I took the boys to get fresh haircuts two days before J returned to school. The next day, E decided to give himself a second haircut in the bathroom. I found him, scissors in his hand, hair all over the sink. He chopped sections of his hair really close to his scalp. I tried fixing it by trimming the surrounding areas, but it still looked bad. I took him to the barber and we had no other choice than to buzz his head. His hair has never been this short. Everyone asks, "what happened to your hair Ethan?" and he will say one of three things; a. " I don't like it" b. "I cut my hair" c. "my mom said I had to cut all my hair now." Poor baby. He likes his brother's spikes. Unlike J, E has thin, limpy, easy to style hair that grows slowly. I told him we just have to start all over, that it will grow back, that he must never cut his own hair again. EB just thought it was funny and wanted to make sure I took pictures. My grandparents were staying with us the first two days that J went back to school. But on J's third day, E and I were home alone all morning. E is hilarious! He began to pretend like he was talking to J. "J, come play... stop J! ... mom! J is hitting me."
me: "really? tell him to come here right now... Should I spank him?"
E: "Yes, really, really hard" (giggling)
me: "Do you miss your brother?"
E: "What's miss?"
me: "Do you want your brother to be here with you?"
E: "Is he going to bring me something?"
Then later ...
E: "Abuelitooo [spanish for grandpa], abuelitoooo, you can't tickle me anymore abuelito."
--It was right around that time when I realized that I needed to stop what I was doing (washing the dishes) and play with him a little while.
When we went to the store later that day, and as I pushed him alone in the shopping cart, I realized that I really need to cherish E this last year that he is home with me before he begins kindergarten/ before I return to work. I look at his four-year-old hands and its difficult not to feel a little sad. He is growing up so fast. He is two years younger that J, but he is already wearing the same size clothes and shoes that J wore one year ago.
E is always pushing his limits. Lately he misbehaves when he wants attention. We've tried time-out, talking to him, spanking, taking away television/computer time-- nothing seems to work consistently. I thought of rewarding his good behavior instead, but I did not want him to depend on a prize to be good. I came up with drawing a big star, happy face, or heart on his back when he listens to me, or waits patiently. He can't get enough of it. He was confused at first because he said he could not see it, but I whispered to him "its a prize to feel not to see." He has always responded well to touch, likes to be held, likes to put his head on my tummy, likes to be tickled, likes stuffed animals, blankets, clothes that are soft to touch. Everything he likes is sofly-something; his sofly-shoes (crocs), sofly pants, sofly-blanket, sofly-bear, sofly-tummy (mine or his grandma's which he likes to lay his head on). So the feeling he gets when I draw something invisible on his back, is really a special reward for him. Each child is so different, reminds me of when I learned about 'learning styles' and Howard Gardner's 'Multiple Intelligences' at school.
E enjoyed camping and tire-inner-tube tubing last weekend. Surprisingly, he became tired sooner than J and enjoyed sitting on a rock with his feet in the water next to his aunt A and uncle D. E breakthrough # 2. It is possible to 'tire'-him-out ;o) He is usually so active, jumping around, climbing on furniture, anything-- just moving. After tubing and sitting on the rock, he fell asleep on a camping chair (at about 5 pm) from which we transferred him to the car, then, once we arrived home, to his bed-- he slept until the next day!
E continues to occasionally experience asthma (bad word. I'm still in denial) symptoms. I'm not sure what triggers it, since this is new for him. Sometimes when he becomes upset, or gets tickled, or one time when he was walking up a hill, or just wakes from sleeping... he will experience shortness of breath which I recognize either from a frustrated cry in which he attempts to catch his breath, or because he actually says, "I can't breathe," or complains of chest pain. His pediatrician heard heavy wheezing in his chest during his last cold in April, and that's when we heard that nasty word in reference to E for the first time... asthma. He was given an inhaler, which I now carry in my purse. He had an episode while we were shopping at Costco about 2 months ago that scared me a little bit.
pictures: painting by E, E's feet in the river, E's hair after he gave himself a haircut
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