17 posts tagged “3 years 3 months”
1. T and I are going to Tricia and Conner's house for our Mom's Group Halloween party this afternoon*. T is wearing the lion costume I made him last year (it barely fits but it's what he wants). After not being able to find my cat tail to be a cat, I decided to throw together a lion tamer outfit. I told T was going to be a lion tamer and he said, "Are you going to put your head in my mouth mommy? How are you going to do it?"
2. New study segment in T's class is weather ("This week is the last week of the All Aboard Project. The children have been learning about how to match, sort and categorize shapes, colors, and other attributes. Our next project is titled Weather Watchers. The children will be exploring temporal orientation. They will learn about different seasons to enhance their understanding of time."). He has been very interested to know how our giant spider web will react with the rain. While driving out of the driveway and down the street our exchange went thusly:
T:: Is it raining on our web?
M:: No, it isn't going to rain until Friday**
T:: Why?
M:: That's what the weatherman said.
T:: It's not weatherman, it is me-tee-or-o-low-gist.
M::You are right! Wow. Are you studying the weather at school?
T:: Yes
M:: What is the weather?
T:: Sun and Clouds!
* I made pumpkin chocolate chip mini muffins and funny bones as our treats to share.
**Much to B's dismay. We need at one day of dry to stain the deck. He couldn't do it last weekend 'cause it was too cold. Our deck stuff is still sitting in the yard.
B IM'd me this morning to say drop off went well and he had toalked with the lead teacher about T. Mr Nathan said he had noticed something was up with T and thinks it has to do with T feeling bad when he does something bad. He has been taking toys from others w/o asking, then feeling bad about it. T isn't sure how to handle the emotion and has been wanting daddy and mommy.
When I picked T up, Miss Donna said T had a great day at school. One of T's friends turned 4 and they had a Sponge Bob party. T was very excited about the goodie bag, until later when he discovered the noise maker he loved from the party was not in the bag (the kind that has the rolled up paper that unrolls when you blow, 'like a frog's tongue,' T said.) A whistle, bouncy ball, two Cars stickers, a Sponge Bob sticker, and two small funny balls couldn't compete with the noise maker.
In the car T was talkative and offered information w/o my asking. He told me he ate a lot at lunch - tacos, salad, and fruit. "Lots of salad mommy. It was salad and cheese and tomatoes and olive oil!" T has been on a feeding binge the last couple days - LOTS of milk, lots of food. B picked up T yesterday and witnessed snack: two regular waffles, one pancake, peaches, and lots of milk. He didn't have much for dinner, but apparently he ate well at lunch as well as that snack. He is definitely one of the tallest kids, though he doesn't tower.
T also did fairly well at Kindermusik and he sang a song while in my lap. This is very new and made me happy to hear his voice. After class he peed well in the restroom, we played some air hockey, and he got to do two slides - the second being what we call the cookie maker. We joked he came out baked and spinkled.
All was good until home when T pooped in his underwear when I went to get the mail. As I came back and realized what he was doing I tried to get him to stop, but it was not happening. I told him his Justice Legue didn't want to be pooped on, but it might have been too late. We had quite a crying fit as I carried him in and told him he couldn't have his toys from the party. He was also quite upset when I told him that depending on how bad the poop was we might have to throw away his underwear (I dreaded this but it was part of a ploy to grind in how bad it was that he soiled his underwear and he was appropriatly upset by the prospect). Luckily for both of us the poop was small, hard pebbles (not so great for his body) and an easy clean up.
A minute later he announced with a bit of surprise that he had to poop again. He asked for a diaper but I told him I'd read to him if he got on the potty. He did! We read Me and My Amazing Body and he was awarded five M&Ms for his tiny pebble of a poop. Big deal though as that is the first home potty poop. He asked if he could have his toys back but I said no. He was not happy so I diverted him back to the wonder of his five M&Ms. This was a constant for the rest of the evening - he would do something well, ask for his toys, be sad, then get diverted.
At bedtime we read two of T's favorites - Little Bear and the Mermaid and Little Bear Birthday Soup. I am hopeful he dreams of mermaids tonight.
Yesterday we had to talk to T about running out of his classroom. This is the second time he has gotten in trouble for running out of the room. Last week he followed one of his friends out, yesterday he went on his own.
"Why did you run out of the room T?" I asked when I got home and B filled me in with the teacher's concern that T would get lost and the talks they had had. "Because mommy and daddy weren't there are I wanted to go home." T told me. "Why did you want to go home? Were you upset about something?" "Yes, I was upset," T said as he swung a stick into the puddle of water he had been playing in. "My friend took my thing and I wanted it back and I wanted to go home."
T is having, I think, some growing pains with his friends and his place in the world. Oh how I wish I could save him from this kind of uncertainty and pain! How I hope he doesn't feel like the misfit I have felt like so much of my life! How I want him to be happy, and healthy, well adjusted, nice, confident, and caring!
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T helped me make dinner last night. He loved putting the ingredients into our couscous pilaf and lemon basil sauce, and reminding me to be careful with the knife while chopping parsley and basil. He had picked salmon over chicken for dinner and ate over half a piece. He also said, while making a bit of a face, "mommy, I'm going to eat ALL my dinner! See me eating broccoli?"
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In Sunday school we talked about a family connection game called Mad, Sad, Glad. We tried it last night at dinner and T was intrigued. I think we will keep it up. All the family takes turns saying things that made the feel mad, sad, or glad. We went round robin starting with mad.
- I was mad I had to honk my horn at a person running a stop sign so I had to put on my breaks not to hit them (a problem triangular intersection with new stops signs as of three months ago; I had the right of way, the person was on her cell phone)
- T was mad at being hit by Charlotte when he took the thing she had taken from him
- B was mad when he installed new software and it didn't work
- B and I were both sad when he heard T had left the room and gotten in trouble.
- T wasn't sure what to say about sad , so we suggested maybe he had been sad when he had a toy taken away.
- I was happy when my coworker, Miss Rachael, gave me a vegetarian BBQ portabello mushroom sandwich from the catered lunch for the clients who are in for training
- T was happy when playing race with Daddy
- B was happy when he went to pick up T from school and T ran into his arms calling, "Daddy!"
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T had his bath before dinner, so it was right to brushing teeth and reading when we pushed off from the table (after T took his bib and milk to the kitchen and pushed in his chair). I had the honor of rocking T last night - for the second night in a row. This week we have talked about how big he is getting and really too big to rock. He has gone to sleep in his bed after some rocking each night. Last night he was not ready for the bed when I put him in, but rolled right on his tummy, grabbing Cloud in one arm and his globe in the other. It took a bit more back rubbing than I wanted and expected, but he slept well.
We're watching a cough that has been developing over the last couple days (10 child died from H1N1, 2nd w/o underlying complications) and slathering lotion and Cortizone cream on the millions of bug bites he got this weekend. T's legs look like a war zone despite the bug spray.
After church T asked, "Why can't we see God and Jesus?" I rambled out an answer having to do with faith and believing, but on Monday posted to my Sunday school class email list.
Yesterday T (age 3) asked me yet another question I wasn't sure how to answer.
I have almost zero knowledge of the Bible and stumble over faith questions all the
time. How would you/have you/and should I answer, 'Why can't we see God and Jesus?'
Thank you,
J
(my stumbling answer had to do with faith and believing)
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J,
My first thought is that God wants us to see him through others .He wants people like you and me to be kind to others and set an example of what a Christian should be like. We can act in a manner that makes God smile when we reach out to others in various ways. Every act of kindness makes a difference in the lives of others.
We will see God one day and if we have grown in our faith it will be a very happy day.
Hope this might help a little. It is certainly not an easy thing to understand or accept.
Thanks,
A
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Hi J,
I have a great book "801 questions Kids Ask About God" and I thought of it immediately when I read your e-mail! All of the below is from this book:
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Q24: Why can't we see God? Answer: We can't see God because he's invisible. But we can see what he does. Balloons are filled with air that we can't see, but we see the balloon get big as the air is put in. Radio waves are invisible, but they exist. Just because we can't see God doesn't mean he isn't real. Believing that God is there even though we can't see him is faith. Someday, in heaven, we will see God face to face.
Key Verse: Now we see things imperfectly as in a poor mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God knows me now. (I Corinthians 13:12)
Note To Parents: Young children struggle with this because of their concrete way of thinking. Using illustrations like the ones here are helpful, but still imperfect, we can't see air because its molecules don't form a solid enough image for us to see, not because it has no physical form. In contrast, God is invisible to us because he is a spirit.
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Hope this helps!
K
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Hard at early age but easier as they get older. We see God and Jesus when we see Love. Keeping God and Jesus as less of person and more of a spirit/feeling has been helpful for our 2 girls. Our girls understand that neither are in the flesh as themselves since both are 'much' older than their grandparents. Jesus and God lived a long, long, time ago. Bridging flesh from spirit is difficult to tackle. We still mourn loss of family cat from 15 months ago and the the girls (4 and 6) understand he's in heaven and that we still remember him, just like Jesus, and look forward to seeing him again. We usually talk about much later so not to scare them with dying.
Br
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Ahh! Great question, T! S isn't asking this question just yet, so I would love to hear from other parents who have fielded this question, but here are my thoughts.
God is not a human person like our friends and family. God doesn't have a body, doesn't have to eat food or breath air or drink water. God is different, so we feel God around us or see things God has made instead of seeing God the way we see other people. We know God is there when we see trees and flowers that started as little seeds or the moon and the stars, the clouds and the sun. We feel God when we are with the people we love and who love us, because God made each of us so that we could love each other. Lots of people have said that God is like the wind--we can't see it, but we feel it and we see its effects.
Jesus live on earth and have a human body like us. He ate food and breathed air and drank water. The people who were alive at that time many, many years ago could see Jesus, but after Jesus died and came back to life he went to live with God. Jesus is still around us, just like God the Father is, but we can't see him because he is not on earth in a human body the way we are.
Not being able to see God and Jesus can be frustrating, but it is part of what makes them special. Because they don't have human bodies like us, it means they can be with us all the time. God and Jesus know how we feel and what we think without our having to explain anything. If we close our eyes and be still, we can often feel God and Jesus with us even though we can't see them.
What do you think? Would this answer help T or your child or not? If you gave this answer, what would the next questions be?
Let me know!
thanks,
R
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Hey J,
EM here. I think I would answer that question with "Because God and Jesus live
in heaven." I think you will get many more questions because it sounds like you have
a real thinker. I hope that's not too simplistic.
E
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Aren't these great answers?
While T napped Sunday I started doing a little yard work. The day was gorgeous and it was great to get out in it. I first worked on cleaning up the street in front of the yard. I hoped it would be quick, but ... so we are having a hard time growing grass and not weeds in the yard. Guess where grass is growing? Yes, grass is growing in some really fertile soil in the small area in the street just next to the curb! I had a devil of a time pulling grass roots up and then throwing tons of night crawlers and other worms from the street and into the yard.
When T woke, he and B got to work replacing our mailbox post. The old one had rotted below the soil. They dug, pulled, poured cement, and put in the new post. It looks really nice except for the exposed earth that had been miscellaneous plantings previously. At one point I asked if they had thought to save the lilly bulbs. B had not ('what do you think?' he asked.) A little later T came running over to me, "Mommy, I saved this for you!" and he handed me half a small bulb. He was very happy.
I received a call this week from the children's store downtown. T's brown elephant shoes had finally come in, so yesterday afternoon we headed over to pick them up. The store has a train table and lots of toys that T enjoys playing with. We had a couple of errands to run so I told T that we couldn't spend much time there. "A few minutes mommy, we can spend a few minutes," he told me. "Yes, a few, but not long if you want to have time to go to the park,"I said. "Two minutes... three minutes... I want this many minutes," T said holding up four fingers. "Four minutes, you can have four minutes T, but we have to hurry so that we have time to go to the park."
When we walked in the first thing we saw was a butterfly net. This is something T has been asking for and about for a a while. At $4.50 I decided we could swing it. "I want this!" T said. "Do you think you should get it?" I asked T, "Have you been a good boy?" "Yes," T said his eyes fixated on a butterfly net. "We can get it if you will give away one of your other toys," I continued. "I'll give away [insert something insignificant that I rejected and now can't remember]," T said. "Hmmm, how about one of your cars? Can you give up one of your cars?" "Yes." T said, so we walked up to the counter to ask about his shoes and get the net.
T tried on the shoes and played with some 'squishy funny things' he'd brought back from the front of the store. I paid while he wanted me to play with the pink one while he played with the yellow. "Mommy lets, play, you have this one," he said holding out the pink. "T we have to go if you want to play at the park. Can you put those away?" "Yes," he said being a perfect little helper, and carried them back to the front. He carefully put each toy in it's bin then took his net and my hand while we walked out.
Outside I took the cardboard wrapper of the net and T swung it around to see how the air went through the net. It was a beautiful warm Fall afternoon, the kind of perfect time for a small boy to play with a butterfly net. He got several smiles as we walked back to our car. "I wanted to play at {store}, but I didn't mommy. I left right when you said," he told me. "Yes, you did and that was very helpful! Thank you." "I wanted to play for four minutes, but I didn't." "No, but now you will have time to play at the park if we can also be quick at the market."
"Mommy, Daddy and I are going to catch butterflies in my net. Daddy is going to be so happy when he sees my net." "Really?" I asked. "Yes. We are going to catch a butterfly, then put a big thing over it," he demonstrated covering the opening of the net. "Then we're going to take it inside. We're going to let it fly inside and keep it as a pet! Just like the fish and, and the cats!" "Really? A butterfly pet? How are you going to feed it?" I asked. "With butterfly food. You have to buy butterfly food" T informed me. "But where are we goign to buy? I don't think they sell it at the pet store." "No," He said as if it was obvious, "They sell it at {store}." "I didn't see any there," I said. There was silence as we climbe din the car and drove. I think I will need to look up if butterflies like sugar water like hummingbirds do.
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Yesterday T told me quite seriously, "I didn't have a poop at school today. I didn't have to poop." "You didn't? Well maybe when we get home you feel like it," I replied as we walked up to a local restaurant to get take out. "I just said that because when I got out of the car I felt like I had to," T said. "Do you want to go now?" I asked, "Do you have to go?" "No," was his reply.
When we got home, and before bed T still insisted he didn't have to go. Neither M&M's, Smarties, Bottle Caps or ice cream could convince him, nor could the offer of a 'poop diaper'. (FYI, over the weekend we picked up candy at Sam's Club for trick or treaters. One of the bags has Smarties and Bottle Cap candies, as well as others, and T has really enjoyed the change from M&Ms.)
This morning while getting dressed T told me might have to poop and I convinced him to go to the bathroom. While there he decided it was just pee, but when I pulled on his diaper there was some tiny dry balls poop and poop flakes. "It's like magic mommy!" T said in wonderment. "Daddy, daddy, the poop was magically in my diaper!" He was very excited and somewhat bewildered that we weren't as excited. "It was magically in my diaper, mommy!" And that was the end of that.
