Finger Painter Extraordinaire!

Things He Says

This afternoon I was playing around with Captain Adorable. We were trying to tickle each other and I was trying to kiss his sweet little face. I often kiss his chin because he thinks it tickles--what is more irresistible and kissable than his smile as he lets out a peal of laughter? Anyhow, this afternoon he licked my face as I got close enough to kiss him. ICK! I told him I did not want him to lick my face. He responded, "I'm just trying to get the nutrition off."

Of course that made me laugh and still is, hours later. A combination of his father's jokes and my practicality, all twirled up in a way uniquely his own.

Inside and Outside

Lots of things going on. Captain Obvious has been traveling a lot: he was gone for part of or all of 3 weeks in a row and it was hard on us all. Lots of changes coming down the pike. Hard for me to process as things seem to change a lot lately. Nothing health related! Next CT scan is April 6, so of course I will report on that.

Meanwhile, the weather fluctuations that confine us inside and send us outside continue through this mild end-of-winter/beginning-of-spring. We have fun either way.

Marble track fun in the playroom.

Swinging fun at a local park

Will write more about the changes when we have them sorted out for ourselves.

Inspired by TV

Well, television, like it or not, is a part of our lives. As I have written about over and over, I try very hard to keep screen time to one hour or less per day. I do not always succeed, but often I do! In addition to being concerned about the amount of time spent watching, I am of course very picky about what I do allow Captain Adorable to watch. I prefer gentle or educational programming, like Zaboomafoo, Little Bear, and Dinosaur Train. I try to avoid repetitive shows, like Wonder Pets (I have been overruled on this) and always avoid overly commercialized shows, like Dora and its ilk. Captain Adorable has gone through several favorite shows (we watch them via On Demand or Netflix, so no commercials either) and the current favorite is Word World. I think this is a great show for a few reasons (educational and gentle! creative situations and also songs and dancing!) but the biggest reason is because since he started watching it, Captain Adorable's letter recognition has gotten better and faster.

It is also inspiring him to write.

This evening I started to cook dinner while he was watching the second half of his allotted one hour of television (this means 4 episodes and 2 vignettes of Word World). I have seen all the episodes before and I knew the last episode was about fire fighters. When the show was over, Capt. Adorable was fooling around with his chalkboard (I was cooking, so not paying much attention) and asked, "What letter does 'fire' start with?" I said, "f," and soon he asked the second letter (which is when I realised he was writing them down) and the third. There he got a little stuck. I told him from the kitchen that he needed to make a line, go aroudn the corner, and then give it a leg. He was making frustrated noises (and I could not see what he was doing) so I reminded him that an R looks like a P with an extra leg (this is all language I have used before when practicing one-on-one). I thought no more about it till I put dinner on the table and glanced at the chalkboard. There was a perfectly legible FIR! I praised him and said there was an 'e' at the end of FIRE. He promptly added the E.

I know, not a genius and perfectly normal and all that, but I am so proud of his initiative and I have to give the credit to the show he was watching: writing, inspired by tv.