The Myersons Blog

I think it is safe to say that Ethan and I have successfully completed this parenting assignment.  Both kids know how to use the potty, to look both ways before crossing the street, and at least one of them even knows the correct use of the words “who” and “whom”!

The other night we were all at home and trying to decide how to divide up the reading/tucking in duties and I told the guys it was time to get ready for bed.  Jonah piped up and asked, “who is reading to whom?”  I have never been so proud!  Sure, he may be in the 5^th percentile among other 5 year old boys in terms of height, but I think he is in the 95^th percentile among all Americans in terms of grammar.

So I think our parenting work is done.  

In other news, Danny is now opening the refrigerator and getting out the food he wants, playing Wii games by himself, and generally becoming more and more grown up and less like a toddler.   See what I mean?  Ethan and I can go on vacation now -  these kids will be fine!  

So Danny’s friend at school (Cameron) has a baby brother.  I guess Cameron talks about him quite a bit because Danny is always telling me “Cameron has a little baby”, to which I reply something like “yes, Danny, he does”; or “that’s nice”; you get the idea.  The other night we were driving home from school and Danny says he wants Cameron and his baby brother to come over and play…and I’m kind of half listening driving through traffic, and then Danny says “Mommy, I want you to get me a baby.”   No sir!  Can I interest you in a dog?  A horse maybe?  A loud, obnoxious toy?      Needless to say, I told Danny I would not get him a baby, but maybe we’d have ice cream for dessert.  Redirection; it works every time.

In other news, Ethan went with Jonah’s class on a field trip last week to the pumpkin patch.  All the kids were sitting together listening to the farmer talk about planting, growing, etc and I guess he held up a bag of fertilizer or something and said “can anyone read what this says?”   Ethan said a little voice came from the crowd saying “Jonah can!”     Ha, he has a reputation among his friends.

So we were over having dinner and playing at a friend’s house the other night.  While we were getting ready to leave Ethan and I were telling the kids, “say goodbye to everyone…say thank you…etc”.  The kids complied and then Danny stands there in the middle of the room, arms outstretched and says “who wants a hug!”  It was a riot!  Luckily the little 3 yr old girl in the family we were visiting came and took him up on his offer.

And other funny Danny story….another party we recently attended was a pool party, and the parents had hired a lifeguard to watch the kids.  So I explained to Danny “this lady is the lifeguard.  You have to listen to what she says.”  He looked like he got it, but I wanted to make sure, so I asked “if she tells you to do something, what are you going to do?”   Danny’s answer:  “something”!   I have got to learn to be more precise in my speaking.

Susannah and the boys were just making cookies, and decorating them like ghosts and witches (Halloween lasts for months around here). As she put the eyes on one of the ghosts, Jonah said, “Those are the eyes? They’re not really in the right place. Those are more like boobs.”

That’s my boy.

Ok, how funny is it to talk to children….they take things so literally!  It is a riot.  I have two short stories to share:

The first is a Jonah story.  At school last Friday he had to bring in an item to share and stand up in front of the whole class and say a few things about it.  The parents were invited since this was the first Friday “show and tell” and so I went.  Jonah brought the action figure Green Lantern.   He stood up in front of the class proud as punch explaining that this was Green Lantern, he has a magic power ring, he is part of the Justice League, etc, etc….Then the teacher started to ask some questions:

Teacher:    “Where did Green Lantern come from?”

Jonah:   “Target”

Teacher:  “Oh, I see. And where does he live?”

Jonah:  “My room”

Ha!  Yes, he goes from sharing “facts” about this make believe Super Hero to answering questions in the most literal sense in two second flat!

Then there is Danny.  At a party the other night, he was running around trying to keep up with a bunch of 5 year olds (Jonah’s friends).  At one point he fell down and scraped his knee and starting crying.  I picked him up, comforted him, and here was the conversation:

Me:   ” Danny, do you want to sit with me for a few minutes?”

Danny: “No, I want to play.”

Me:  just making an observation….”That’s the spirit Danny, just get right back on that horse.”

Danny:  “What horse?!?  I don’t want to get on a horse!”

I had to assure him 2 or 3 three times that there was, in fact, no horse at the party!  I told him it just means that he should get back to playing and he looked at me with this expression like “ok, lady YOU were the crazy one that started talking about horses….”

I finally figured out why Jonah loves brushing his teeth now. He does it once every morning, and at least twice at night. We don’t even have to plead with him anymore – He asks us if he can go brush. It’s because of the Act for Kids mouthwash. It’s not because it’s a great tasting mouthwash, or has cool licensed characters on the bottle, or comes in an awesome shade of blue.

It’s because it’s sanctioned spitting.

The school year at Casa Ninos is done, and the classes all put on a huge celebration show. It was adorable, of course. Here’s a sampling. Jonah’s first:

And here’s Danny’s musical number:

Now we’re off to camp for a few weeks -3 weeks for Danny, and 5 for Jonah – then back to school. Danny will be back at CNSM, and Jonah will be starting Kindergarten at Greenfields! Kindergarten?! Sheesh…

Nothing much to report, but I do have to blog a few funny things before I forget them.

Me: “Jonah, we need to cut your hair.”

Jonah: “No we don’t.”

Me: “Yes, we do.  It is too long and you have wild sideburns.”

Jonah: (looking alarmed…) “What are sideworms???”

Needless to say, I won and we cut his hair.  Sideworms are terrible….don’t let them get you.

Another conversation with Danny recently after he was telling me about his day at school.

Danny: “I ate lunch at the table with Valerie.”

Me: “That’s nice.  Were there other kids at the table or just the two of you?”

Danny:  “Just the two of me.”

Ha!  Maybe Danny should be the one in photos for psychiatric services! (see last blog post if you have no idea what I am talking about) 

My friend Christine was in the waiting room at her local hospital in Vermont, when she glanced at the literature rack and saw a familiar face glancing back:

Christine thoughtfully grabbed a copy for us and mailed it right away. I’ve read through the brochure a dozen times, but it doesn’t indicate whether Susannah is meant to be the giver or the recipient of psychiatric services.

Just thought I’d share a few recent tough questions from Jonah.  Sorry we don’t update this blog enough – we are usually too busy running around after these kids!

Ethan and I were telling Jonah about how we didn’t always live in this house – we used to live in an apartment.  Here is an excerpt from the conversation:

Jonah: “Where was my room – did it have the same stuff in it?”

Ethan: “Oh, you weren’t born yet, Buddy.”

Jonah: “You mean I was in mommy’s tummy?”

Me: “No, you weren’t even in my tummy yet.”

Jonah thinking….me hoping the next question wasn’t coming…

Jonah: “How did I get in mommy’s tummy?”

Me: “I don’t know….you just got in there one day.  Let’s go have a snack.”   FYI for those of you reading this, you can pretty much always deflect tough questions from Jonah with the talk of a snack….

Another interesting recent conversation has involved evolution.  I guess at school they have been talking about evolution and Jonah has heard that people are descendants of apes (and I’m sure that is helped by the BNL song we listen to on their album Snacktime, in which they sing “raisins come grapes, people from apes, I come from Canada”).  Anyway, he is not clear on the concept and here was our conversation.

Jonah: “When was I an ape?”

Me: “You were never an ape Bud, just our relatives a long time ago were apes.  You and I were always people…but before us, there were apes.”

Jonah:  “Whoa, Granny used to be an ape!?!?!?”

So then I drew a lineage diagram….Jonah – Mommy – Granny – Josie – then millions of years – Ape.  He seemed satisfied by my explanation, but I’m still not sure he gets it.  In fact, I think he was a little disappointed to learn that Granny was not actually an ape.  Sorry Mom.