Thursday, March 15, 2012

Bugs, Trees, and ABCs

Chase-short-stories:

We were looking at the bug book which Chase pauses to ask me if I like each one. "Do you like centipedes?" "Do you like spiders?" "Look he has a hairbow." (referring to the black widow's bright red shape on his belly which very much resembles one of Sophie's red hairbows) I love how only because Chase is a proud brother of a little sister did he think of that!

"You're a good girl, mommy." (For making him a dinner he liked, apparently)

"That tree is REALLY NAKEY" (referring to a tree without any leaves as we strolled through a cemetery)

As I was changing Sophie's diaper, she looked up and gasped "Oh! da bug!" It was a stink bug on the ceiling. Chase observing this says, "stinky bug and stinky Sophie!!"

"Sopher. Do you want to play with me?" (This one just makes me giggle. If you know Chase, you know that his nickname for Sophia has evolved from "Bo-pee" to "Soap-ee" to "Sophilicious" to "Sophers" and now to "Sopher." Yep. That's the shortened version of Sophers, I presume.)

On another note, Chase is very animated (as he always was with expressions); but now he is verbally! He has quite an imagination and his "quiet/room time" usually involves his pretending that cars or trains are crashing or talking to each other. He is really into running into things on purpose and screaming "Ow!" (not in a whiny way but in a slapstick sort of way). He is doing great and pretty much potty-trained (I saw "pretty much" b/c nighttime is still an issue.) But he is finally able to use the potty, get his outfit on, wash hands, and is a little more motivated to do it himself. I never envisioned that teaching a kid to get their clothing back on without throwing a fit would be an issue in potty-training, but it almost seems more of an issue than the actual "potty" part!

He has recognized his numbers and letters for a while now and is getting even more proficient with lowercase letters, as uppercase came easily. He has started spelling things out loud which I love to hear because I'd normally have to trick him into any kind of activity and once he figured out he was learning, he was done!!

I'm proud to say that now he's doing his A,B,C's and puzzles and counting like it's a piece of cake! In fact, his little sister has already started counting and will sometimes finish our sentence if we count in order one to ten. She doesn't know every number, but I'm impressed that she's not even 2 yet and she's repeating numbers and letters. I'll have to give a Sophers update in another post. :) Back to Chase...

One day Chase surprised us by successfully completing one of those magnetic pattern activities that Melissa and Doug makes. It takes a lot of tedious hand strokes to not drop the magnets in the wrong slot with the wand and lo and behold, I showed him once and he came out of his room with the whole thing done! It was incredible! When he brought it to show us, Brian asked me if I did it for him?! Ha! Hardly! I don't know that I have the patience to do that!

Chase is becoming very knowledgeable in his children's Catechism. He really likes the Adam/Eve questions and knows where we came from, why we were made, that we have a soul and who is in the Trinity! It's funny how I can't seem to get him to sit and color (pretty basic, right?) but B can somehow get his attention long enough that Chase is interested in learning about the Bible! I am humbled daily!

Chase currently loves his kid-camera. It is digital and he can even take pix/videos of himself if he tilts the lens towards himself. He is quite the techy kid and has discovered how to use an ipad to draw, do puzzles, trace, etc. At first I was very opposed (and kinda sad, honestly) as I longed to just enjoy the fundamentals of learning and teach Chase not to give into this tech-obsessed culture! But then I saw how much more receptive he was to techy things and started thinking, is that such a bad thing? I'm still pretty strict with use of those things as I don't want to teach that we NEED high-tech things to be satisfied, but if he's learning to trace letters and it's not a discipline battle to get him to do it just b/c it's on this fun thing called an Ipad, I'm down with letting him try!

Here are some funny pix Chase took and/or edited :)





Ok, I'm signing off now with Chase banging on the xylophone as he sings the alphabet song (in the background). Most of you know how I loathe kid's music/annoying noisy toys, but it honestly brings joy to my heart that my son has embraced learning and I don't have to force it!! I can't tell you how proud it make me as his mama! Go for it, buddy. Sing it! LOUD and proud!

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