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

The most wonderful time of the year

Whether or not this is the most wonderful time of the year, I can attest to the fact that it is fun with Aaron.  He is at the perfect age for all this crap.  Mike and I are those parents who tell their son that Santa is pretend, but Aaron doesn't buy our lies for a single second.  We went to our town's tree lighting ceremony, at the end of which Santa makes an appearance on the roof of City Hall and climbs (precariously) down a firetruck ladder.  Whenever I say that Santa isn't real, he retorts, "You were there when he climbed down the ladder.  You saw him!"  It's probably good that he has a healthy amount of skepticism for things we tell him.  I am surprised at how uncomfortable I am with the Christmas stuff.  It's not like I'm soooo Jewish.  But Aaron knows about Chanukah and we'll light the menorah.  He goes to preschool now, so he pointed out that we do not light the kinara.  Does anyone celebrate Kwanzaa anymore?  It seems so '90s. 

We went to the home of one of my colleagues to decorate a gingerbread house yesterday.  It's a real production.  I went friday to help bake the pieces, which include melted lifesavers to make stained-glass windows.  By the end of the day yesterday, Aaron was covered in candy, frosting and "glue" (meringue fluff), as was his yellow car (see below)

In the beginning:

It's hard to tell, but on the right hand side, there are gummy dinosaurs attacking the house.  In front, of course, are cars, also attacking.

 

The "bumblebee car" gets an adornment.

 

 Painting cookies with a heavy hand.

 

The finished product.  No that's not the virgin Mary on top, that's Santa coming down the chimney.

Halloween!

 Halloween was a busy weekend in the Lovell house.  Mike & I had two parties and then trick-or-treating on monday.  Friday night, we went to a fundraiser for Aaron's school. We were told that all the parents come in costume, but we were among the 7%-ers who did.  At least we looked good.  It's hard to tell from this picture the level of detail of Mike's Captain Kirk jacket.  He became obsessed with finding the right pins and buttons.  He told everyone he was not Kirk, he was William Shatner. The fundraiser was pretty boring, but the big news is that I talked to a couple I didn't know.  And we had a great time talking.  And they wanted to get together so we exchanged phone numbers!  Take THAT, mommy-group-that-unfriended-me. 

Monday morning, was the Halloween parade at Little Learning Academy.  Aaron looked so cute in his puppy costume ("it is NOT a dog, it's a puppy").

A typical picture of 3-4 year olds: