Letters

Ever since Will has begun preschool he has become very interested in letters of the alphabet and spelling. I am happy to see that he is making the connection between the two and is also showing signs that he is interested in learning to read. Yes, I do realize that he is only 3, and is not ready to read, but the interest and understanding that letters of the alphabet are somehow connected to words on a page makes me happy. Anyway, I digress.... Will and I were playing together with his magnetic letters and he finds the letter "W". Immediately he point it out as a "W" and asks me to make his name. Then he spells his name for me, "W-I-L-L" I told him that was correct his name is spelled W-I-L-L! He waited a minute then he said, " I like the W best." "Great", I said, " I like the W as well and I am proud that you know how to spell your name Will, W-I-L-L!" He waited a moment and then said, "Not Will, Mommy. I like W best. Just call me W!" I began to laugh and then very firmly told him that under no circumstances is anyone in THIS house going to be using "W" as an actual name. His name is Will NOT "W"! some day I hope to be able to explain this conversation to him and if I am good at my work... his response will be, " Thanks, Mom! I couldn't imagine if you had called me "W". People might have thought that I was actually named after him! YIKES!" That is if I have done my job in counteracting all opposing influences.... HMMMMMM.

Birthdays are .... ugh!

As I sit down to wrrite this today I am not in the greatest frame of mind. Today is my 40th birthday and while I am happily listening to Will use his "yackuum" cleaner all over the house talking to our dog, I am reminded of just how... well...

My mother was almost 40 when I was born and that does make me feel better as I see her still very active, with exercise classes, maintaining their home, and generally running the house (the way it has always been). My dad is also quite active at 85, but let's face facts, he never ran the house and never will!! On the flip side my husband Joe's parents were 40 when Joe was a Junior at Wabash College and his brother was a freshman at Butler University. Wow, just Wow! And we have a 3 year old!!!!

In the past months I have been referred to as Will's Grandmother more times than I care to admit and have been asked if I have a son the the Wabash football team I suppose that is possible.

As I. look to the future I hope Will is able to keep me young.At some point I will embrace this age that I find for the first time in my life a bit depressing. I am hopeful that by the time Will is 40 that he will have accomplished far more in his 40 years than I have in mine, that many of the things that we worry about today money, diseases, wars etc... will be distant memories. I guess I will just have to wait and see.

Explanations... Always Explanations!

So many people tell me some day I will look back and wish for these days. Really? Sometimes I find that hard to believe! I love my little "Will-Will" dearly, but seriously there are many things that he is doing current.y that make me think people just don't remember the age of three very well. That in and of itself gives me hope!



Lately.. one of Will's less than endearing habits is to argue any explanation. "Mommy, why is that guy mowing his yard?" Me, "Because his grass was too tall." "No! It is because he have walnuts in his yard." "Excuse me, what!? We do have walnuts in our yard but that is not why we mow the yard. We mow it because the grass grows too tall." "No, Mommy it is because of walnuts!" This can go on for some time and for many things like colors or types of trucks. The other day he insisted that the fifth wheel camper we saw as we were driving was carrying horses and cows. I am sure this is probably a sign that he is smart and thinking and will not be easily swayed by others opinions... but right now I would just like him to accept an answer and be happy with it.



While I am on the subject of currently irritating behaviors, Will's lack of interest in ANY of his toys is right there at the top of the list. He is usually busy with something that involves getting into whatever project, space, or square inch that I happen to be. This is ridiculous to the point of insanity (mine) because he has more than a few toys that include everything from stuffed animals to monster trucks and anything in between. In the past few days I have told him that his toys will be disappearing if he does not care for them and that Santa Claus will not bring new ones if I tell him that Will is a child who does not like or want toys. Honestly, I wonder if there really are children who don't like toys and don't care to play with them! Please say no.... please say no.... I guess it is time for me to get the "red phone"(an antique rotary dial phone with picture of a train engine) down to prove that I can indeed call Santa if I so choose. It worked for my first graders when I was teaching... surely I won't have to explain that, or will I?

Apples, Apples, and more Apples

Yesterday we went on an annual trip to the Apple Orchard. It was a beautiful fall day... clear, sunny and just a bit on the cool side. Will was excited because we had to leave early, pick up Grandma and Grandpa Nowak and then head about 40 minutes down the road to the orchard.

I am not sure which Will enjoyed more, "pickin' the apples from the branches" or "We go play with the farm doggies, now?" He climbed trees, picked apples off trees that were absolutlely loaded with apples, played in the hay mow and selected several very interesting gourds from the bins. It was a great day! The only ones who were happy to see our orchard time end were the farm doggies because Will was convinced that they all wanted to play with him... not that he wanted to play with them.

He was soooo tired that he had a very hard time staying awake at the restaurant we went to for lunch. It is a funny tradition that we go to a place called Gray's Cafeteria for fried chicken or pork tenderloins. Not exactly a low cal option but I probably eat fried chicken twice a year so it isn't that awful. Will was intrigued by the cafeteria experience as well as the size of the restaurant. I am thinking that the fascincation with cafeterias will be short lived... ahh well.... he is only three and it was his first time.

Today at preschool they even did some stamp painting with apples and he was apparently able to retell his apple orchard adventures... he did a bit of embellishment when it came to the tree climbing. At least I know that they didn't really think that I would let him climb to the top of the tree "all by himself" and "throw" the apples down. I am, however quite happy that he remembered as much of the day as he did.

The weekend will bring yet another football game at Wabash so ... off we go to try out my new apple peeler machine.... hmmmm ... exactly how smart is this idea?

Is This Normal?

Just a few minutes ago Joe and I were getting dinner ready and Will was playing with several of his toys which, surprise, includes a couple of dolls. Yes, Joe knows about this! A couple were mine as a child and one is a boy who wears work boots and a baseball hat! Anyway... he was pretending to cook at his kitchen and suddenly he turns to one of the dolls and says, "Enough!" he takes the doll's teddy bear and walks into our kitchen. Joe and I were standing at the counter. He looks at us and announces, " My friend is not being nice. His bear is in time-out!" Then he walks back to the doll and says, " You are still happy? I take 'way your hammer, too!" (this doll wears a tool belt).

Joe looks at me with a shocked expression... " Is that normal?" he asks. "Yes" I said, "don't worry. It is perfectly normal for him to exact a similar punishment on his dolls as we do to him. "

Let's just say that Will's behavior at Mass this morning.... less than stellar! I think he was looking for a moment to even the score at least in his three year old mind! Pretty funny...

Jude's Birthday Party, Really!

Yesterday was Will's buddy (BFF) Jude's Third birthday party. Let me begin by saying that this is the first time Will has been invited to a friend birthday party. If you all recall we spent time last week kpicking out a suitable gift for Jude and talked a bit about birthdays. I tried not to mention the upcoming party too much last week so as not to be bombarded with the inevitable, " Is it today, Mommy?" etc... I managed not to really bring it up until Monday night.

Will awakened on Monday morning with his usual thundering steps downstairs, ran into the kitchen and announced, "We goin' to Jude's party now. I ready!" I had to explain that Jude's party did not begin until the evening (5 pm). Since being three does not include understanding the concept of time this pretty much set the tone for the rest of the day. Periodically Will would tell me he was ready to go and I would respond, " not yet, Will, a little later." When I did tell him it was time to put on a clean shirt and get the wagon out of the garage you would have thought that he was on fast forward. I have never seen him get dressed that quickly! It was pretty funny!

We loaded up the wagon with Will, a blanket and Jude's gift. On the way we discussed and reminded Will that today was Jude's birthday and the cake and presents will be for him. I had deep concerns that he would just dive into opening the presents as if they were his.... this is a personal pet peeve of mine. I also have developed a "cake biting" phobia that was fueled by my best girlfriend's story years ago about a childs birthday party where one of the other little girls (not the birthday girl) actually leaned forward and took a bite out of the cake prior to singing "Happy Birthday!". Honestly, if Will did that I think I would .... well I don't know what I would do!

When we arrived at the party Jude's grandpa had brought a lawn tractor with a hay wagon attached for birthday Hayrides! It was awesome. Jude was so excited! He greated Will with his usual "Yea! Will Emmick is here!" followed by a big hug and kiss! At three the hug and kiss is really cute and he ALWAYS calls him "Will Emmick" never just "Will"! This was our kind of kid party, no ponies, bounce houses, major theme, outside entertainment etc... it was kids enjoying playing together on a beautiful fall evening having burgers, dogs and party cupcakes along with their parents. It was lots of fun.

Apparently my continual reminders about whose birthday it was made an impression and Will was outstanding. He sang nicely to Jude! More than once! and when presents were opened he did not even try to get to them. He did come over to me and say, "Mommy, those toys for Jude, right? I bein' good boy! " Yes, he was a good boy and he did well at his first birthday party. No cake biting, no gift grabbing, all in all a very nice experience. I hope this is the general trend!

The Grocery Store

Having just come away from a Homecoming weekend spent mainly socializing with friends that we see far too infrequently and comparing notes on our children (note taking not always necessary as the live action version is often more memorable) I feel that I have narrowed the field of most detested tasks of mothers of three year olds... to one.... that would be.... GROCERY SHOPPING!

I had extremely high hopes for Will's first foray into the world of education, Preschool. I would drop him off, race home, take a shower, do the breakfast dishes, run load of laundry, vacuum the house, put things back in order, grocery shop for the week, etc... the list goes on but alas there are only three hours of preschool on Tuesday and Thursday. I have yet to make it to the store alone. The house is in order and the clothes are clean but I still have an assistant at the store... UGH! Someday....

I have devised a system that I do not recommend for the faint of heart. Will found, on one of our trips to Goodwill, a toy grocery cart. The Step2 kind. One day in weak moment I told Will he could bring the cart to the store and "help"me shop. Do I really need to elaborate and say that now the cart goes to EVERY shopping trip. Much to my amazement it does help somewhat because he can put groceries in the cart and he is not confined to the seat. I must make frequest remeinders not to run over other people in the aisle for example, but as long as I have a list and can go rather quickly through the store he stays close to me and happily pushes the cart around the entire grocery store. Just a warning to anyone who decides to try this... it does attract attention and strangers will talk to you. I'm just sayin'.... depending on where you live this can either be a blessing or a curse.