Thor and the Girl Next Door

Thor Idol

I have probably posted this before, but it's worth seeing again. He was 2 in this video. I'm so impressed with his speech in retrospect!

Video Post

I Know

How did I forget to blog this? While we were out and about (doctor's office, pharmacy, grocery store, Waffle House while waiting for drugs, pharmacy again) yesterday, a woman stopped me and asked how old Thor was. I told her and she shook her head, smiling.

She said, "I have to tell you. I've been a daycare teacher, and a Montessori teacher. I have never seen a child that well mannered. He is the best mannered, smartest child his age I have ever seen."

I gave my usual reply, "Thank you. We're very proud of him."

And we are.

Ni Hao Cry Lan

As I type, I am surreptitiously watching my child watch a cartoon. A character on the cartoon is crying and garnering attention, and he is watching it like it is an instructional video, positioning his hands to mirror the sobbing tiger, and trying to copy his expressions. I know it is only a matter of time before I hear him say, "But Mama, I just need to rest, and then I will go Trick-or-Treating."

Hide and Seek

This morning (after a feud resulting from Thor's refusal to wear pants), on the way to school he said to me, "I was sad when you left me at school yesterday. I was going to go find a truck, hop on it, and go to your building and look for you. Yup. That's what I was going to do."

I sat through a light just smiling at him. Cars behind me were not happy.

Genetics

There's no denying this one is mine.

Faces

Thor is an impressive little guy, made all the more impressive for his forethought. This is a child who thinks before he acts. Before he does much of anything, he has considered the consequence. So if he disobeys it is because he has already decided that it is worth any potential outcome.

This was one of those mornings. I could see it in his face. He knew what I was going to do, and I knew what he was going to do, and we did our dance all over the house.

We got into the car and he sniffled at me, "I do not like it when you make that mad face at me."

I eyebrowed back at him, "Well, I don't like it when you make that screaming face at me."

He harrumphed.

I said, "I only make mad face at you when you disobey. Am I making mad face at you now?"

He said, "No."

I asked him, "And right now, are't you doing what I have told you to do?" He agreed, so I carried out the thought, "So if you don't want me to make mad face at you, shouldn't you do what I tell you to do?"

He considered and shook his head. "You just shouldn't make mad face at me."

I managed not to laugh, but not by much.

Bright Ideas

Thor was studying the refrigerator and the water dispenser. I walked into the kitchen and he asked, "Mama? Is that the idea button?" I couldn't figure out what he was talking about, then I realized that the light-on button is a light bulb with lines emanating from it, much like the icon associated with having an idea.

I wish we had an idea button on the fridge! Man, I'd be in there pressing that button all day long!

Musing

Thor had his 4 year check up today. He is hearty and hale, and full of yo-ho-ho. You see, he wanted to wear his pirate hat to the doctor's office, and he asked them to call him Captain Pirate. They did. Everyone was happy.

For several months, Thor has been asserting his sartorial preferences. I encourage him to look in the mirror and admire himself when he is matching, so hopefully he will learn how to put his outfits together in such a way that people don't wonder if he is color blind.

Learning the Bad Stuff

Thor: Mama, why did that box fall down?
Me: I don't know. Was there a little boy climbing on it earlier?
Thor: Oh, yes.
Me: Should you have been doing that?
Thor: It wasn't me. It was a little boy in our house.
Me: YOU are the only little boy in the house.
Thor: Oh. Did I do that?
Me: Yes, Urkel, you did.
Thor: HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Random Thor

Thor was talking in his sleep yesterday. I got near enough to hear him say, "No... no, mama. You have to take me over there by all the little girls..." And then there was this huge sigh and he settled again.

Um?

Boy howdy are we having a rough patch, too. I've decided it's my fault. I've let the work schedule take over my timelines, and I've spent more time indulging my own downtime prefs than giving attention to him. So... I'm going back to the old schedule of Thor-centric activities until his bedtime. Granted, this includes getting dinner ready, but since he eats it I think that counts as Thor-centric. And this will free up time to organize his bedroom. Again. (I say "free up" like I'm looking forward to it. Gah.)

The thing with that is that I get it organized and he is so excited about being able to see all of his toys that he plays with them all at once. It is a tornado of activity that leaves the room looking exactly as it had before, or worse.

This time, though, I'm going to have him help me pick out some discarded playthings to donate to charity. We've been talking about children who don't have toys, and he seems interested in them. We'll see how that goes.

He has grown. He's about 37" tall now, and weighs 38lbs. This is the first time his weight has outdone his height. He wears a solid size 4T, and a size 9 shoe. But he's still small enough for me to carry. That's not going to last much longer.

Thor Smash!

Most of the time, I don't notice exactly how much Thor is growing and maturing. I take it for granted because I see him every day. But boy, now and then something just tweaks my nose and reminds me, "He's not a baby anymore, and you can't keep treating him like one."

Last night on the way home, he had been rambling and babbling about Wall-E for miles. I asked him to stop talking long enough for me to hear a news report on the radio, and he went icy silent. When the report was over, I told him he could start talking again.

He said, "I am not speaking."

I said, "Uh...okay? Why?"

"Because I am not." Arms were crossed, chin was lifted, eyes were narrowed.

I asked, "Why are you not speaking?"

He answered, "Because you wanted to hear the radio."

"Oh! And I chuckled because that was funny to me. He gave me side-eye and turned his head. I asked, "Did I hurt your feelings?"

He turned back to look at me slowly, dramatically, with great calculation and then with flaring nostrils he said, "No. You made me mad."

So part of me wanted to laugh because, trust me, it was funny. And part of me felt bad for having upset him. Another part of me was saying, "But, mother of god, kid, you talk all the time! Those three minutes didn't hurt you." Yet another part of me was already preparing the life lesson to go along with his emotion. The biggest part of me?

The biggest part of me was screaming with anthropological delight, "He has learned to differentiate his emotions! This is an incredible leap in maturity! He can sift and sort, and make sense of the subtle differences between emotional hurt and anger! Some adults can't do that! I am raising an enlightened male!"

What I did was say this: Thor, buddy, I apologize that I made you angry. I always like to talk to you, and I will always make time to listen to you. Sometimes I need to hear other people talking, too. I needed to hear that news report. But most of all, I didn't mean to hurt you. I'll say it differently next time. Okay? (he okayed).

You know what? I am very proud of the way you handled being angry. You weren't mean or nasty, and you explained how you were feeling. Good job! (high fives ensued) Do you understand? (nodding) Awesome. So do you want to talk about racecars now? (and he did.) What kind of racecars do you like?

Before you go thinking this is 100% my parenting style, I should mention that yesterday morning after he had cried and screamed about hating his pants from 6:45--7:10 (I'm talking wailing. Another mother was eyeballing me like I was a candidate for a CPS visit when we walked outside of the house), I snapped and screamed at him to shut his mouth. This is after having tried the above method.

I want him to feel comfortable having emotions and expressing them, but he's also got to get it through his head that there are acceptable ways of doing that.

Welcome to the State Fair!

Today was Thor's first experience with the State Fair. He had been looking forward to his first roller coaster ride, and though there are no pictures of that (because I had to ride with him) I can report that he was delighted. I taught him to lift his hands and scream like a girl.

He loved it. He said his favorite part of the fair was the ferris wheel. I'm sure riding the train to Fair Park didn't hurt the experience. And let me just say how much I love the convenience of the new Green Line.

Not even the rain dampened the fun. In fact, it just made it better since the weather kept the crowds and the heat at bay. We just put Thor inside an umbrella (see below) and went for it.

Lead on, Jungle Explorer!

Picture it: Friday. Perfect weather. Computer system goes offline at work and everyone bails like fire ants from a stirred up mound. High noon and not a responsibility in the world. What to do?

I ran for Thor, of course, and disrupted his nap with great news. We were going to the zoo! Why not? Friday. Perfect weather. Not a responsibility in the world.

So we were off to the zoo and we spent two and a half hours walking around. It was warm enough that the animals were all out and about, but cool enough that the homo sapiens could stay out and about, too. We bought Thor a straw safari hat and he turned into Thor the Jungle Explorer, and the rest was carousel riding, gorilla watching, penguin laughing at, gator dodging, mono-rail sitting, monkey spotting, tiger sighting, pigeon chasing delight.

I am exhausted and my feet hate me, but I can't think of a better way to spend a suddenly free day.