Parenting Practices: My Prerogative

It is every parent's right and privilege to believe that their child is a genius or gifted in some area of development.  I am sure you have heard it before; "Oh Johnny is so advanced compared to his classmates.  He can already sign the alphabet. Johnny show us the letter P...........oh you know kids, they never do things when you want them to.  In fact that is evidence of Johnny's intellect, he already refuses to be somebody's puppet."

So today I claim my right to declare that Noah is a genius and artistically gifted, even though the evidence I provide is indistinguishable by anyone and is actually evidence of my negligence and Noah's naughtiness.  I give you exhibit A:

When I was going through my pictures I honestly thought, "Who got a hold of  my camera and took random pictures of scribbles?"  As a mother and a firsthand witness, what we have here are Noah's first drawings of people.

Exhibit B:

Exhibit B Addendum: 

And in case you need it, a map to Noah's people:

A=Head B=Legs C=Head with eyes, nose and mouth that Noah scribbled out before I could get a picture D= VERRRRYYYY long legs

 

Family Friday

For almost as long as we have been here in Craftsbury there has been some controversy over the school gym. It needed to be replaced as it was deemed unsafe to use when there was snow on the roof or if the wind was blowing over a certain speed and there were often frogs in the locker room.  After years of debate and failed bond votes we finally have an AMAZING new facility.  For the ribbon cutting ceremony each class had a table with examples of work they have done this year.

This was one of Ben's contributions.  He is very self conscious about these poems, especially War.  His teacher pulled me aside and showed me these poems long before the open house.  She said that he had spontaneously come up with these poems and that they had just flowed out of him without pause, direction or correction.  He will share Stream but not War.

Once again I took so many pictures of Sophie but she was always doing something goofy or very obviously staged.

This was Aaron's presentation center

The brightly colored poster behind Sophie is her creation.

And of course Jacob at his class table

It is voting time!  Can you guess who I voted for?

Ben did his hair and wanted me to take a picture and I just couldn't resist those sweet brown eyes.

Pumpkin carving time!  This year we let the kids carve their own pumpkins, sharp knives and all.  It was seriously the most enjoyable pumpkin carving we have ever had.

I think they turned out pretty well

I am not a fan of characters, but Jacob asked to borrow this from a friend and it was one less costume for me to worry about.

This costume is more up my alley.  Sir Ben of the Common

Happy Halloween and Happy November!

Reckless Recreation: By Request

Our town hosts a Halloween Trunk or Treat and parade on Halloween night.  We have never been organized or ready for it on time but for some reason last night, the planets aligned.  I LOVE IT!!!  In a rural town where every one is so spread out, trick or treating tricky and time consuming.


I had class last night so we all went up together, I took some pictures and then I drove away to class.  It was really hard to leave Aaron and the kids.  Halloween is not my favorite holiday (if it even deserves that classification), but I love how our little family does it.

Words can't express how much this fills me with contentment and joy.

After this party they went to a few houses in the village and then my favorite part of Halloween.  The part I was most sad about missing.  Aaron took the kids to our closest (in proximity) neighbors. Most of them are over the age of 80 and they LOVE it when we come.  These are not your average trick or treat stops.  We go in chat for awhile and when the kids start pilfering through their personal items we know it is time to go. We are the only ones that come and they always have copious amounts of candy, cookies, and homemade fudge specifically for us.  One neighbor told Aaron that it she so looks forward to the kids coming and that it was her favorite day of the year.

ANYWAY........this far too lengthy post was supposed to set the stage for what Aaron really wanted me to post about.

So take an overtired, overstimulated, over sugared toddler (Noah) and send him to bed.  Aaron told me that when he went to bed he was writhing and gyrating in his bed attempting to allude sleep, and mid-writhe/gyration he fell asleep in a twisted contorted position.

Fast forward to about 4:30 a.m.  Noah has woken up and gone downstairs.  I get up and meet him at the top of the stairs and say, "Noah it's sleep time, let's go to bed."  He willingly heads toward his bed, but when he gets to the edge of it he stops and with a voice a little to loud and shrill for normal hours, let alone 4:30 am, he says, "Where is it?
"What Noah?"
"It was right there!"
"What Noah?  What was right there?"
"Wher'd it go? It was right there!?"
He throws back his covers and begins waving his hands over his sheets madly, all of his movements and questions too fast. loud, and exaggerated for his "normal."
"Right there Mama!"
I finally just put him in bed and cover him up.  I started to lay down with him and he commanded me, "Now you go away.  This is my bed.  This is my blankies.  You go to your bed.  To Daddy's bed."
I asked if he was going to stay in bed and he assured me that he would.  I gave him a kiss and said goodnight and began to walk away.
"Wait for me Mommy!  I want to give you high five."
High five's received, I laid down with him and observed the same wild gyrating that Aaron had seen earlier except this time it was accompanied with a jabbering, rapid fire, dialogue.  At this point I started to worry.  Did he have too much candy?  He is no stranger to sugar.  Did he have meningitis and was having feverish hallucinations? I felt his head for a fever;cool as a cucumber.  Is he autistic?  
(You should know that I was listening to a book on CD on the way home from class about a family that discovered their son had autism and he would hyper actively writhe around  and spout words and phrases his parents didn't know he was capable of.)

I finally decided to pretend I was asleep thinking that if I ignored him it would remove the only stimulus he had and he would quickly fall asleep.  At this he began propping different body parts on top of me and announcing," Look at dat!"   First his head.  Then his legs or arms.  Finally he perches his whole body on top of me and triumphantly announces, "TA-DA!!!!" Back to plan A

I tuck him in again, reminding him it is sleep time and he needs to be quiet because he is starting to wake up Ben and Jacob.  Jacob rolled over in bed and softly snorted with an intake of breath.  "JAY-CUB!!!"  "JAY-CUB SHUSH!"
"You shush" was my response.
"NO! I not shush.  I just Noah!"
I laughed, admitted defeat and decided to spare the rest of the house from a 5:30 a.m. wake up.  

It is 9:10 now and I predicting that any moment now he will not be able to resist sleep any longer even though there is absolutely no evidence to support my prediction but ample evidence to support my imminent slumber.

Sweet dreams!