Questions at age 4

I’m guessing that age 4 must be when kids’ brains are ready for a lot of comparative reasoning because I’ve had weekly conversations with my cousin’s boy that revolve around:  which is bigger, which is stronger, which is faster.  The question for today completely cracked me up.  Are you ready for this:

“Which is easier:  making ice cubes or building a house?”

I love this age! 

Old Favorites, #5

I’m on vacation for a few days.  Here is one my favorite posts from my original blog.

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Kids say…
Posted on 15-Oct-2004

Kids are so funny.  A couple of times recently, I’ve been in public restrooms at the same time as kids who are about five years old.  They carried on extensive monologues of imagination while they used the bathroom.

My favorite was the little girl who went into the stall (talking the whole time) at a medical office.  I heard her say, “The doctor told her, ‘I have bad news. You are allergic to two things: broccoli and BOYS!’”

S-p-e-l-l-i-n-g B-e-e

Did you see the National Spelling Bee finals on TV on Friday?  I would honestly watch a spelling bee on TV every week!  (Are you paying attention, ABC?!)  I find it inspiring, interesting, and often entertaining.  This year’s was especially so.  One kid was asked to spell numnah, and I swear to you that the way the pronouncer said it, it sounded like numb nut.  And the audience laughed so hard, and the kid said, “Numb nut?”  I think the pronouncer even laughed at that!

That kid, by the way, eventually won the Bee.

I remember watching the Bee finals last year and not being able to spell anything.  I’m a good speller and have enough background in a couple of foreign languages that that’s helpful too, but these words were out of this world!  This year, when I turned it on, I was able to spell the first two words, so I thought, “OK!  This is going be better than last year!”  (One of the words was tautological, which is a word we use in math.)  I don’t think I could confidently spell any of the words after that though!  A couple, I might have guessed correctly.  Maybe.  Those spelling bee kids are amazing!

The word that ended up being the losing word for the second place finisher (who is from nearby Detroit) was prosopopoeia.  Tom Bergeron (from “America’s Funniest Home Videos”) was co-hosting the broadcast of the Bee, and when the pronouncer said the word, Tom said, “Oh goodness gracious.”  My thoughts exactly!

Baby watch

I received word yesterday that one of my nearly lifelong friends had a baby girl named Claire!  This is baby #3 and the first girl for the family.  I can’t wait to get to the store and to buy some pink!  I love to shop for babies — any babies really (got one?) — but after years and years of boys, it is nice to sometimes get to look at things with ruffles and ribbons now!

I’m also eager to read about baby news from a couple of bloggers who I read but don’t know in real life.  It is fun to be on a Baby Watch again!

Babies on the Mind

I had a dream last night that I had a six day old baby in my apartment, and she was apparently mine and I called her Mia.  I wondered who the father was and concluded it must have been Luke from Gilmore Girls!  Well sure, that makes sense…?  *laughs*  I had a Pack N Play for her to sleep in but had no other baby supplies.  I spent a good part of the dream wondering who would take care of her when I was working, especially since my work schedule is very non-family friendly.  To my surprise, the baby was six days old and I hadn’t taken her picture (yeah right, like that would happen!) and hadn’t let anyone know about her.  So as I was waking up, I was about to come to my computer and send out an e-mail about this baby even though I didn’t know her vital stats and would have a hard time explaining how her father was a fictional TV character.

*falls over laughing*

Benini!

I was watching one of the baby documentary shows yesterday, and the family on the show had a 2 year old boy named Benjamin, but they called him Benini (pronounced beh-NEE-nee).  I thought that was the cutest nickname ever!  I have always had four favorite boy names, and I go around in circles about which I’d actually name a child if I got to name a boy, and the prospect of calling a child Benini may tip the scales in favor of Benjamin.

Benini!  Love it, love it.

Two

My cousin’s son Lucas turned 2 last week and we partied in joyful celebration yesterday!

Two years ago, Lucas was a beautiful bundle of brand new boy.  I remember staring at him in awe when he was not yet one day old, trying to memorize his face.  One year ago, Lucas was just beginning to share words with us, and he walked wobbly at his first birthday party.  And now, this child says more words than we can count and runs circles around us all!  He says simple sentences and repeats everything he hears.  He knows how to anticipate and then bursts into laughter when the awaited event happens.  He does facial expressions better than anyone, and he thinks it’s hilarious if I make a face and grunt when I’m trying to open something that’s hard to open!  He plays basketball with two year old energy, just as happy to chase the ball that’s getting away as he is to get his two points.  He is a joy and a wonder.  It is truly amazing to watch him grow.

Conversations with an almost 2 year old

It really is amazing to have an up-close view of a child’s growth and progress.  I visited last night with my cousin and her son Lucas, who will be two in June.  He talks a lot now and repeats every word he hears and action he sees.  When I fake cried, he fake cried too and did that repeatedly while I was there.  (I apologized to his Mom for teaching him that one!)  If you end a sentence with “…right?”, he says “Right!” back at ya.  It’s amazing to me how much they learn and can mimic at such a young age.

I watched Lucas act out an entire episode of Blue’s Clues with the biggest grin on his face.  If you’ve seen the show, you know that one of the repeating themes is that the hosts need to know which way to go (usually to find the dog Blue).  So Lucas says, “What way?” just like they do.  We had been through a few rounds of this last night with his Mom and I sometimes both pointing in some direction.  I wondered what he’d do with some kind of crazy direction.  So on the next round of “What way?”, I pointed up and said, “That way!”  He looked at the ceiling for a second and then said, “Exactly!”

The Grasshoppers are Gone!

The St. Urho’s Day party was silly but really very sweet.  We enjoyed a delicious dinner (salmon and fries for me!) with a lot of other people at the Finn Center.  A new honorary St. Urho was crowned and we had a parade following him around in his purple outfit and crown.  We sang songs with crazy grasshopper-related lyrics to familiar tunes that made my Mom and her sisters laugh until they had tears streaming down their faces!  (It doesn’t take much to get them going!)  And it was just a fun night.

I spent a great deal of time playing with and enjoying my cousin’s little boy Lucas, who will be 2 in June.  He and I danced, played peek-a-boo around the hanging coats, and played with balloons.  He grins ear to ear nearly all the time and is such a joy.  And he kept trying to get the little boy in the window (his reflection) to walk this way with him.  It is moments like that that you’d just like to capture in a bottle because they are so unique to the wonder of childhood.

Reality

I sometimes think that when I’m at the point where I am adopting children, I’m going to have to disown most of my extended family.  Or maybe I could just come up with some really good statements that will stop them in their tracks when they refer to biological children as someone’s only “real” children.  And adopted children are…?  It was shocking to me to hear that sentiment flow from them on Thanksgiving, and I should have said something, but I didn’t.  But I can’t be in that place of not saying anything when I have children.  It is too important.

A very long time ago, I heard about a Mom who had a mix of adopted and biological children and people would ask which ones were hers — and she’d reply “All of them!”  And they’d clarify (?!!!) that no, they meant which were hers and which were adopted.  And this wonderful Mom would say that gosh, she couldn’t remember!  I’m sure if the question had been asked from a place of sensitivity, she would have gladly given the answer they were looking for, but come on people!  I think if I were holding my child in my arms and someone implied the child wasn’t my “real” child, I would poke the child (gently) and say, “Gosh, but he/she seems so real to me!”  Or make some comment about how I always wanted an imaginary family!  What else can you say?!