July and August
We finally found the camera battery charger! After losing a month of our digital lives!
Above is one pic of moving day (Elliott was with us all day instead of at Spanish & then at a friend's as planned because he had a fever. What timing! Oh, and check out the striped pajama shirt with plaid shorts and a fleece -- in July!). Then we've got a few photos of gymnastics class (on a day I didn't actually forget to take him), one of the basement in its current state, the one day we tried to have lunch on our deck (finished inside -- too hot!), one of measuring the length of a whale at a nature center program and one of Elliott getting an autograph after a Steve Songs show. Oh, and one family self-portrait we took just for the heck of it.
Elliott is weathering the transitions pretty well, though occasionally having tantrums when he has to stop doing something or there's no more grapefruit.
After Spanish Tu/Thurs ended in July and there was still so much non-napping summer (and so much unpacking!) to go, I signed him up for one week of tot camp through the county (9-12 every day). He did that with two friends and had a great time, dealing pretty well with bringing/eating his own lunch instead of the USDA lunch provided. Then I fibbed about it being over when they continued the next week and I took him instead to French camp, for which I'd already signed him up months ago. It was funny to have my friend's mom/his buddy's grandma take and pick up Elliott from the first week of tot camp (gave me a lot more time at home, but didn't give me any feedback) and then to go from that to taking him myself to French camp where the teachers seemed quite charmed: "He understands so much French!" (go figure -- I rarely speak it! I think he just reads people well) and "He's always smiling and laughing" (except when the grapefruit is gone at home). Oh, and "He notices everything!" (Tell me about it).
He now knows a bunch of words in both Spanish and French, especially animals, body parts, some vehicles and a few phrases, most colors. He can count until 10 (sometimes higher) in both languages, though he still doesn't really count things accurately in any language. But we're cool with creative math.
I'm not sure how many letters he knows but at least B and E, and J, I think. Maybe T, L. He might know some numbers from pressing elevator buttons. I haven't seen any interest in drawing anything other than scribbles or sometimes lines and vague circles. Maybe if his mother did more craft time with him, his inner Cassatt would come out. We haven't done Music Together for a while, but Elliott still seems pretty into music and picks up lyrics pretty fast. Sometimes John plays piano and we all sing. But family time is still pretty scattered as we're usually playing tag-team parents so that one of us can unpack or do something house related (like, uh, install a cork floor). We made a lot of progress this week, and I'll try to put some photos on the other blog soonish.
When I went away for my first (short) overnight away last Saturday, John came to understand the power of consumer parenting and bought Elliott a Thomas train set to complement the IKEA set we'd purchased together the previous week. That gets a lot of use, which is nicer than not. For a while, without a real family room or clear location of toys, it was rough, and we're still dealing with the slippery slope having a son who now knows about TV and is in love with Caillou.
This summer Elliott had 7 group swim lessons. It was supposed to be 8, but I just could not stand going with him and so never did the makeup from the thunderstorm day. The class was at 6:30 p.m., a time when he should be almost in bed, so it made for a really long day to have him up until 8. Besides, he did a lot more with the teacher than he wanted to do with me. Even though he was really comfortable in the water, I still got tired of the tugging at my tankini. It was supposed to be parent participation optional, but with so many kids in class at a low level of skill, there wasn't much optional.
I'm still glad we did the lessons, though. They were cheap and close by, and he's been so upbeat about the pool (having been with friends - twice with John and my friends!) that I wanted to strike while the iron was hot, lest we face a more fearful period next summer. He got a lot more comfortable with getting his face wet (even accidentally going under water); two weeks ago he whined "I need a towel" with the smallest droplets marring his pristine face. He would climb out of the pool on his own and make his way to our bag to wipe off his face. Not so anymore! He still likes to tread water more than lie flat, but he got a lot better at that and at kicking out of the water without always looking back at his feet. He loves, loves, loves to jump into the water into waiting arms.
Well, I have spent about the limit for now. In an hour we are going to family "pajama" yoga. It feels good to at least get some of that info down!
Above is one pic of moving day (Elliott was with us all day instead of at Spanish & then at a friend's as planned because he had a fever. What timing! Oh, and check out the striped pajama shirt with plaid shorts and a fleece -- in July!). Then we've got a few photos of gymnastics class (on a day I didn't actually forget to take him), one of the basement in its current state, the one day we tried to have lunch on our deck (finished inside -- too hot!), one of measuring the length of a whale at a nature center program and one of Elliott getting an autograph after a Steve Songs show. Oh, and one family self-portrait we took just for the heck of it.
Elliott is weathering the transitions pretty well, though occasionally having tantrums when he has to stop doing something or there's no more grapefruit.
After Spanish Tu/Thurs ended in July and there was still so much non-napping summer (and so much unpacking!) to go, I signed him up for one week of tot camp through the county (9-12 every day). He did that with two friends and had a great time, dealing pretty well with bringing/eating his own lunch instead of the USDA lunch provided. Then I fibbed about it being over when they continued the next week and I took him instead to French camp, for which I'd already signed him up months ago. It was funny to have my friend's mom/his buddy's grandma take and pick up Elliott from the first week of tot camp (gave me a lot more time at home, but didn't give me any feedback) and then to go from that to taking him myself to French camp where the teachers seemed quite charmed: "He understands so much French!" (go figure -- I rarely speak it! I think he just reads people well) and "He's always smiling and laughing" (except when the grapefruit is gone at home). Oh, and "He notices everything!" (Tell me about it).
He now knows a bunch of words in both Spanish and French, especially animals, body parts, some vehicles and a few phrases, most colors. He can count until 10 (sometimes higher) in both languages, though he still doesn't really count things accurately in any language. But we're cool with creative math.
I'm not sure how many letters he knows but at least B and E, and J, I think. Maybe T, L. He might know some numbers from pressing elevator buttons. I haven't seen any interest in drawing anything other than scribbles or sometimes lines and vague circles. Maybe if his mother did more craft time with him, his inner Cassatt would come out. We haven't done Music Together for a while, but Elliott still seems pretty into music and picks up lyrics pretty fast. Sometimes John plays piano and we all sing. But family time is still pretty scattered as we're usually playing tag-team parents so that one of us can unpack or do something house related (like, uh, install a cork floor). We made a lot of progress this week, and I'll try to put some photos on the other blog soonish.
When I went away for my first (short) overnight away last Saturday, John came to understand the power of consumer parenting and bought Elliott a Thomas train set to complement the IKEA set we'd purchased together the previous week. That gets a lot of use, which is nicer than not. For a while, without a real family room or clear location of toys, it was rough, and we're still dealing with the slippery slope having a son who now knows about TV and is in love with Caillou.
This summer Elliott had 7 group swim lessons. It was supposed to be 8, but I just could not stand going with him and so never did the makeup from the thunderstorm day. The class was at 6:30 p.m., a time when he should be almost in bed, so it made for a really long day to have him up until 8. Besides, he did a lot more with the teacher than he wanted to do with me. Even though he was really comfortable in the water, I still got tired of the tugging at my tankini. It was supposed to be parent participation optional, but with so many kids in class at a low level of skill, there wasn't much optional.
I'm still glad we did the lessons, though. They were cheap and close by, and he's been so upbeat about the pool (having been with friends - twice with John and my friends!) that I wanted to strike while the iron was hot, lest we face a more fearful period next summer. He got a lot more comfortable with getting his face wet (even accidentally going under water); two weeks ago he whined "I need a towel" with the smallest droplets marring his pristine face. He would climb out of the pool on his own and make his way to our bag to wipe off his face. Not so anymore! He still likes to tread water more than lie flat, but he got a lot better at that and at kicking out of the water without always looking back at his feet. He loves, loves, loves to jump into the water into waiting arms.
Well, I have spent about the limit for now. In an hour we are going to family "pajama" yoga. It feels good to at least get some of that info down!
posted by Jessica at 3:14 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home