The tales continue

Here is the next bit:


August 6, 2006

Hullo again

It is a curious thing but I cannot recall when last I wrote. Things here seem so up and down these days that keeping track of something so ‘mundane’ as writing letters is becoming progressively more difficult.

I do have some rather funny tales to tell – who wouldn’t, living with two little boys?

August 12, 2006

Zander is asleep – not that he wanted to be. He was quite happy shrieking and bouncing about… that, despite the fact that he woke up at 5 am this morning and had two brief wakings last night. Tom arrived home last night so I was not really surprised that Zander woke to check on his daddy:> And when, finally, I brought him into ‘Daddy’s oom’, he was so delighted to have day that he just HAD to talk to him and play with him and generally wake himself, and us, completely.

At any rate, at the moment, Zander is asleep. Tom took Jason off to the driving range and now they are on their way back. I had offered to take Jason to the driving range on Wednesday last when Donna came over during Zander’s nap but that was vetoed. The driving range is something that Jason does with Daddy. So Jason and I played mini-golf… It worked out. We had fun. On the way there, we stopped through Starbucks and got drinks – Jason had a tangerine frappicino and I had a mocha. Jason allowed as how the frappicino was quite good and he would be willing to allow me to get him another one some time.

He is really the funniest little fellow. He comes up with comments that just blow me away – and I have known him for five years! Amazingly, though, he can still astonish me. And I am not the only one. When we were at swimming the other day, Jason was ‘thinking through’ his front crawl stroke. He was thinking so hard about the placement of his hands that he forgot his feet! When he got out of the pool toward the end of the session, his teacher, Ms. Carrie, commented to him that he was thinking too hard about it. “You can do this. You have before. You will again.” He has a beautiful dive – Ms. Carrie uses him to demonstrate proper technique for the other kids. That in itself is amazing when you consider that when he first started swimming, he was terrified of the water. Three weeks of screaming before he settled down. Then he hated getting his head wet – suffering, according to an OT I know, from something called ‘gravitational insecurity’, the same thing that causes him to panic when he goes up too high in the grandstands. And yet now he dives, hands, then head then feet. It is beautiful to watch. And his back crawl improves daily. Indeed, he did such an excellent job the other day that the teacher just about bounced out of the pool with excitement. I am so impressed with him that I can hard describe it. Zander is a water baby but Jason… he has overcome enormous challenges to be where he is. But, being Jason, he has to think things through.

And that describes his approach to most everything. Last night, when I was putting him to bed, we were going through our ‘armor’ routine. Essentially it is a relaxation routine but it has the added advantage of providing him with protection against nightmares. At any rate, each night he selects the ‘armor’ he wishes to wear. Last night he decided on ‘Casey Jones’ armor.’ ‘Who, in heaven name, is Casey Jones?’ ‘He is a friend to the Mutant Ninja Turtles’ ‘Oh’ I said. ‘Why not one of the turtles?’ ‘I prefer Casey because he thinks first, before he makes a decision.’ Ah… that is Jason.

Poor baby, though. He had a bit of a hard time on Thursday. He’d had swimming, and done well. Then he was very well behaved at the Moms’ club meeting. In the afternoon we went to meet my friend and her three children. His 'best' friend was there. He had a new bicycle and he had insisted on bringing it. He was riding and riding and riding and Jason was feeling very left out. Then my friend told her daughter to stop riding her scooter and there were tears so I suggested that we go out into the baseball field and shoot rocket balloons. We did that for awhile, until we had entirely blown up all the balloons. Then the kids ran around playing tag and various other games. At some point in the playing, Jason's friend got knocked down and was deeply upset. Trying to soothe him, Jason suggested that the two of them go back up to the playground and take turns on his friend’s bike… His friend agreed but once he was on his bike, he didn’t want to share it. Jason kept following him and asking for his turn until finally Rowan turned on him, in frustration, and said ‘I don’t like you anymore Jason!’ Jason was devastated. My friend was horrified. She apologized and made Rowan do so as well. She explained that Rowan had been hearing that phrase a lot from his siblings of late and was, as a result, feeling rather touchy. I also pointed out to Jason that Rowan’s bike was ‘new’ and therefore not something that he was feeling much like sharing. That didn’t go over too well with my big boy. ‘I get new things and I don’t want to share them with Zander but I do anyway.’ He said tearfully. Sigh. Poor baby. We will see how things go today. We are going over to Colin’s birthday party. It is scheduled from 4:30-6:30. Hopefully Jason and Rowan will make peace.

As for Zander – ah me. That child is something else. He had a wonderful time at the park because Rowan's sister and her best friend played with him. He really likes ‘big girls’ and Rowan's sister is quite good and patient with him. He is fascinated with the differences between the sexes – checking to see who has a ‘peen’ and who does not. He was careful to point out to me (as if this were a consolation) that even though I don’t have a ‘peen’ I do have ‘nipples and a butt.’ Ah… Tom just laughs. It must be a male thing.

Zander is also lord of the Universe. He KNOWS what everyone is supposed to be doing at any given moment and he has no qualms about directing people if they seem confused.