Still trying to figure it out
My son spotted the stapler and tried to figure out what it is based on functionality. He tried combing his hair but something did not seem right, then placed it next to his ear as he does to a phone, “Hmmm nah.” then he tried moving it like a toy car but the motion did not as smooth as it should.
It was interesting him watching him discover something by relating it to things he already know. The human brain, very fascinating 
I was very very stressed about a paper I was writing. Certainly having my older son hovering in the background and making demands for attention, did not help at all.
I got caught up in a very stressful cycle and decided it was time to relax a bit so that I can be more productive. As I was trying to set up a bath my son was asking for some attention. I thought for a moment that my son always becomes hyperactive when I am busy he is still a responsibility under my care.
So I decided to give him a relaxing bath. I told him that this one is different than playing in the bath. He has to be quiet and calm. We had a brief chat and I explained to him that it is important that we have some quiet time so that we can focus better. I felt much calmer then and the usually arguments we were having lately seemed like a faded memory.
He soon got enough of peace and quiet (as all children do). But, that half hour of calmness was a re-energizing break
My one year old son uses two words (besides mama, baba, and dada) to communicate with us. I must admit I admire his choice in using those words which are baad and bas (Arabic for more and enough). Since he spends most of his day feeding then they seem like perfect communication tools but they are not limited to food item. He sits and commands, “more” then we try to repeat all that has happened.
Sometimes he recalls thinks that happened on other days in the same place or situation. For instance when he sits in front of my laptop he will say, “more” so that I would open a clip that has a children song he likes. He would say enough when his older brother hugs him hard and everything else seems to be orchestrated by these two words as he commands. It is such a joy to be able to know what he wants even in simple relative scale.
My husband signed my up my son for some skating lessons and today I went with them to see my son skate. Somehow, my husband and I ended up with skates and the coach was giving us few pointers. I don’t remember ever skating and was told to walk with the skates as it was my first time.
My son decided to play coach for a while and was advising me to look straight and focus. He was commenting on my posture and was trying to show me the moves then he said, “If you do well I will let you use my new perfume but if not you need to try and skate more.”
We all had a good time and I think I might join him again next time
An idea, I had to get my 5 year old engaged in his younger brother’s party, was that he performs a puppet show. He has a wooden theater and countless puppets. I was selecting a few when I noticed red marks.
I asked him why did he colour his toys and his reply was, “this is blood.”
“Why did you mark them like this?” I asked again
“They went to a volcano and they were not listening so they got blood.”
I was glad it was not a sword fight and I liked his creativity in marking different part of each puppet but told him it is better not to mark his toys like that. I don’t know if I should still be concerned about his idea of blood. I tried to recall my brother’s childhood and thought that boys usually like fighting games.
Going deep into his psychology was not my purpose and I continued trying to make a script to his show when he interrupted,”You make one and I will make one different.”
OK I believe in creativity but wanted to make sure his material made sense to everyone. So I said OK we will both say stories. He agreed but to get him to remember a script in few hours is asking too much from a 5 year old. I just hope he will not go into a bloody story.
My 5 year old son stood on top of the dinning table while his brother was moving about in his walker. “You are not setting a good example for your brother.”
He then carefully jumped off the table and lay on the floor depending to be dead, with his tongue sticking out. Few seconds later he stood up and addressed his baby brother’s watchful eyes and said, “You see that what will happen when you stand on the table you will fall and die.”
I laughed at his improvised response to my comment. He just smiled and stood triumphant as the older brother. As if he had it all figured and him stepping on the table was part of a plan
Yes this is the famous line from The spiderman series. Being a mother of boys I have to work hard to understand their unique interests and when my son was interested in comical characters and I was more concerned with the values they installed in him I decided to sit with him and watch and screen clips that would be suitable for my 5 year old.
One of the characters I though might be of a good influence was spiderman and so i sat with him and watched the series and was commenting here and there making sure that he was seeing the responsible side of things and we were discussing why different characters were acting in certain ways as my son had lots of questions to build his thoughts on.
When I heard the above line I felt that it was very important to make sure he understands this principle even though he might not incorporate it immediately but he might one day remember it and learn.
My mother always emphasized on this that at a point of power (not limited to spider sense) we must think our actions carefully. She said that a person of authority or at a point of power must consider what they say and do carefully because they could be setting an example or taking an action that will impact others. She would say that when you have the power to avenge yourself it is more powerful to forgive
One of my early posts was about my son’s crawling attempts. Finally, I saw crawling properly yesterday, although it still has to be for a very good reason such as grabbing the internet connection or tapping on my laptop. At 11 months he might be a bit late but he is not too keen on crawling and has ambitions for walking instead. He thinks he already can as he strides on his walker. If this is possible why settle for anything else? For joy to go anywhere or get anything he just needs to wave his hands. A bit spoilt? He earned t by being very smiley, quiet and peaceful. However, we all need to take steps to getting what we want. At least every once in a while
My husband told me that he wanted to take our, 5 year old, son ice skating. So I thought the sensible thing to do to add my contribution was to brief him on the sport.
So, I look up ice skating on youtube and I clicked on the first introduction link I could find. I was watching with my son the whole video making comments on the movements and telling him to carefully observe how his body should be in motion.
At the end of the video my son asked me to play it again and to my pride I said, “You like skating my love. It will be very fun. I hope this video teaches you well.”
In excitement I went on asking him if you wanted to watch other videos and then reply to get an idea about other moves. However, his honest reply followed,
“Mum I want to watch this video again because the girl is pretty.”
I guess boys will be boys.
During my son’s early communication days I taught him few things to ease my understanding of his needs. i would explain things hoping that he would pickup the reason for suggesting them but in terms of feedback I was restricted by his limited vocabulary and choice of expressions but one of the things techniques I taught him, which he still adheres to, is to create an easy reference points to remember things so then I know what he is talking about.
This was because he would tell me something like, “I want to go to that place.”
What he thought were important features to mention in order to trigger my memory, meant nothing to me. So, whenever I took him out or gave him something I would tell him next time you want this you would say I want this by its name or you can describe it as such and such. For example, one of the arcade games venues he likes has a moving digger vehicle and so he can ask me to take him to the place by name or to describe it as the place with the yellow moving digger. Until now, when we go out or watch different video clips he would say mum, “when I ask you for the clip with the clay elephant show me thing one.”
A small technique that works well
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