What does that mean?

Tyler is now asking for the meaning of words, many of which are words we've used for a while. But alas, I'm now finding myself struggling to define such words as: Routine, lend, determined, and estimate. They sound so grown up seeing them in writing but they were all used in child-oriented context...like Gavin is determined to get to the candy I hid on the top shelf, or I would estimate you've been watching TV for the past three hours. Anyway, last night at dinner he proudly announced that he told his class what 'canceled' means. When asked to elaborate, Tyler went on to say Ms. Jenny told Juniper she might need to cancel share day if the kids don't cooperate. Juniper asked what canceled means and Tyler said he knows what it means. So as Tyler tells it, Ms. Jenny had him stand in front of the class and tell everyone what it means. He said "Canceled means it doesn't happen." Way to go buddy boy. He went on to tell Ms. Jenny that the reason he knows what it means is mommy said she would have to call Mack and cancel his party if Tyler didn't take a nap on Sunday. Apparently Juniper's mommy doesn't throw the threats around the way I do. I even went so far as to pick up the phone and begin to dial numbers that day. Tyler fell asleep within two minutes of that episode.

Being Pirates

Mudder's Day

We had a lovely Mudder's Day as Tyler calls it. When he woke up, he trotted into our room with a gift he had made a the playcenter on Friday. A very cute picture book with this picture of him they had taken. He looks really super pissed off in the picture and knowing how much he dislikes going to crafts at the playcenter, I'm sure he was. We talked about this a lot because when we read books, he's always asking me why Emily Elizabeth looks sad on one page of the Clifford book, and why is the little boy doing that face in our latest fav book A Fly Went By. So I asked Tyler why he was frowning in the picture. He said he didn't know why, but it did explain why when I picked him up that day at the gym his eyes looked like he had been crying. Anyway, I bet from now on he'll enjoy Friday's crafts a lot more after seeing how happy he made me, and how surprised he made daddy, with the gift.

After a yummy made to order breakfast (french toast for the boys, omelette for me), we headed off to Roseville Galleria because Shawn and I realized that Gavin has only been to that awesome playground twice in his life and we took Tyler there at least every couple of weeks when he was a little one. This is the coolest playground ever, all the climbing structures are squishy and soft, and it's surrounded by my favorite: Shopping! We had a very nice time for Mudder's Day and as I tucked the boys in they both gave me extra love and hugs and kisses. What a lucky mommy.

What's that smell?

Time for me to do some research about 4-year old development...all of a sudden, Tyler has a sense of smell. Does it magically appear at this age or what? Every place we go, Tyler comments on smells. At the grocery store's fish counter, Tyler asked if I can smell that stink. At the gas station, Tyler asked what that smell was. When I looked and saw an old semi truck driving by, I said it was the smell of diesel fuel which he declared smelled good. I think so too. In the bathtub, in the living room, at the park, all these places he's been many times before, suddenly there is a smell to everything. I thought this was funny until Sunday when we had the Rusks and Bessettes over for brunch. We were all sitting around the table enjoying ourselves when Tyler turned to me and asked me if I farted because he could smell something. Nice.

RELYT Follow Up

Blogging is a wonderful thing. Tyler's whole backwards name writing thing has been bugging me for months but I haven't done anything to research it until I finally put it down in writing yesterday. Since then, I spent a couple hours researching 4-year olds who write their names backwards by visiting medical websites, message boards, parenting sites, and comments left here (thanks Grammy Dee). Lo and behold, much to my relief, this is a common thing in 4-year olds, especially lefties! Ahhh I feel so much better about this now I can cross it off my long list of things to worry about. Turns out here's a whole bunch of issues and problems lefthanded children deal with and we're just scratching the surface at the age of 4 with this.

• Safety scissors say they're for right or left handed kids but he can only use them with his right hand, which leads to choppy cutting which leads to a frustrated boy.
  
• Eating at a restaurant I find myself learning to remember to sit Tyler on the outside of the booth so he doesn't collide elbows with me.
  
• Did you know lefties also tend to write their letters and numbers from bottom up? Neither did I until I did my research and watched Tyler form some funky F's and E's last night.

Well, this whole lefty thing is new for us so it will be fun to learn as we go. Next time he exudes some strange behavior, I'll stop and wonder if it's because he's a lefty!

RELYT

Tyler is good at writing his name. Backwards, that is. He is also really good at writing it upside down. In fact, I'll never forget the sickening feeling I got in the pit of my stomach when I was showing him how to write his name in the sand, and he wrote his name exactly upside down and backwards. I really need to see if this is normal development for beginning writers like Shawn keeps assuring me, or if we need to get him checked for dyslexia. Sunday he signed a birthday card for Sophia and check it out...he explained that he messed up and ran out of room for the R and that's why it's at the "beginning", when really, that's the only accurate part of the whole thing.