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It Broke

The day that I was fearing is finally upon us. Daddy's Blanket broke. It is now two blankets. The wear and tear of all the pulling of fuzzies has taken its toll.

Fortunately, my reaction to Dylan's proclamation that "It broke!" was a calm, simple, "Now you have two." He accepted that, and is cuddling with two Daddy's Blankets at bedtime tonight.

Now, Daddy's Blanket can be in two places at once.

First Sentence

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"Mommy, what does that say?"

"It says, 'I am going to the park.' Did you write that, Dylan?"

"Yes."

"Who helped you write it?"

"No one. I wrote that in my journal this morning. I sounded it out."

It wasn't until after Andrea brought me a piece of paper and was waiting for a big hug that I realized how excited my response was to Dylan. I gave him a big hug, and was beaming from ear to ear.

I'm almost certain that he did in fact write it this morning. It was accompanied by a picture of a stick figure that was standing in grass with what might be a bench nearby. There is a blue line for the sky and both yellow and black suns. Perhaps I'll get around to scanning this page to share. The picture and writing were done with markers that we have at home, in his journal from school from last week. There was one blank page at the back, because they did not have school on Monday the 13th.

I think that I was about as excited with this as I was with his first steps. A proud moment as my little boy grows up.

Dylan the Scientist

Today, Dylan approach and informed me that his bouncy ball looses energy when he drops it. "What do you mean?" I asked, trying not to sound too surprised that he is commenting on the energy of his bouncy ball. "Like this," he replied and dropped his bouncy ball onto the carpet where it barely rebounded and stopped. "Does the energy it keeps change if you drop it on different floors?" I probed. "I don't know," he answered, as he walked into Andrea's room and dropped it on the wooden floor. "Yes, it keeps more energy," he concluded. He then walked into the bathroom and dropped it on the tiled floor. "It keeps more energy here, too." He then proceeded to roll the bouncy ball along the carpet. It continued for a while and then stopped. "But see Daddy, when I roll it, it keeps more of its energy longer." I was stunned with his intrinsic understanding of the scientific method and inquiry. I decided just to say, "that's very interesting!" and wait to discuss gravitational potential energy, elastic potential energy, and kinetic energy along with elastic and inelastic collisions until he is five.

Long Hair

If you've been observing Dylan's appearance in pictures over time, you may have observed that he hasn't had a haircut since early January. To set the record straight, it isn't for lack of trying.

Dylan is very adamant that he does not want to get his hair cut. He is also very clear that the reason he wants to let his hair grow is so he can put it in a ponytail like Andrea does. He is not shy about explaining this.

Unfortunate for Dylan is the fact that his hair doesn't grow all that fast. At the rate it is growing, he might be starting kindergarten before he can have his hair in a proper ponytail.

Cute Quotes

How many times are there when kids say something cute, and we just wish that we could later remember? Similarly, how many times does something they say sound funny given the context of an adult that it keeps us from getting too upset with them? I'd say that it's infinite.

So, going off on a tangent, Dylan has interest in understanding the concept of infinity, but he still doesn't get it. "Mommy, what's infinity plus one?" "Infinity." "But what's the biggest number?" "Well, there really isn't one. You can always add one more to it." Like I said, he wants to figure it out, but just doesn't grasp the concept yet.

The quote from Dylan this morning was, "Well, then I'm just going to drink all day." The context was that he was mad at me because I didn't have his milk in the car on the way to school. To my credit, I didn't have it because he didn't want it, and I made it as clear as I could that he wouldn't have his cup of milk at any point on the drive to school. Apparently, I wasn't clear enough. As he was ranting, he fixated on his desire to go to school and drink from the water fountain. And, he wasn't going to go to his classroom. He was just going to stand there and drink all day. Some days, that sounds quite appealing.

Bad Words

Dylan seems to have a fascination with the Indiana Jones movies. I think that it has been fueled by reading about the Indiana Jones LEGO sets and the light-up spoons that we got in the boxes Frosted Mini-Wheats. Yesterday, this fascination led us into a discussion about ratings of movies. This was fueled by my comment to Dylan that he wouldn't be able to see the movie for a few years, and his retort that "Daddy saw the Indiana Jones movie when he was a little boy."

So, I described who could see "G", "PG", "PG-13", and "R" movies. At some point in my lengthy explanation, I mentioned that a reason that some movies are "PG" is that they have bad words. At this, Dylan piped up with "The Surf's Up movie had a bad word in it;" Dylan saw this movie on a school field trip this past week.

"Oh?," I inquired.

"Yes. They said 'Shut Up' instead of 'Be Quiet.'

I did my best to have a look of surprise and disapproval on my face while holding back my laughter. I was pleased with the innocence we have still been able to maintain with Dylan, who is only 4 1/2 years old. I am certain that he will soon learn many more and worse "bad words." In the meantime, I am content with him thinking that "Shut Up" is as bad as it gets.

Dylan's New Glasses

This morning, Dylan and I went to pick up his first pair of glasses on the way to his soccer class. When the optician, Mr Wally, asked if Dylan was excited to get his glasses, Dylan said "yes." Dylan said he could see about the same with and without them. I think that we still need to take him to a familiar environment and show him something that he couldn't see clearly before. Dylan was excited to go to soccer and see if his friend Michael would recognize him with glasses.

While I don't have a written prescription for Dylan, the form that was with his glasses indicated that he is 1.5 diopters in his right eye and 1.0 in his left.

No More Office

I had an interesting conversation with Dylan tonight. It started with him asking why people at work were going to be tossing things. I tried to explain that toss meant to throw them away. Dylan doesn't like to throw anything away, so that was a rough start to the conversation. Here's how the rest of the conversation went:

We're going to be moving out of our offices at work, Dylan.

Well, what will you have?

I'll just have a desk.

Why, Mommy? Why won't you still have an office?

Because it will save the company money.

But it might not, Mommy.

You're right, Dylan.

He's about as skeptical as I and most of my colleagues at work are. Guess he's not going to be management material. We'll see when we're in our "open office environment" whether our current building remains occupied or whether it ever gets shut down. We'll also have to see whether the great improvements in productivity associated with staring at your co-workers all day are ever realized. By the end of June, we are supposed to be moved in to our new work environment.

Oh. By the way, our flexible working options are going to be reduced in January. No every-other-Friday off, and no working from home unless the cable guy is going to be there.

Four Eyes

Dylan had his first eye doctor visit today. And we ordered his first pair of glasses today. The eye doctor said that his vision is about 20/60, at a correction of about 1.5 diopters in each eye. To put this in perspective, at the age of 4, he wouldn't be able to pass the vision test required to get a driver's license. When the eye doctor broke the news to Dylan, the doctor blamed Dylan's poor genetics, which is right on target. Dylan's glasses should arrive in 7-10 days, so I'll try to share a picture of him at that time.

Bye Bye Weekend Naps

We may have seen the last of weekend naps for Dylan. Last Sunday was the first day that Dylan successfully had no nap. He'd had a few days without a nap previously, but they all ended with either Dylan asleep at 6 p.m. on the way home from school or a very-difficult-to-deal-with Dylan by bedtime. On Monday, school was closed, and Dylan and Andrea were home with Geoff. It too was a no-nap day for Dylan. In spite of swimming class to tire him out today, Dylan resisted a nap. Tonight, I didn't think of the missed nap until about 7:40 p.m. as I was reading Andrea her stories before bed, and I could hear what sounded like a melt-down in the hallway.

Good news, bad news. The bad news is that I don't have that down-time to be productive and recharge in the middle of the day anymore. We are trying to convince Dylan that he needs to play quietly and independently while Andrea is napping, but he still needs help periodically. The good news is that Dylan falls asleep while reading stories at night again. So, there's no struggle and both kids were asleep a few minutes after 8:00 p.m. That means that I actually have a few hours of quiet down-time at the end of the day.

Dylan continued to take a nap at school this week, which is good for him. He slept for a solid two hours there still. So, while he isn't quite ready to give up naps totally, he may do so 2 out of 7 days. It will be interesting to see what happens when grandparents come to visit...