Wow… I haven’t posted since last week?? I guess I haven’t had much to say, which is pretty strange, considering my history of being so verbose. 🙂 There really hasn’t been much going on here lately. Oh, but yeah, the big news…..
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA!!!
Considering that we live 15 minutes outside of D.C., we probably should have gone to the inauguration. But we didn’t. Too many people…too cold…and just getting *in* to D.C. would have been crazy. Lines just to get on the metro snaked out of the tunnel and wrapped around the parking lots. Um…..no thanks??
So we stayed in, where it was nice and cozy, and watched history being made from the comfort (and warmth) of our living room.
I think it’s awesome that Barack Obama is our president. To have a biracial man as our president sets an example for others. The other day I was reading an article in “O” magazine. A white single mother had an adopted, African daughter age 8 or 9 years old, and the daughter had become very sensitive to teasing from other kids. The mom had come up with an excellent come-back for her daughter: “When those kids tease you about your brown skin, you tell them, ‘Our president has brown skin.’ When those kids tease you about having a white mother, you tell them, ‘Our president had a white mother.’ When those kids tease you about not having a dad, you tell them, ‘Our president was raised by a single mom.'” How profound is that???? Black people all over the world have ammunition they didn’t have before.
Anyhow, things on the home-front are good. Kwabena’s doing excellent in his new bed! I’ve noticed that when he sleeps in his new bed, he will either sleep through the whole night, or (if he wakes up) he will call out to me if he needs something (versus climbing out of his bed in the middle of the night where I fear he could fall while in a sleepy haze). When he sleeps on his crib mattress underneath his loft bed, he wakes up, walks over to our bed, and climbs, while I am unknowingly shoved to the middle of the bed by this little bed-hog! Too funny….
Today I got a report from Miss Marilyn that Kwabena acted up allll day long: running around and not listening when Miss Marilyn asked him to stop; hitting other kids (albeit playfully, but still hitting), pushing other kids; not taking a nap until well after he was supposed to; resisting using the potty; etc. He even had so many time outs that the other kids were commenting on the amount of timeouts Kwabena had! I wonder what the problem could have been? He seemed fine this evening.
Kwabena’s latest interest now is flashlights! Yesterday Kwasi’s mom had about four flashlights, and guess who was totally obsessed with them?….Lining them up, with the beam’s pointing to the ceiling, mermerized by their illumination. I’ll have to get him a few.
One struggle I’m having with Kwabena is trying to get him to divert his attention to anything that doesn’t have wheels and says “toot, toot” or “beep, beep.” He’s completely enthralled with cars and trucks; so much so that getting him to do other activities is nearly impossible. He’s totally not into coloring or any art lately. Well, he’s never been a big “artsy fartsy” kid. But lately, he’s so not interested that when I ask him to hold a crayon, he whines, “I cannnnn’t.” He doesn’t even want to make the effort. I even said to him tonight dramatically, “Hmmm….I wonder who I could get to color with me?” To my surprise, he innocently said, “How about Uncle Chris?” (our friend, Chris, who was chilling with us tonight); he didn’t even considering nominating himself! LOL! Anyhow, it’s a little frustrating, because I want him to engage in a variety of activities, to be well-rounded. But it’s all about cars and trains.
At daycare, it’s a struggle for Miss Marilyn to get Kwabena to draw, as well. I don’t like that she compares Kwabena to the other child there Kwabena’s age, mentioning that this other kid is already tracing and coloring, etc., and that she is trying to get them both to the same stage (although she has said that Kwabena is very smart and she is confident he won’t have any problems with writing, etc). I wanted to point out that Kwabena is Kwabena–each child develops at their own pace. Kwabena’s got his strengths and his weaknesses, and will develop on his own schedule. I just need to make sure that we’re encouraging him with a variety of activities so that he can be the best he can be.
Anyhow……overall, things are excellent this way!
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