Celebrating Matthew's Birthday

Linus and I worked together to make Matthew's birthday cake. When we discussed how we should decorate it, Linus said it had to have a rainbow. It turned out kind of cute, although the white frosting looks kind gray in the photo. Linus made two space-themed stick puppets for him and hauled out his DK space encyclopedia to explain to Matthew what they were: the pegasus constellation and a Russian astronaut. We had a fun family celebration and Linus was so excited all day. He gleefully hid all of Matthew's presents for him to find.

Falls Church/Washington, DC

We went to Falls Church, VA the first weekend of May to join the rest of the clan from Matthew's maternal side of the family. We came together to reminisce about Margaret White's life and everyone's experiences visiting there. We flew out there a day early so that we could visit the Natural History Museum. We chose this museum to feed Linus' craving for more knowledge of dinosaurs. Much of the time he looked like he does in the first photo. He was always pointing and asking what each dinosaur was. He had a blast there and he also loved riding the subway into DC for our second visit to the Natural History Museum. We managed to meet up with some of the family at the Air and Space Museum for lunch. A tourist took our picture with the cutout of Amelia Earhart.

The day spent at Margaret's was relaxing and enjoyable. It was delightful to sit outside for hours listening to birds singing, watching the kids play together, and catching up with everyone. The image of the buttercups blooming en masse in the field will stick with me forever.

I'm Four!

At preschool


Looking for birds and insects at the Botanic Gardens


A sample of what he produces at the writing table at school

Linus tells everyone that he is four. The cutest instance of this took place at the Botanic Gardens. He insisted on opening the door for us, but he was really struggling with it. He refused help from me or any of the adults lining up behind us. He finally got it open, let me through, and then insisted on holding it open for all of the people behind us. As they walked through he told them, "I'm four!" The last woman through said, "You most certainly are!"

I took him in for his four-year appointment with the pediatrician. They surprised us right off the bat by asking for a urine sample. That went fine; he thought it was interesting. When the nurse asked if I had any questions for the doctor, Linus told her he wanted to ask the doctor if dogs get pinkeye. She made a note of it on his chart and I was chuckling on the inside. The situation became more and more humorous. For the first time the doctor basically interacted solely with Linus. The doctor drew two lines on a piece of paper and held it out horizontally for Linus to identify which line was longer. After Linus pointed to the longer line, the doctor took the paper back and turned it around a bunch of times and then presented it vertically to Linus. He asked him which line was longer now. Linus looked at the lines, then at the doctor, and then back to the lines. Then he looked the doctor straight in the face and said, "As I told you before, this line is longer. These are the same lines." It was really hard not to laugh. The doctor told me at the end that Linus' awareness of his thought process and ability to verbalize it is at the level of a 3rd grader. I didn't know what to say, so I just smiled.

Never mind what grade level he is at. I just know that he is constantly slurping up information and by nightfall my brain is completely drained. Four-year-olds sure do ask a lot of questions!

Linus' Fourth Birthday

Linus told his grandfather on the phone today that "it is fun and easy turning four." During a previous conversation he told me, "I'm proud to be four." I've been hearing a lot of:

I'm not scared of that because I'm four.
I can lift that because I'm four.
I'm learning to read because I'm four.
I can cut things with a knife because I'm four.

Oh, the joys of being four! He likes to be very silly and works at it. He asked, "Are you macaroni-ing your head up, mama?" After saying something like that he'll ask us if it was funny. He has also become interested in jokes and riddles, but doesn't quite "get" them. Here is one of his riddles: Why did the frog hop away? Because he was scared of a bear. Another time he took it a step further and said, "Let's do jokes about riddles."

He was looking out the front window waiting for Matthew to come home from work. He told me, "I'm waiting for the rough-house parent to come home." He likes roughhousing with Matthew in the evening.

He deeply wishes for dinosaurs to still be alive and for Sesame Street and Thomas the Tank Engine characters to be real.

I was getting ready in the morning and Linus said a word I didn't understand. I had him repeat it a few times and he got impatient with me. He exclaimed, "Brachiation! It means monkeys swinging from tree to tree!" Oh, my; I'm going to have a hard time keeping up with him. I can see the writing on the wall.

I was making a Pin the Tail on the Donkey game for his birthday party and he suggested I put hooves on the donkey's feet. After I did so he said, "I thought the hooves would be more attractive." His friend, Noah, gave him a birdhouse with paints for decorating it. He hasn't painted it yet, but has mentioned several times that it will be "very attractive to the birds."

He and Matthew were pretending to be woodland animals and I heard Linus call out this rhyme that he made up on the spot:
I'm an antler moose
And I cannot stay;
I'm going off
To hunt my prey.

(Cute, even though moose aren't predators.)

For his party I had the kids go on a dinosaur egg hunt in the backyard with spotted eggs filled with little plastic dinosaurs. Then they played Pin the Tail on the Donkey. None of them had played it before, so I had Matthew demonstrate how it goes. They thought it was really funny when I tied the blindfold on him and he really played it up as he bumbled around to pin on the tail. Then we served blueberry cake and blueberry ice cream. He received very thoughtful gifts from his friends, including a magnifying glass that has a snake for a handle, the bird house project with a bird book, and a large coloring book.

We had him open his presents from family in the morning, so by five he was feeling worn out. I pulled out my last present for him, which was a stuffed stegosaurus. I had saved it for when he'd be feeling played-out and might like a new friend to snuggle.

Third Annual Easter Egg Hunt

What a fun time we all had yesterday with the Easter egg hunt in our back yard. This year we even had two toddlers participate in their very first egg hunts. The three older kids really got into hiding the eggs for the preschoolers. A couple of dads oversaw then to make sure they don't hide them too well. I think the trickiest hiding spot this year was the pink egg Gabriel hid in snow. One could just barely see a hint of its color. He was a great big brother and told his sister where to find it after the hunt had gone on for a while. I picked up some 25-cent camera trinkets this year and the kids went nuts over them. They ran around pretending to take pictures of everything. Linus continued playing with his right up to bedtime, then woke up early this morning and was immediately at it again. Last night he took pictures of birds in one of his bird books. Now he is off at the zoo with Matthew. He wants to take pictures of the animals with it. I gave him my old camera a while back and he has a lot of fun with that, but the little plastic one is even more fun in some ways. He pretends to hook it up to a computer to upload the pictures and change the backgrounds.

March

Matthew and Linus planting peas and spinach.


Chase and Linus at the zoo, our second to last play date. Linus is holding a bird field guide.




The month has flown by. I don't know why I continue to be amazed at how quickly time flies, but I do. This year Linus started anticipating his birthday around the beginning of the month. Birthday parties for two of his friends, as well as our annual Easter egg hunt in our backyard, broke up the routine; so now his own birthday party is just under a week away.

Linus' friend Chase departed to Hong Kong. Her father has taken a job there. Linus has been attached to her since they met at the library when they were 17-months old. He was very sad when I broke the news to him. We discussed that we are still friends with people in Wisconsin, even though we moved away. Friday was the first day for him at preschool without her there. I asked him about it to gauge how he was feeling about it, and he was just fine. He said, "I thought of her, but then I played with Noah and that was fun."

Linus came down with a cold that had him walking around for a week with a runny nose, which then morphed into terrible congestion, then pinkeye, followed by an ear infection. I felt that the ear infection was a blessing, because that meant we could quit fighting with him to get the eye drops in for the pinkeye. Until now, I have not had to wrestle him down. It was not a pretty sight. I straddled him on the floor and pinned his arms at his sides with my legs. Then I tried to pry his eyes open and get the drops in them and not on his cheek, nose, or the floor. He put up a big fight. He takes the oral antibiotic like it is candy, and we don't end up in tears like with the eye drop fight.

Teddy Bear Tea Party

When Matthew and I attended the auction fundraiser for Linus' preschool we bid on and won for him a seat at a teddy bear tea party hosted by his teachers. The other three attendees at the soiree were girls from the morning class. The kids were to dress up and bring a teddy bear for the party at Laura's house. Linus was irresistibly handsome and the girls were lovely. Sadly, we forgot to bring his teddy bear with us, but he was able to borrow one from Laura. She ran upstairs and got one from her son's bedroom. Linus was perfectly at ease being in a new setting with kids he didn't know. Amazing what three-quarters of a school year will do for a kid's self-confidence.

When I picked him up later he regaled me with stories of all the things they did and he said he had three new friends. And there are pictures to document the event because I left my camera with the teachers and asked them to take pictures for the parents.

Painting a Rainbow

Linus told me he wanted to paint a big rainbow and needed a big piece of paper. The largest we have on hand is leftover packing paper. He used his construction roller to try to roll out the wrinkles. The best part of the video for me is when he paints a parrot, including a nut for it to eat.

He loves making things with craft supplies. In the last few days he has made jungle snakes out of pipe cleaners and googly eyes. He also cut a piece of paper into quarters, glued them end to end, decorated it with big googly eyes and a pink feather. He said it was a snake for me. Yesterday he made Valentines. He made one for me and one for himself out of pink construction paper.

Valentine Exchange

The valentine exchange at school was a big hit with Linus. He needed to prepare 15 cards for classmates and two for his teachers. He used some that came in his Highlights High Five magazine and some that I printed off the net. He cut all of them out by himself and did a decent job of writing his name on the back of all of them. I doubt that anyone could read his name because he signed some of them with just a few letters of his name and on some he used some stamper markers to create letters by stamping in the shape. I was amazed he stuck with it to complete all of them. He also stamped them with hearts and lips and stuck plenty of stickers on them. He even made one for himself!

I enjoyed watching him pull all of the cards from his decorated bag. A fair number of them were handmade and some came with sweets. He ate all of the sweets in one sitting: two iced cookies, two Tootsie rolls, a mini pack of M&Ms, and a mini pack of Sweet Tart conversation hearts. He liked that there were words on the latter. He was most excited about the dinosaur card from Ethan and the heart from his teachers. They attached a little container of Play-do to it.

He has developed a preference for wearing button-down shirts. He looks very handsome in them. Matthew wears button-down shirts five days a week (he also looks handsome), so perhaps that is influencing him. He found a blue and yellow vertical striped button-down at the store today and was crushed when I told him it was a size 6.

I made him the felt heart to go over a button on his shirt. His teachers asked about it right away and he proudly told them, "Mama gave it to me when she came up from her shower!"

Preschool Update

We are all enamored with Linus' preschool, so we are signing him up to attend one more year there. He is always excited to go there and is full of joy telling me about what he did that day. They made crystals on Friday and even though he could tell me they used water, food coloring, and Borax, I have no idea how they made them. He told me to find out how because he wants to do them at home, too. Heidi has had the kids practice writing their first names each day. Last week when I picked him up he announced, "I wrote an 's'! All by myself! I thought about it while I wrote the other letters. And then I tried it and wrote it. I wanted to try it so you'd be proud of me." I cheered him on and told him, "I am proud of you. I'm proud of you for doing your best!"

He gets along with all of the kids, but he has noticed that three of the girls "really like each other a lot!" A couple of weeks ago those three were starting to act cliquey, but Heidi and Laura nipped that in the bud. They explained that everyone is friends at school. If someone says another kid can't play, then they've been instructed to say, "It's not okay to say you can't play." I'm amazed how effective this strategy is. They provide the kids with verbal tools to use in difficult situations and the kids put them to use and relationships run quite smoothly in class. My favorite continues to be, "Stop! I don't like that," which is declared while holding one's hand up and out like a stop sign. (Perhaps I should fly to Washington and provide a workshop to members of Congress.)

Some things Linus has said recently:

* I was on the couch recovering from a stomach flu and Matthew went to change the radio from news to classical music. As he did this Linus said," Yes, relaxing sick person music." Usually he refers to it as "pretty music."
*He was having a dessert of lego-shaped candies. He took a few pieces out of the bag and then told Matthew he could put the bag away. Matthew praised him and said, "Good job limiting yourself to a moderate amount of candy." Linus replied, "Thank you. But I don't know what moderate means."
*I was getting him out of the car and he asked, "Can we go to outer space?" I told him that we may be able to one day, but not at this time. "Why not?" he asked. I told him the fuel for rockets is really, really expensive. I love how he thinks that going to the rain forest, Hawaii, or space is like going to the library.
*Sometimes I'm surprised at how mature he has become. We had a friend joining us for dinner and Linus made such polite conversation with her. He told her his favorite foods are pancakes and blueberries. Rather than continuing on jabbering away, which how he is with us at the dinner table, he looked to Marie and asked, "What are your favorite foods?" A bit later he told her, "It is nice having you for dinner." Yay! I was cheering on the inside. She did get to witness a bit of a tantrum when Matthew hauled him off for a bath.
*He was playing with cars on the bathroom floor while I got ready in the morning and I overheard him say that one of the cars was being presidential. I queried, "Presidential?" He answered, "Yes. What does presidential mean?" "Well," I answered. "Being presidential means you are wise and make important decisions for a lot of people about big issues." He said, "Obama is presidential of everything."

(Pictures from the Denver Art Museum. Don't you love how cutting requires one to stick out their tongue in concentration?)

Ice Skating

We took Linus ice skating for the first time. Friends told us about a wonderful lake in Evergreen that offers ice skating. It was a beautiful setting. Linus' first time on the ice started with a fall. Why? Because he jumped off the last step down onto the ice. He slipped and crashed right down. It was hard for me to keep from laughing. I helped him up and told him that he'd learned his first lesson: don't jump down onto the ice. He was really nervous about it in the beginning and after a trip to the bathroom within five minutes of our starting to skate, he started in asking for snack. We had to cheer him on and encourage him to keep trying. By the time we left he still needed to hold on to one of us, but he wasn't as nervous and proclaimed it "fun."

Cookie Party Photos

Our friend, Lon, took these photos at our cookie party. He has a fancy camera and I asked him to photograph the happenings as a favor to me.

Christmas Roundup 2009

We celebrated a quiet Christmas at home, preceded by numerous holiday gatherings with friends. We attended a singing party at Lon's and Wendy's. She is a pianist and hosted a party at which we all gathered around her piano and sang Christmas carols. Linus was the only kid there for much of the evening. He danced the Nutcracker while we sang. He was also alone in the living room with the desserts, which suited him perfectly. We hosted our second annual Christmas cookie party and had four cookie sheets in rotation for several hours. Linus has gotten quite good at making cut-out cookies and ate many that afternoon. Baby Grace was less interested in the cookies and had more fun walking, walking, walking. She is too cute for words.

We had snow twice in the days leading up to Christmas and on Christmas Eve the three of us went sledding in City Park. We had a blast and Linus was kind enough to share his sled with us on a couple of runs. We all returned home with very rosy cheeks.

Linus has been building things all week with his new toys and inventing his own rules to his games. He continues to tell me that he had fun opening presents on Christmas. A few days later we went out to Parker to celebrate with Martha and Bill and Linus got a chance to sled there, too.

I'm now thinking about taking Linus ice skating.

(In the family photo we are modeling our scarves from Betsy.)

Snow Day

It started snowing last night around 8 and it hasn't quit. Linus and I were excited to run out to the living room this morning and peek out the window to see how much we got. We had a blast playing in it. The little hill in the front yard is perfect for Linus to sled down. He kept giggling and had me throw snowballs at him while he sledded. I built up a little berm of snow to prevent him from flying into the street. When we went inside his cheeks were rosy, nose was runny, and the smile on his face was huge. Then he ate the half of his lunch he hadn't eaten earlier. We sat on the couch to take a break and he ended up taking an hour and a half long nap next to me. It was delightful to be snuggling with him, sipping tea, stitching on the ornament I'm making for Matthew, and gazing out at the snow coming down. The Christmas tree was lit and holiday music was playing. I guess what I'm saying is that I felt like I was in heaven. It also didn't hurt that we have numerous sweets in the house.

Gingerbread House

We made our first gingerbread house together. Linus helped me make the dough and cut out the pieces. He and Matthew assembled it while I made the royal icing. I made the call the use a hot glue gun and to attach it to a shoe box because I could tell right away that it would be nearly impossible to assemble the uneven walls. I baked them on warped cookie sheets, so none of the walls were level. Of course Linus was very anxious for us to get to the decorating part and was thrilled with all of the candy we bought for it. Tonight I put a battery-operated tea light in it and we admired it with a glow shining through the windows. I had fun making the gingerbread owl, bunnies, and kids for it.

Ballet

The highlight of this week is that we took Linus to see the Colorado Ballet perform The Nutcracker. Leading up to yesterday we read the story and watched a DVD of it. That provided Linus plenty of opportunities to drill me with questions about it before we attended the performance. They provide cushioned booster seats at the Ellie Caulkins Opera House, so he was happily perched on the seat between the two of us. Matthew walked him down to look into the orchestra pit before the show and Linus told me the musicians sounded beautiful. What a joy it was for me to look over at his beaming face during the show. He especially like the dresses on the dancers for the Spanish dance. What a treat it was to have him lean over and whisper into my ear, "Their dresses are beautiful!" Some of the teenage performers were in the lobby after the show, holding boxes for donations. Linus was painfully shy about going up to one. He did manage to put the money in the box, but he was frozen in place when the ballerina spoke to him.

At dinner last night Matthew asked what everybody had learned that day. Linus told us he learned some new dance moves. He is still thinking about it today and told me yet again how much fun it was at the ballet.

Here are some things Linus has said recently:
When building a parking structure with blocks he said, "I'm being scientific in how I build this."

While playing with the letter magnets on the fridge: I'm going to spell omnivore." (In case you are wondering, he did not actually spell it.)

Spoken casually over breakfast: "So, when are we going to South America? I want to see all of the animals and pet a toucan."

We were settling in to play farm with the Playmobil and he explained to me that "First the farmers need to plow the fields. And then someone needs to go buy vegetable seeds. A whole lot of seeds because they are planting a lot. Then they plant the seeds. Do you like that agenda?"

I just took the snowy picture. Linus and Matthew are outside playing in the snow. We are all excited to have snow and tonight are going to see the lights at the Gardens. There are so many fun things to do in December with a child.

Linus and Friends

Linus wrote his name for the first time! When he handed it to me after school I was blown away. He acted like he'd always known how to write his name. He wrote it on an envelope that had a letter for Barrett, but I've stashed it away to keep.

Matthew and I went to Linus' first parent-teacher conference last week. Heidi says he has good fine and gross motor skills, migrates around to do all of the activities in the classroom, and has a great vocabulary. Her one suggestion of how he could improve? She said she would like it if Linus would share his ideas more. She had asked the kids what they were thankful for and called on Linus. He said, "I didn't have my hand raised." I had to laugh when she told us this. (He did have fun making this apple turkey.)

Heidi gave us a handout ahead of time to fill out and it included some questions for Linus. His favorite thing about school was playing on the rocket ship. The thing he said he didn't like was the time Hunter said he couldn't get onto the rocket ship. What he wanted to do at school that they hadn't done was play with Playmobil. He also wanted Heidi to know that he likes making puppets and loves his whole house.

Barrett came over to play last week and the two of them spent nearly the whole time pretending to be kitties or lions. They were adorable snuggling together on the couch. Linus became upset when Barrett said she was dead because a lion ate her. He came to me to be comforted and I reminded him it was just a game. Another time they had a bit of unrest was when Barrett told Linus she didn't want him to be the same animal she was being. He told her, "When you're being something, I'm so excited to be what you're being." His sensitivity makes him very sweet, but I find myself having to help him navigate through his hurt feelings.

Turkey Day

Matthew and Linus making cranberry sauce



Lots of love for everyone (Erin, Grace, Linus, Lisa)



Rich captured this adorable shot of Linus on the couch with Ziggy


We celebrated Thanksgiving with our friends from the neighborhood. Katie and Ziggy hosted at their house and we were joined by Erin, Brad, and Grace, as well as Lisa and Rich. The meal was delicious. Before dinner I enjoyed the goat cheese with blueberries in it. I need to find out where I can buy it. Linus went at the cheese board like he'd been doing it forever; wielding the cheese knives and everything. Everyone took turns entertaining the kids, who kept being incredibly cute. The next day Linus was still raving about Thanksgiving.

Linus and Grace

Our little Grace just turned one and has started walking! When Linus rode up to her house for her birthday party, she came walking over to meet him and check out his trike. Later on, she fell on the cement porch steps and got a big, ugly bump on her forehead, which reminded me of Linus' big bump at his first birthday party. (He fell into a steel dinosaur sculpture the day before his party.) Linus was proud of his gifts for her. He gave her a monkey book and fabric flower bracelet with a smiley face on it. She came over to our house the other morning while Erin went to the dentist. She had breakfast with us and neither she nor Linus focused very well on eating. They were more interested in playing.

Linus showed her his worm bin. We signed him up for weekly preschool programs at the Botanic Gardens and this week the topic was worms. He got to tear up paper for the worms' bedding, and put in compost and leaves. Right now the red wigglers are residing in his room. That is convenient for feeding them scraps from the kitchen, but I suspect we'll be moving them to the downstairs in the interest of creating space in his room.

Linus' latest thing is to start by asking me "why" and then following that up with, "How do you know?" Aaaaaaah! Sometimes it drives me batty.