Time flies when you watch youtube videos, color walls, and much more

*Pepe continues his obsession with traffic signals and crosswalks. He enjoys time on his favorite websites (you tube -wildhorseguy; trafficsignalmuseums) and is getting to be quite good at scrolling and using the mouse. He also started to enjoy drawing and coloring in traffic lights. Did you know that there are lots and lots of those and each has a different name....Lets just say Pepe knows them all..
Here he is, showing his snuggles all there is about traffic signals..

* Pepe's teacher K asked Chris one morning if it is true that Pepe likes to watch videos on you tube. To which Chris replied: "It's my wife's fault".

* At Pepe's school there are stop signs on the corridors (to help keep kids in line). His teachers told me that everytime Pepe goes on a corridor he has to stop at all stop signs. Then he does this movement with his arms symbolizing flashing colors and says: "Red, Yellow, Green, yee, o, yee, o" and starts "crossing on a crosswalk".

* His attention span and ability to concentrate on what he likes to do while ignoring everything around him is amazing....just like his dad's.

* A few weeks ago he started stuttering. I told this to a friend of mine who has some special ed expertise, and she reassured me that he is fine since he does not struggle pronouncing a word; rather, he says a lot of hm, hm, hm, before sentences come out. I noticed he does this: 1) when nervous, and 2) when he is doing more than one thing at a time and 3) when he wants to "milk it", as we say it in our house.

* He continues his pattern of going to sleep late and waking up late. The rule is that he has to be in his room at 8:30 (after we read stories and talk about his day), but he can turn his light on, read, etc. There are no toys there, however. Typically, we hear him running around. Since I am the "bad cop" in our family (aka, I have to get Pepe to do all the things that he just does not want to do, like getting dressed, transitioning into a less interesting activity, washing his hands and face...) I typically go upstairs stomping on the stairs so that he can hear me. As soon as he hears me, he runs into his room, turns his light of, and is in bed. Then sheepishly he says: "Who's there? Why did you come here?". He loves to go to my study and takes all the family framed pictures out along with my running bling and arranges them around the room; I think he may have conversations with them... So this is typical. And usually around 10 or so he falls asleep. On Friday night, however, we had our weekly game night with Charlie and Sonia. Pepe was v upset when I took him up. "This makes me sad. I am disappointed" (can you tell his mom is a psychologist...we talk feelings a lot). We looked over books, talked about his day, cuddled and as I was about to leave, he said: "You can't leave, I am still disappointed", which prompted another conversation about how it's OK to feel disappointed and I bet it is going to go away by tomorrow morning...I went down, we heard the typical movement upstairs, and eventually I went up, to discover that the floor of his room was covered with drawings of traffic signals. I look more carefully and notice drawing on the walls. When I say that we don't draw on the walls, he said: "But I ran out of paper. And I made beautiful decorations!". There you go. The incentive we needed to do some painting...

* He is also doing lots of art projects at school. Here is "A lion who is sleeping with his tail up so he can easily make pee pee". And next to it there is a bird. Can you tell which is which?

* He found Chris's glasses today and I could not help myself from taking a few pics...

Finally, can you say this boy has been doing lots of growin? Check out his pants!

A chip of the old block

Last weekend Pepe, Chris and mom cheered me on as I ran the Heartbreak Hill Half Marathon in Newton. It was a tough race, but seeing Pepe at the finish line gave me the kick I needed to break 1:43. Pepe had a blast running accross the finish line himself while everyone cheered him on, and the entire afternoon he kept saying: "I am fast. I am the fastest runner". He and our next door neighbour pals did a lot of racing in the afternoon.

Pepe loved cheering on runners along with other friends he made that day.

He also loved the trophy mommy got for running so fast:

He is not even 4 but already acting like a teenager

Why, you may ask.
Because, I may respond:
1. He loves to go to bed late...I am talking falling asleep not earlier than 10pm
2. He loves to sleep in....on weekends he does not wake up before 8:30am
3. He is groggy when you wake him up at 7am during the week to go to school.
4. He does not eat breakfast unless it is a donut or some chocolate energy bar.
5. He is addicted to internet. I did this experiment the other day just to see how much time he can spend on youtube watching crosswalk videos. I gave in after one hour.
6. He is a very good negotiator. I need 10 more minutes. No, how about 5 more minutes.


On a different note, I am afraid that one of these days he can be the kid in this article:
http://www.smh.com.au/news/technology/web/toddler-accidentally-buys-15600-earth-mover-on-auction-site/2009/05/21/1242498849208.html

Inka Fair

Yesterday afternoon the 3 of us met some friends for a good time at the Inka Fair in Winchester, about 15 minutes from our house. This was Pepe's first fair and we had no idea how he is going to react to the crowds, the rides and the masses of cotton candy, fried dough and other such healthy treats.

First we went on the mini rollercoster aka the caterpillar. This was the fastest kid ride that Pepe was allowed to go on (he barely made the height requirement and I actually pulled his hat up a bit so that he could be allowed in). Pepe had a blast. I sat in the driver's sit with him, and Chris and our friends behind us.

Next onto the merry go round with the cars. Pepe decided to go on his own. I think this was his favorite ride. He was laughing out loud!

The train ride - Pepe was upset that he was unable to sit in the driver's seat because two older boys were in line in front of him. He tried v hard to get in front of them, and I was convinced he is going to have a melt down when he'll realize that he will not be able to get his desired spot, but I was wrong. He was fine, although later on when he talked to grandma he told her that "it was not fair" for the boys to take that spot. I guess that how he'll learn that he is not the center of the universe.

Finally, the merry-go-round with the ponnies. Adults were required so Chris obliged. Pepe hopped on a ponny, and Chris kept his hand on his back for ballence. Pepe did not like that: "I don't need you, I can do this by myself". There you go. Btw, we've seen a lot of this by myself lately and it is nice when it works for our advantage (e.g., dressing by himself, washing his hair, etc).

Great times were had by all! And, of course, we had to "use the crosswalk" 5 times and annoy all the driver by pushing the button repetedly!

We had over a mile walk back to the car so Petru had another ride...on mommy's shoulders.

little things get a mother sad

Conversation this evening, while cuddling with Pepe in his big boy bed, before turning the lights of.

AM: You had fun at school today?
P: Yes.
AM: Were you nice to your friends?
P: Yes. And I kissed Charlie, but he told me to cut it off.
(my heart sinks).
AM: How did you feel?
P: I was sad.
AM: I know. You like Charlie.
P: Yes, I like Charlie, he is my friend and I want to kiss him.
AM: I know. But sometimes kids don't like to be kissed by their friends. Maybe they want to be kissed only by their mommies and daddies.
P: Yes.
AM: You can always kiss me.
P; Yes (kisses me).

My little affectionate boy. He is such a hugger and kisser. And so young and vulnerable. And this is only the begining.

Update

OK, so I have been too self involved lately, completely consumed by my marathon training and my own blog, and have not unpdated Pepe's blog in so long. Sorry, Pepe!

So update, update:


1. POTTY TRAINING
It's happened. Pepe is fully potty trained. It took 2 weeks, one of Pepe fighting it, the next of Pepe miracoulosly becoming potty trained. He rarely has an accident now, and if he does, it happens bc he is outside and there is no potty. He is able to go through the night without an accident. For a while we had him in a diper, but the kid likes to sleep nakes, so in the morning we'd find a pile of clothes and a diper on the floor, and Pepe cozy under 5 blankets!

2. STILL IN THE CRIB
We'll have to attack this one, but we are putting it off since we know it is going to be hard to keep Pepe in his bed/room at night time.

3. LOVES HIS CROCS
Yup, that's the only thing he wants to wear. He is the kid wearing no socks, crocs, jeans, a Tshirst and a hat while mommy wears her winter jacket.

4. LOVES his websites: traffic signal museum, lighthouses, crosswalks.

5. LOVES his trucks. He looks over catalogs we have gotten from Toys R Us and other such stores, and says: "We need to buy this one, we don't have this one", or "I wish I were driving this truck, and daddy this one, and mommy this one".

6. BEDTIMES ARE SHORTER, thanks to THE TIMER
The timer is a miracle. We set it for 30 min, and Pepe choses how to spent the time. Most often for 15 min he uses his self-made crosswalk (tape pieces on the carpet, foam blocks with red green and yellow, legos people) and then we read books for 15 min. Then hop into bed. EASY!

7. LOVES HIS GUITAR AND MUSIC
He loves Bob Dylan, My MOrning Jacket, and other such groups, and is not nshy about singing along. WHen I or Chris try to sing, he says : "No, don't sing, you don't know the song".

8. LOVES SCHOOL

9. GREAT AT SHARING

10. V SENSITIVE TO OTHERS' FEELINGS.

11. MANIPULATIVE - "Daddy says I can have a cookie' (don't think so!!)

12. LOVES DONUTS WITH SPRINKLES, CHOCOLATE, and other such healthy treats.

The big marathon is tomorrow. On Tuesday Chris and I go to Montreal for the Society for Behavioral Medicine Annual Meeting aka VACATION for almost one week. Pepe will stay with grandma and he is almost as happy as we are to get away. Buni will be arriving in less than a month. He already has a list of things "I need" for Buni to get for him. Ha! Life shjould get back to normal in May and I will get back into regular posting.

potty-potty bilibish naughty

I have not talked about Pepe's potty training here because it has not been very interesting. In a few words... School decided to put Pepe on the potty, Pepe peed in the potty (while looking over a Lighthouse book). School decided that Pepe should wear underwear, Pepe decided to stop peeing the potty. School decided that Pepe can look over the lighthouse book only when he puts pee in the potty, Pepe decided to continue not peeing in the potty. School thought Pepe is not drinking enough, starts giving Pepe more fluid, Pepe has more "accidents" and still no pee in the potty. Daddy very embarrassed and concerned. Mommy not touched by this. This goes on for 2 weeks. Until today, when IT happened. Pepe put pee in the potty. We celebrated. We had pizza and ice cream. Pepe does not seem affected by this, he is neither happy, nor proud, and overall he does not want to talk about it. Daddy is proud and happy, though! Mommy is happy too, but her hopes that this pattern would continue are not very high. Will see.