Dinner Out

We missed swimming (traffic and getting stuck at work). But we still went out for dinner.

Monday Night into Tuesday Morning

Samuel had a heard time getting to sleep, it wasn't so much the excitement of the giant lego set awaiting him,  but rather thoughts about the Princess Bride.  the movie was on TV this weekend and we watched it together.  He was really into it.  Unfourtunately, the "pit of despair" and the life sucking machine really stayed with him.  He had a hard time falling asleep and then he woke up a couple times during the night.

Renee had a bad bloody nose, got the carpet, pillows, blankets, her hair.  We dealt with that.  

Matthew wet his bed.  Soaked.  We dealt with that.

Not sure who was in what bed, but at one point Renee came to find me to complain that she was all alone "Mami, I'm alone in my room,i don't like that, no one is with me, my room is all plain"

Needless to say, we were all a little grumpy in the morning.   

Monday night

My parents took Samuel out for a special birthday dinner and lego shopping excursion (more on that later) so Marc and I had dinner with Matthew and Renee. 

Matthew "Boys is stronger than girls"
Renee "yeah boys is stronger than girls, but girls is smarter than boys"
Matthew "yeah girls is smarter"
Renee "girls is smart and boys is strong"
Me "some girls are stronger than boys, and some boys are smarter than girls. Boys and girls can be smart and strong"
Matthew "boys is strong and girls is smart"
Renee "yeah"
Matthew "I like broccoli. I want soy sauce for my rice"
Renee "I don't like the pepper on my salmon, only the pink"

I'm not sure what to make of this - I know they are four, gender identification is big, comparisons are big, all part of figuring out who they are and how they and everything else fits in the world around them. Matthew does have more physical strength, Renee is crazy smart, so in some ways they are right. But I'm not ok with the generalization and the comparison, my feminist self cringed, while fully recognizing the reality of four year olds. The topic came and went, and we'll be listening to "Free To Be" this weekend. 

Now about Samuel and the Lego. My parents took him out for dinner and to buy his birthday present. I knew he'd want a big $100+ lego set (Hoth Battle from StarWars) so I suggested to my mom that she establish a budget for him - any lego set less than $40 or $50 - to limit his selection, show value of money, etc. A couple hours later I got this email from my dad. Subject: "Happy Guy". Email text "budget exceeded, everyone is happy". 

From: Eduardo Lulka [mailto:elulka@gmail.com]
Sent: Monday, November 19, 2012 08:07 PM
To: Silvia Lulka
Subject: Muchacho feliz  

Presupuesto excedido, todos felices
Eduardo

Samuel got his 4th lego set for this birthday, 2nd huge one, and he still has another en route from Bubbah and Zaida. He also bought a small set for Matthew "he already has this one but he lost all of it so I know he'll love it" and a Friends lego for Renee. When I told Samuel my dad could come build the lego set with him he responded "no, I'll build this one all by myself. It's a whole building and you can close it and tuck it in at night". 

At least we're done. One of the huge sets was bought on loan against the money he'll get from his EchoAge birthday party in a couple weeks. Maybe we should have made him sign and I O U. 

.

Coming home from the park

The Day After Seven

We spent the day making legos.  My cousin came by in the afternoon and helped with the lego building and did some arts and crafts.  During a we-have-to-get-fresh-air-and-run-around break, Samuel headed towards a bench and said "Seven is different.  It feels different.  Something is convincing me.". I asked why he said that as i sat next to him on the bench.  He responded by cuddling inside my sweater and jacket and asking me if i believe in Gd.  Makes me think seven is about asking big questions and grappling big concepts while still wanting to be held.

P.S. There aren't pictures from the actual building or the finished products.  we were too intense and focused for silly things like looking for, or taking pictures with, cameras, phones or tablets.

Happy Birthday!

On the eve of 7

We went to buy fruit (and chocolate sauce) for his birthday at school.  Samuel ran up and down the ramps 10 times, up and down the down ramp.  He was exhilarated and then exhausted.  

Cant believe he's turning seven.  At bedtime he said "I'm really thinking about what it's going to feel like". Me "what what is going to feel like".  Samuel "to be seven.  I wonder what it will be like". 

XXXXXXX OOOOOOO

BayBlades

Matthew loves Bay Blades.  Yestreday on thier boys' day off Marc bought him one.  When he was allowed to open it tonight it was a battle with Samuel to see who I would help first.  Matthew with his BayBlade of Samuel with his Lord of the Rings Lego.

I thought the BayBlade would be fast so I helped Matthew first.  Not so though.  I couldnt' figure it out.  i tried, looked at the directions, tried again, and again but no avail.  So i said it was Samuel's turn and that we'd figure out the BayBlade after dinner.  Imagine my surprise when Matthew assembled the BayBlade by himself!  Perfectly done.  "Mami, come loko at how fast it can go"

Samuel on the other hand did need a little assitance in building the complex parts of his new lego set, like the recoiling string that uses a few gears.

And Renee sat patiently while I helped her boys.

Cursive Letters

Marc always has Remembrance Day off and since we moved back, he has taken Samuel off school that day and together they go watch the Remembrance Day ceremony at Queen's Park (the Provincial Legislature).  Samuel has always enjoyed his special day with Daddy going to see the soldiers.

This year, Remembrance Day fell on Sunday, and with Matthew being sick no one went to the ceremony.  Marc still had the day off and told Samuel they'd take the day off together.  Samuel, being the sweet heart that he is, wanted in invite Matthew too.  The question became what about Renee.  What would she say about being excluded.

Her statement was simple.  The boys were going to stay home and she was going to go to school and work with her cursive letters.  She said it to me and to Marc a coupe times. 

And, here are pictures from the school:

(did i mention she's 4??)

The boys bought Spider Man and Hawkeye books, came to have lunch with me, went to buy legos and and a chaotic grocery trip with Marc that resulted in being disallowed to use the new legos for a day.  Samuel explained it something like this "Matthew was doing smack your bum bum on my bum, and that forced me to give him a pay back again and again with hitting him ,and Daddy warned us lots of times, but Matthew kept doing the smack your bum bum and i had to keep doing the pay back.  And now i can't use my legos and it's not fair"

Weekend pictures

We spent the weekend at home. If you asked Matthew why he'd spare you no details "I have diarreah poop, and I throwed up, and my tummy hurts and my bum hurts".

The costumes came in handy. And lots of lego time.
Samuel made up some amazing games with levels and themes, and encouraging "don't worry if you can't make it, you'll be ok". There was one where he used a skipping rope tied to the handles of his dresser drawers and this together with parts of his MarbleRun game, made up the levels. Renee's and my "guys" were bracelets, and he an Matthew had figurines.
Renee and I did go out to see a friend from when we were teenagers, she's now a jewelry maker and she's making me a ring with the kids birthstones, my 40th birthday present. Thought it fitting that Renee would come given that one day it will be hers. She had a great time trying on multiple rings. She wanted to know if a particular diamond band came in a smaller size.
We ended the weekend as we do every weekend by going out for dinner with my parents, sister, nephew, grandmother. Renee insisted on wearing the dress that her great grandmother brought her in Mexico.
My mom got the 4 kids sugar skulls in Mexico, impossible to get a picture of the 4 of them, especially with my nephew hiding under the table.
And did I mention that Samuel and Renee ate a whole chicken? Ok Matthew ate a little of it. Marc wasn't there (which means I cut the chicken up myself, an accomplishment that is possibly equivalent to how much the kids ate).

Renee wearing the dress from her great-grandmother, rain boots are her footwear of choice these days.

Captain America and "Bell"

Preparing for the battle with the bad guys who are everywhere "Seriously, for real life, Darth Vader is in that building"

Spider Man, also preparing for battle

Regi and Renee watching jewerly making

Can you see the sugar skulls?

647-XXX-XXXX

At lunch, I was starting to loose my patience. It was at the end of the meal and the whining, yelling, "buy me", "get me", "I want" was too much. So instead of risking a tantrum of my own, I excused myself from the table went up to our room and locked the door. I needed 5 minutes of peace.
  About 30 seconds after I came upstairs, I heard 3 little voices outside the door and the sound of a phone being off the hook. And then the little voices, mostly the older one, saying my cell phone number and pressing telephone buttons. 6 4 7 etc.   And then my cell rang.   Samuel - "Hi Mami. Can you open the door?"
Me - "I'm taking a break right now"
Samuel - "Ok Mami. Did I call your right number on your phone?"
Me - "Yes"
Samuel - "When are you coming out"
Me - "In a few minutes"
Samuel - "Are you coming now"
Me - "Soon"
Matthew in the background saying my number wrong by one number
Samuel - "Is your number 647-XXX-HXXX"
Me - "No, you called the right number 647-XXX-XXXX"
Samuel - "See Matthew, it's X not Y"
Renee - "Mami, are you opening the door"
Me - "I need a break"
Samuel - "how do you hang up"
Me - "the red button"
  And one day I'll complain that they never call :)

Reflections on Generations of Montessori

I've often blogged about how blessed I am, its a recurring theme. I haven't related it to school and education, and this week really highlighted how blessed we are in that regard.

I'm blessed that my parents made the choices they made for my education, that Olga introduced my parents to Montessori, that they took the leap of faith to send me to her school, that they sent me to great schools for my whole educational career. It has served me well - one of the biggest compliments I've gotten was when someone at work told me "you are a life-long learner, and you take us along with you on your learning journey". It captures who I am and hope to always be, and its roots are in my education.

I am blessed that Marc and I have been able to provide our kids with a Montessori education, and a Jewish Montessori one at that. We are blessed that we have jobs and family support that allow us to send the kids to a private school.  Seeing Matthew and Renee in their classrooms and Samuel in his Mesibah Siddur ceremony this week really brought it home.

Samuel learns at his own pace, all kids do, but his is more pronounced, he struggled with writing last year, letters were inverted, his focus wasn't there. His teachers guided but didn't expect him to conform, he got extra help and while it helped he just wasn't ready yet. And then September came and he was ready and his writing is beautiful, in cursive, in Hebrew. His OT from last year couldn't believe the change. he's always been that way - he didn't walk until 14 months and then he got it right away, he couldn't stand up in skating and then he skated across the arena, he didn't get swimming and one day he swam across the pool. Its like a switch turns on, he gets the skill and beams confidence and pride. I have wondered what it would be like for him to have to learn at the pace of a traditional school, and then I count my blessings that his foundation has been one where he's been able to develop and learn on his own schedule.

Matthew is a physical boy, boys are but him more so. I loved that he was doing his "100 Board" (a wood board with 10 rows and 10 columns and little wood squares with the numbers 1-100, the kids place the little squares in the correct order), he could move around, he could sit on the floor, shift from one side to the other, take the number squares from one side on the floor mat to the other. He can get up and move to get his work. I could see how he'd move and keep his focus. He needs reinforcement from his friends, we all do, and I love that when he finished a piece of work he could go get a friend to show them his work, even a friend or sibling in another class. He beamed. I'm not sure how he'd do in a class where he had to sit at a desk, and I count my blessings that his foundation in one where he can thrive socially, academically and physically.

Renee is prolific in her work. She's been wanting to write for a year, and so she learned. She writes most letters in cursive and she can put words together if someone helps her sound out the letters. She has a strong personality, it was great to watch her work and I loved watching her with the other kids. One boy asked her for help with the 4 long chain (a math material that forms the basis for multiplication, squaring and cubing), and she did, collaboratively. I wonder how restless she would get having to learn in a structured way, and with a personality as strong as hers, I wonder what her social interactions would be like in an environment without free-flowing collaboration and a peace corner for kids to talk out and resolve their own issues. So again, I count my blessings that she is in an environment where she is learning what she needs to learn, socially and academically.

Add to this the foundation of Jewish culture, history, religion, heritage, and Hebrew taught by Israeli teachers.

There's a prayer that stars with "L'dor va dor", usually translated as from generation to generation but really means to generation and generation in Hebrew. The prayer speaks to each generation's responsibility to pass on from those before to those that follow. A befitting way to end this post.
"L'dor va dor" and "shabbat shalom" (from generation to generation and a peaceful Sabbath).

Our herritage

The school had a Mesibat Sidur ceremony today - a celebration of kids getting their first siddurim (prayer books).  It was beautiful, i was so proud of Samuel, of the school, of the heritage that has been bestowed to me and that I am passing on to the kids, it was inevitable that i cried.

Each kid embroidered their own siddur cover and wrote their own prayer or wish for their family.  Here is Samuel's.   

  

Renee's Observation

Matthew at Work