You know, I thought it was annoying when Elmo kept asking the question. Little did I know that his repetition would become endearing once my kid started repeating that three letter question. Mostly because when he does it, it's with a whine, and he's wondering why his mother or father is being the most unjust son of a bitch on the planet.
But why can't I have a pixie stick AND ice cream with gummi bears and gumballs? Really? I mean, truthfully, it probably doesn't make much sense. Here kid just have it. But for some reason, I drew the line and said no. He was already having freaking Marble Slab, did he need the crappy candy, too? I mean, really?
And I'm not saying the four ugly words I heard so often in my childhood -- "Because I said so." Instead, I'm saying, "Well, fine then. We're going home." It's pretty much the same thing. But for some reason I feel like more of a bitch actually telling him a plan rather than living it open ended.
Today, MacTroll picked up X-man and took him sledding on Colbert Park hill. Apparently, there were two sledding incidents. One with an older high school age kid who thought he broke his leg and then another with a mother and daughter who slid down the west side of the hill into a parked car. MacTroll said she ended up going in the ambulance. I hope they're both okay.
After sledding, he brought X-man home. X-man took 10 minutes to tell me all about the excitement. Then he threw a FIT because MacTroll was taking care of some household crap while I started to make dinner. "SOMEONE HAS TO PLAY WITH ME!!!!"
Wait, wasn't your father just on top of a hill with you for an hour? And aren't we going rollerskating with your friends immediately AFTER dinner.
X-man has a total case of the gimmes. He's also feeling really needy lately. Quigs invited him over to spend the night. So I brought up the idea tonight at dinner. At first he was really excited about getting to sleep in Bubba's room. And then he found out that I wouldn't be there and he backpedaled. I explained to him that it was okay that he wasn't ready to sleep over (although he's slept over alone at my dad's house plenty of times), and that we'd see Bubba and Pretty Girl on Friday so he could be sure to have playtime with them. That quieted him down a bit.
Until it was time to go rollerskating and I got my skates. He outgrew his Fisher-Price ones, and MacTroll and I both agreed that he needed to try out the experience without brakes helping him keep his balance. He cried all the way there about how he didn't want rental skates. And then he got there and saw his friend Jacks from school and that she didn't have skates and that his friend Ike didn't have skates and suddenly, he was okey dokey.
He was so tired from the rest of his day, he couldn't take his eyes off of what everyone else was doing and kept falling down, even with us holding his hands. So, he went off to play some games, in his skates, with MacTroll while I visited with some CARE friends that I hadn't seen in way too long. Then Lightning McColin arrived and X-man was happy -- until he saw him skate. Lightning McColin is a very good skater, so is Ike. They ran off in their skates to have some fun. X-man couldn't keep up. He threw himself to the ground in a fit of self pity. Then I told him that skating took practice like Tae Kwon Do. And very smartly he replied, "I don't have enough energy to try that hard tonight."
Bingo.
For the past two nights, MacTroll has had to go into X-man's bedroom and REtuck him into bed. Telling him to close his eyes and lay still, because our constantly moving maniac can't seem to remember how to put himself to sleep.
MacTroll looked at me tonight as I was making dinner and X-man was whining about being neglected in the living room. "Doesn't it feel like he's been four forever?"
Five will come soon enough... Me -- I'm just happy neither of them cracked their heads open on the sledding hill.
Showing posts with label infinite energy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label infinite energy. Show all posts
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
Friday, August 27, 2010
Time Management
Anyone who knows me, knows that I like to know what's going on around town. I am obsessed with calendars, event planning -- and I'm pretty good at making nothing into something fun, educational and, maybe even useful.
When MacTroll and I decided we were only going to have an only, I wondered if there was any truth to the adage that only children were lonely and unsocialized children. When I told my mother we were only having one, she told me I'd change my mind. When I asked her why she had two, she said, "Well, you can't just have one."
So, I did some research. And I found out that only children for the most part (because you could have a child in the Brady Bunch and she could be lonely) weren't lonely kids at all. In fact, because they didn't have a sibling at home, it made them uber interested in social situations, making and keeping friends and wanting to try new things. Really? Okay. So, being the completely overachiever that I've been accused of being, I set out to find tons of venues around town, parents groups, neighbors, friends, etc., that would not only give me some insight into parenting but also encourage my little man to explore the world around him.
Except now that I sit here with the calendar, three park district catalogs, my school schedule, MacTroll's travel schedule and my fitness schedule... I'm runin gout of time. Because I also have a firm appreciation that I grew up in a house where I could throw open the door and run outside to play in my yard whenever I wanted or ask permission to go to a neighbor's house to play... a need for "scheduled unscheduled" time. Last weekend we stayed in our jammies pretty much all day on Sunday. It was awesome. We never do that. We're always running from brunch to the market to a friend's house, etc.
X-man asked to do Tae Kwon Do this fall, so I anticipate that's what we'll be doing. I also on a leap of faith enrolled him in Saturday swimming lessons in October and November at the Aquatic Center. Because I can tell when we go swimming, it's time for him to learn. He's already trying the front crawl all by himself, but just needs someone that's NOT ME to lead him through the technique. But there's two activities that take three days, and that to me feels like way more than enough.
I know he wants to do a league t-ball next spring so he can play on the Little League field at Prairie Fields Park. So I'm reserving Saturdays for that. I also signed him up for two one-day soccer clinics in February at the Savoy Recreation Center, hopefully as a way to wear out some of those late winter blues that always pop up around here.
Affordability is also an issue. I can afford TKD only by giving up the Little Gym, where he's taken classes since January. He was sad about that, until I told him I signed him up for two of the Little Gym parent survival nights, so he doesn't lose touch with the Little Gym (and MacTroll and I get 3 hours together in October and in November). He loves it there. He's already asked to have his birthday there next March... Heaven forbid he suddenly decides he has an interest in piano. And what about the Lego clubs around town... and his interest in science? It's insane how many activities that it would be possible to completely over schedule your kid in around here.
He doesn't seem to have any problem bopping from activity to activity when it ends (except he cried when T-ball season was over). And I love his excitement about trying new things. He's a bit of a whirlwind... which, I guess makes him a bit like me. We'll see if that's a good thing or bad thing a bit later, I suppose.
In the end, I guess we're following Robert Heinlein's philosophy:
"A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects."
Of course, nowhere in that quote does it say that you should be able to fill up water balloons effectively at the backyard hose (which is what we've been doing every night after dinner this week, thanks to Dana and Big Jack). :-) I guess Heinlein just missed out on that kind of fun.
When MacTroll and I decided we were only going to have an only, I wondered if there was any truth to the adage that only children were lonely and unsocialized children. When I told my mother we were only having one, she told me I'd change my mind. When I asked her why she had two, she said, "Well, you can't just have one."
So, I did some research. And I found out that only children for the most part (because you could have a child in the Brady Bunch and she could be lonely) weren't lonely kids at all. In fact, because they didn't have a sibling at home, it made them uber interested in social situations, making and keeping friends and wanting to try new things. Really? Okay. So, being the completely overachiever that I've been accused of being, I set out to find tons of venues around town, parents groups, neighbors, friends, etc., that would not only give me some insight into parenting but also encourage my little man to explore the world around him.
Except now that I sit here with the calendar, three park district catalogs, my school schedule, MacTroll's travel schedule and my fitness schedule... I'm runin gout of time. Because I also have a firm appreciation that I grew up in a house where I could throw open the door and run outside to play in my yard whenever I wanted or ask permission to go to a neighbor's house to play... a need for "scheduled unscheduled" time. Last weekend we stayed in our jammies pretty much all day on Sunday. It was awesome. We never do that. We're always running from brunch to the market to a friend's house, etc.
X-man asked to do Tae Kwon Do this fall, so I anticipate that's what we'll be doing. I also on a leap of faith enrolled him in Saturday swimming lessons in October and November at the Aquatic Center. Because I can tell when we go swimming, it's time for him to learn. He's already trying the front crawl all by himself, but just needs someone that's NOT ME to lead him through the technique. But there's two activities that take three days, and that to me feels like way more than enough.
I know he wants to do a league t-ball next spring so he can play on the Little League field at Prairie Fields Park. So I'm reserving Saturdays for that. I also signed him up for two one-day soccer clinics in February at the Savoy Recreation Center, hopefully as a way to wear out some of those late winter blues that always pop up around here.
Affordability is also an issue. I can afford TKD only by giving up the Little Gym, where he's taken classes since January. He was sad about that, until I told him I signed him up for two of the Little Gym parent survival nights, so he doesn't lose touch with the Little Gym (and MacTroll and I get 3 hours together in October and in November). He loves it there. He's already asked to have his birthday there next March... Heaven forbid he suddenly decides he has an interest in piano. And what about the Lego clubs around town... and his interest in science? It's insane how many activities that it would be possible to completely over schedule your kid in around here.
He doesn't seem to have any problem bopping from activity to activity when it ends (except he cried when T-ball season was over). And I love his excitement about trying new things. He's a bit of a whirlwind... which, I guess makes him a bit like me. We'll see if that's a good thing or bad thing a bit later, I suppose.
In the end, I guess we're following Robert Heinlein's philosophy:
"A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects."
Of course, nowhere in that quote does it say that you should be able to fill up water balloons effectively at the backyard hose (which is what we've been doing every night after dinner this week, thanks to Dana and Big Jack). :-) I guess Heinlein just missed out on that kind of fun.
Thursday, July 23, 2009
X-man 1, Mom 0
Today, I did a parenting marathon. I fed X-man breakfast and drove him to D-town to go to Scovill Zoo. We were there for 2.5 hours. We did lunch in Mount Zion at Culver's and then I drove him the hour home.
Once we got home, I made myself lunch while I put on the TV for X-man to watch. He sighed, came over to me as I'm about to start consuming my lasagna and said, "Let's go outside and play baseball."
I managed to get enough reprieve that he allowed me to take 5 minutes to eat my lunch. Then we went outside. We played t-ball, tag, dug up two potatoes, pretended to be builders, in the sand box, out of the sand box, filled up the baby pool, road bikes, played soccer, played basketball, watered the neighbors' plants, played Legos... it was NON-stop. At 4:30 p.m. KTDID got home. She agreed to watch X-man while I ran out and picked up SuperCooper some dog food (Welcome to our new super neighbor, CinderElla, who might have been a bit late to the ball, but arrived this evening).
Then we had twice monthly potluck at my house, so I put some chicken and turkey dogs on the grill. He had 2.5 hours of uninterrupted play time with friends. Then he played with me for 30 minute before taking a 30-minute bath... and watching 30 minutes of How It's Made. We read 3 stories, made it through 2 Superman stories before he announced he was tired and was going to sleep on his sleeping bag on the floor. He was out at 9:30 p.m.
The fact that he had to do ALL of those things to go to bed on time completely freaks me out. Where does that energy come from, and can I tap into it somehow, because by 4:30 I was exhausted. Tomorrow he's going back to school. And why is it having 5 three-year olds at the same time is easier than one? I guess because they entertain themselves or at least each other?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)