• Meet Me
    • Why If By Yes?
  • Meet Perfect Husband
  • Meet The Babbies

If By Yes

~ the musings of a left wing left hander with two left feet

If By Yes

Tag Archives: growing up

Five

18 Friday Sep 2015

Posted by IfByYes in From The Owlery, Life and Love

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

first day of school, five year old, growing up

Owl turned five last Tuesday. It was also his first day of school.

 Sounds like a big day, doesn’t it?

Except that his first day of school was barely 30 minutes long, and he had both of his parents in the room the whole time because apparently these days kids are eased into kindergarten at pace that can only be called geological.

His “first day of school” involved going to school, entering a classroom that wouldn’t even be HIS classroom, meeting a teacher that wouldn’t even be HIS teacher,  and listening to a story while Perfect Husband and I found his name on a list and signed up for a time for his “meet and greet” with his teacher the next day – a 15 minute time slot which would constitute his ONLY time at school for the next TWO DAYS.

I spent the rest of the day spoiling Owl heavily. It was basically a “yes” day. Anything he wanted to do, we did.

That included a long walk, a game of SET Junior, a game of pretend-restaurant, and baking cupcakes while babywearing.


It was exhausting. But he had a good day.

His birthday party was Sunday.

Last year’s party had been simple and had worked well, so we planned to duplicate it. I emailed the lady in charge of our complex’s party room bookings and reserved the room. The morning of his party I went to pick up the keys from her mailbox, but they weren’t there. I rang her doorbell and she looked surprised to see me.

“I thought I put them in the mailbox,” she said as her three year old peered out from behind her.

“Nothing in there,” I said. She reached behind the door and produced the keys.

“Sorry about that,” she said, handing them over. I thanked her and headed over to the room so we could start setting up.

But the party room was already set up. Beautifully. There were pink table clothes laid out on the tables, chairs neatly set in front of paper plate table settings, a big HAPPY BIRTHDAY sign on the wall, and quotes from the Mad Hatter’s tea party scattered around, written on paper tea pots.

Huh.

“Why is that stuff there?” asked Owl.

“I… don’t know…” I said. After a quick consultation with PH, I decided to go back to the key-lady.

“Hi,” I said to her when she opened the door again. “This sounds weird, but do you know why the room is already set up for a little girl’s birthday?”

The lady covered her mouth. “Oh my God…” she pulled out her phone and started scrolling frantically. “Oh my GOD…. I double booked it… I told you it was available Sunday but I meant to say Saturday… Oh MY GOD…”

She picked up her phone and called the other set of people. “What time is your event?”

At the same time as ours, it turned out.

I said we could have the party outside and that their kids were welcome to come out and join us.

By the time all of this was worked out, there wasn’t much time for setting up decorations outside. Our earliest arriving guests ended up hanging balloons for us.

 But with all of that, the kids had fun. They bounced in the bouncy castle, they chased each other on the playground, and after the cake, we went in to the pool and I let them all swarm me in a slightly-frightening, Lord of the Flies kind of way.

So now I present to you – my five year old.

He is rambunctious, but kind.

He loves his baby sister.

He loves to learn new things, and while he likes for me to read Roald Dahl or Mrs Piggle Wiggle to him, or to listen to my made-up stories about Rude Ronnie, Fraidy Freddie and other kids with behaviour problems, I can already see a preference growing for non-fiction books.

He likes to have the facts straight. “But actually,” is a common phrase as he corrects the tiniest of semantic details.

He loves to watch his father and I play video games like Spore, Minecraft and Super Mario Galaxy.

He’s a gamer who loves board games and picks up new games with ease.

He loves connect the dots, mazes, and other sorts of puzzles.

He loves other people, and doesn’t always understand how to react when they don’t embrace his company with the same enthusiasm.

He doesn’t understand “wanting to be alone for a while”.

He loves to swim, and is slowly improving through repeated lessons.

He has trouble sitting still, and treats all objects including other people like pieces of climbing equipment.

He is brimming with confidence. “But actually, Mom, I’m already a pretty good reader. But actually, Mom, I can probably do a rocket-ship under the water for FIVE SECONDS.”

I hope he keeps his confidence, and his kindness. I hope the keeps loving science but doesn’t lose his enjoyment of a good imaginary story.

I hope I can enjoy him for who he is without pushing him too hard to be someone he is not.

I hope I can help him be the best Owl he can be.

I hope that I’m doing an okay job.

I hope that it’s going to get even better.

Because my baby is gone. He has transformed into a school age kid, and I can’t believe it.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Gearing Up For Age Two

08 Wednesday Aug 2012

Posted by IfByYes in From The Owlery, Life and Love

≈ 12 Comments

Tags

23 month old, babies, child development, growing up, parenting, toddlers, turning two, weaning

Owl will be 2 years old in ONE MONTH FROM TODAY.

Holy crappola.

I do NOT feel like two years have gone by. I mean, look how much he has grown and changed.

23 months ago he…

  • Was extremely “vocal”
  • Hated sleep with a fiery passion
  • Got constant comments on his big eyes
  • Was intensely demanding
  • Nursed constantly
  • Had all of his bowel and bladder movements in diapers

Now he…

  • Is extremely vocal
  • Hates sleep with a fiery passion
  • Gets constant comments on his big eyes
  • Is intensely demanding
  • Nurses constantly
  • has all of his bowel and bladder movements in diapers.

…Okay, so when I put it like that it doesn’t sound as impressive.

But let’s look at the nitty gritty a bit:

Continue reading →

Syndicated on BlogHer

I was syndicated on BlogHer.com

NaNoWriMo!

Contact Me

ifbyyes AT gmail DOT com

Subscribe Using That RSS Thing

RSS Feed RSS - Posts

RSS Feed RSS - Comments

“Facebook” Me (it’s a verb now, apparently)

“Facebook” Me (it’s a verb now, apparently)

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 318 other subscribers

I’m a Twit!

  • I Don’t Think I Mean What You Think I Mean ifbyyes.wordpress.com/2018/10/08/i-d… 4 years ago
  • The Cliff ifbyyes.wordpress.com/2018/09/01/the… https://t.co/0Xn1FFKHrF 4 years ago
  • RT @lynchauthor: AAAAAH that's so amazing thank you! Can I cross post this to my tumblr? twitter.com/Kefka73/status… 4 years ago

This Month, On A Very Special “If By Yes”…

January 2023
M T W T F S S
 1
2345678
9101112131415
16171819202122
23242526272829
3031  
« Oct    

Most Popular

  • Poor Ron: In Which Everyone Completely Underestimates Ron Weasley, Even His Creator (Part 1)
    Poor Ron: In Which Everyone Completely Underestimates Ron Weasley, Even His Creator (Part 1)
  • Blog Tag: In Which I Answer Questions And Posit My Own
    Blog Tag: In Which I Answer Questions And Posit My Own
  • Show Your Breasts For Amanda Todd, Or, In Which I Finally Deal With Amanda Todd's Death
    Show Your Breasts For Amanda Todd, Or, In Which I Finally Deal With Amanda Todd's Death
  • Rowling vs Meyer, Round 4 -  How Can I Describe Meyer's Writing?
    Rowling vs Meyer, Round 4 - How Can I Describe Meyer's Writing?
  • The Cancer Principle: Depression is Okay, Abuse Is Not
    The Cancer Principle: Depression is Okay, Abuse Is Not
  • Be It Ever So Humble
    Be It Ever So Humble
  • Why We Don't Want Our Son To Think He's Smart.
    Why We Don't Want Our Son To Think He's Smart.
  • Poor Ron, Part 2: In Which I Explain That Ron Is Perfect For Hermione
    Poor Ron, Part 2: In Which I Explain That Ron Is Perfect For Hermione
  • In Which We Attend The Quidditch Global Games 2014 and are Blown Away by Awesomeness
    In Which We Attend The Quidditch Global Games 2014 and are Blown Away by Awesomeness
  • I Don't Think I Mean What You Think I Mean
    I Don't Think I Mean What You Think I Mean

Look Through The Vault

By Category

  • Autism (1)
  • Belly Battles (20)
  • Damn Dogs (35)
  • Early Writings By A Child Genius (9)
  • East, West, Home is Best (42)
  • I'm Sure This Happens To Everyone… (122)
  • Life and Love (635)
    • 30 Posts To 30 (24)
    • Fritter Away (11)
    • From The Owlery (89)
    • How is Babby Formed? (227)
    • Me vs The Sad (72)
    • The House Saga (27)
  • Life's Little Moments (59)
  • My Blag is on the Interwebs (91)
    • Memes (15)
  • Perfect Husband (87)
  • Pointless Posts (73)
  • Polls (6)
  • Shhh, I'm Reading (55)
    • TwiBashing (21)
  • Uncategorized (2)
  • Vids and Vlogs (22)
  • We Are Family (30)
  • Well (1)
  • Well, That's Just Stupid (83)
    • Oh The Inanity (15)

Blogroll

  • A Little Pregnant
  • Also Known As The Wife
  • Are You Sure This Is A Good Idea?
  • Bub and Pie
  • Built In Birth Control
  • Clicker Training, Mother F***er!
  • Daycare Daze
  • Don't Mind The Mess
  • Dooce
  • Emotional Umbrella
  • Fail Blog
  • Held Back By My Spanx
  • Hodgepodge and Strawberries
  • Ken and Dot's Allsorts
  • Kloppenmum
  • Light Green: Life As Activism
  • Magpie Musing
  • Mommy By Day
  • Mr Chicken and the Ninja Kitties
  • Not Always Right
  • Passive Aggressive Notes
  • Postcards From Oblivion
  • Reasoning With Vampires
  • Sweet Salty Kate
  • The Angus Diaries
  • The Domesticated Nerd Girl
  • The Problem With Young People Today Is…
  • The Salted Tomato
  • The Squeee
  • The Urban Cowgirl
  • Unable to Relate
  • Wings And Boots

You Can Has Blog Button!

If By Yes If By Yes

Member of:

For Women

BlogHer.com Logo

Follow my blog with bloglovin

If By Yes - Find me on Bloggers.com

Vote For Me!

Good Blogs - Vote me to the Front Page!

The Latest Talk

Charles on TuTu Cool For School
Mamma_Simona on I Don’t Think I Mean Wha…
Traxy on Fifty Shades of Oh, Holy F***,…
IfByYes on Fifty Shades of Oh, Holy F***,…
Laura H. on What I Would Like to Say to Je…

Pages

  • Meet Me
    • Why If By Yes?
  • Meet Perfect Husband
  • Meet The Babbies

  • Follow Following
    • If By Yes
    • Join 141 other followers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • If By Yes
    • Customize
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Report this content
    • View site in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar
 

Loading Comments...