Tuesday, May 20, 2008

They Grow Up So Fast

I really love David. He's very funny and smart and kind and self-confident (if sometimes shy). He has a pleasant way of mixing Polish and English (usually an English sentence sprinkled with a Polish word or two), and if you ask him to say the whole sentence in English it takes him about 10 seconds to translate the Polish words into English. Plus the whole literal translation thing is sometimes funny. For example, today in the tub he had wet his hair and then spiked it all up. Fryzura means hairstyle. He asked me, "Can this fryzura be?" Doesn't really translate very
directly. He meant, "is this hairstyle okay?" But usually he's just funny on purpose, and sometimes all in English. Like once I asked Evie to fix her behaviour and David started walking out of the room saying,"I'll go get the tools fo
r you." Or like tonight I was sitting on the kitchen floor feeding Aaron his hot cereal (as you do) and asked David to get the jam out of the fridge for me (I wanted to add some to the cereal). He pulled it out of the fridge and set it on the table. Way out of my reach. I said, "Um, I can't really use the jam when it's over there and I'm over here." As he picks it back up to bring to me he says, "Oooh! I'm sorry! I thought you were Elastigirl!"


Su (sister) recently posted about how she has her children tell her three things about their day each day after school . I love that idea. Fortunately my kids are still excited to tell me things on their own, but I'm saving Su's idea for the inevitable day when they won't be. I really don't have to pry anything out of them at this point. There are even some things I almost wish they didn't tell me. For example, David is in love.

He has been telling us for the last few days/weeks that he is in love with Marcelina in his kindergarten class. He always talks about what a nice smile she has and how she wears such cute clothes (!). He told me that in the morning, whenever someone walks into the classroom he looks up to see if it's her and if it is he tells whoever's nearby, "Here's my sweetheart." YIKES! And then he comes home and tells us that. I believe we should be glad that he's not trying to hide it from us but.....YIKES. Yesterday we had Greg's boss and his (Mexican) friend over for dinner (at which point I realized that I can still understand some Spanish, but I can't remember a single word of it to speak) and after they left, David showed us what he had been working on while we were chatting. Prepare yourselves:


Above is the inside of the "card" he made for Marcela. Above the flowers that represent each of them is written "maybe a kiss?" (thus the kissy lips).

This is the front and back. For some reason my children think it looks nice if they scribble all over a page. As long as it's not white, they think it looks nice and colorful. I've tried to convince them that it just looks messy, but to no avail. On the back it says, "You are sweeeeeeeeet, and awesome, ya know, and rich." Then we have all the money symbols and a big bag of money with her name on it. Underneath it says, "Shut up and accept it." I think that's kind of a Polish saying used when someone tries to decline something that is offered to them, so I understand that I'm not supposed to be mad about the "shut up" part of it. But
HELP!! We don't want to make a big deal out of it, so we're just letting it be, of course explaining that he's too young to really have a girlfriend and that he should make sure she likes him, too, so he doesn't bother her etc. He knows all this, and mostly just thinks it's fun. He's very cute. And I'm very scared!

[I typed this up a few days ago and yesterday David told me that he still really likes Marcelina, but not as much as before. The obsession is fading! Yay!)

11 comments:

sarah k. said...

It's totally normal. Kids mimic what adults do, and they also find affection with new friends, so it's natural that they would translate that to how they see grown-ups interact. My 6 year old has a new girlfriend, too. He told me that they're getting married when they're older, and she told her mom the same. They've made each other cards and gifts, they hold hands when we go on walks, they read to each other. I think it's the cutest thing, because I know how soon it will be that the "cooties" concept, as transmitted by same-gender friends, will kick in.

The one thing that I've done is try to explain how he doesn't have to think of their friendship in terms of boyfriend/girlfriend. He can just call her his friend.

Susan said...

Oh I love that boy! He is hilarious, uncannily so! As for the girlfriend, even though I guess Sarah's right, I still say yikes! But I'm jealous of your kids' openess with you, my bet is that you always have that. My kids didn't even tell me about what was going on in preschool without a lot of prodding. I think it's partly cuz you're such a good listener. Anyway, love the pictures of David, very "him"

Anne said...

How much do I love David?!? Please tell him I'm jealous! I thought I was his girlfriend! ;) How cute is he!? And witty like his mama. Don't you love to see how his brain works? As far as the crush thing goes, I still remember Andrew, my crush in Kingdergarten (you knw that's amazing for my memory!).

gramalee said...

David is my first love and my second is those fabulous forget-me-nots he is pointing to in the photo. Brings back memories of David, Ewie and me by the for-get-me-nots! Nostalgia! thank you! xoxoxox

gramalee said...

o yea! FLOWERS! I remember Jon asking if I would tape a flower from the garden to a community love letter that he and his buddies and composed for a girl in their kindergarten class. Do you think that is why David is pointing to the flowers?

Anne said...

Okay, I thought it was on Wednesday, I never feel inclined, work is the last thing on my mind. And Fridays I detest!

Looks like I'll have to listen to that again! I think that's Isaacs favorite song on the cd. Mine is High Five. Have you seen the video for it? Good stuff.

LisAway said...

Thanks, Anne!! I'll change that now, since I'll finally have the RIGHT words stuck in my mind. I thought that "Friday I like best" was wrong... but I thought maybe because it's the last workday of the week? Thanks! Greg downloads the podcasts and we watch them. I never saw this one, though. He put them on a CD and we only listened to it once or twice (but over and over each time) in the car.
The other one that gets stuck in my head is the number two. LOVE that.

Katherine Bouldin said...

By the time they are in 4th - 6th grade their "crush" becomes a secret, so enjoy these moments that he is still willing to share! I love that he is a 'romantic' and hopefully he can keep all those good qualities and use them at the right time (well, he's practicing now, right?!) because his future eternal companion will love his attentions! (Attentions is a cool word -- from Jane Austen times ya' know!) Katherine
P.S. Please email me and tell me how you organized the layout of your post so you could put the photos exactly where you wanted them within the text -- I can't figure out how to do that and it's driving me crazy!

Erin said...

Those are beautiful pictures (of David and the cards!). What an amazing kid. I can't believe how sweet. But I would be totally nervous too!

Andi Kate, Children's Author said...

That is the most adorable thing! And scary as a mom--scary to have to deal with your child's feelings in (perhaps) unrequited "love" so early in life! My husband talks about having a crush on a girl when he was quite young, and his mom drove him to her house to drop off a valentine. Cute.

I don't remember liking anyone until I was in 6th grade, really, and even then it was more out of pressure because all my friends liked someone...But then, I was a TOTAL tomboy and didn't REALLY like anyone until I was at least 15. Did you know I didn't even kiss anyone until I was 17? Maybe that's too much information. :) Your son is sweet. I wonder what it will be like when my boys find their first loves?

Andi Kate, Children's Author said...

Oh. And I just remembered that my friends and I had a joint, bizarre crush on Bryce Salmon (who was maybe 8 or 9?) when I was 3 or 4 and we would ambush him when he was on his way home from school and smother his ARMS in kisses!

Maybe that unrequited love was what turned me off for the next decade...? :)