Left Coast Mama » out of the mouthes of babes

Things That Are Making the Rounds in Our House

Gwen — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 04:55:46 +0000

I promise this post is not in anyway about sickness or iPhones. In our house lately there are a few things that the boys say that make Anthony and I laugh out loud.

There are a lot of times that Anthony or I ask Quinlan questions. It could be “Why on earth did you not go to the toilet?” Or, “Why did you climb on the counter?” Lately he has an answer ” I don’t have a good answer for that.” Also on the subject of toilet training, Quinlan likes to hide behind things and yell “No peeking at me!” At this point we try very hard to get him to the toilet on time. Sigh.

Aidan had a girlfriend at the beginning of the school year. He told me about it very shyly and when I asked him what did having a girlfriend mean to him he answered “We are friends who do some secret stuff.” (I am paraphrasing at this point.) When I regained my breath I asked as calmly as I could what secret stuff he was doing with his girlfriend. “We hugged and kissed on the cheek.” The adorable tilt of his head and slight blush was both heartwarming and terrifying for me. Things cooled off pretty quickly and the discussion about not hugging and kissing at school seems to have sunk in. I am just glad that he wanted to tell me. He has a new girlfriend now who he has not hugged or kissed. The funniest part of all the discussions was Quinlan’s quip after hearing about Aidan’s girlfriend incident “I want to kiss a girl before I am old.” This was said very plaintively as if he was getting long in the tooth and might never kiss a girl at all.

Have you ever noticed that anytime a child says “It is not funny!” in that indignant tone, that even if you are trying to agree and not laugh, it really is at least a little bit funny.

What are the things that make you chuckle?

Aidan Update: The Geronimo Stilton Edition

Gwen — Wed, 05 May 2010 05:08:10 +0000

Aidan is a five year old with a flare for the dramatic and a gift for dialogue. He loves reading and listening to audiobooks. His imagination is very well developed and it sometimes astonishes me how articulate he has become.

Since he discovered them about a month ago, the Geronimo Stilton series has become a favourite around our house in many scenarios. He loves to read the books, he loves to listen to the audiobooks and he loves to pretend that he is one of the many characters. He acts out, with the different voices no less, scenes from the various books as well as a number that he has made up. He pays attention to detail and has elaborate plays including props and extra dialogue. Aidan has also discovered a love of narration. He will narrate his plays and you will hear him say things like:

“I love you Mommy,” he says as he hugs her tightly.

He says the whole thing as he is doing the action. It is really quite funny and dear. He also makes me pretend to be different characters as well so he can use his funny voices to be Trap Stilton while I am relegated to being Geronimo. He then runs up to me and says (in only what I imagine to be a bit of Jersey accent) “Hello Gerry Baby!” He gets so very excited when he is acting and you can see it shinning in his eyes.

All this acting around the house is why we decided to put him into a drama class at Carousel Theatre. He loves it (as far as I can tell) and looks forward to going every week. He is very enthusiastic and like with anything else he does he gives little lectures about whatever he is interested in at the moment. At the moment that could be anything from volcanoes, to transportation, to how a newspapaer room works.

I am sure Aidan speaks like no other five year old. He has so many grown up turns of phrase that it is amazing. Of course now that I am writing all about it so I can’t even remember one. I think I really need to record him in the car so I can get these gems.

Getting Ready for Kindergarten

Gwen — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 05:41:19 +0000

I am a little apprehensive about the changes that are starting to take place now. I am to pick up the kindergarten registration packages this week. Well I should have picked them up last week but the sickness that knocked us on our butts kept us out of the schools. I need to pick up the packages from three different schools and a package from the district to show that we live in our catchment area.

So we need to fill out 4 sets of paper, get all of Aidan’s vaccination records, and get them into the schools asap. All of this started the first week of November, a full 1o months before he is scheduled to start kindergarten.

I am still a little worried that we will end up with Aidan being part of the french immersion lottery. I want him to be in french immersion so badly because I really want Aidan to flourish and not be at all bored. I am also worrying about having him in a classroom where he need to sit more often than he does in preschool.

Aidan can read (and well) and he understands so much about all kinds of things and has all the math skills he needs for passing kindergarten now, he doesn’t like writing or colouring. I know that he can write well enough, but he doesn’t have the patience for colouring much of anything. He hardly ever paints or colours at preschool.

I am glad that Aidan loves his preschool and his friends. He is really blossoming socially. He has a best buddy and even asked if I could arrange a playdate with his friend’s mother. This is why I put him in preschool. I wanted Aidan to be good with other kids and learn to share. I wanted him to be able to work in a classroom of kids that were in different situations and with different disciplines. Aidan needed to learn that he was not the top dog all the time. I think that it was a really good idea. Aidan is so lovely with the other kids and it is wonderful to see him growing socially. I love hearing his stories about preschool and seeing him put up his hand in front of me to get my attention.

All of these things remind me how quickly my little boy is growing up. I am not sure if I am in the growing up too fast or just fast enough camp of thought. I love that Aidan is getting so big and can do so many things, but part of me is a little sad that he might need me less and less. Thought I must admit that when he hugs me and tells me that he “wants to be with me forever because I love you Mommy,” I melt. I guess he just has a way with words.

© 2009 Left Coast Mama | Permalink | 3 comments
Related: Aidan, children, discipline, Education, out of the mouthes of babes, Preschool.

Too Long for Twitter

Gwen — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 00:14:21 +0000

Most of the time I am now posting to Twitter so I have been writing lots of approximately 140 character snippets of our life. Today I had a conversation with Aidan that wouldn’t fit into that constraint so you get the privilege of having me blog after the longest time. At least I hope it is a privilege.

Today Aidan was pretending to be Santa Claus after his swimming lesson this morning. He was telling me all about how he delivers presents and what he delivers. When we got out to the car he even asked me to park the sleigh in the trunk. Of course I was fine with that, why not add more to our car with the two kids, two imaginary friends and now a sleigh? So sleigh accounted for I asked Aidan a question trying to get him to help out a bit more in the car by putting his straps over his shoulder while I am getting the baby into the car.

Santa’s a capable guy right? He can put his straps on?

Aidan says

No, I don’t wear a cape, I wear a red suit. I’m not a capable guy. I’m a Santable guy. Ho, Ho, Ho!

There was absolutly nothing I could say to that. At least he makes sure the computers he gives you match the cell phone you already have.

Questions About God

Gwen — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 08:00:42 +0000

The other day Aidan was talking about super heroes like Super Why.

He said “Daddy you are super.” “Mommy you are super.”

Anthony said “Aidan you are super.” and Aidan got upset.

Aidan said “I am not super, I am special.”

I said “That is right Aidan you are special.”

Aidan then said “Yes, God made me special and he loves me very much.” A pause then, “And I love him too.” then without missing a beat, “Who is God?”

Anthony looked at me and I answer “God is an omniscient, omnipresent being who made the universe.” ( I see no reason to talk down to him.)

Aidan quickly asked “Is he real? Does he have legs?”

Anthony and I laughed and I had to admit that while I think he is real, I have no idea if he has legs.

You can’t beat a preschooler for asking the hard questions.

Overheard

Gwen — Wed, 21 May 2008 19:34:39 +0000

We are living at the in-laws while we are visiting Nova Scotia. It is nice to be in a huge house but it is funny what the boy gets out of it. We were bringing the laundry down the stairs and Aidan remarks “Are we going down to the dungeon?”

I guess that in a house with a laundry room in the basement may seem to someone used to a very small place like a dungeon. I am also wondering what the little pitchers have picked up.

Melting Hearts

Gwen — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 16:33:06 +0000

Yesterday I was out for the morning and part of the afternoon at church and the boys stayed home. Apparently Aidan had a major tantrum, and after being put to bed for a few minutes and continuing the tantrum he finally apologized for hitting Anthony. After this he was very clingy and apparently stayed that way for the rest of the morning.

When I got home he came downstairs to greet me and gave me a hug. He then said “You are very sweet Mommy and beautiful.” I must admit that I almost cried. He definitely melted my heart.

Overheard

Gwen — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 04:49:25 +0000

Tonight while we were watching Super Why? Aidan pointed out something to me. After say “P is for pig” it was “Mommy Alpha Pig has a penis.” Can you say three is when we really start with body awareness.

Overheard

Gwen — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 03:54:17 +0000

When I was resetting Aidan, after I got home from guides tonight, he was very talkative. He didn’t want to be in bed and tried a number of different tactics to get me to let him upstairs again. When he knew for certain that I wasn’t going to let him he said to me “Mommy are you going upstairs to play with my front end loader?”

You would be very proud of me, I didn’t laugh out loud, nor did I say “Yes!” I assured him that I would not play with any of his toys. When I told Anthony he said he would have said “Yes” and done it just to bug him.

What would you have done?

Aidan Tidbits

Gwen — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 04:23:55 +0000

As some of you may know, Aidan has a mind like a steel trap. I have heard many times that you can put toys away or get rid of them and a child will not be any the wiser. It always seems to be parent’s (with much more storage space than we have) ways of making old toys new again or getting rid of toys by phasing them out. This story begins with a brand that we love, TONKA. I always loved Tonka trucks as a child and Anthony’s parents still have some of his old ones. Aidan has some great Tonka trucks in NS and loves to play with trucks of all kinds. Last summer my mom bought Aidan a small Tonka crane with a bucket to give him for Christmas. We all thought that since it was a Tonka it would be a good toy for Aidan. Unfortunately there were a few design flaws that made the truck more of a frustration than anything for Aidan and all those around him. The bucket was hinged so that it could scoop up things, yet it was a difficult spring to open and the bucket was too small to actually pick anything up. There was also a flaw in the arm/hinge/spring/winch aspect. It was difficult to winch back up and tangled quite easily. Despite all this Aidan loved this crane. So when he got too frustrated with it we decided to put it on top of the fridge.

About a month ago Anthony cleaned the top of the fridge. In fact he not only cleaned the top of the fridge but he also got rid of things. In fact he got rid of the malfunctioning Tonka crane. We thought we were ok. Aidan hadn’t mentioned the crane in two weeks. Two weeks ago Aidan started asking me for the crane on top of the fridge. “Where is my crane on top of the fridge Mommy?” “I don’t know.” I answered. He left it at that that day. A few days later we had the same exchange. A few days after that he asked again. This time I answered, “I don’t know ask your Daddy.” Wednesday night he did. In fact he was so insistent that Anthony almost went to Toysrus that night to try to find a replacement. What Anthony didn’t know was that I had already been looking for a replacement. I haven’t found one. The thing this tells me though is that I still can’t get rid of that horrible transforming firetruck/school-bus. Shit, I was really hoping he wouldn’t be one of those kids.

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Today when Anthony got home Aidan was feeling the best he has over the last 5 days. He was sitting on Anthony’s lap and moved away from him and said “My shirt is wet.” Anthony had just come in from biking home. Aidan then got off Anthony’s lap and went to the bathroom to get a kleenex. He then went over to Anthony and started to wipe him off. “Drying you off Daddy.” Anthony laughing, “Thank you Aidan. I am going down to shower and get changed.”

********

Aidan and I have been having a lot of play-dates with Monette and her son Malachi. Aidan loves these play-dates and tells his Dad lots of stories about “Middleguy.” Luckily Monette loves it and thinks it is cute.

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That is all for now except that the way to Aidan’s heart is “Milkshake Milk” or chocolate milk. What is cuter than that.

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Related: Aidan, out of the mouthes of babes, Toddler Humour, Tonka Trucks.