Playing catch-up

I don't know which is harder to do in the 21st century- raise a child or keep up with posting about him.  I blame Facebook for my dwindling blog posts.  Or maybe I should blame Aaron for not taking naps.

September 9th we celebrated the "Dunn bicentennial".  My mom and Eli turned 65 and Billy turned 70.  There was a small gathering in Connecticut to mark this most auspicious occasion.  My mother gave a speech (naturally), but there were neither #2 pencils nor handouts!  No quizzes, no banners, no color-coded packets!  I shudder to think what the sesquicentennial will look like.  Will we just text each other?

 Halloween came and went with a hurricane you might have heard of.  We had one hour without power but were otherwise fine.  Our beloved Cape May got battered but the ocean did not breech the boardwalk.  Other parts of the shore are still recovering.  The halloween parade at LLA still went on, thank goodness.  What a terrible disappointment it would have been to miss it.  Here's a little video of Aaron's class- he is the black angry bird with the poorly fitting costume.  I love the little girl who looks like she is just about to board the Titanic.

 

In early November, we went back to Massachusetts and hung out with my brother for a day or two and then met up with cousins Reuben and Alessandra to see Prokofiev's "Peter and the Wolf" at the Symphony Hall in Boston.  Aaron's reaction after 20 minutes of the concert: "The orchestra is great and now I am ready to leave it."  We got to ride the T, too, which was a highlight.  Since we are Gen-Xers, we picked up lunch at Whole Foods and ate outside at a sculpture, which was probably not intended as a playground.

On the way back from New England, we stopped in Brooklyn to visit Margie, Billeh and Sule.  Aaron wanted a picture in the pullout couch bed.  It was a very exciting place to sleep.

 Thanksgiving brought family plus 3 of Jonathan's Somalilander students who are studying in the US- Mohammed, CK, and Naima.  Aaron naturally thought of them as playmates for him and had a wonderful time. 

Now we are getting ready for gift season- Chanukah, Christmas and birthday.  It gets a little gross from our perspective, but Aaron thinks it's fantastic.  I explained the antiseptic version of Chanukah to him, which he seemed to accept.  Then, he asked me about Christmas.  Not satisfied with, "that's really daddy's department," he pressed me for information.  I gave him the bare outline: There was a baby named Jesus who was born a long time ago.  He said and did lots of wonderful things.  He wanted people to be kind to the poor, to treat each other with respect and to work to bring about peace on Earth.  Lots of people followed him.  When he died, his followers thought he went into the sky and became a god.  I was pretty proud of this.  Aaron thought about it a minute, sat bolt upright in bed and asked, "So, why does Santa come?"  I said I didn't know.  He replied, "Wouldn't it be better if people just gave each other gifts?!?"  My little skeptic.  But I am NOT going to be the mother of the kid who ruined Santa for all the other kids at preschool.  My answer to him, "There are some things even mommy can't explain."

Ready for any intruders in our kitchen.

(I wish a contractor would intrude and fix it up!)

Summer pictures

Learning to use a fire hose at a town fair

Fireman Aaron

Talking while driving.  He is Alan Starr's grandson, after all

Our visit to the shore included trying new candies, ice cream every night, a visit to the Cape May Lighthouse, a trip to the Cape May Zoo and lots of beach time.

 

We went to Massachusetts for my mom's 65th birthday and spent a morning with cousins Reuben and Alessandra.  I love this picture.

I wish my ride was this comfy

Questions

I know, two months.  I owe some pictures.  They are coming in the next post.  I have no excuse outside of being distracted by this little boy who lives in my house.  He just has so many questions that need immediate answers!  Where is my green car?  No, the other green car!  Why do you have to work?  Why are there wars?  Are we still at war with Germany?  This last one is in the context of his many recent questions about WWII. 

A few nights ago, Aaron, Mike and I were reading a book called "Rosie's Family", which is a very well done book for preschoolers about adoption.  The gist is that Rosie, a small spaniel type of dog, is the daughter in a family of schnauzers.  She knows she was adopted, but sometimes she has questions and feels confused.  The book does a nice job of explaining "birth parents" and "parents" and that her schnauzer mom and dad are her parents.  At the end of the book is a page of questions and answers for parents of adopted kids.  
     Aaron: What does it say on this page?
     Me: It's stuff for grown-ups that doesn't get read out loud.
     Aaron: Like what kind of stuff?
     Me: questions
     Mike: Aaron, do you have any questions for us?
     Aaron: Well, I do have an interesting question.
     Mike and I leaned forward anticipating what was likely to be a very serious adoption question.
     Aaron: Why are kids' feet so much smaller than grown-ups' feet?

Phew!!  I can TOTALLY answer that one.  I would look ridiculous with toddler sized feet.  Done!  I chuckled about this all day monday, until he came home from pre-K looking forlorn.  I asked what was up.

     Aaron: I'm just a little bit sad.
     Me: About what?
     Aaron: I'm a little bit sad about my parents in Vietnam.  I really miss them.
     Me: burst into tears.

I feel not unlike the Bush administration on 9/11.  I knew this was coming eventually.  I had a lot of intelligence in the form of books and internet information.  The boundaries were being pushed.  But on the day of the event, I was caught totally unprepared.   Aaron has only mentioned it once since Monday night but it took him a good hour to recover.  I'm still working on it. 

"Dress like mom or dad day" at school today

Summer fun

Aaron has been taking swimming "lessons" at the pool.  Here he is with his teacher, Eddie, who he loved.  "Eddie's my friend.  Actually, he's kind of like a best friend."  While I don't think Aaron will be ready for the 2016 Olympics, he understands using his arm and legs to swim with his swim vest on and he is very comfortable in the water.

We went to the zoo yesterday, which was also great.  He loved the giraffes, the big cats and the rare animals.  We were honored by a tiger when she sprayed the glass right where we were in order to mark her territory.  Aaron thought it was the funniest thing he'd ever seen.

I will not smile

Fourth of July, etc.

We spent the 4th of July with friends Eileen, Shawn and Cassidy.  Cass and Aaron love playing together.  Aaron has already mentioned about 10 times that he misses her and wants to play with her again soon.  We watched the fireworks, which were great, with Aaron clamping my hands tightly over his ears to block out the sounds.  Next year, earplugs. 

Aaron has come up with some real gems recently.  The following are but a few examples:

Aaron: Mommy, who were The Beatles?
Me: They were a famous singing group that was around when Baba was young.
Aaron: Oh, like the Titanic?

Me: Do you know what famous means?
A: No.
Me: It means everyone knows you.
A: Like the Boss?  And Justin Beaver?
Me: How do you know about Justin Bieber?
A: Some kids at school were talking about him.

A: Mommy, what does freedom really mean?
Me: (silence).  That's a big question.

A: I want to be a doctor when I grow up.
Me: What kind of doctor?
A: A Cooper Hospital doctor so I can meet you at work!

A: Hi, lifeguard.  I like your whistle!

That last one was so cute.  Aaron is very into complimenting others, whether it is the lifeguard, the police officer (and his car), the musician (and his guitar) or the waitress (and her pen).  I am hoping it is a reflection of the self-confidence we have given him, but it's probably something he'll end up discussing in therapy when he's 25.

Early summer

We are having lots of summertime fun even though summer just began.  Aaron has become a good swimmer in the space of just a few weekends of the town pool being open.  Thankfully, it was open during the week last week when it hit 100 degrees here.  Mike came home right after court and we went to the pool to cool off.  It felt great.

Aaron and I also had a chance to visit with friends Max and Eli in Great Barrington.  They are the kids of Rebecca Gold, one of my oldest friends.  We were younger than these two when we met!

Mother's day and Father's day have passed, but not without Aaron's summaries of us.  I posted the mother's day one on facebook, but not everyone is on there.  Here they are:

Transformations

We are off cars and into Transformers now.  Here's Aaron transforming from robot to vehicle mode and back to robot.  Obviously.

First dentist appointment

Aaron had his first dentist appointment today and did great!!  He operated the Mister Thirsty most of the time and at one point turned it off, saying, "I don't want to waste the batteries".  He had a cleaning and some ultrasonic scaling done to his front teeth.  He also sat through a flouride treatment!  I was so proud of him. 

In unrelated news, Aaron's abstract art is really taking an exciting new turn.

The caption says: "Well this (pointing to the water) is a camouflaged whale.  Over here (pointing to the sky) is a shark jumping out of the sea."  I can totally see it.

Fancy dress

Aaron is mostly out of his car phase and into his superhero worship phase.  He likes to be a transformer and will fold himself into a crouched position by degrees, making a "chuh-chuh" sound with each fold.  It's hilarious.  Grandma Linda made him two capes to fly around in and she let Aaron pick out the material.  He picked American flag red and white striped, and a flashy silver lame.  When he pulls the silver one around him, he looks like one of the Supremes. 

He thinks everything has to do with fighting bad guys.  We went to the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia, which has all sorts of science-y stuff, recently, and he inspected a display of Ben Franklin's stuff- there were a pair of bifocals, a page from Poor Richard's Almanack, and a large commemorative medallion.  He identified them as "Ben Franklin's glasses, his book, and his shield."

It was also "Crazy Hat Day" at his school on monday.  I offered several good hat choices, but none of them were fancy enough.  So we sat down and made one according to his instructions (of course).  It had to be rainbow and he wanted to tape little pieces of paper on it to look like an airplane (they did not).  Guess who had the only kid there with a homemade hat?  Would Susan Starr's daughter send her kid in anything else?  You have to admit that it's REALLY fancy.

Let's go fly a kite

Aaron got a kite from Grandma in his Easter basket.  Yesterday was really windy, so we took the wagon and the dog to the park to do some kite flying.

He was so cute and ran around in circles until he was so exhausted he basically fell into the wagon.
I hope the video works this time.  I'll try the sword one again below:

ABCs

For some reason, I can't upload videos to blogger any more unless I take them with my phone.  The quality isn't nearly as good as with the camera, but it'll do.  I'll post the other ones on facebook.  It's early spring in NJ with temperatures yesterday above 80 and today in the 70's.  We were enjoying the park when Aaron decided to do some impromptu singing.

Aaron has also become obsessed with swords and has a stick "collection" on our front porch that rivals any armory.  We reached a low last night when we found the citrus grater he'd been using as a sword was next to the toilet.  Today, although I swore I would never buy my child an actual sword or gun, we went and picked out a Nerf sword.  He loves it.  After we had picked that out, he asked if he could also get a toy.  When I pointed out that he had just gotten a sword, he replied, "That's a weapon, mom, NOT a toy!" 

In the great tradition of knights, sir Aaron was pulled in a red wagon while wearing his Lightning McQueen sunglasses.

Four years old!

New stats from the pediatrician today:

Height 39.5 inches (38 inches last year); 29%ile
Weight 35 lbs (32 lbs last year); 41%ile
Ability to stop crying after getting a vaccination: 10%ile

Still not as big as a brachiosaurus.

The first thing Aaron asked me the day after he turned four was, "Am I five yet?"  Sometimes it feels like he is four, sometimes like he is 14.  He is alternately adorable, inquisitive, funny, lovey, and petulant.  Luckily, he is the former much more often than the latter.  He has definite opinions about what he likes (Power Rangers, cars, dinosaurs, mac and cheese) and doesn't like (bedtime, Indian food, vegetables).  He definitely doesn't like Mondays.  I feel like I am raising Garfield.

He had a good four year old birthday- cupcakes at school and a small party with family friends, including Baba and uncle Jonathan.  I put "no gifts" on the party email, which was silly.  He doesn't need anything, it had just been Chanukah and Christmas, and I don't want people to feel obliged to bring a present, but a four year old expects presents on his birthday.  He was a little disappointed that only a few people went against my wishes.  He was over it by the next day, but it was a rookie mistake. 

Cupcakes for school

We had a great visit with uncle Jonathan, who was in the US for a month.  We saw him in Worcester and then he came to NJ.  There is a little bit of competition between Aaron and Jon as regards my mom's favor.  My mom mentioned that she was going to Africa in the spring.  Aaron asked why, and she said, "Because my boy will be there."  Aaron's response: "I'm moving to Africa?"

Aaron was moved into the Red Room at school.  The Red room is the pre-K room.  He was in the Purple room, but he was not being challenged enough.  We would not have moved him, but the teachers thought that he should be in the next "grade" up.  Fine with me, but he is a year younger than some of the kids in the Red room and it hasn't been an easy transition.  He can do the work (and the homework!), which is mostly practicing writing letters and some sight reading words.  He loved his friends in the purple room, though, and that's been a little hard.  We are not moving him to kindergarten a year earlier, so those friends will join him in the red room in September.  It's preschool.  I don't want to over think it.

Practicing the letter P