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2.12.10: Fridays are our days with Ralph and Olga, and while we ALL love it, Silas soaks it up the most! He adores his mornings with Pappou spent doing any sort of thing, but it usually involves building something.
Today, Ralph came downstairs as we were fixing lunch to report that Silas was putting together the train upstairs.
He said, "I offered to help him put it together, but Silas told me, 'I don't need your help. I have been putting together trains since I was a little boy!'"
12-09: Theo's been struggling with follow-through and responsibility. It's a normal 8-year-old stage, but coupled with his day-dreamy brain, and this is getting frustrating on both parent and child side!
What I love about Theo is this: his heart is gold. He struggles here and there, but when his feet are finally held to the fire, he just really wants to do better. It is a joy to watch.
So this Christmas Break was unofficially Operation Responsible Theo. He could feel the wave of momentum, and actually wants to not be reaping the consequences of irresponsibility constantly, and so he's been making huge strides to tune it, listen and follow through.
But every road to recovery is filled with potholes. And his troublesome Reading book, the trigger for so many responsibility consequences since it has the propensity to be left in any number of obscure places, was misplaced again.
Earnestly searching throughout the hosue, Theo was overheard to mumble to himself, "Well, that's it. I'm just dumb-founded!"
I love that phrase. I love that he was sticking to the task. I love that he let himself become bewildered instead of irritated. What a boy!
01.05.10: Alexa had a friend over after school and this, no matter who it is, makes for an exciting afternoon. I know kids thrive in routine, but when those are firmly in place, nothing is as exciting to them as something to shake up the routine!
When one has a friend over, we work hard to give them the space they want to play alone for a bit. This is easier said than done, especially when it sounds like they are having so much fun. Soon, we could see the costumes were out, the "house" was set up and the imagination had kicked in.
And Silas was having a hard time standing on the sidelines, even with lots of fun alternatives. So I pulled out the trump card: a movie. He got a new one for Christmas that he is so excited about--Auto-Be-Good--and it is four short stories. Well, soon it attracted a crowd. A costumed crowd.
And the two worlds meshed for that beautiful 10 minutes. And I settled in to get a snippet of work done. When the movie was over, they turned it off and a very sad, but not crying, Silas came in around the corner. I expected to hear the tale of woes of being left out, but that's not what I heard.
With heavy eyebrows and lip slightly out, he said, "Mom, they asked me to play with them."
Surprised, and now confused, I replied, "Well, what's the sad face about then?"
The sadness slipped away, replaced by quite the sheepish look, and he said softly, "I accidentally told them 'no'."
Oh dear! It was the opportunity he's been begging for all afternoon and he accidentally let the wrong monosyllable answer out! Oh the agony! I had trouble keeping a straight face.
Fortified with the advice that he could just knock on the door and tell them that he changed his mind, he was off with his characteristic bounce in his step reattached! I dearly am enjoying this year of 4 with him.
I'm not a big fan of Fall. It's not that I have anything against the leaves, going back to school, or the cooler weather, it's just that I'm always sad to see Summer go. And come to think of it, maybe I do have something against the cooler weather. There are so many great reasons to love Summer, and so I always have to talk myself into being ok with Fall.
But don't worry, I always work on it, and realized yesterday that I've actually accomplishe it--I'm enjoying Fall, and it's only...we'll, we're almost on the threshold of Winter, but who's counting?
It came as I was out on our wrap-around porch, scraping paint (oh, cursed of all chores!) as the sun was beginning to melt into dusk early and yet it was still warm enough to have a t-shirt on, and in the window I saw the reflection of a large tree being talked out of its red and gold leaves by the gentle breeze that made them flitter, and a few birds flew across the sky, calling out to each other (ok, they were crows and not the picture-perfect geese that this scene called for, but still!). It was very Fall, and I realized that I enjoyed every piece of it, so why not admit that I am enjoying Fall. Could've done without the paint scraping, though!
So for all of you Fall-lovers, this look is for you--and to remind myself to enjoy the pleasures of this season while they are around!
Your bothers’ biggest fan—and critic. You want to be the center of their world and adore your time with them. You don’t hold back about telling them what they should be doing, fixing or even thinking. This is met with mixed emotions
Pretty courageous. Trying new things on the playground, taking risks in school, going new places, trying new foods, playing tougher songs on the piano. It’s fun to watch you cut loose.
A small-group person. You are very sociable, but you have figured out that you are happiest with one friend over. You even chose that very thing for your 6th birthday. And you were at ease all day, throughout the party and just loved the sleepover aspect. It was a fantastic choice for you.
A math whiz. You’ve already had two Student of the Month awards for mathematics. You are already doing addition and simple subtraction in your head, and you were so futzed that Theo was learning multiplication and you didn’t even know what it meant. You hopped right on that until you at least knew how it worked.
Learning how to let go of your perfectionism. Art has been tough for you this year, since your artwork never looks EXACTLY like the sample, but it has been good for you. You are learning to take a deep breath and let it go. It’s so fun to watch.
Becoming an honest person. You struggled with stealing this past Spring/Summer and it was a hard lesson learned. It involved a lot of crying, fear, hidden guilt and public apologies. Now that you have learned the joy of a free conscience, you are in the habit of confessing anything and everything. It’s quite comical what you figure to tattle on yourself for!
You can do:
reading like a 2nd grader. You pretty much took off on your own and have needed very little correction or guidance. As soon as your confidence caught up with your skill, you tackled everything in your path. It warms my heart like few things could.
Swimming! You learned when you were turning 5, but lost most of your courage over last winter. This past summer you went from fearful to go under to jumping off the diving board in a few weeks. You often surprised yourself with what you can do, and you love sharing it with everyone around you. You love the game “Statues” that you made up. You jump in the water and freeze at whatever shape you are in. You have to hold that pose until you float back to the top and you run out of air. Then every round is ended with a huge burst of giggles at how silly your shape was, how long you could hold it, how your hair froze over your eye, or some other hilarious thing.
Stay up without a nap. This hasn't been an easy transition for you. In fact, of the first three days of school, you fell asleep on two of them during Free Choice time! It's made for some tough moments at school, behaviorly, but Ms. Lesher has been fantastic about slowly helping you learn to manage your own choices even when you're tired. And now, one trimester in, you are doing really well, and have adjusted. You're still going to bed at 7 pm, but you are making it! We do still love our weekend naps, though!
Ride a bike. Again, your confidence was the key—the first time I ran beside you without training wheels, you were peddling without any help from me, but you were almost in tears the whole time saying, “I can’t do it, Mom!” over and over. And yet, you were doing it. And I actually pointed that out and only had to run next to you one more time. And then you flew like the wind, never stopping. You love to ride from Yiayia and Pappou’s to their pool. You feel very grown up taking your own path.
I love this time with you. You are growing tall, thoughtful, and analytical. It's fun to see how God is developing your brain, heart and conscience, and to see you respond to Him more often. We find you to be a treasure, Old Ginger Nut!
11.13.09: Well, Theo and Alexa were both chosen as Mathematics students of the month in October! It's very exciting, and it's all celebrated by them receiving their awards at the next School Board meeting. They were both really excited and proud--as are we!
It's so fun to see this side of their brain work. Theo's making huge strides in his mulitplication tables, but he really excels at any form of application. He can easily figure out what a word problem is asking for--and often skips steps to jump to the conclusion. That's not his best practice, but he's learning the strategies, and I love to see the lightbulb moment happen for him.
Alexa's brain is just wired like this. From the time they introduced addition in written form (as opposed to picture form), she does them in her head. Every once in a while she'll use her fingers to add something up, but most often I'll ask something like, "What's 2+4?", and she sort of stares off into space for a minute and then will just say decidedly, "Six." It's amazing to me. Here's a funny story that shows how she processes things.
Angela had just heard about their awards and was talking to her about how exciting it was and telling her that she didn't get that from her Auntie. Alexa wasn't sure what she meant by that, so Angela was telling her how much help she needed to get through math without failing. This caught Alexa's attention eaily for two reasons: 1) Alexa doesn't like to fail at anything, and 2) math just makes sense to her. So on her face, as she's listening to Angela discuss her own elementary school math woes, is a mixture of awe and confusion. As Angela ended with how grateful she is to the people who helped her with her homeword and how glad she was to be done with math class, Alexa responded with a greatly condescending, "Auntie, math is easy! You just have to ask yourself the right questions!"
So that's all there is to it! Now, if I just knew the questions to ask!
11.13.09: Do all kids have bad habits that take forever to break? I'm sure the answer is yes, and for evidence I submit that I still occasionally have a bout with biting my fingernails. Blech. And yet I still do it absentmindedly. Well, for fun, here are some of the bad habits.
Alexa waits until the very. last. second. to go to the bathroom. This, inevitably, leads to the Potty Dance before every bathroom trip, and subconsciously, the whole family is collectively holding our breath until we're able to breath a sigh of relief that she did, indeed, make it on time.
Theo is a huge nail biter. To save his nails and fingers, it is good to have gum on hand during a movie or timed math test or anything of the sort. He gets his money's worth in that one 5-minute test!
Silas leaves his socks wherever he is so inclined to take them off. We find them out by the trampoline, in the boot tray, under his bed, under his covers, in Theo's room, or wherever!
Theo still does not flush the toilet after peeing. It drives me crazy. Is it so hard? What happened to the 2-year-old "me fush it" stage?
There are so many more, but today two of these collided. It was right after breakfast and each was headed to his morning routine. Alexa came rushing in, clutching her pants and saying, "Mom! Help me undo my button! I can't get it and I have to go so bad!" This was quite obvious because she could not stand still. I helped her and off she rushed, while I headed back to the dishes. At the next call for help, I peeked around the corner into Alexa's sheepish face.
"Mom, (embarrassed giggleand shoulders shrugged up) I think you're going to have to help me wipe. Theo forgot to flush the toilet and I fell in."
Oh my! There's no amount of toilet paper that can recover that situation--straight into the bath it is! And while we all did giggle, Theo's been much better about flushing and closing the toilet!
10.04.09: It's been a tough time in the Pologeorgis household as of late. This has been our toughest transition to school that we've ever had--third grade is a big leap in academics and first grade doesn't allow for a nap. So after weeks of strategies, plans, conversations, coaching, crying, punishments, and the sort, tonight's prayer time as a family was a gift straight from God.
Here are each of their prayers, and they were so dear to me, I think it's almost word-for-word:
Silas:
Thank you for today, our big house to live in and all our toys. Help us to be situated to not push and be mean
when we're at school and there is a line and you want to get in front. We can just be last. That way we have more friends. In Jesus' name, amen.
Alexa:
Dear God,
Help me to have a really great day at school tomorrow. Help me to not push and fight or yell at my friends. Help them to be nice to me, and for me to be nice to them. I just really want to have a good day at school tomorrow. In Jesus' name, amen.
Theo:
Dear God,
Please help Alexa to not push and be kind, and just get all smiley faces straight across. Help mom to have a good morning and for us to do well, so she doesn't have to yell. And please help Silas to be helpful when Alexa and I are at school. And help lots of people to call Dad to advertise in his magazine or catalog or whatever it is. And for me, I just want you and I to be linked together more. In Jesus' name, amen.
OK, besides the "mom yelling" part (have I mentioned that it's been rough around here for ALL of us?!?), is that not the dearest set of prayers to be shared? I think God knew that we needed that tonight. It feels like we're turning the corner as a team, but it's too early to breathe yet--but this sure helps restore my soul!
09.14.09: Silas and I are getting a lot of time together, now that Theo and Alexa are in school. He is pretty good-natured about hanging out and playing without the other two, but he sure lights up when they get home! Here is a peek into a few of our special moments together recently:
--while running through my mom's house and spying the coconut and lemon meringue pies with their pretty golden tips, "Hey! Yum! Roasted pies!"
--after passing some road workers with their flags and cones, "Mom, those instructions guys wuk (no "r's" yet!) weally hawd. We should stop and tell them thank you."
--a big prankster, he's using some of his new free time to think of tricks like hiding all my underwear in my bed, so that I find it when I pull back the covers at night.
--when he saw deer tracks through our garden a few days ago, "Mom, after my nap, I'm going to go out and build a gate to keep those deah's (deers) out. I saw hoofs prints in my gawden. (eyes big and eyebrows raised) I did. Hoofs prints wight in my gawden."
Oh my, I'm going to be sad when the r's come in and he's off to school.
07.20.09: Two nights ago, we were hanging out at my parents' house, which is just separated from ours by a driveway.The kids had been sent over to get their pajamas and come back. Well, it had been a few minutes when Theo, ever the cautious one, burst in the door with "Mom! Come quick! He's hurt!" I dropped the peaches I was canning, wiped my hands and headed out, just in time to run into Silas as the door. His nose is dripping blood.
Sidenote: Silas has had more bloody noses than the other two combined. Sometimes for no reason, it's just begins to run. In fact, this winter when he had a clear, runny nose, he'd often run in with his hand under his nose shouting, "Is it bleeding? Is it bleeding?"
So as I am picking him up to keep it from dripping more, I'm asking the typical answers, but all three of my children are answering, which surprisingly, does not actually help.
Me: What happened? (See me showcase my excellent detective skills?) Alexa: He hit his nose. Theo: His nose hit the ground! Silas: Is it still dripping?
Me: Did you trip? Silas: No. (see how he's helping me get straight to the bottom of this?) Theo: It was the bed?
Me: You hit your nose on the bed? Silas: No. Alexa: No, he jumped off the bed. Theo: Yes! Alexa's bed.
We've just rearranged beds and rooms, so it took a split second for my brain to figure out just which one was Alexa's bed. And then it registered: the top bunk!
Me: What?!? You jumped off the top bunk! Silas: (a nasally giggle leaked out) I tried to land on my feet...
Yes, Ladies and Gentlemen, it has been confirmed: Silas cannot fly. ______ So it wasn't until the next day during Sunday school that the whole story came out. Don't you just love that? And if my mom hadn't been one of the teachers, we maybe wouldn't have ever heard it. They were talking about obeying their parents, and they asked for stories of times when they disobeyed and got hurt.
Teacher: Silas, did you ever get hurt when you disobeyed your mommy and daddy?
Silas: Yes, when I jumped off the top bunk bed. My nose bleeded.
Teacher: Have your parents told you not to jump off the top bunk?
Silas: Yes. But Alexa told me to climb up and jump and pretend to fly.
Teacher: (speechless)
Class: (uproarious laughter)
Oh boy! I guess I have learned pretty quickly to eliminate the "If someone told you to go jump off a bridge, would you do it?" lecture from my teenage book of parenting tricks for Silas!
...07.19.09: I realize that I haven't kept a great record of our excursions this summer! I don't have time to post about each one, and the kids are keeping their own journals, so they can remember their faves, but here are some of the rest:
Swimming at Miss Susan's house
The Sonoma-Marin Fair
Trip to So Cal
Huntington Beach
Sonoma Coast State Park
Los Gallitos Water Reclimation Plant--seriously, such a great excursion!
I hope I get back here to give the highlights of these. I love our summer excursions!
...07.19.09: So Grammy (my mom) has been teasing each of the kids as their birthdays approach that she isn't going to allow them to have any more birthdays. Personally, I think that she's tired of turning out so many amazing cakes, birthday after birthday, but that's just me! However, it's a fun game for them, and tonight was Alexa's turn. Here's how the conversation went:
Grammy: What? You think you're turning six? You'll be able to do so many more things. I don't think we should allow this!
Alexa: (giggling) Yes, and Grammy, I HAVE to turn six!
Grammy: No. You can't turn six. Soon you'll be reading without me, riding a bike without training wheels, and you won't need me to tie your shoes. That's it. No more birthdays. You just can't turn six!
Alexa: (laughing) Grammy, you're so silly!
Silas: (not included in the conversation, but calling from across the room) We could just push her back to 2! (and then so much giggling under his breath to himself) ________________
So there you have it, folks. If you don't like your age, Silas is offering to push you back. For some of you, that's going to take a lot more pushing than others!
...07.11.09: While hanging out at Dan and Kim's place during our road trip to So Cal, Silas fell and scraped his knee. It was the end of a long, hot day, so the although the scrapes were little, the tears were big. After much oohing and ahhing over the owies, a little cream and a few band-aids, Silas was back up and running. Well, maybe not running, since he wanted me to hold him still. However, after being in the bathroom for 10 minutes, my body had decided that I should make good use of the facilities. So I told him that I wasn't going to do that since I needed to go to the bathrom. His factual relpy was this: um, you could just go outside!
...06.25.09: There is something about the beach. Each year that we've done these excursions, it's the first on my list! We tried a new beach today, and it turned out to be great. It's on Tomales Bay, so there aren't any waves, but it was great for wading, digging, finding shells and all other good beach things. Plus, I had five kids today, so it's probably better to not have to worry about the waves.
Highlights from the day:
Getting lost on the way there, finding a Visitor's Center and discovering my mistake by just looking at the map outside the building. It's always good for me to have a visual of where I'm headed, which direction it is, and what my landmarks are. Plus we got to see great rolling hills, an extra creek that wasn't on the original plan, and a few baby horses. Nice!
Alexa loves the beach. Even though it was windy and cold when we got there--although still sunny--she was stripped down to her suit in 10-seconds flat! I'm not sure how her little 42-pound body stays warm with no chub, but she managed. It must've been the 3T swimsuit that she was wearing (we left her 5T one at Yiayia's...). How is it that she's going to be 6 and can still fit in 3T? It was a little low on the chest, but nothing that you would notice without being tipped off. So funny!
Theo and Liam explored all through the rocky tidepools, finding clam shells and muscles everywhere.
Silas worked up a real appetite: a whole PB&J, 2 full carrots, handfulls of blueberries, and three boiled eggs for lunch.
Alexa dug a swimming hole that was up to her thighs and big enough to lay down in.
There was black sand about 1 inch below all the normal colored sand. It made for some cool effects when we wrote in the sand.
We found a miniature crab hatching grounds in the mud. There were TONS of the tiniest crabs you could imagine. So cute.
There were hiking trails in the hills above the beach. Great forest up there and super protection from the wind. We wound all over in and through there, and landed at Pebble Beach up the bay a ways. They felt like such explorers.
Brady and Silas ran and splashed to their hearts' content without ever distrubing anyone or crashing anyone else's project. It was sheer freedom for them!
At the end of the day and coming back from the hike Silas and I had this conversation:
Silas: Mom, can you carry me?
Me: What? No, but I'll hold your hand.
Silas: (slightly whiny) Mooom, I am really out of breath.
Me: Really? You must need more exercise to get in shape.
Silas: (pause) No, Mom. I can breathe; it's just my toes and legs that are out of breath.
(Long pause after I laughed uproariously and he chose to grab my hand)
Silas: (putting together the fact that I will not be carrying him) Maybe you could just drag me back.
I love this Summer Excursion tradition. It reminds me that life is to be explored and enjoyed. It reminds them that their mother isn't 100% rules and systems. It's great for all involved!
06.22.09: So Silas is starting to figure things out, think things through and do stuff on his own. That last item on the list should maybe be a whole post of its own, but for now, I have a story to tell. All this introduction to say that Silas thinks through a course of action and then implements before he ever checks in--he's sure it's right, since he's thought it through.
Today, Theo spent the afternoon at Zack's house, a friend from school. They have a pool, so it was a chance for the big boys to go swimming. The younger two stayed at home and took naps, albeit with their noses out of a joint a bit. But when they woke up, they were excited to go pick up Theo and see the pool--and it's an awesome pool all built into rock and such.
So while Zack's mom and I stood and chatted, Alyssa, Zack's older sister, took the others down to the pool to wade it. And as we watched, it went from Silas' tip toes barely in the water to more and more footsteps into the inviting water. Soon, it was right up to the level of his pants that he was holding with his hands. When he noticed that, he tried to re-grip, but succeeding in letting his pants slip further into the water. Soon, the battle was lost and by the time Alyssa brought them back, his pants were soaked up past his knees. "Mom," he said, "my pants got wet," stating the obvious. Oh well, it's summer. But I did add, "we'll just take them off before we get in the van so the seat doesn't get wet."
They were off, and we were wrapping up the conversation, but as many mommy conversations go, it wasn't wrapped up quickly and soon I could tell Zack's mom was looking over my shoulder with a funny look on her face. And then she said, "Well, it looks like the pants aren't the only thing that are coming off." And sure enough, here came Silas with no pants nor underwear, and a shirt that was slightly too short to cover much of anything and read "I get my muscles from my dad" on it. Sigh.
So I hustle up the walk and sweetly turn him back to the van to regain some modesty. He's in no hurry at all, just smiling in complete ignorant bliss. And I do love that--just not out and about on our friends' lawn.
So I asked him, "Si, why did you take off your underwear too?"
His logical reply, "Mom, I didn't want anyone to see my underwear. That would be embarrassing." _______________________
Possibly I didn't convey the whole message in the "other people really shouldn't be seeing our underwear" talk...
Comments The t-shirt perfects the story. I'm dying right now! Great story! - Molly
I just love this story...I think I told three people today after hearing it - cracks me up!! The shirt detail totally tops it off though! lol! - Julie R.
I think I've told the story several times...for comic relief!! He is our "funny bunny"!!! - Grammi
...06.14.09: We have great friends who have three girls. We are in mom's group together and Life Group together, so we see each other a lot. Our kids play pretty well, for the most part, and between the six kids, we have all the personality types covered. We have several strong-willed, a quiet one, an over-analyzer, a social butterfly, a planer, and a few bosses. It's quite fun and always lively.
So the other night at dinner, Silas is verbally processing family relationships, specifically that when he becomes a dad, we'll be grandparents. Great. Let's start to dwell on that. But we are way off topic. However, Silas was sharing that he was going to grow up and get married. On to another rabbit trail...when you ask him what he wants to be when he grows up he consistently say, "A dad." Isn't that so great? I love it. Ok, back to the story: he's talking about growing up and shares that he will marry Alexa.
It's not out of his mouth seconds before she is adamantly bursting his hopes and dreams with the very harsh reality that brothers CANNOT marry sisters. Well, he doesn't buy it, but with each protest, she becomes more adamant and firm, tagging on that Silas can't live in our house when he grown up! He'll have to get his own house and his own car. Good-bye, Dream #2. No time like the present to give him a full dose of the realities of life.So I change the subject slightly by agreeing and then asking who he could marry. Someone chimes in with "Olivia"--the youngest girl from our friends, who is Silas' age.
Silas can't an answer out before Alexa butts in with "Silas will NOT want to marry Olivia!" So a little surprised by the quick answer, I ask why. Want to know her reasoning?
"He cannot marry Olivia because SHE is too bossy!" ____
Oh, right. And you've already have Silas covered on that one, dear Sis!
...06.09.09: So before you have kids, you hear that they all go through stages and phases. Like the diaper phase, the getting up in the middle of the night phase, etc. No one really tells you about the hilarious ones, though.
For instance, Alexa is in this phase that every time she goes to the bathroom, and you happen to be around, she recounts for you all the times and places that she's gone potty throughout the day.
For instance, Sunday we were in the bathrooms at the softball game. While she was going, she listed off the following:
"Well, there was the first time when I got out of bed at home. Then I had to go twice at church. Once when we first got there and then when we played. Oh! Nope. I had to go two times while we were playing. So that makes four times. And now I'm going, so that makes 5!"
Thanks for that stats...I'll be sure to mark it in your scrapbook, so that you can die of embarrassment in your teen years!
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Things We Are Learning This Summer
