Can't you hear the captain shouting?
Had a great day. Wally took a little train ride -- "a bigga train" with Pops (my dad). Just two towns away. It's weird, because I take him on the subway literally every day and we rode a "bigga train" all the way here but he still just can't stop obsessing about them. "See train again?" The minute we drive away. Even at this cute playground in the afternoon he couldn't focus because he knows it's near the train station and keeps thinking he hears a whistle and wants to go find out about it. It's not that close, so we end up getting in the car and driving over.
In the early evening we stopped by this Bazaar Russe at a local Russian Orthadox Church. It's something I remember going to as a child, though I didn't feel any real sentimental attachment. (This is not one of those cases, but I've noticed an unpredictable pattern. Like I don't feel any giant attachment or longing for the house and neighborhood where I grew up, and yet I still can't get over the Irish coffee shop being gone, or schoolyard changing. Maybe it's because my parents moved not far away, so the traditions continue.)
While we waited for potato pancakes Wally sat on my lap for the first time I can remember ever. Not like forced onto my lap with me struggling and arm wrestling him to stay on there. But voluntarily on there, playing with my necklace, singing little songs. It was the greatest thing. He has completely changed from February. My parents cannot fathom the change. Before bed he sits on the couch and reads books with them. He hasn't -- knock wood -- knocked anything of consequence over. He's stopped trying to get out of every exit. He comes when he's called. I keep saying, "I can't believe it's not butter" which doesn't make a lot of sense but kind of does. I can't believe it's Wally. It is him, it's like what I thought he could be, but he's so much more here. There's so much more there there.
I so remember going to that church for latkes with you guys! It has always been this warm memory for me when I make them for the boys.
ReplyDeleteIt's funny, last night when we gave Mael his birthday present (a pirate ship), he immediately went off and started playing with it...a whole storyline going on as he talked out loud. I thought, "When did that happen... that he really grasped imaginary play and could sustain his attention on one thing?" He used to run around, never sit through a story, knock down all the castles being built at the beach. When I took him for his first haircut at the salon, I planned for him to watch Remi to see how "fun" it was. (Remi does LOVE having his haircut. He chats with the stylist like she is the bartender or his therapist.) However, Mael wouldn't sit still. He kept bolting into the hallway. The stylist said: "I think that he is the kind of kid whose hair you cut when he is sleeping." This was only a year ago. Now he begs to go see Shane and have his haircut. He sits still and chats with her.
I realize that my boys are still boys, pretty hyper. But, something drastic definitely happens between 2 and 3 years old. It always makes me a little nervous when we label any child before the age of three. Although can any intervention really be bad? It is just nice to know that this faze will pass...until the next one comes along. I am so thankful to have one child out of the sassy 4s...Mael may have to go to boarding school in a year.