Leo just asked me if he could watch Titty Titty Dang Dang. I laughed so hard, and he looked really confused. I need to start a dictionary of Gilbert-Kidisms, but it is hard to think of them because they are mostly part of my vocabulary now. I was talking to Gabe yesterday, and I told him that Benji "Slided off the couch." Jeff corrected me, "slid off the couch," he said. It is funny, because I love words, and I am generally very particular about how they are used. I started talking incorrectly to help the kids understand me without a lot of explanation for every sentence. Some days it seems like it takes 20 minutes just to get my meaning established for one idea. Another conversation this morning went something like this:
Gabe: Leo is using my doctor toys!
Me: They aren't your toys, they belong to our whole family.
Gabe: But they don't belong to you and daddy.
Me: My point is you have to share them.
Gabe: But they don't belong to you or daddy.
Me: We bought them.
Gabe: But you gave them to me for a present, and you can't take back a present.
Me: Okay, the doctor toys don't belong to me or daddy, we gave them to you.
Gabe: So I don't have to share them (He walks out of the room in victory, and I hear Leo scream in agony as another toy is ripped from his grasp).
This is going on while I am changing a diaper and trying to pick spilled cereal off the floor. It is sometimes infuriating how the point of the conversation wanders, and I forget what I was originally trying to accomplish. I'm not sure if he does it on purpose or not. I don't want to think of him as manipulative, but every child is to some degree. Gabe is a talker. He never stops. And it isn't the kind of conversation that requires an "Uhuh, uhuh." He wants me engaged, and he challenges my responses if he doesn't think I'm paying attention (which often, I'm not). When he was younger, we would have "Quiet For Five Minute" times, where I would lock myself in another room for five minutes to give my ears and brain a break. I wonder if I was like that as a child. I've always loved words ... will Gabe too? He sure knows how to use them.
I registered Gabe for kindergarten this week. That was a weird experience. We went to the school district office, and after 45 minutes of waiting in line and filling out paperwork, they gave Gabe a screening. He had to identify letters and numbers, find rhyming words, and do alliteration (find objects that start with the same sound). He did fine except for the alliteration, in which he flopped. Then ... here comes the weird part ... they gave him a SCORE! They scored my child! And it wasn't the preschool, "Gabe is such a wonderful person" scoring. It was academically OBJECTIVE! I think this is a small taste of what real school is going to be like. It makes me nervous!
Leo just asked me if he could watch Titty Titty Dang Dang. I laughed so hard, and he looked really confused. I need to start a dictionary of Gilbert-Kidisms, but it is hard to think of them because they are mostly part of my vocabulary now. I was talking to Gabe yesterday, and I told him that Benji "Slided off the couch." Jeff corrected me, "slid off the couch," he said. It is funny, because I love words, and I am generally very particular about how they are used. I started talking incorrectly to help the kids understand me without a lot of explanation for every sentence. Some days it seems like it takes 20 minutes just to get my meaning established for one idea. Another conversation this morning went something like this:
Gabe has lately been into "experiments" in which he mixes liquids, soaps, spices, milk, and whatever else is handy and not bolted down in a big bowl. As we speak he is working on a potion including juice, wonder bread, poppy seeds, salt, steak seasoning, cake sprinkles, and dish soap. It actually smells very interesting. I used to let him do it in recycled plastic bottles, but he would want to keep the potions for days up in his room, which would make me nervous. When he does it in a big bowl, I pretend to need the bowl for something, and chuck the brew after a few hours of it floating in my kitchen.
Papa gave Gabe walkie-talkies for his birthday. Today Gabe is trying to teach Leo how to use them. He keeps telling Leo to take his walkie-talkie into the other room, then he shouts into his walkie-talkie "Come in! Come in!" And then Leo comes running in to the room where Gabe is, because Gabe told him to. We've tried explaining to Leo three times that "come in" means "talk to me" but he is a very literal kid.
