Let me start off by saying that they have both changed since last summer!! I saw them a few times during the school year, so they both remember me and everything. But I can certainly see changes. For example:
- Christopher talks a lot more, and tries to tell me stories
- Christopher has learned how to use his imagination!!!!
- He's also completed potty training, which is great :D
- He's also learned to talk back..........which isn't so good :/
- Brian interacts with me more...car rides are rarely quiet now :D
- He's learning a sense of decency! Last year he would change clothes wherever, but now he does it in his room or the bathroom and warns me not to come in ;-)
- Brian can stay in the lines really well when he's coloring - and he does a great job!
- He's even starting to let me take his picture a bit more! :)
So, now on to some of the funny things they've done.....sadly this will be an incomplete list because I've been meaning to do this for a little while and might have forgotten some things.
1. Christopher's a fire man! He loves everything to do with fighting fires and has for the past 6 months or so. He's got a whole outfit that he loves wearing. When I watched them some during Christmas break, he rarely left the house without wanting his fireman's jacket and helmet. On the first or second day that I was there, this is how I discovered he had an imagination. He was telling me all about the fire we were fighting together and what tools we were using.
2. Christopher's stories. He always wants to tell people about what's happened to him recently... But when you mix a limited vocabulary with imperfect pronunciation and emphatic, fast talking it's usually difficult to follow what he's saying unless you know what's going on :D
3. Bugs Bunny. Christopher's evidently been watching Looney Tunes, because he likes imitating it. At lunchtime he always wants to eat some baby carrots so he can start eating one in the corner of his mouth and then hold it while saying "Ehhhhh, what's up doc?" His dad had to tell me what he was doing the first time, and we agreed the best part of the show is that it makes Christopher like carrots ;-)
4. Pronunciation. There are some things Christopher doesn't know how to pronounce properly yet, and it's really funny. "Samwich" (sandwich), "Buebies" (blueberries), "Noom Dough" (Moon Dough - I'll explain next), "Barnes an' Oble" (Barnes & Noble), etc. Although I think his mispronunciations are cute, I do try to help him learn the right way to say things :)
Moon Dough is this new-fangled version of Play Dough. Instead of being like clay, Moon Dough is more like a powder that kind of sticks together if you press it into a hard mold. If you try to mold it with your fingers, however, it just gives way. It's really weird to play with for the first time because it's not at all wet like Play Dough. It's dry, and that fact messes with your brain at first.
5. Simple misunderstanding. The other day when the boys and I went to the pool, some other children were playing there too and were nice enough to share their pool toys. They had some diving rings and they let Christopher play with one. So he trots over to me (he has this really funny prancing/trotting walk he does sometimes - kind of hopping from one foot to the other), holding the ring with both hands on his bottom. I couldn't figure out why he was holding it that way....then he said "I'm going to get it off the bottom!" Evidently the kids had told him that he was supposed to get the toy off the bottom of the pool and he took that to mean off his bottom! I couldn't help but laughing out loud at that - it was soooo funny to see :D
6. Hello, my name is Grammar. At least that's what Brian said I should be called. One time we were in the car stuck in traffic and we somehow got on the subject of littering. He said "I'm going to eat littering!" which started me off on an explanation of the fact that you can't eat verbs because they're actions. "It's like saying you're going to eat running!" I said. I had prefaced my mini-lecture with the question "do you know what grammar is?" Well then he said my name should be grammar because I talk about it so much. ;-) Evidently I told him the first week that I was grading papers and checking them for grammar. I don't remember telling him that, but he does. I think I've talked to him about grammar maybe one other time........
Later on in the car ride, he declared out of the blue - "You are part of the family, because you're my nanny!" I can't remember any reason for why he would have said that right then, but it made me very happy :) I think he sees me as something like a friend/big sister now. Occasionally as we're walking around at the Science Place or Zoo or something like that his hand will almost unconsciously slip into mine for a moment. It's never for very long, but it's still sweet of him :)
7. Playful ruts. It's funny to see how easily children get into habits and routine. They get to where they have certain favorite activities and certain ways they play with things. For example, whenever I take Christopher to the park I can count on the fact that he'll swing, do certain other activities, and swing more. Whenever we go to the pool (which has been every day this week!), Brian wants to play dolphin and Christopher wants to play doctor. And just because I took a seat cover off one of the beach chairs to stand on because the pavement was too hot one time, he thinks that's what must be done to play doctor properly ;-) When we go to Barnes & Noble, Brian typically wants me to read the same books to him and Christopher always goes and finds the same toy to play with. I do try to vary our activities and how we play with the toys...but it's just interesting to see their inclination to the familiar!
8. Children see/hear, Children do/say. Those two young fellas know almost every word of some pop songs like Bieber's "Baby" and Cruz's "Dynamite." I even heard Christopher sing the proper "Jingle Bells" all the way through the other day...but he might have been having some help with it. One of Christopher's favorite pretends is to use a "samarizer" like in the kid's show "Power Rangers." Almost any object the size of a TV remote quickly "becomes" one in his hands.
Boy oh boy is this one a good reminder. Anything they see me do or hear me say they could easily pick up and repeat. That's plain scary!!!
9. Sleepy boy. Christopher quit taking regular naps sometime early last fall. But this summer we've been having so much fun that he does get worn out. I can always tell when he gets tired because he'll start sucking his right thumb and his left hand will either get tucked into the waistband of his shorts or his fingers will slip through the tag on the side seam of his shirt. And about 75% of the time that I drive somewhere in the car with just him he'll fall asleep within a couple of minutes. One day he even let me read him to sleep and then I sat there on his bed and let him sleep on my lap for about 30 minutes. He tried to roll over at one point, so I helped him off my lap. He sat up on his knees and I thought for a minute that he was awake. He must have had his eyes open. But he wasn't really awake, because he put his head right down on his pillow/blanket and was sound asleep again :)
10. Surprise! This one kind of goes along with #7. I usually ride the train down to work, and the dad usually picks me up from the train station near their apartment. Christopher is usually with him. He knows all about "your train station" as he calls it, and I've taken the boys on the train whenever we've gone to the zoo. Anyway, Christopher is apparently of the opinion that the only way I can come see him is by the train. On the few occasions when I've driven down instead of riding the train, he's always really surprised to see me. It takes him a minute to register how in the world I got there, but then he greets me with "Esther!" in an excited voice :)
11. Talky talky. I'm kind of unsure what to do about this one...... The boys both love talking to other people - on the elevator, when we're at the pool, at the book store, etc. They're always curious about what adults are doing and love telling them about what we've been up to. While I know it's good for them to be friendly and curious, there's that old law of childhood - "don't talk to strangers!" And sometimes the boys just want to keep talking and I'm worried the adults might not appreciate these kids being so nosy and talking so long.
So there are some of my fun stories from my terrific job :D Of course, not everything is always so easy or always rosy. The boys aren't perfect and neither am I. And there's things I see that make my heart ache. But I prefer to focus on the happy things while trying to figure out how to deal with the flaws in a way that I don't step outside my bounds.
