Noah’s 4! Where have four years gone? Sunday's party was fodder for one of those magical childhood memories. After our trip to Hawaii in December, he wanted to have a Hawaii party for his birthday. I happened to mention it to a friend of mine who unbeknownst to me had two boxes of Hawaiian themed party decorations in her attic. So we went all out. Then Mother Nature decided to step up the irony of a January Hawaiian party and dumped a half of a foot of snow on Eugene yesterday – the biggest snowfall here in over a decade. Mom (Grandma Nancy), Cary, and Noah built a snowman in the front yard before the party and decked it out with hula skirt, coconut bra, lei, and sunglasses. It was a trip seeing the kids come in, strip off hats, snowpants, boots, and heavy coats to reveal aloha shirts underneath. There were 12 kids altogether, the snow keeping a few away, which maybe wasn’t such a bad thing, given the large number anticipated. The whole event was so sweet. The kids were all good-natured and well-mannered. The beloved local kiddie-star, Rich Glauber sang. He brought a ukulele tuned to his guitar for Noah to play along.
He started piano lessons a few weeks ago, and he’ll start dance class this week (he’ll apparently be the only boy with a whole gaggle of girls). He’s pretty excited. I wonder if he will notice that he’s the only boy. I think the best thing the lessons offer (besides the opportunity to gain skills in his favorite two areas of course) is practice following directions. On one hand I think it’s ridiculous that he’s taking two kinds of lessons, and he’s just 4 years old, but oh well, I’m only off for a year, and he’s been begging for dance lessons for a year and they’re offered cheaply through Eugene Rec Services, so what the heck.
He’s made some huge leaps in his pre-reading and writing skills. Last summer he maybe recognized a handful of letters at best, and by now – with no formal effort to teach him anything – he recognizes most of them (in capital letter form). His writing continues to improve too. I was proud of his thank you notes that he wrote for Hanukkah. We’ll have to make some more now for his birthday. On one hand I can’t believe he’s 4. On the other hand, I can’t believe he still has a year and a half before kindergarten. Not that he’s ready now, but he’ll be so ready when he gets there. It makes you realize the huge discrepancy in exposure to literacy that kids have coming into kindergarten. No wonder the gap becomes a canyon by the later grades.
I had my first official parent-teacher conference for Noah with Carole and Jessica. I’ve been so pleased with his experience at TBI. I don’t know what we’ll do next year when I go back to work, but I hope we’ll find a way to keep him there for the sake of consistency as well as the wonderful job that they all do. They clearly love him and are affectionate but also firm with expectations about appropriate behavior… just the perfect blend for him. Recently Cary and I have suspected that Noah is turning into an introvert. It took me awhile to recognize the signs, because he started out life as such a social baby, but he appears to be (like me, and so many of our family members) a closet introvert. He looks extroverted (he is loud, he isn’t shy, he can be social and likes to be a leader), but really his interactions with other kids, makes me think he’s introverted. Although he likes school a lot, he doesn’t talk much about the other kids. When I ask about them, he can’t name but one or two, and that’s when I’m pressing him for information. I asked Carole and Jessica and they pondered for a moment and then agreed with my assessment. Watching him play, they said, he doesn’t generally seek to engage other kids. He’s happy to play with them of course, and does often, but he isn’t one to call out across the classroom to a buddy. (Not that he’s quiet, he’s just busy loudly singing “76 trombones” or something.) So it’s been interesting to ponder this newly revealed characteristic of his. In another note, we were all rather surprised that EC Cares recommended that we do nothing at this time regarding his speech and reevaluate him in 6 months. He does seem to be improving a little on his own, with lots of reinforcement from us and his teachers.
And Avi’s 6 months! At least, he will be in a couple of days. He is becoming increasingly mobile. He rolls everywhere and scoots, mostly backwards, but a little forwards. It’s not a formal crawl, but it’s getting close; he likes to get up on his hands and knees and rock like he’s getting ready to take off, but then he can’t quite figure out what to do next and gets frustrated.
He occasionally gets in pushup position, his entire trunk off the floor and just his feet and hands touching the floor. He does this mostly in the tub where he insists on bathing on his stomach. The first few days I was understandably quite nervous about this and had my hands in the water right next to him at every moment, but I’m growing more confident in his ability. I try putting him in the tub on his back, but he instantly flips over. He had been moving in this direction for a while, but every since his swimming adventures in Hawaii, he’s insisted upon flipping over to be tummy down. He is happy for a long time in the tub, reaching out for spongy animals and cups. He gets one leg underneath him in good crawl formation and tries to lunge forward, but the slippery nature of naked chubby baby body in the tub makes it hard.
We discovered in Hawaii that he’s a natural swimmer. We took him in the pool and the ocean and he absolutely loved both. He mostly wanted to be tummy down in the water; he would kick his legs, flap his arms, and wave his trunk like the butterfly stroke. I think he was doing a better job with butterfly than I did after a whole season on swim team. He got his whole face in the water a few times and seemed unfazed by it. He was pursing his lips together and blowing bubbles. The whole thing really did make you wonder about reincarnation. It’s uncanny how much that baby likes to be in the water.
Last week I took both boys with me to a singing group at the synagogue. Noah was lying on the floor coloring in a book in the middle of the small group and Avi was also on the floor rolling this way and that and reaching for toys and chair legs. Much to his delight (and Noah’s irritation) Avi kept managing to roll across the circle and into his brother. Oh, it’s just the beginning! Avi looked so excited to have somehow of his own accord reached his brother. And I could just here Noah protesting in the future, begging me to keep Avi out of this or that or stop bugging him. (Noah has continued to ask about another baby and is lobbying for a third baby, this time a girl – his words, not mine – but we’ll see if he changes his tune when Avi starts being more capable of bugging him and his things.)
We finally got tough and made him cry it out a week or so ago. Nighttime had gotten so bad that he was waking up every 30 minutes or so. I think I’m to blame for going to him so quickly when he cries. So we had to get tough. We let him cry for about 45 minutes one night. Not just whining, but full on screaming and kicking and flailing. If a 5 1/2 month old baby can throw a temper tantrum, that’s what it was. Of course, I went in to console him every 5-10 minutes, and in between I talked to Jenn who assured me that he really wouldn’t be emotionally wounded forever by my lack of compassion in this matter. I’m the mother of two. You’d think I would know this by now, but somehow, she had to reassure me. Since then, sleeping has finally been getting better. Avi is frequently sleeping through the night, and I’m feeling much more rested. I guess the only drawback is that I’m going to have to give up those afternoon naps I’ve been taking with him.
He’s talking more and more. He says a lot of “ma ma ma ma” and “na na na” (just a coincidence I’m sure), and Os and Ahs and even a “gga” sometimes. He smiles and laughs as much as ever. I’m convinced he’s the happiest baby I’ve ever known. And I thought Noah was a happy baby.
