Dad wins.

So a few days ago we ordered a Christmas gift for little man off of kids woot (which is a fantastic deal of the day site to watch by the way).

The tracking said that I'd get the package on Monday, the 28th, but alas, when I went to get the mail today there was a package waiting. And who should be with me? You guessed it.

I did tell him honestly that it was a Christmas gift for him and it would be a long wait until he can open it (I'm not sure why, but it seemed like a good idea at the time). The whole car ride home (all 2 minutes of it) he was looking at the box, curious as a kitten.

The plot will thicken soon, but let me preface by saying that we went to the bookstore this morning and he got a brand new Where's Waldo book (it's brand new to him, but the copyright is 1988...believe it, folks, we're getting older).

So we get home and I tell him that the package will stay in the car because my hands are 'full' and I can't carry it in right now (out of sight, out of mind).

We get inside and he turns to me and says, "Oh no. I left my Waldo book in the car!"

I tell him to go get it, but under no circumstances is he to look in that box (which I forgot to mention, the tape it coming off of the top and you can see inside a little).

So...I send him on his way. Then my Dadstincts kick in (which is completely different from my Dadstinks...). I grab the binoculars and my keys...then I head to the laundry room which gives me a clear view of the car and he can't see me very well.

He opens the door, climbs up and closes the door. Perfect for me. He grabs his book and turns back to leave. Good. Then he stops and looks at the house. Gears are turning. I see him lean toward the box. Not good. I lock my car and then push the panic button twice, causing my car to beep one single time. He heads back to the door. Good. He stops and stares at the house for a full ten seconds. Then he ducks down out of site. Not good. I push the panic button again allowing for two beeps this time. I see his little head pop up and his frustrated little hand hit the seat. He has given up.

He opens the door, hops out, closes the door and, with his head hung low, walks back to the house.

I win...and he has no clue that it was me.

Face Value

During learning time Declan and I decided to get in touch with our emotions (no, we didn't sit around holding each other and crying over our cups of Mocha Chai Latte).

We talked about the different kinds of emotions that people experience and with the help of these super duper flash cards we were able to do a bunch of different exercises.

Obviously, the first would be to discuss the emotions individually, but rather than listing and explaining, I'd show him the emotion card and tell him a situation: Billy took your toy and threw it on the floor, breaking it...you'd feel...mad? more than mad...angry. That way he'd become familiar with scenarios for each and the differences between the emotions.

Then it came time for the game. I laid out all of the emotion cards and then gave him a scenario.
I wake up in the morning and I'm just not happy. everyone had better stay out of my way today: grumpy
All of my friends went home for the day and I wish I had someone to play with: lonely
I've decided to be an actor in a play and tonight is opening night where everyone comes to watch me: nervous

But it didn't stop there. Once he guessed my scenario and was able to put the card on his pile, I had him tell me a situation where he'd feel or where he'd felt that emotion.

And as an added bonus, we came up with a list of things to do when you're feeling an emotion other than normal:

1. ask yourself, "What am I feeling inside?"
2. "Why am I feeling this way?"
3. "What is something i can do to change the way I'm feeling?"
4. Do what you decided in number 3

All in all it was a very good exercise. The flash cards helped him identify his emotions, talking about them helped him understand that everyone feels that way at some point and using the list above can help him control himself and explain his emotions (rather than hitting or screaming).

Here's a list of the emotions/feelings I came up with:
Happy
Angry
Silly
Nervous
Normal
Sad
Scared
Mad
Frustrated
Lonely
Grumpy
Tired

Destructive fun

When I was little I had a thing against mixing my toys. I would never take my GI Joe's and use them with my He-Man toys or my Ghostbusters and use them with my Thundercats. I guess it all started with the whole Transformers/GoBots/generic transforming robots situation: grandparents and the like would always get transforming robots and think there was no differnce between those and actual Transformers, but to an 8 year old boy...there was a big difference. A turquoise blue and silver peacock that transforms into a slender, feminine male robot just doesn't have the same appeal as a giant tank that transforms into a jet, a plane and an evil giant robot with guns.

Out of habit, I guess, I do the same thing with Declan. I try to keep toy integrity, but this time Declan got the best of me. He brought up a mixing of toys that I couldn't say no to. He looked at me with that evil boy twinkle in his eyes and said, "Can we build a giant wall of Legos and smash my monster truck through them?"

How could I say no to such boy-logic?

Fly, boy! Fly!!

A child's imagination will never cease to amaze me. Innocence can create such determination when learning to fly. I hope it never goes away.

Have you ever seen a dried up glue stick?

well now you have...

Plant Parts

Following our nature walk last week, we decided to learn a little more about plants and their parts. I prepped most of this project, but the cool thing is that it involved reading, identification and art time for little man. A very well rounded project if I must say.

I took a few pieces of construction paper and cut them appropriately to make the stem, roots, leaves, sun and a rain cloud. The I labeled the papr with the corresponding parts and glued the main pieces together.

Then it was time for little man to read the parts, match them up, talk about them, and decorate the pieces before gluing them. It was some good learning time and fun to boot!