Critter-Bat and Other Yikealo-isms

Today we celebrate three years of parenthood to Mr. Y! He legally become our son on June 5th, 2009, and we have thoroughly loved being his mama and daddy. Here are some recent bits of our life with him...

Last week, THIS walked into my kitchen:

He informed me that he was "Critter Bat", a new kind of super-hero. I asked what his special powers were, and he said that they included "donking people on the head, flying, making lava, making people blind, and changing into other kinds of super-heros." I said that I thought he sounded more like a super-villain than a super-hero, to which he replied that he could also make rockets, guns and fairies. My sister suggested that perhaps one of his special powers needed to be making pockets instead! For the next two days, he spent most of his time dressed up like this, riding his bike up and down our street (with his cape tucked into the back of his shorts) and practicing his "lava-making" moves. It's a good thing that we don't care a whole lot about what our neighbors think of us!

On another day, we were outside playing "I Spy" while doing our Phonics lesson. Yikealo said that he spotted something that started with "ch." I guessed everything that I could think of: (chin, cheek, chair, chain-link fence, cheerful mama) but nothing was right. He finally got tired of waiting around on me to guess and informed me that he saw a "chree" while pointing to one of our large maples. He definitely doesn't have the "tr" sound figured out yet. He also recently wrote the following sentence for phonics: "You can not take my toys or you will be in chrubol." (!)

Speaking of school, we finished Kindergarten yesterday. Somebody might be just a little excited to be done!

Our final lesson was on Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King. We learned about what each of these heros did for equality and we listened to part of MLK's famous "I have a dream" speech. Y was fascinated by my goosebumps, but I absolutely cannot listen to that speech without them! Then he was supposed to fill his own bus picture with various people cut from magazines and write "We all sit together" on the top line.

I kind of loved his bus. It's being driven by a poodle, an orphaned child from Sudan is sitting next to Lionel Richie, and in the back, Captain America sits next to the President of Syria. How's that for mixing things up a bit?

Yikealo's 6th birthday is next week on June 12th. We had thought that we would be traveling by then, so we gave him his presents on Sunday evening. His main gift was a pair of roller blades with the necessary protective gear.

 

(What was I thinking, anyway?! Sure, he's been begging for these, but he is going to give me a heart attack!) He was SO excited, and he's been practicing over the last couple of days. He's got great coordination, so he's actually doing pretty well, but of course he's fallen many times. He keeps asking why I am so scared to watch him: "Do you think I am a monster or something?"

I was obsessing about him hurting his tailbone the other night after watching him fall yet again. After his bedtime bath, I was lotioning him up and noticed a large bruise on one hip. I hissed through my teeth and said, "Oh honey! That looks like it hurts!" He immediately wanted to know if his tailbone was broken. I said, "No, but that is probably going to hurt like the dickens." He had been fine until I said that, but then he started whimpering and looking frightened. With huge eyes, he looked up at me and asked, "Are the dickens those wet things that you put on cuts?" We giggled and assured him that no, we would not need to use an alcohol wipe on his hip.

 

While we wait anxiously for news of our second little boy, we are thankful that there is just so much to enjoy about our first! Last week, he walked up, hugged me and asked, "Mama, could we just snuggle for a little bit? After that, it would give me great joy to play with you." How could anyone resist that?