Kamiak

It was a springy mostly warm day, so we went to Kamiak Butte.  For those who haven't been there, Kamiak is a high spot that sticks up oddly from the rolling wheat fields.  The north side is covered in trees, and it's a nice little county park.  There is camping, hiking, and a play area.  It wasn't my intention when we left the house to go there, so I was wearing clogs.  Not the best shoes for a klutz to hike in, but I avoided tumbling down the hillside.

We started out at the play area.  PB Monster wasn't too sure about hiking.  He'd played baseball earlier in the day, so he might have been feeling a little tired.  But, eventually, he decided to give it a try.  I sang songs as we hiked, like my family used to do when I was little.  (I couldn't remember all the words to the bear song where you fall out of the tree and hit all the branches on the way down.  I'll have to look it up or ask Lisa before our next hike.)

PB Monster is a little mountain goat.  When we reached the lower summit, he started bouldering and jumping from rock to rock.  Impressive in his superhero tennis shoes.  He also walked some fallen logs.  Instead of turning around, he decided we should keep hiking.  He made almost the entire 3 1/2 mile loop on his own steam.  He kept his energy up for the entire climb, and ran down the backside.  He bummed a shoulder ride for the last 1/2 mile.  This was his first long hike, and I was proud of him for doing so well.  He saw chipmunks, finches, unnamed birds, flowers, rock shapes, and bugs.  He's still bug squeamish.  Somehwere he learned about fire ants, and he now thinks every ant is after him.

Kidisms

Thing 1, pointing at the neighbor's cat - "There's a HYENA!"
PB Monster - "No, I know what that is.  That is a cat."
Thing 2 - "Are you sure?"

PB Monster to Thing 1 - "I can punch the monsters in the FACE.  I can keep them away from you.  Tell me when you have a bad dream."

PB Monster also used left three times correctly today.  Once as a side of the bed, second as a direction to turn, and third to show which hand was his left.

Quick Smile

I just opened the dishwasher with the intention of putting away the clean dishes.  I was surprised to find PB Monster's cloth dinner napkin on the top shelf.  Guess I'd better specify washer types.

How does he know?

I'm not at my best in the morning.  I am often cranky and slow to get out of bed.  And, my brain is even slower to wake up.  If I agree to anything when I've just woken up (or am reading), remind or re-ask me when I'm awake and paying attention.  I don't connect the dots well when I first wake up.  I'll be thinking about how I have to move heavy boxes full of files at work that day while I'm putting on a dress and high heels.  My thoughts in the morning make absolute sense to me, but then don't hold up during the course of the day.

This morning, I dressed PB Monster for his dance class.  As I was running around getting myself ready, I saw one of his ballet shoes on the floor.  A couple minutes later, I saw the other shoe on top of the dishwasher.  I grabbed the shoe off the floor, set it next to the shoe on the dishwasher, and then stared at them a couple seconds.  I was debating bringing his shoes to class, and I decided against grabbing them.  My thought was "I carry his shoes along with me all day, every Tuesday since January, and he never wears them.  Today, I'll leave them home."

Fast forward 9.5 hours: Five minutes into pre-ballet, PB Monster comes running out of his ballet class asking for his ballet slippers. How does he know?

Close Enough

PB Monster: I know this movie.  It's "The Frog Kisses the Princess!"

Chapters

On this evening's excursion to the public library, PB Monster picked out four juvenile chapter books.  Three of them had dragons on the cover and the fourth has tentacles.  PB Monster was excited to learn that his new favorite movie, "How to Train your Dragon", is also a series of books.  The reason PB Monster was in the juvenile chapter book section is that it shares wall space with the libraries "Juvenile Readers" section.  PB Monster wants to learn to read.

I'm excited to share my love of reading.  For the last year or two, I've been working on precursors to reading.  PB Monster can read his favorite books from memory; he likes to finish sentences and fill in blanks when I read him stories; he will makes up stories to go along with picture books; his daycare has been drilling him on the names of letters.  I think that might be part of my frustration with teaching this new skill.  His daycare is working hard to teach him the names of the letters, sight recognition of the letters, and even writing some of the letters (in case I haven't bragged before: he can write and spell his name), but his teachers have not been spending much time on teaching the sounds of letters. 

When PB Monster and I lived in Ontario, I spent a lot of time playing phonetic games with him.  Instead of singing him the letters of the alphabet, I'd sing him the sounds of the alphabet.  After we moved, I spent less time playing those games.  Just before Christmas, I realized I'd been slacking and bought a couple Christmas presents to help subtly start reiterating phonics.  And, now that PB Monster has actively decided he wants to start reading, I can explore a new section of the library.