We're very lucky.
Jack is the sort of child
we all assume we'll have
when we decide to have children,
and the sort of child
less experienced parents
congratulate themselves for.January and February 2004
March and April 2004
May and June 2004
July and August 2004
September and October 2004
November and December 2004
Blogs we read:
Tuesday, Dec. 26, 2006 - (Mamma)
And Merry Christmas to you, too!
Today was Christmas. It may be the last December 25 for some years to come that Rod gets to sleep until noon � but that�s how our day started! I woke up at 9:30 � shamefully late for me � and Jack joined me at about 10am. His first question was, as always, �Are you staying home today?� Then the ritual �We forgot to do the calendar!!!� So, of course, we dragged a chair over and put a gold star on the calendar. I told Jack �Today is December 25.� Jack responded �It�s Christmas!�.
To Jack, that meant we were going to bake cookies. I recommended that he have breakfast first and he though that was a pretty good idea, and so he had his usual breakfast (soy yogurt) while I cleaned the kitchen and made a pot of coffee.
We eventually managed to get it together to bake a batch of Jack�s beloved oatmeal cookies, a batch of Dad�s beloved �Mormor�s famous shortbread� and most of a batch of Mamma�s gingerbread. (It�s still cooling in the fridge. We got distracted.) That got us through to 1:30pm.
Then I suggested that perhaps we should get dressed in day clothes and open some gifts. I knew that there was a tricycle waiting on the porch, so getting dressed was pretty important. What I wasn�t prepared for was Jack�s complete lack of excitement at the idea. It�s not that he wasn�t willing, but he had been much more excited to get started on the baking. But by 3pm, everyone was dressed and we went into the parlour to unwrap some gifts.
Jack took us by surprise again. We suggested that he go get a gift and bring it to the table. He did. It was a gift for him from our friend, Miss Storm. He tore into it enthusiastically, and was completely amazed at the wonder of it! The gift was a play dough collection. He played with it for almost an hour before he was interested in checking out the gifts again.
Next, he got dominoes from Grandma, and he insisted on playing several hands (almost an hour again) before he would go back to the present stack �! And on and on this went, most of the day. Now mind you, Rod and I are thrilled that Jack takes this approach of really appreciating each gift before wanting to see another�but it did drag the gift unwrapping out for many more hours than we had though possible! (He got one gift from each of us, one from each grandmother, and then two others from friends - -we�re not talking a huge pile of stuff here!)
Finally it was time to eat some dinner � and then at around 8pm we went for our now traditional Christmas car ride. Each year, we pick a direction we�ve never been before, and we drive for a few hours. It�s getting harder to find somewhere we�ve never been, but we have some great conversations and learn a little more about our surrounding communities. As usual, we lost Jack not long after we got on the road. Someday he ll stay awake for the ride, but the day is usually a bit much for a young man, so for now the sleep it good!
More about time
As I read back over the last few blog entries, I realized that I had mentioned that Jack was getting interested in time, and then commented weeks later that he had taught himself to tell time, but I never actually went into how he did that �
Well, when Jack started asking frequently �what time is it?�, I realized that he needed an �easy to see� clock right in the office where he spends much of the day, so I moved our big digital clock from the parlour to a shelf next to the calendar.
Within a few days I became aware that when Rod�s computer announced the time aloud, on the quarter hour, Jack was running to look at the clock.
He also asked us on a regular basis to tell him what time it was. For a week or so, we simply answered him. However, we didn�t always look at �his� clock to tell him the time. Sometimes, if I was in the kitchen, I�d tell him what time the stove clock said it was, or I�d look at the clock on my computer, or� anyway, after a few days, he started to look confused. Then he grabbed me by the hand and dragged me to his clock and repeated his question. I told him what time it was according to his clock and then explained the discrepancy. (�Ahh, this clock says it�s 3:33 and the kitchen clock is a little slow, so it said it was 3:32. I�ll bet if we hurry back, you can see it change to 3:33!� and we did, and he did, and he was highly entertained.)
I knew he was �getting it� the night he was exhausted, and so was I, so we went to bed early. That was at 10 minutes to 8. At 11:11, he was still sitting bolt upright in bed every few minutes and announcing the time to me and asking me to verify. (Look Mamma, look! It�s 11:08! Mamma, look! It�s 11:11!! That was the night we made the rule that 9pm is Mamma�s bed time and at 10pm, Jack has to stop talking.)
We gradually started to talk about what happens at various times of day. Other than me leaving for work at around 8 and returning sometime around 6, we don�t live a very clock centered life, but we talked about how at 9am it is morning, and we are starting our day and we might want breakfast. At 3pm, it�s afternoon and the day (in terms of light) is almost over. At 7pm, it�s evening and it�s dark and we�re hungry for dinner.
So, other than answering a LOT of questions, we didn�t do much teaching. Jack still doesn�t know much about analog clocks, but we have noticed him trying to figure them out. (He pointed to an analog clock recently and said �Look Mamma, it�s 3:03.� It was actually 3:15. I missed a �teachable moment� there, but we were rushing around at the time. I just told him it was actually 3:15, and we�d talk about how to read that kind of clock later. It hasn�t come up again, though.)
