Fast times and wild living with (the former) Baby Whozit…
Posted in Jessica, Little Boy, Simon says... on Aug 18th, 2010
An early phase of language acquisition for English speaking children is the overregulation of irregular past tense verbs. In other words, kids learn that “ed” signifies the past tense in English, and before you know it they say things like “Mommy goed to the grocery.” Simon hit that phase a while ago, probably a year [...]
Posted in Jessica, Little Boy, Simon says... on Aug 16th, 2010
My mom’s cat Barret died from liver failure Saturday, and my own cat, Percival, is in renal failure and may not have much longer himself. It’s been a tough, tough week or so around here. And when I say “tough”, I mean I have cried buckets every day for a week now. (I’ve held off [...]
Posted in Jessica, Little Boy, Simon says... on Aug 10th, 2010
Simon has lots of plans for when he’s a grown-up, and they aren’t the dreams of blasting off into space, digging up dinosaur bones, or driving a racing car that I would have expected. Not yet, anyway. Nope, his dreams are a bit more prosaic at present.
“When I’m a grown-up,” he tells me, “I’m going [...]
Posted in Jessica, Little Boy, Simon says... on Jul 23rd, 2010
I keep reading that age three to four is when imaginary play begins, and certainly we’ve been slaying monsters and doing Iron Man poses a lot around here. I also read that age three to four is when imaginary friends show up for only or oldest children. Until a week ago, I had seen no [...]
Posted in Jessica, Little Boy, Simon says... on Jul 21st, 2010
Someone’s ready for his driver’s permit! He couldn’t pass the written test at this point, but he’s verbally got the rules of the road down pretty well.
“Mommy,” he’ll say as we turn into a parking spot, “you forgot to turn your turn signal on.”
Or how about: “Mommy, are you driving too fast?” Or, “Mommy, why [...]
Posted in Jessica, Little Boy, Simon says... on Jul 17th, 2010
I swear we didn’t put him up to it…
Here are the TV shows Simon is regularly exposed to:
Tom and Jerry
Curious George
Syd the Science Kid
Dinosaur Train
Thomas and Friends
Caillou
Mama Mirabelle
Kipper
Noddy
Sesame Street
Bob the Builder
#1 is a treat he gets at his grandparents. He loves it, and I haven’t seen him get violent as a result.
#3 is useful mainly [...]
Posted in Jessica, Little Boy, Simon says... on Jul 6th, 2010
Ever since the big race talk last December, I’ve been waiting for some sign that Simon “got it”, by which I mean that Simon saw physical differences in people and understood it was OK to notice and ask about these differences but wasn’t ascribing any deep meaning to them. Several more months of his insisting [...]
Posted in Jessica, Little Boy, Simon says... on Jul 3rd, 2010
In late May, Simon said a few things that gave the illusion of his possessing adult understanding or common adult fears. At the time, it was his description of insomnia and stated fear of getting old that caught me off guard. I don’t think he fully understood what he said, but he gave a convincing [...]
Posted in Jessica, Little Boy, Simon says... on Jun 24th, 2010
Sometimes Simon will answer a question with a non sequitur and I just assume he’s bored and wants to change the subject. Of course, most times he’s quite clear on this front and will say things like “I don’t want to talk about that any more.” Other times, I suspect there’s some little boy logic [...]
Posted in Jessica, Little Boy, Simon says... on Jun 21st, 2010
Simon is on a roll. I have a sneaking suspicion that, even when explained, most of these items that made Matt and I laugh out loud and clutch our sides won’t translate into print. I think you sort of have to be here. And probably be (or live with) us, too. But I’m committing it [...]