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!
5 comments:
I love the "Five Minutes of Quiet" and earlier "Locked Doors for Fun Outside Play" tactics. Gotta start incorporating those.
Re: kids being graded--went to our 1st graders parent-teacher conference this week. Sounds like our son has the same relationship with Math that I had. Poor kid. Every now and then Math helps me calculate a tip or add up bills, but it quickly slips out the door when I need it for some nifty algebra or trig help on a wood-working project with my Dad. I never could count on Math. That's why we broke up after high school.
I love the "quite for five minutes" game too. Maybe it's an oldest thing? Eden has always been a constant talker too (at least until she learned how to read and now she's quiet if she's reading). She started her lectures before I could even understand what she was telling me. Sadly I learned to tune her out early on and still sometimes do. But I find her a little easier to deal with than silent Soren--at least she'll tell me what's going on!
Sorry to bombard you with comments today. I've been out of blogdom for a while and was catching up. Wish it could be catching up in person!
I laughed when I read the "titty titty dang dang" That is so funny!! I love blogging, because I feel like we still are connected. I also find myself talking kid talk. I went to parent teacher conference today with Caleb and he was squirming in his chair as we talked about the letters he needs to work on and other goals and he whispers "are we done yet?" I felt a little embarrassed but realized we were talking about the things he needs to work on. I tried to explain that these are good goals and give us something to work on, and reminded him of the things he is doing well like reading etc, it is hard to see them feel bad but they also need to realize it is good to work on things. It's healthy right?
Oh Lael--You are a wonderful Mother even if you can't 'win' with the boys! If you can't win, just join them! Be a KID with them! They grow up too fast!XO Emma
I think every parent uses kid talk! How can we not! We talk like them and our kids talk like us! Currently the girls enjoy quoting lines from the movie Shrek. They reenact the scene in Shrek 2 where Donkey and Shrek are arguing about getting to Far Far Away. So Alisi and Adeline yell and argue with eachother and then continue to say "Shut- up" and then the other one says, "no, you shut-up" and so on! I didn't even know they said shut up in that movie! I have no idea where the point of this going. Just wanted to say hi! :)
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