Chanler completed his first Awana Cubbies book and had his awards ceremony this evening. He was very excited even if the pictures don’t appear that way.
Chanler received a book award (small cubbie bear) for completing 24 verses/lessons. He can’t wait until September when he gets to go to the “4” year old room and work on the Jumper book!!!
For Christmas Chanler got a pedal bike. The first words out of his mouth upon seeing it were “what…is…thaaat???” He was stunned! A few minuted later he wanted to ride it, so we went out to the street in front of the house to try it out.
Last year we got him a balance bike after I read about them and how they can help kids learn to ride a bike faster by teaching them to balance without having to think about pedaling at the same time. It sounded reasonable and was a good alternative, since we had a tricycle and Chanler seemed too little for a “real” bike.
So the test was here – would the year of practice on the balance bike do what it claimed? We assumed the best and went out on the new bike without training wheels.
It worked!!! within 5 minutes Chanler was riding down the street on his own (with daddy or mommy running close behind). It was amazing.
Today (his second riding day) Chanler is riding like a pro. He still needs help with starting and doesn’t have the most graceful dismount, but he is riding his bike (just like the pro balance bike articles said he would.)
For the first time in two years I cut Chanler hair myself. I tried with the “first haircut” and then realized that I was way out of my league and went for professional help. Since then we have been taking Chanler to a lovely kids hair salon where the seats are cars, they have movies and if I wasn’t such a stickler there are lollipops. The downside is that each hair cut (about once a quarter) is $20 (which is half of what I pay for my own hair cut). So Saturday I decided that if I can cut Scott’s hair I could cut Chanler’s. What do you think of the results?
Chanler made his first purchase today – it was a super ball.
Background;
Chanler got a quarter during an Easter egg hunt this year (I was actually quite happy with that egg as opposed to the ones filled with candy, but that is another story all together). He has been keeping track of and playing with this quarter since then.
We went for pizza last Monday (the pizza place has a special on Mondays) and Chanler watched as a slightly older boy got about a dozen things from the quarter machines (like the gumball machines of old, only they now have toys and misc. crap too). A few days later Chanler told me that the next time we went to get pizza he was going to bring his quarter and get a ball. We talked about that for a while and I tried to explain that he could get a ball, but that he would no longer get to have his quarter – I was not convinced that he was getting the picture.
Skip to tonight, I had forgotten all about the quarter and Chanler’s plan. We get to the pizza place and Chanler realizes that he forgot his quarter (insert horrified screams here) He was distraught and wanted to go home and get. Scott and I decided that to make life easier we would “lend” him a quarter and that he could pay us back when we got home. So off he ran to make his first purchase.
I must say his is very enamored with his super bouncy ball right now!
At least that is how the song goes in my head (dating myself or something) and yes I know you (Chanler) are not really a baby anymore, you are a “preschooler”, but you will always be my baby.
Love you and Happy Birthday!
When he wants to, Chanler can be SO grown up.
Currently Chanler likes to do the following by himself:
Of course he is just as likely to want to do it all by himself as he is to insist that he is a baby and can’t possibly do anything without help – go figure!
I have been waiting for the “why shoe” to drop for months now. Many of Chanler’s friends have been driving their parents nuts with this one forever it seems. Well it has finally happened. The funny thing is that it crept up on me. I didn’t realize he was actually doing it until Scott pointed out how many of his questions were “why” related. Of course after that insight, the number of questions in the “why spiral” has increased to the point that I think I would have noticed it on my own (especially in the last 1-2 weeks).
On the good side
1)Chanler’s why questions are in the form of full sentences – so you at least know what he is asking about.
2) There are a few (very few) answers that will stop him in his tracks. These include “Because God made it that way,” “Because the clock says so,” and not as effectively “I don’t know why.”
On the bad side:
1) EVERYTHING is why right now. For example tonight we had to return a broken lamp to the store. The whys ranged from Why are we going?, Why is the lamp in the car?, Why is the lamp broken?, to Why does the lamp turn off?
2) Once a why is asked – it WILL be asked over and over and over. From above. We discussed “why the lamp is broken” at least 5 times on the short drive to the store.
3) Once a why is answered – there will be another why!
4) Chanler hasn’t figured out that there are something which just are because they are. For example “why is it Wednesday” has no really good answer. It has answers, but none of them seem to satisfy him. (i.e. “because it is the day after Tuesday” leads to “why is it the day after Tuesday” which leads to ??? I don’t know – social convention or a long explanation of Norse mythology)
5) Circular explanations. I can’t remember my example, but I know I actually said something to Chanler along the lines of – do you see how we can never figure this out . . . we just keep going back and forth.
I know this is “just a phase” and it could be MUCH worse, but right now it is driving me up the wall! I have heard it said that Women need to use more words each day than men (in general), but lately I am running out of not only words, but the ability to listen to any more words. Poor Scott just isn’t allowed to talk when he gets home :-p
Chanler has learned to open door knobs. *sigh* I knew this was coming, but didn’t really want to think about it much.
So, why is it that this skill works best on the front door? but doesn’t work for the shoe closet (a locking door vs a non locking door)? And we also just found out that he can reach the dead bolt lock on the front door and open that too.
All hope of containing Chanler is lost as of now – I repeat LOST.
Thank goodness for those ugly childproof door knob things – he hasn’t figured those out YET.
PS he hasn’t actually tried to escape yet, I just needed a dramatic title.
Chanler is starting to recognize letters. We have an “A to Z” book which Chanler loves, it is silly, but I think he gets that.
A to Z by Sandra Boynton
Last night, I was listening to him play and he was pointing at the name on the side of one of his toys and saying “S” and “ssss, sss, ssss” it was very sweet. Then, today it was the labels for his toy basket. He looked at me and told me there was an “A, ah, ah, ah” and an “R, rrrr, rrrr, rrr” and his eyes got excited an “S, sss, sss, sss.” I guess he actually has been paying attention when I have been reading his ABC book and making all the letter sounds for him!
Well I can’t believe it – Chanler turned 2 today! He had a great day!
All week he has been asking about riding the train and I have told him over and over again
“on Saturday.” Well this morning I finally got to say today and his eyes lit up!
There were of course tons of last minute things to do for the party. For his 2nd birthday we decided on a train theme (hence the asking about riding the train) and Scott came up with the brilliant idea of riding Cal train to a park. This worked out great, we got on in San Jose and rode to Palo Alto (thus all our San Jose friends didn’t have to drive far and all our Menlo Park/Palo Alto friends didn’t have to drive far either)
Chanler LOVED the train ride although he was more or less oblivious to the fact that his friends and family were riding with him. We got to the park (via a tunnel – another big deal for Chanler) and set up. Michelle and I had earlier that morning dropped off a car full of party supplies so that we wouldn’t have to bring everything on the train.
Chanler got to play with all his friends, eat some snacks, and then have cup cakes! He actually blew out the candle all by himself and dug in, at least long enough for pictures. Soon after he started the cup cake Chanler noticed someone else’s Strawberry and decided that was much nicer than some cup cake thing. (not that I really mind)
Everyone said they had a great time (the weather cooperated for me and was a lovely 65ish and sunny) and were sent home with personalized foam trains (which I had been gluing together ALL week) filled with goodies.
After we had pizza for dinner with family and close friends before we rode the train home and opened presents.
I think Chanler had quite a day. Hopefully he won’t expect this kind of day tomorrow or for a long time.
