My baby is barely out of babyhood, and already he's into Preschool. Asher already can identify an "I" and an "M" and an "A" fairly consistantly. He is always pointing to letters on labels and books and calling out names of letters he knows. Of course he's rarely right at this point, but the mere fact that he's interested in identifying letters is very exciting to me.
I'm always amazed at how early academics starts. It baffles and saddens me when I hear that some children are not even prepared for Kindergarten today, knowing very little of the Alphabet or numbers or colours or shapes. I was discussing this with a guest in my house the other day. She had been quiried about whether she ever let her daughter play or not - because her 4 year old daughter knows letters, numbers, shapes and colours. The other mother assumed that this mother spent all her time in sit down lessons with her daughter. Not so. At this stage, any child learns just through life experience, just through exposure, all a mother has to do is add things like labels - names of the letters, names of the numbers, names of the shapes etc.. and through the play time, the child will learn to use these labels.
Asher is certainly not advanced. When you hear some children at 2 are able to play Mozart on the piano, or ramble off the names of the Presidents or all the States.. those children are advanced! But to accuse a mother of PUSHING that on their child is not fair either. Children won't learn what they're not ready to, even if it's a bunch of facts.
So I guess, I should also not be hard on the mother who's child arrives at Kindergarten without a firm or even a loose grasp on letters, numbers and shapes and colours. Some children are also equally disinterested!! And that's OK too. I've got some from both ends of the spectrum right here in my family!
Asher turned two today, so we're having a small celebration.
Decadent Black Forest Cake from the Company's Coming Chocolate book
This is the first time I've made one, so I hope it's very yummy and the family likes it.
Gramma sent a big box which included some books, some bath crayons and a Gund Llama - SO CUTE! Asher was very happy with his presents, especially the crayons.. He's going to need a bath after this cake, so it'll be perfect.
I'm making deep fried spicy chicken and french fries.
We couldn't convince him to blow out his own candles though.
Remember that old commercial when we were kids, for a a sweet puffed wheat...
I remember as a kid, putting sugar on my cereal, mind you, I was eating Corn Flakes or Rice Krispies (Snap Crackle and Pop!!)
Now we only use the sugar bowl for tea and coffee, because every cereal you buy, whether it's granola or Oatmeal Crisp - they're all loaded with sugar already.
But a few weeks ago, I made a GRAVE error. I introduced Asher to sugar from the sugar bowl. Thinking it would be fun, I stole his soother, dipped it in the sugar bowl and popped it back in his mouth.
YA, some fun MUM! - Remind me not to do that again. Now when he has the chance, he'll dip his finger in the sugar, or steals sugar cubes from the cupboards at church.. But today takes the cake!
He's covered in it because Myles washed out the dirty nearly empty sugar bowl and refilled it and put it on the table for tea this morning, and then the bigs and mummy left to go do school, and we left the sugar bowl and the tea mugs on the table, and Asher went to town, both eating it freely, dumping it, and spooning it into the now empty cups. One cup was half full of milk, it later got moved to the counter, and when I loaded the dishwasher, I left it there for one of the boys to drink. Trent came along and I told him to drink it.. it was HEAVILY LACED with sugar!
Asher came running into my room where I was reading to the boys, he was covered from head to toe in sugar crystals, and he lunged onto Trent.. Poor Trent looked like he had been involved in the sugar mess too.
Rosina is smart, she had a plan to keep Baby M out of the fire and safe.
Our problem was that the fire was small, so we had our chairs close to the fire, and though Asher was standing right next to Myles, and Myles attention was on him, it didn't stop Asher from falling.
His hand landed under the ashes, his bottle in the pile of burning sticks. I screamed, Myles pulled, I checked to make sure he wasn't on fire..
but Asher never cried.
He never mentioned he was in pain in any way.
Until we noticed the beginnings of this.. several hours later inside the house.
He still wasn't complaining about it, it was just red and Trent noticed a blister forming. I put some solarcaine on it to stop the pain, and some vitamin E. He fussed a little before going to bed - but wow, I can't believe he didn't even mention it much today.
Tough guy!
He did pull on a little piece of hanging skin at dinner tonight, and said "OW"
Asher has a new skill, the boy can climb out of his crib. Sigh, I knew the day was coming... but wait! This child seems a little different from all the others. What's this? I can put him down for a nap and bedtime, he stays in his crib and then gets out by himself in the morning, or after nap! WOW. This is exciting.
Stuart says it's only because it's new. I say Kybosh! It's because he's ASHER! My happy child. The child who gets up from a nap happy, who gets up in the morning happy, the child who so far can follow instructions happily.
No, I'm not suggesting he's the easiest child in the world, but compared to what I've been through, he's pretty easy! I don't mind this climbing out in the morning. It's kind of nice to see Janney and Asher walking into our room hand in hand and climb into bed with us, or have Asher come alone, he always wants a morning cuddle and willingly goes back to sleep with me.
Tomorrow we've got plans, Janney, Asher and I are planning a picnic out by the front fence so we can watch the trucks pave our highway.
Ya, I know, funny.
But when Trent, Myles and Rourke were little, we spent SOO many days just watching trucks pave roads, or one time, they dug up the road, laid new pipes and wires and then rebuilt the road. It was a month long project and almost every day I'd take the boys up to the end of the block to spend some time and see the progress.
So, tomorrow I start this tradition with the next batch. Today, Asher and I took a walk down to where they were working today, in front of the llamas. He's got a new word "uks" that's the center portion of trucks. This word is added to his other vocabulary which includes
su = soother
shus = shoes
Ror = Rourke
ba = ball
bu = pool
Mama = That's ME.. that's what he calls me!!
and there's now = meow for cats and kittens but he doesn't bark yet though he loves the dogs.
I've got to go, I'm making bread for our picnic sandwiches.
The last two nights I've put Asher to bed by having him roll around on my bed while I read a bit, then I turn out the light, and we just lie there while I sing. He kicks and squirms and eventually starts listening to my voice, and then submits into the relaxation and falls asleep.
And since I've been having him in my bed every night for the last two weeks, I decided last night, that when he wakes up from his sleep, instead of bringing him to our bed, that we put him in with Janney. They BOTH slept through the night last night, and Stuart and I got a restful sleep.
I think I'll move him straight from my bed into her bed, instead of to his crib. I think he needs to sleep with someone.
Header Banner photo - My ornamental crab apple tree in fresh bloom, in the middle of my circular driveway.~~~~
I am Sombra, and these are the stories from our house. We're a Messianic family where academics often take a back seat to the work and adventure of life.
We couldn't convince him to blow out his own candles though.
