). Troy impressed us all with his surprising surfing skills, apparently a result of his childhood water skiing expertise, and Huck impressed everyone with his never full stomach, able to eat non-stop all day long (which come to think of it is one of Troy's skills, too). Perhaps most importantly, Uncle Ronnie taught Huck to ask him, "Are you trying to be funny?" If you know Uncle Ronnie, this can be a very important question whose answer is almost always, "Yes."

Thank you, Coxes and Gaskins, and we'll see you all next September!

[ 2 comments ] ( 21 views )

we miss summer already

September 2, 2008, 7:26 pm

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