Monday, August 30, 2010

Little Gym

Since swim classes are over, and we need something fun and active (i.e. long-nap-inducing) to do on the weekends, Brian and I decided to enroll Ethan in a class at our local Little Gym. It's an actual gym - parallel bars, balance beam, rings, and lots and lots of thick floor mats, thank goodness. When we tried a free class last year, Ethan wasn't too into it, but now that he's older and wants to go go go fast fast fast, he was in seventh heaven....I just wanted to laugh the entire time we were there, so it was lucky Brian had the presence of mind to bring the camera.
Now, before you think that Ethan played productively on each piece of equipment, waited until it was his turn to climb the stairs to the balance beam, and stayed in the circle for all of the songs and time with the parachute, think again. :) My parents were there, and my mom commented halfway through the class, "Wow, I think he likes the unstructured activities best." Yep. Luckily, at the Little Gym, it's ok if they head all over the classroom whenever they want - the entire place is padded, so it would take a huge effort to really hurt himself. He could not have had a better time! Even some of the other parents commented on how much he enjoyed himself!

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Letter

Dear Daycare,

I would appreciate it if, in the future, you would not refer to my adorable, sweet, PERFECT son as "passive aggressive" when I am discussing his communication strategies with you. I understand that he tends to ignore you when you want him to clean up after lunch, and you have to ask him more than once. But in describing these situations, I would prefer that you use other wording, such as: "He ignores us", or "he's a tease", or "he's so cute and amazing and absolutely the best kid in the class".

Hearing "passive aggressive" makes me want to rip your face off. Of course I won't, but I'll think about it. For just a second.

After all, no one in Ethan's family is passive aggressive...I can't think of anyone who would, for example, smile politely as you were talking and then come home and write about the situation on her blog. :)

Love,
Ethan's Devoted and Completely Unbiased Mother

Saturday, August 14, 2010

Ethan Reads!

This is a seriously proud moment for two parents. I know that this is almost certainly a phase, and Ethan may decide that books are annoying and uncool sometime in the near future, but until then...I'll revel in this.

One new development of Ethan's is wanting to take things to bed. Not stuffed animals - books. Our bedtime routine includes a book right before bed, and he now wants to grab a book and take it with him. (A pretty funny discussion ensued between Brian and me at this. Brian: "It's too dark in there. I think we need to give Ethan a night light." Me: "What, you think he's actually reading?!") It's just so sweet to see this little boy, who used to fight sleep tooth and nail, run (yes, run) off to bed at night with a little book in his hands. The video below shows Ethan's post-breakfast activity this morning. As we cleaned up the kitchen, he occupied himself for a little bit. (And you should know that I do occasionally clothe the little guy. It's just so hot these days that I can't see putting clothes on him until we go out and society expects it!)

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Big Shoes to Fill

(OK, so how old will Ethan be when it's not cute that I let him run around in a diaper and post pictures online of him half-naked? When does it become creepy instead? I think it's pretty darn cute, but I'm the mom....)

I can't even explain all that we've been doing to keep us busy since the last blog post in JULY, for goodness sakes. But I'll give it a shot. The biggest thing is job-related rather than Ethan-related, which is why the gratuitous diapered boy picture is at the top of the page. :)

The last week in July, our history grant staff had our yearly Summer Institute. This year's topic - Civil Rights. We've waited awhile to do this one well, and I think we succeeded. That's our group standing next to one of the co-founders of the Black Panthers. Yeah, I'm standing right next to Bobby Seale. Had dinner with him, too. I'm just that cool. :)

Oh, and our Tuesday morning keynote speaker? That would be Ilyasah Shabazz. Name ring a bell to anyone? Malcolm X's daughter. Yep. That's her. Looking gorgeous (10 years older than me and she looks way younger) and professional and gracious...
Our Thursday keynote was none other than Julian Bond. For more information, check out Wikipedia. And when you read it, pick your jaw up off the ground, and come back to this blog, you should know that he really is just that cool. Smart, smooth, funny, amazing.

One of our special guests that week was Dawn BarbouRoske, my boss's sister-in-law. I was one of two people who got to go to dinner with her, and it was the most interesting, thought-provoking, and FUN evenings ever. You can check her out on MSNBC. And she's not just a leader in a movement that should and will be gaining more ground in years to come, she's a seriously cool person.

So with this caliber of speakers and amazing guests, we were just a tad bit stressed out. :) But the teachers all remarked on how this was the best institute ever, how life-changing it was, how they were talking about this one with family and friends....how can you ask for more than that?

We didn't actually get any time to settle down after July, unfortunately. Few people know this, but "summer" isn't really summer in the land of Staff Development. (Which is actually fine with me - I know it's practically sacrilege to admit this, but I always kind of got bored with summer vacations when I was a classroom teacher.) We moved right on to welcome new teachers, prepare for the return of all staff on Monday, outline Fall budgets, etc., etc.,....and in the midst of that, Brian and I both got the stomach flu (luckily it came and went very quickly). I write this in order to elicit sounds of sympathy from all of you, even though I can't hear them. Thank you. :)

But let's get back to the Ethan-boy! I've been hoping to catch these cute new developments on videotape, but can't seem to get him to do them when the camera's on.
1. He sings! Yep, the boy who is making his parents wait to hear more than a few real words can sing. "Da da da, da da da..." All to the tune of either Twinkle Twinkle OR our Clean Up song. SO CUTE.
2. He can drink out of an open cup. There is a reason there are no pictures of this. There are many towels involved in this process. :) Actually, he's really good at it. We're holding on to the sippy cup tops, but we don't use them very much now. (And I'm not embarrassed to admit that I'll be a little nostalgic when they go away altogether!)
3. He gives kisses. These are few and far between, but just precious when he actually does them. He'll grab a face with his two little soft hands and plant one right on ya. Which is when I ask him to do it again and again and again, which might be why he doesn't do it too often....:)