week ending jun 8, 2008:

Week ending June 8, 2008: This week Alex told me about a dream he had. He regularly tells me about his dreams, but he said this was a “wonderful” dream. Alex said in the dream a nice man came and brought things that grown-ups like and things that kids like. He said “you know, things that grown-ups like, like cleaners and ant killers and mouse trips that go ‘BANG!’ and things that kids like, like Barbies and remote control airplanes.” It was then that I realized that I’d been remiss in expressing what things I actually like to do, and what things I do because they need to be done. All Alex sees is that when I’m not doing things for him, I’m cleaning or killing household pests. At least he didn’t say “things that grown-ups like, like Valium and tequila”. It is something of a comfort that my kids see me more like June Cleaver than Peg Bundy.

Chloe, however, thinks I’m more like the Lady Tremaine from Cinderella. I asked the kids to clean up their toys and Chloe was moaning and groaning about it and she said “why do I always have to do everything? You always said ‘do this!’ ‘do that!’” It was several hours later when I realized that she probably didn’t come up with that phraseology herself, so I asked her where she heard it. She said it was what the mice say about how the stepmother treats Cinderella.

Both kids seem to have made a leap in their coordination lately. Chloe has been working on doing cartwheels, and Alex has mastered bouncing back to his feet after he bounces on his bottom on the trampoline, which is called a seat drop. Both kids have been working on the seat drop for a long time and it just suddenly came to them. I was really impressed with Chloe while she was working on her cartwheels. She usually gets frustrated very easily and isn’t interested in putting a lot of effort into something that isn’t going exactly as she’d like, but this time she has been really diligent in her practice and is making strides.

Also this week we went to a children's festival called "Touch A Truck", here are the pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com/constance.phelps/TouchATruck