Zippity Day

"Zippity do daaaa, Zippity daay"  lol I sang the actual song to him one morning, and the rest of the morning he was just singing the line I typed. So cute.

I bought him a violin recently. It's a little too big for him still, but it was a good price, and he'd been begging for a violin.  I won't let him have it, but the other day he was begging to hold it. So I told him he wouldn't play it, but could hold it. I went over how important it is to be careful, gentle, and NOT to touch the hairs on the bow.  He enjoyed holding it, and I let him hold the bow with my help and touch the strings with it a couple of times.  Then I put it all away again. I told him that he had to show me that he could take care of it - and he could do that by taking care of his toy violin. He sat down and started playing his toy violin, holding the bow very carefully. "See! See mom! I can do it! I can play it gently!"  I told him to just keep treating it that way, and one day, he'll get the real one.  Not even two minutes later, I turn around and he's holding the bow and sticking his feet between the plastic bow and the wire "hair" on it.  *roll my eyes*  That is NOT being careful with the toy!

Thursday I was trying to clean house but also make sure I was taking time to play with Andrew. At one point, we got out the Sneaky Snacky Squirrel game.  There is NO strategy to that game - you spin the wheel and whatever you land on, you do.  He insisted on going first, but then I won the game. He got upset "but I wanted to win!" I told him that it was okay and we could play another time. "No! I don't want to play!" as he threw the game pieces.  I gently reminded him that what is more important than winning, is enjoying the time playing together. It doesn't matter who wins or who loses - we just want to have fun playing. I packed up the game and told him I was not going to play with him if he was going to behave that way.  He pulled himself together, got the game back out and said he was ready to try again.  I won again and he yelled, "You won! Good job mommy!"  I won again the next time and he seemed discouraged. Finally - he won the last game!  I dont think it was as exciting as he'd hoped it'd be though. 


Friday it was finally warm outside! At the end of their day, they can choose an activity at one of the tables until parents take the kids home. Andrew was having trouble fitting in. He wanted to play with the bristle blocks, but there was only one large base that was already taken by another child. He looked for another one and got upset that he couldn't have one. So I told him I could build him one, and I stuck several large pieces together for him to build on. He said, "no!" and took them all apart.
I showed him the fancy magnets at another table and said we could write his name in magnets. He wasn't interested, so I went and started playing with the magnets. I got the A-N-D written and he came over and tore them all apart.  I told him I was sorry he wasn't getting the pieces he wanted, and that I showed kindness by trying to help him find something else to work with - and asked him if he was being kind in return. He agreed he was not.  I suggested that since he couldn't seem to get along at the table - perhaps it was time to get shoes on and go outside where he could play for a while.  He had trouble 'sharing' out there too when he was using the boards across the truck tires as a balance beam and another little girl wanted to try. I reminded him of the 'green circle' and that we don't tell others they cannot play. He agreed though I could tell he didn't really like it at first. He wants everything to be a race and a competition lately.

He can officially tell time on a clock. At least one with all the numbers on it. He has a toy clock and it has all the regular numbers on it, but in very tiny print also has the minute numbers on the outside of the dots. He is learning that each of the big numbers count by fives and each of the dots represent one number in between like counting.  I can tell him to turn the clock to 2:15 or 3:46 or another random time, and he gets it right!  On regular clocks that don't have the minutes numbered, he gets the hour right, and understands the 6 is :30 and the 12 means it's right on the new hour.  He also knows daddy calls at 4 every day when leaving work, and that bedtime is 7:30.  He's starting to understand the concept that everything - school, gymnastics, Kingdom Hall - all have designated times to be ready. 

Out in the ministry on Saturday, he got to have Delilah and Alexis Mann in the car. Delilah is just two weeks younger than Andrew and the look like they could be twins with their blonde hair and similar personalities. They had a BLAST together playing with Delilah's pink My Little Pony and blanket, making up songs and skipping down the sidewalk together, picking tiny flowers and putting them down the drains in sidewalk.   There were three adults and three children in our group, and Delilah wanted to walk with me and Andrew wanted to work with Shawna (or Mimi as all the kids call her and Andrew now does too). Half way down the street he started telling her, "I want to work with Amanda."  He wouldn't let Delilah work with me again which made her cry.  She was on a doorstep with her mom when we walked by at one point and he yells, "Hey Delilah! Are you feeling better yet?"  She crossed her arms and put her head down and yelled back, "no!"  Andrew just kept walking.
I think at that time, Ted was moving the car and Alexis was walking with us. He said, "At my next birthday, I will turn sixteen and can drive the car carefully."  Totally random. I love it.

Sunday he was tired by the time the meeting started. He started off listening to the public talk and trying to find the scriptures in the Bible (which by the way, he did really well doing!) He told us he was tired and crawled up in daddy's lap. Then he said, "It's really loud!"  So I brought him to my lap and let him cuddle into me and blocked some of the sound  that way.  After the meeting was over, he went up to say hi to the brothers by the stage and introduce himself to the visiting speaker. He told the brother that he talks too loud!!  Thankfully they all laughed.  Andrew doesn't realize that the volume is controlled by the person running the sound booth!