Leprechaun Trapping

St. Patrick's day began with an NPR story on St. Patrick's Day as I was driving Seth to work and Myles to preschool. Luckily, I happened to dress Myles in green. Seth, however, wasn't wearing any green and so we teased him about getting pinched at work. In the end, Myles loaned him a green silly band so he could ward off anyone itching to pinch. When I dropped Myles off at preschool, his teacher called all of the kids into the bathroom. Sure enough, there was green food coloring in the toilet and the kids immediately looked at each other, wide-eyed, and whispered "leprechaun pee!" The conspiracy was on. Throughout the day, the kids would return to class to find messes the leprechaun made. Myles returned home vigilantly scoping our property for any leprechaun activity...he reported that they would giggle and also squeak, and I was repeatedly hushed so we could listen. I knew Seth would be much better at this whole leprechaun thing than I was, so I warned him on the phone that we were looking for leprechauns all day. When he got home, true to Seth-form, he concocted the idea of the leprechaun trap (see above). It requires these simple, easy-to-find household items: 1. a baby bathtub (recently returned to us from the Schaffer household) 2. a plastic cauldron (leftover from Halloween, but really any bucket will do) 3. sticks 4. string...and here's what you do. Put the cauldron under the baby tub, and prop the tub up on the two sticks. Tie your string to the sticks (note: it must be long enough for you to hide around the corner of the house), and then run around the nearest corner of the house, and hold the string. If you hear giggling and squeaking, pull! In this fashion, Seth and Myles were able to capture some gold coins (some of which looked mysteriously like racing medals, but never mind).

As if all that trapping wasn't enough, I came downstairs the following morning to find the tiniest leprechaun foot prints dotting the floor, leading to the plastic cauldron, and in the cauldron, we found a metal hat and shoe (kinda reminiscent of what you'd find in a Monopoly set). Myles was so energized by this finding! We also found some crumpled up clovers. Who knew the leprechaun is every bit as exciting as Santa, and he doesn't even have to bring presents? It was a magical day in our household, and it took some doing to explain why St. Patty's day comes only once a year.

Myles Says: "I'm exhausted!" has become a new favorite phrase before bed. Typing it doesn't do it justice...these words are uttered with the drama and conviction of a four year old.

I've confirmed this week that my body's just not the same as it used to be on the trampoline. I did a somersault (not in the air!) using my arms, and I was so dizzy I thought I might pass out. When did this happen to me? I think it's payback for the time I convinced my mom to go on the wooden roller coaster at Cedar Pointe and she almost fainted. I am, however, teaching Myles all about tuck jumps, pike jumps, straddle jumps, and other important things.

A good friend loaned me a book that is really an eye-opener for me. It's called "Raising Cain," which means I'm reading two parenting books, one called "Raising Cain" and the other called "Raising Happiness." Yes, parenting leads to a divided mind. Anyhow, I'll post a few quotes from Raising Cain at some point, but the premise is this: boys develop at a different (usually slower) rate than girls when it comes to fine motor skills, verbal skills, and social skills. Elementary schools are usually geared toward the developmental pace and behavioral norms of girls. Boys, when they cannot meet these expectations, are regularly scolded, shamed, lectured, and often come away feeling like they are failing. I've noticed I do this at home with Myles. The kid is clumsy, there's no way around it. Now he has some mad gross motor skills, and he can actually be quite nimble as he's running, climbing, balancing, etc. But when it comes to holding onto his silverware, not spilling things, etc, he's what you'd call a "messy" kid. This is hard for me, as I was nicknamed "Messy Mandy" in my family, and I never forgot that I was always the one who wasn't as together as I should have been. To this day, I have a hard time having people over to my house because I feel like I can never get it clean enough. At any rate, I notice that when Myles spills things on accident or drops things (now sometimes he's being silly and there's a reason he dropped it, but I'm not talking about those times), I sigh, I lecture, I get irritable, I carry on. I wonder aloud when he'll finally be old enough to quit being so messy. And this book is really opening my eyes to the effect this subtle shaming might have on Myles. While I'm hoping to lure him to try harder to be clean, what if I'm just reinforcing a negative image he has of himself as messy? And then, each time he spills, it's a self-fulfilling prophecy until he quits trying, because he'll never be clean enough. Now, I'm taking this one example to an extreme, but this is what our boys face in some situations. We tire of accepting their boundless energy. We become agitated at their exuberance. We are constantly hushing and correcting and nagging. Yesterday, Myles spilled a big jar of water. I took a deep breath and instead of yelling or sighing, I just said, "Well, it's a good thing that you know how to clean up. Go get the rags." And we cleaned it up together. He left the incident feeling like he's good at cleaning up messes, perhaps a little more empowered to clean up the next one, because...rest assured...there will be another one tomorrow. Thanks for the book, Mama-D...I'm a slow learner when it comes to boys, but I'm getting there.

Sky's the Limit

Here's Myles with one of his next door neighbor friends jumping on the new trampoline we just put up in our backyard. We were going to go the swingset route when a friend reminded us of the benefits of a trampoline: he will use it until he's much older, and he's likely to expend more energy jumping on it, plus it's adult-friendly. Cheaper than what we had planned to spend on a swing set too! As Myles is dipping his toes into the world of "no naps" (he takes one every other day at this point), he's in need of a way to expend his energy in the afternoons, and the trampoline is so good for him.

Mylestones: Myles has been showing more of an interest in coloring and writing his letters. As far as we can tell, he's ahead of his age group in gross motor skills and behind in fine motor skills, so we're intentionally setting aside time to work on fine motor skills (without the pressure to do or make anything in particular, just spending time with him drawing, writing, and coloring on a regular basis). Last week we had the 4 year old wellness visit to Dr. Meredith. Since it was raining, he had on big ole boots that we took off for the weighing and measuring, and found out he hasn't gained a pound since he was there when he cut his finger months ago...he's 75% for height and weight. Sounds about right. He eats well, but he needs to eat well to keep up with the amount of energy he expends both through his body and his mouth (singing, talking, shouting) every day. It seems like he's doing lots of new little things, like building things out of blocks that he never used to be able to do. Today after listening to some classical music in the car on the way to preschool (it comes on npr after the news) he said, "I love that song," and went on to tell me a whole story he made up about it that included cows and people running.

Myles Says: "I'm the best cleaner-upper you can ever believe." (After getting a warning from me about dumping out a basket of toys.) We've also recently had some intensive bed time conversations about the death of a friend's grandmother, what happens after death and when we get to see people who died again. It's amazing what a four year old wants to talk about.

Last weekend we went to Wallabies in Johnson City to celebrate Myles' cousin Kaleb's 6th Birthday. We had a blast! Myles loves spending time with his cousins, and I do too.

On a final note, Go Bulldogs! UNCA men's basketball advances to play Pittsburgh on Thursday night. Though I know nothing about this kind of thing, Seth is keeping me informed and we've been watching online, which keeps us on the edge of our seats as the computer freezes up right at critical points in the game...