Seamus update: as we round into three and a half
Sunday, March 27, 2011 at 10:45AM OH MY GODS, THE QUESTIONS. What is that? What is it doing? Why is it doing that? How does it do that?
I hope this means that we’re on the right track with him.
He’s forty inches and forty pounds. The Buddha baby belly is gone, instead a pinch or two of baby fat remain. He’s sturdy and strong, able to take part in our blossoming family activites: hiking, bouldering, sailing. He’s kinetic, climbing over everything like I did at that age, meaning the baton of blame for his antics has officially passed to me. Some days all I say to Patrick is “Shit, those are my genes. My bad.”
He’s really into making letters out of anything and spelling stuff out, but he’s not quite plugging in the phonics. I’m not pushing it. Everything I’ve read suggests supporting his interest is necessary (check), but boys tend to read later. We encourage him and read to him a lot, and that feels appropriate. He’s gotten more into making things, like the robot we built from a globe and heavy cardboard tubes, odds and ends. His art is still energetic swirls of color. We’ve put it up everywhere.
He helps in the kitchen by putting away the dishes and loading the dishwasher, making bread and yogurt. He’s used my kitchen knives, sewing machine, and cordless drill, with my hands over his. He’ll start learning to sew by hand this spring as we make a sock monkey, and possibly to crochet, since I’m working on a mat for his room.
He stands up for his friends at one playdate, then pushes their buttons at the next one. At the Exploratorium yesterday he waited his turn to walk through a vapor tornado, then negotiated a place with the bigger kids once he saw an opening. When told he would have to buy his own toys between now and his birthday, he saved his quarters and bought a water pump for his bath times. When he asked “Why?” and was told that Mama and Dadda wanted to give him experiences more than things he blinked, then asked for science classes.
He still throws down at bedtime and pushes our buttons and boundaries. But he blows us away the rest of the time.