Breaking the News

My good friend growing up had a sister who was 6 years younger than her and I remember asking her how her parents had told her that they were going to have another baby. She had no recollection of that conversation, but I was eaten up by curiosity--how exactly does one have that conversation with a child?

In our case, it went something like this...

McMoose, showing the kids an ultrasound picture: Guys, do you know what this is?
Luke: Me as a baby.
McM: No.
L: Weston as a baby?
McM: No...
L: Well, if it's not me or Weston, then who is it?
McM: Well....Mama's pregnant. We're going to have another baby.
L: Oh. Are we sure we want to do that? Because you know, we have the kitten. Do we want to have a kitten AND a baby?
McM: Yes, we're sure.
L: The kitten might attack the baby.
Me: Well, you guys will be the big brothers. You can help protect the baby.
W: Well...I'll help with stuff, but I am NOT going to be helping anybody wipe their butt.

 It wasn't exactly the magical conversation I'd envisioned back when I was questioning my childhood friend about how her parents told her, but it fit in very nicely with our daily lives. (And once the kids got over their initial skepticism, they did warm up to the idea! They're currently arguing over naming rights and trying to decide whether it's going to be a boy or a girl. Weston is also trying to convince me that I should consider having a carseat surgically inserted into my uterus to keep the baby safe. Luke is thoroughly annoyed by that conversation because "Weston, the baby is IN WATER. It's FINE. The water protects it. Besides, how would you make a carseat that would fit a baby the size of a lemon all the way to the size of a watermelon? It's not even possible.")

Fabulously Five!

Weston turned five earlier this month and it coincided so closely with the start of our school year that he's been going around telling people that hey, did you know that he is five-years-old AND a kindergartner? And oh, by the way, he's homeschooled. Did you know that too? No? Well, he is. And then he smiles very proudly at them as if he's expecting to be congratulated. (Most people do step up to the challenge.)

He still has quite the baby face, which delights me endlessly. Hooray for slowing down this crazy fast ride! Chubby baby hands, too. Which he mostly uses to build Lego contraptions and capture the cats. He still gets scratched and nipped by the cats on a near-daily basis. Of course, it doesn't faze him in the least. The other day, he was reading me a book about a cat when he suddenly paused, petted the picture, and said, "Aww, you're so cute, kitty! I just want to hug you!" You guys, it was a black and white picture of an angry looking cat. I don't even understand.

The other day, I took the kids to a roller skating rink for the first time. As usual, Luke went off on his own to figure it out, while Weston insisted on holding both my hands AND the wall, slipped and slid all over the place, and then told me, "This is the WORST THING I have EVER done; never bring me back to this place!" And then, he lay face down on the carpet in the reception area for a good 20 minutes in silent protest, just in case I hadn't gotten the message. Luckily, his ideas about such things aren't long-lived and he has already decided that maybe he'd like to try it again. (I predict it will end similarly.)

He is a child who loves everything and everyone while at the same time, being annoyed by everything and everyone. I'm not sure quite how he pulls that off, but he manages it well. As it turns out, the most common discussion question in his kindergarten curriculum is "What is your favorite..."  What's your favorite habitat? What's your favorite animal from this habitat? What is your favorite room in your house? What's your favorite pet? What's your favorite book? And so on. His answer each time is, "Hmm...let me think...Oh! All of them." The only thing he has a favorite of is a gold car in a dealership down the road from us, which he calls "MY gold car." He fully intends to buy that car someday and every time we pass the dealership, he looks to make sure it's still there.

He is obsessed with everything to do with Star Wars and usually, his introductory topic of conversation when meeting someone new is, "Have you ever seen Star Wars? I've seen all seven of them AND my brother has read the books." Lately, he's been bringing home Star Wars early readers from the library and whoever wrote these must not know the meaning of the term "early reader," because they include words like "federation," "eliminate," "cooperation," and "via." Which child who is just now learning to read can sound out these words?! So every time he shows up with one of these books in hand, I groan internally but--interest-based learning! So I fake a smile and we slog through made-up words and un-phonetic names and somehow, he manages it.

His birthday party was Star Wars themed, which mostly meant that 10 kids ran around a wooded park attacking each other with foam lightsabers and tripping over tree roots for 3 hours. It has since been dubbed "The Most Fun Birthday Ever," and both kids want to do exactly that for all of their birthdays, forever and ever, amen. It was McMoose's first foray into birthday party planning and clearly, it was a great success!

I'm looking forward to watching Weston learn and grow this next year!