I've been so looking forward to getting some continuous time and making momentum on some projects...but that anticipation was dampened by an unexpected, but really, expected emotion: I missed my baby!
Katrina gained a bad rep from her earlier months; right now she is the picture of a sweet, adorable, delightful, fun, outgoing, utterly joyful baby. And you know that takes a lot for me to say, as I'm not all that big on babies!
(Note that my oh-so-darling 3-year-old barely merited a whit of thought all day.)
She did great at Tonya's, playing happily all day despite marginal naps. When I picked her up, she beamed at me, made her happy crackly sounds, and reached for my face with both hands. Awww. Maybe I did this wrong -- I should put both boys at Tonya's all day! Well, that's coming soon enough, when Gabriel starts at Collins CDC in mid-June.
Before Gabriel starts his new schedule, I have a fun few weeks in which I get him to myself for two afternoons a week. This was timely today, since we had a kindergarten orientation to go to at his school. This was moderately useful, and would have been moreso if we weren't in such a big room with such poor acoustics. Most of what they talked about in terms of readiness for kindergarten didn't apply or isn't an issue (e.g. Gabriel being scared and crying the first day). We didn't get to tour the classrooms, but at least saw where they'd be, and Gabriel got to play in the playground right outside where his class will be.
Gabriel's real excitement this afternoon was discovering a clock-making kit he got for Christmas last year (or the year before, I think!). Mr. Numbers here no longer remembers how to read analog clocks, because digital clocks exist. He learned a long time ago that it's much easier to read a digital clock, so now has to think about it to read an analog one, if he will at all.
(From a cognition perspective, that's actually rather interesting. He was truly reading the analog clock, rather than recognizing a hand pattern and applying it to a developed concept of time, as an adult would. You and I don't really "read" analog clocks, we glance at them and identify the time. They're faster to tell time on them, much like analog speedometers are easier to use than digital ones. So no wonder it's harder for him to read an analog clock, because he's reading it and not re
ally telling time on it. )Nevertheless, making a clock was great fun for him. He loved the instructions to draw a circle on heavy paper around a dinner plate, then cut it out (he excitedly told Dave about this feat of engineering later). Then I went through with him how to find the center of the circle and make a hole, then he colored the clock, then meticulously glued the numbers on. Finally, I snapped the hands onto the little clock mechanism. He's very proud of it. Maybe now he'll remember how to tell time!
5/29/07
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