This week Gabe is at Transformers camp--another theme week at the karate dojo where he had his Jedi Ninja training last month. This theme, I thought from the beginning, was a bit of a stretch, and based on what he's done at camp so far, it would appear that the theme was more a product of bandwagon-popularity-jumping-onto-thingy than of them having any real idea how they could cleverly incorporate fighting robots into karate training. So far the extent of Transformer involvement has been them watching two Transformers movies (the first two of the pretty awful new ones--neither of which I would have chosen to expose Gabe to yet, if ever). But, Gabe loves the camp anyway because it's out of the house and he's hanging out with new people and doing stuff all day.
Frankly, it's a relief to me that he feels this way about doing stuff. It proves that I am not having an entirely negative effect on his development. Norah I am a bit more concerned about because I can already tell that she and I have pretty much identical personality types. It's going to be a chore coaxing her into wanting to get out and do things (because, if she's like me, forcing her to do it is only going to guarantee that she will hate it and do whatever she can to sabotage things out of spite--being a passive-aggressive introvert can be such a chore sometimes).
Anyway, back to the sucking-to-be-a-parent part. Every morning we've been packing Gabe a lunch to take with him--a peanut butter/honey sandwich, some caprisuns or juice boxes, a big thing of water, and some various snacks like crackers or a banana or fruit snacks or whatever. The first two days, when I picked him up, I checked his little cooler to discover that he hadn't eaten anything but the fruit snacks. As soon as he got into the car, then, he tore into his food and ended up eating most of what was in the cooler on the drive home.
I grilled him for reasons why he didn't eat anything else while at camp both days as we drove home and each time he didn't really have anything to say. I tried to impress upon him the importance of eating his sandwich and the healthier foods in his cooler as his meal and having the snacks either as desert or for their snack breaks or he'd run the risk of feeling like crap and not having enough energy to get through the day.
He responded by telling me that he'd figured out how to open the fruit snacks on his own--something he had done here at the house several times, so I wasn't sure how that related to anything and just filed that bit of information away in the "Things My Kids Think Are Important for Some Reason" file.
Yesterday morning, then, after I prepared his lunch, I reiterated the importance of him eating at least his sandwich at lunch time and then moving on to the other things in his cooler. After that, I asked again why he hadn't been eating the sandwich. And he said something a bit troubling.
"I didn't want to make a mess on my face with the sandwich."
I went back into the kitchen and finished packing up his cooler, and while I did, I thought about what he'd said a bit. Then I pulled the filed information about the fruit snacks out. While he HAD opened the fruit snacks at home before, he'd always done it with scissors, never by tearing open the packaging. What he meant was that he had figured out how to open the fruit snacks, on his own, without asking for any help and without using an scissors (which he didn't have access to). And then he had only eaten those fruit snacks that he could open without help. And he didn't want to eat the sandwich because it made a mess of his face. And he's probably the youngest kid in this class full of mostly bigger kids . . . .
It all came together and started to make sense. Gabe wasn't eating the sandwich because he was embarrassed about making a mess of himself with it (he, like my brother Ben, has a weird ability to always get food on himself no matter how careful or attentive he's being--though, admittedly, he's never being that careful or attentive either). And he was only eating the fruit snacks because it was something he could manage on his own, that he KNEW he could manage on his own and felt comfortable tackling in front of the bigger kids.
In other words, Gabe was tackling his first awkward social situation and dealing with a very early instance of peer pressure. When I put all the pieces together, my heart sunk. Every parent, I'm sure, wants their child to be "the cool kid" who can do no wrong and intuitively cruises through school suffering no ill effects from the myriad pitfalls of social development. Or, failing that, every parent would love to shield their child from suffering through all those awful situations--and I am no different.
I, of course, had to empathize with Gabe more than sympathize. Since I was always "the cool kid," I really don't have a wealth of personal heartbreak and social awkwardness to fall back on to help me relate to what it's like, but I have a pretty well-developed sense of compassion and recognition. And I compassioned and recognized what Gabe must have gone through those first two days of camp this week and wished more than anything that I could protect him from that sort of thing.
This, obviously, was a pretty minor situation, and there will be far greater and worse ones down the road, and I think that more than anything is what stung. It's the beginning of our baby growing up and figuring out the world, and that's something that he needs to do without us looking over his shoulder and pushing him one way or the other or he'll always need us there to make the tough decisions for him.
And that's great and it's part of life and all, but it still sucks.
So I provided him with a few more tools to help him adapt. I told him that if he just ate the crust on his sandwiches they wouldn't be rubbing up against his cheeks, getting peanut butter all over, and I provided him with some napkins so he could wipe his face when he inevitably didn't eat the crusts and still got peanut butter on his face.
Then, when I picked him up yesterday, I looked inside his cooler. He saw me looking, knew what I was check on, and, beaming, said, "I ate my sandwich today and didn't make a mess!"
Sweet victory. If only napkins could always be the answer.
Thursday, July 26, 2012
Thursday, July 12, 2012
Norah Goes Meta
Last night, Gabe decided that we needed to have another movie night. He's had two of them already this week and, I guess, found a rhythm. But, last night, there weren't any movies that Gabe wanted to watch. So he fished out a Baby Gabe movie.
About a year ago, I figured out how to burn DVDs on the laptop I had. I'd tried a couple times prior to get something to work on our desktop, but either it lacked the software or this computer just sucks (both, I think), and I could never get anything to work. But I did on the laptop, so I started to compile the videos I had of the kids--I got Gabe's first two years (on THREE DVDs--and keep in mind that I didn't start the blog until he was 18 months, so I'm guessing we'll have thirty or so disks if we put all of his stuff on DVD) and Norah's first year done. We started with one of Gabe's disks but then moved to Norah's.
She was mostly unimpressed with the movies. "That's Norah," she'd keep saying. It seemed she was thinking of herself as well as referring to herself in the third person. She watched but really didn't seem to be appreciating the fact that it was HER on the screen, just smaller.
Until Baby Norah started making noises that sound exactly like noises that Big Norah still makes (specifically the whining and the crying), and then we convinced her to start making the noises herself and I think she began to put the pieces together a little bit better.
About a year ago, I figured out how to burn DVDs on the laptop I had. I'd tried a couple times prior to get something to work on our desktop, but either it lacked the software or this computer just sucks (both, I think), and I could never get anything to work. But I did on the laptop, so I started to compile the videos I had of the kids--I got Gabe's first two years (on THREE DVDs--and keep in mind that I didn't start the blog until he was 18 months, so I'm guessing we'll have thirty or so disks if we put all of his stuff on DVD) and Norah's first year done. We started with one of Gabe's disks but then moved to Norah's.
She was mostly unimpressed with the movies. "That's Norah," she'd keep saying. It seemed she was thinking of herself as well as referring to herself in the third person. She watched but really didn't seem to be appreciating the fact that it was HER on the screen, just smaller.
Until Baby Norah started making noises that sound exactly like noises that Big Norah still makes (specifically the whining and the crying), and then we convinced her to start making the noises herself and I think she began to put the pieces together a little bit better.
Wednesday, July 11, 2012
Ruhtreat!
So, a little while ago, Gabe decided that he wanted to play with his armies. He's going through a bit of a needy phase right now. He is loath to do ANYTHING by himself for some reason. Every activity, every game, every sessions of star wars or legos or drawing or painting or swimming or everything he wants someone to do it with him. Well, not "someone." Pretty much me until Libby gets home. Norah is not an option.
And I understand why, too. Norah isn't much fun for him to play with. The other condition of playing with Gabe is that I have to do everything that he wants me to do it. He makes the rules and I have to do everything the way he wants. So, when we play, let's say Star Wars, we'll stand guys up and then he will tell me which guys get shot, by whom, and what happens to them. And then I am supposed to enact it. He's more or less becoming the director of play activities in our house, calling all the shots so that his vision of how things should work out comes to fruition.
But Norah isn't much for doing what she's told. She does pretty much whatever she wants. And usually she wants to play with whatever Gabe is playing with and do what he's doing with it--unless, an this is the important distinction, Gabe WANTS her to do what he's doing with it. Then she does something else, usually something mean like throw the toy away or hit Gabe with it.
This morning, Gabe wanted to play armies. I knew what this meant. He wanted me to sit next to him and stand up thirty or so little army guys. Then we would grab one at random and knock that one against all of the other ones, knocking them all down in about two seconds. And then the game would be over. But as soon as he told me to sit down next to him and play armies, Norah rushed in and demanded that she sit in the chair he'd chosen for me and play with the armies.
"Super," I said. "You can play with Norah!" But he wasn't excited by the prospects at all. Eventually, I negotiated a truce wherein Norah was allowed to play with Gabe's stuff, but Gabe got to make the rules and Norah had to follow them. I had little hope that this was going to work out since Norah alone makes the rules for Norah right now. But it got the kids playing together, so whatever.
And they got along pretty well. They had to compromise and each of them got to make the rules in turns, and Norah never actually followed a single one of Gabe's rules, but he was mostly able to ignore that fact and they played for almost an hour at the table.
At one point, they both started doing this:
I'm not entirely sure how the word was introduced into their vocabularies, and I'm even more uncertain how they were confusing it with it's exact opposite: "attack!" But there you go.
And I understand why, too. Norah isn't much fun for him to play with. The other condition of playing with Gabe is that I have to do everything that he wants me to do it. He makes the rules and I have to do everything the way he wants. So, when we play, let's say Star Wars, we'll stand guys up and then he will tell me which guys get shot, by whom, and what happens to them. And then I am supposed to enact it. He's more or less becoming the director of play activities in our house, calling all the shots so that his vision of how things should work out comes to fruition.
But Norah isn't much for doing what she's told. She does pretty much whatever she wants. And usually she wants to play with whatever Gabe is playing with and do what he's doing with it--unless, an this is the important distinction, Gabe WANTS her to do what he's doing with it. Then she does something else, usually something mean like throw the toy away or hit Gabe with it.
This morning, Gabe wanted to play armies. I knew what this meant. He wanted me to sit next to him and stand up thirty or so little army guys. Then we would grab one at random and knock that one against all of the other ones, knocking them all down in about two seconds. And then the game would be over. But as soon as he told me to sit down next to him and play armies, Norah rushed in and demanded that she sit in the chair he'd chosen for me and play with the armies.
"Super," I said. "You can play with Norah!" But he wasn't excited by the prospects at all. Eventually, I negotiated a truce wherein Norah was allowed to play with Gabe's stuff, but Gabe got to make the rules and Norah had to follow them. I had little hope that this was going to work out since Norah alone makes the rules for Norah right now. But it got the kids playing together, so whatever.
And they got along pretty well. They had to compromise and each of them got to make the rules in turns, and Norah never actually followed a single one of Gabe's rules, but he was mostly able to ignore that fact and they played for almost an hour at the table.
At one point, they both started doing this:
Thursday, July 5, 2012
Summer Camp, Part 2: The EnGabening
Norah had her camp for a week, and during that time Gabe and I had "man time" in the mornings. We never managed to do much of importance during our man time, but he greatly appreciated just having me to himself for a few hours.
The next week it was Gabe's turn for camp. It was actually a pretty good experiment for what school would be like coming up this fall. Each day of camp started at 9:00 and ran until 3:00--the longest period that Gabe had ever been away from the house AND the first continuous string of busy days without the benefit of any nap times. He's not really been using his nap times anyway for awhile now--though I've continued to insist the two kids go to their beds and do quiet things for an hour or two every day simply because I am a tyrant who likes me some kids out of my hair for a little while each day--but he's also never gone a long stretch without at least having the option for a nap there.
And he did great on both counts. He also had swimming lessons each night that week (something else we're working on this summer--both kids are progressing . . . swimmingly), so it was an especially busy, active week. But he made it through and loved pretty much every minute of it.
Gabe's camp was called Jedi Ninja Camp. Yeah. They couldn't have possibly created a concept more unlikely to live up to the potential of its name, right? I mean, Jedi training is one thing. Jedis are cool. Using the force is cool. Cutting things with lightsabers is cool. That alone would have been pretty awesome. But then they multiplied the awesomeness exponentially by adding the ninja component. Ninjas hide in the shadows, which is cool. Ninjas kill with stealth and guile, which is cool. Ninjas use throwing stars, which is cool. Combining ninja skills with Jedi skills would effectively create the perfect weapon (though, technically, the Jedi wouldn't be using ninja skills because assassination is the point of ninjaing, and Jedi don't work that way--just to split hairs a bit).
So there was little chance this was going to live up to the hype. Gabe didn't find out about the camp until a few days before, because we didn't want him pestering us fifty times a day for multiple weeks asking us when his camp started or what he was going to be doing there. But those two days provided ample opportunity for him to build up the classes in his head to mythical proportions. I think he pretty much assumed that he was going to be doing ACTUAL Jedi training--like Luke on Dagobah or . . . something with someone from the shitty prequels, I don't remember what happened in those movies well enough to remember any training sequences.
There's a pretty specific way this training sequence should have played out, too. With a traditional 80s training montage. And there's only one song that would fit to play in the background--"You're the Best" by Joe Esposito. When I let this little storyline play out in my head--Gabe training to be a ninja Jedi, with music playing in the background as he progressed from training one skill to another, gradually gaining confidence and skill, my brain immediately started playing that song. It didn't go with "Eye of the Tiger" or "You've Got the Touch" from the Transformers movie or even the theme song to the Greatest American Hero (which I have to admit is only about two leaps away for my brain to go to pretty much all the time), and after I did a search to find that song on Youtube I figured out why. Because it's from the Karate Kid.
And I'm pretty sure that something similar was playing out in Gabe's head, too, in expectation of this camp. I'm reasonably sure that he was convinced that he would be able to actually use the force after his training. So I was a little concerned that he would be HUGELY disappointed in the camp when he figured out that he wasn't going to train to be a Jedi OR a ninja during that time.
But he wasn't. He had a great time. And he'll be going back towards the end of this month for a Transformers camp. How Transformers and a karate dojo go together, I have no idea. But it should prove pretty fun for him all the same.
Sadly, we didn't get a lot of pictures or video of his camp. Norah and I went to the camp a little early the first day so I could watch a bit, and I got some video of that. And then Libby joined them one day when they went to an acrobatics academy and did some training there (they filled the afternoons with stuff like that and going to movies and such because, let's face it, trying to get that many kids that age to do actual karate training for an entire day would be about impossible) and got a couple pictures and a bit of video.
But here's what we got.
And again Blogger isn't letting me separate these videos or even move them away from that last picture. I swear, how tough is it to create a blog website that doesn't suck?
The first two videos are of the obstacle course Gabe went through the first day. The last video is from the acrobatics academy. Since I can't watch the videos again or anything while they are loading, and I'm too lazy to wait to see what they are, I guess you'll just have to watch them and figure out what's going on.
The next week it was Gabe's turn for camp. It was actually a pretty good experiment for what school would be like coming up this fall. Each day of camp started at 9:00 and ran until 3:00--the longest period that Gabe had ever been away from the house AND the first continuous string of busy days without the benefit of any nap times. He's not really been using his nap times anyway for awhile now--though I've continued to insist the two kids go to their beds and do quiet things for an hour or two every day simply because I am a tyrant who likes me some kids out of my hair for a little while each day--but he's also never gone a long stretch without at least having the option for a nap there.
And he did great on both counts. He also had swimming lessons each night that week (something else we're working on this summer--both kids are progressing . . . swimmingly), so it was an especially busy, active week. But he made it through and loved pretty much every minute of it.
Gabe's camp was called Jedi Ninja Camp. Yeah. They couldn't have possibly created a concept more unlikely to live up to the potential of its name, right? I mean, Jedi training is one thing. Jedis are cool. Using the force is cool. Cutting things with lightsabers is cool. That alone would have been pretty awesome. But then they multiplied the awesomeness exponentially by adding the ninja component. Ninjas hide in the shadows, which is cool. Ninjas kill with stealth and guile, which is cool. Ninjas use throwing stars, which is cool. Combining ninja skills with Jedi skills would effectively create the perfect weapon (though, technically, the Jedi wouldn't be using ninja skills because assassination is the point of ninjaing, and Jedi don't work that way--just to split hairs a bit).
So there was little chance this was going to live up to the hype. Gabe didn't find out about the camp until a few days before, because we didn't want him pestering us fifty times a day for multiple weeks asking us when his camp started or what he was going to be doing there. But those two days provided ample opportunity for him to build up the classes in his head to mythical proportions. I think he pretty much assumed that he was going to be doing ACTUAL Jedi training--like Luke on Dagobah or . . . something with someone from the shitty prequels, I don't remember what happened in those movies well enough to remember any training sequences.
There's a pretty specific way this training sequence should have played out, too. With a traditional 80s training montage. And there's only one song that would fit to play in the background--"You're the Best" by Joe Esposito. When I let this little storyline play out in my head--Gabe training to be a ninja Jedi, with music playing in the background as he progressed from training one skill to another, gradually gaining confidence and skill, my brain immediately started playing that song. It didn't go with "Eye of the Tiger" or "You've Got the Touch" from the Transformers movie or even the theme song to the Greatest American Hero (which I have to admit is only about two leaps away for my brain to go to pretty much all the time), and after I did a search to find that song on Youtube I figured out why. Because it's from the Karate Kid.
And I'm pretty sure that something similar was playing out in Gabe's head, too, in expectation of this camp. I'm reasonably sure that he was convinced that he would be able to actually use the force after his training. So I was a little concerned that he would be HUGELY disappointed in the camp when he figured out that he wasn't going to train to be a Jedi OR a ninja during that time.
But he wasn't. He had a great time. And he'll be going back towards the end of this month for a Transformers camp. How Transformers and a karate dojo go together, I have no idea. But it should prove pretty fun for him all the same.
Sadly, we didn't get a lot of pictures or video of his camp. Norah and I went to the camp a little early the first day so I could watch a bit, and I got some video of that. And then Libby joined them one day when they went to an acrobatics academy and did some training there (they filled the afternoons with stuff like that and going to movies and such because, let's face it, trying to get that many kids that age to do actual karate training for an entire day would be about impossible) and got a couple pictures and a bit of video.
But here's what we got.
Gabe practicing sword moves. They spent a fair bit of time learning how to thrust, apparently. That and defending while holding a sword straight up and down were the only two things he talked about specifically afterwards.
 | ||||
| Gabe in the foam pit during the acrobatics training. Not a whole lot of story to go with on this one as I wasn't there and there weren't many other pictures of him from that day to work with. My guess is they were learning how to levitate these light foam blocks with the force to start their training. |
The first two videos are of the obstacle course Gabe went through the first day. The last video is from the acrobatics academy. Since I can't watch the videos again or anything while they are loading, and I'm too lazy to wait to see what they are, I guess you'll just have to watch them and figure out what's going on.
Summer Camp, Part 1
This year marks the beginning of what I'm sure will become a summer tradition in our household: summer camp season. Summer camp is a pretty foreign notion to me. I mean, we had our own version of camp growing up. It was called Going Deaf on a Cabless Tractor in 105 Degree Heat for Twelve Hours a Day Throughout Most of the Summer Camp. Beyond that, my only experience with summer camps derives from what I learned from movies like Meatballs and Friday the 13th. Needless to say, when I learned that camps don't always include Bill Murray or the murdering of the promiscuous, I was immediately confused.
But, apparently, when you live in town, you have to pay good money to get rid of your kids so you don't go insane over a summertime. That's a concept I'm just now starting to grasp, also. Summer sucks for a whole new reason now. Even though our kids were only going to preschool two mornings a week, somehow that got them out into the world enough for them to not be insane the entirety of the week. In fact, they were mostly tolerable. But, since they finished up with school, it's like their stir crazy kicked into high gear and now they are both always at each others' throats about everything and fighting and bickering. So I can only imagine what it's going to be like after both kids are used to having school to keep them busy for the better part of each day. I'm mentally preparing myself for the suck already.
Anyway, in the big city, people pay other people to entertain their kids for a few hours a day so those kids aren't in the house anymore. And, frankly, it's awesome! I wish we had unlimited funds so we could stick the kids in camps all summer. They loved it and I loved it. Everyone loved it. But, sadly, we only had the funds to stick them each into a camp or two this summer, and over the last few weeks, they've both had a camp.
I was originally just going to do another huge post that got both of their camps together, but we have a lot of pictures and videos of their camps, so I will break them up. I'll start with Norah's camp.
Norah did a dance camp--she called it Fairy Princess Dance Camp. It was every morning for a week, and she butt dug it. They did all sorts of things. I guess. Every day I asked her what she did and she'd say something like "We drew a picture" or "I danced." And that was about all I got out of her. Not much in the way of specifics.
Have I mentioned how well Norah grasps the concept of music? She can pretty nearly carry a tune now. She sings all the time. I guess I have to chalk it up to a natural inclination for music. She has been exposed to exactly the same amount of music as Gabe has been (quite a lot, actually, as I like music and we've always had something playing in their bedroom through the days and nights--and then most pre-k shows these days have some sort of musical element to them). I think Gabe likes music well enough, and he sometimes tries to sing a song here and there, but it certainly seems like he doesn't have a knack for it. But it seems to come pretty naturally for Norah.
Anyway, she loved Fairy Princess Dance Camp because she likes music, she likes dancing, and she loves fairy princessing. At the end of the week they had a recital, which we all were invited to watch. And this was when I was able to get some decent pictures of her doing stuff.
And here are the videos from the fairy recital. Again, blogger won't let me split them up and comment on them individually, so I'll just leave them here to finish watching.
But, apparently, when you live in town, you have to pay good money to get rid of your kids so you don't go insane over a summertime. That's a concept I'm just now starting to grasp, also. Summer sucks for a whole new reason now. Even though our kids were only going to preschool two mornings a week, somehow that got them out into the world enough for them to not be insane the entirety of the week. In fact, they were mostly tolerable. But, since they finished up with school, it's like their stir crazy kicked into high gear and now they are both always at each others' throats about everything and fighting and bickering. So I can only imagine what it's going to be like after both kids are used to having school to keep them busy for the better part of each day. I'm mentally preparing myself for the suck already.
Anyway, in the big city, people pay other people to entertain their kids for a few hours a day so those kids aren't in the house anymore. And, frankly, it's awesome! I wish we had unlimited funds so we could stick the kids in camps all summer. They loved it and I loved it. Everyone loved it. But, sadly, we only had the funds to stick them each into a camp or two this summer, and over the last few weeks, they've both had a camp.
I was originally just going to do another huge post that got both of their camps together, but we have a lot of pictures and videos of their camps, so I will break them up. I'll start with Norah's camp.
Norah did a dance camp--she called it Fairy Princess Dance Camp. It was every morning for a week, and she butt dug it. They did all sorts of things. I guess. Every day I asked her what she did and she'd say something like "We drew a picture" or "I danced." And that was about all I got out of her. Not much in the way of specifics.
Have I mentioned how well Norah grasps the concept of music? She can pretty nearly carry a tune now. She sings all the time. I guess I have to chalk it up to a natural inclination for music. She has been exposed to exactly the same amount of music as Gabe has been (quite a lot, actually, as I like music and we've always had something playing in their bedroom through the days and nights--and then most pre-k shows these days have some sort of musical element to them). I think Gabe likes music well enough, and he sometimes tries to sing a song here and there, but it certainly seems like he doesn't have a knack for it. But it seems to come pretty naturally for Norah.
Anyway, she loved Fairy Princess Dance Camp because she likes music, she likes dancing, and she loves fairy princessing. At the end of the week they had a recital, which we all were invited to watch. And this was when I was able to get some decent pictures of her doing stuff.
The "costume" she wore for her "recital."
The fairy princess wand Norah helped make during the week.
The recital started with a storytime where everyone involved got to hear one of the interactive stories they had worked on during the week. Something about animals singing or something. Norah sat on the instructor's lap and seemed less than impressed throughout.
The dance part of the recital was a story about princesses sleeping and waking up to dance out in the forest. Or something. Princesses dancing is what it boiled down to, and that's all that mattered.
Norah dancing.
Still dancing. The big girl she's dancing with was the "oldest sister" of the dancers. Hmm. First Norah was sitting on the instructor's lap, then she dances with the oldest sister. She seems to be hogging all the important people. I can't say that I'm surprised, though. She is a diva, so paying extra attention to her was probably easier than the alternative.
Still dancing. It was really a quite long dance with lots or moving around in circles around the room.
Finally the sister princesses returned to bed and some authority figure or other came to check their feet to see if they had been out during the night. This family has some trust issues--but I guess considering their feet ended up dirty from dancing in the forest, those trust issues were justified.
And then the dance was over and they bowed.
Still bowing I guess. Not sure why I included two pictures of basically the same thing. But I did, so here it is.
This picture is unrelated to the dance camp, but I thought it was a pretty awesome picture, so I shared it anyway.
And here are the videos from the fairy recital. Again, blogger won't let me split them up and comment on them individually, so I'll just leave them here to finish watching.
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