What is, and what should be

This was taken when Malcolm, Olivia and Monique and Mark came over for birthday cake on my birthday (with homemade cards /small banner from the kids! How nice!) and Nolan insisted they get in his tent with him- and somehow managed to end up with them all lying in an upside down tent in the living room. He was delighted! Photo is through tent door.


Spent the latter part of the evening dancing to his "Nolan" song CD, and was impressed how well he can pirouette, and how when is isn't overthinking his dancing, he has great rhythm. He also is bossy about how I dance- at one point he grabbed both my hands and say "Hop Mommy" and started us hopping in a circle on one foot, at velocity, holding each other up (well maybe I was holding him up a bit more, but....) Great workout.

What I was pondering in my insomnia was how I absolutely love the rituals of young children, when doing something a certain way once guarantees that all future attempts will be corrected if the same ritual is not followed:

- making poached eggs - Nolan chooses each egg, carefully hands it to me, and we chant "one, two three, CRACK!", and after the deed is done, he says "Eggshell!" and disposes of it and washes his hands.

- Tub- he pours in a capful of soap and observes the bubbles develop, and after I coaxed him up once on the promise off putting a ball in the water, ALWAYS chooses a toy from the toyroom to play with in the tub - with his zillion other tub toys (I occasionally have to intervene when it is plush, metal or electric, of course).

- pancakes and cupcakes- he stands on his chair, we use the red bowl, I measure the "flour", he dumps in it, I measure the water and he puts in the little one and I put in the big one, and we add whatever else depending on what we are making, we stir with whisks (little and big, simultaneously), he eats some batter, and he oversees the rest of the operation. He has to put the cupcake liners in himself and gets choked if I help.

It's sort of comforting to me that in Nolan's world, often the first try at something is so good that, simply, that is the way it SHOULD be.....

Staring down the barrel of preschool

Coming right up....Nolan can go to preschool after his third birthday, and I don't feel quite ready, not sure about him.....when we try to promote "school", playing with the kids, crafts, he sometimes says "Don't say dat."

Maybe because that conversation is often tagged to the need to use the toilet like a big boy in school- all the time, not just sometimes. (He really just seems to get too busy to bother and still refuses my attempts to try the toilet about 75% of the time, but had regular toilet times with Evadnie, so...? probably will go OK.)

Lately, Nolan has been much more about imaginative games and looking at books, pretending the ottoman is a boat and getting "trapped" behind furniture and saying "We need a rope!!! Pull, pull, PULLL!" when I "rescue" him. He does waterplay at the kitchen sink a lot, and plays the"pnano", and is much more willing to sit at the big table for supper. He really seems to be growing up- especially when it comes to preferring books to TV shows (although the book that caused him major excitement the other day is a Backyardigans story book I got in Ottawa airport on my way back from a rabies meeting on Thursday).

Sensitive kid- watching Finding Nemo, he had significant angst at the scary parts and would say "Turn it off" but would watch spellbound- and if I actually made a move to turn it off he grabbed my hand. I was like that too, although I would be more likely to leave the room if shoes had scary scenes (or later, if they had embarrassing parts). Similar reaction to Monstro the whale in Pinocchio (aka"Nokio Boy"). However, his favorite book pages, that he goes back to again and again, are of the "scary" bits, maybe because on the page he can pore over them and "control" them and still be titillated. He looks at the Pinocchio book Monstro pages again and again, and loves the raft and instruments going over the waterfall in the new Backyardigans book.

I gave him a haircut over about 4 hours last weekend (chasing him around with scissors once he caught on what I was doing)- and it looks pretty good, I think- he was pretty moppy- I did leave enough to wave/curl which also helps disguise the uneven bits. He doesn't much like this kind of attention, when I was stroking his head- and noted a longer curl that could be evened out, just as I was thinking about reaching for a scissor he turned to look up at me and scowled "Don't cut me!!!". Umm, ok.

Last anecdote before I sign out- Nolan still cosleeps at night (let us not start the debate, it works for us) and is really adorable in the morning. One weekend morning he woke, stretched- I had just been lying there thinking- and snuggled over, put both arms around my neck, pulled in for a tight hug, and said "I luuuuffffff you, Mum!!!". I'll want to remember that one- from the slightly damp mango kids shampoo scent of his curly hair to the soft fleece pyjama wrapped arms tight around my neck- a talisman against when it is no longer cool to hug parents.....and when the little boy disappears into a young man, the way the baby has disappeared into the funny bright toddlerchild now walking around our house.