hanaa-isms

Hanaa is a very funny girl. I love it that Hanaa's language acquisition is just exploding, and I get to hear a little of what goes through her head! Here are a couple of examples, not the best ones, just the ones I can remember at the moment.

While I was making supper tonight, Hanaa came running into the kitchen crying. Molly had probably just grabbed back a toy that she had grabbed away in the first place or something like that. Of course, it was the end of the world, tears, snot, wailing, the whole ball-o-wax (as they say). I picked her up, and got a kleenex, but not before she had burried her face in my shirt. She stops crying, pulls her face away from my shirt, points to the big wet spot she left behind, and says "nose, nose, nose" in a tone of utter dismay.

One of Hanaa's bedtime stories tonight was Go Dog Go. I had finished reading it to her, and she was having another look through it on her own. She started reading: "Go Go Woof. "

mental health day

So, Noah woke up with a headache and sore stomach that seemed to evaporate as soon as I had made the decision to stay home from work with him. I'm really glad I let him stay home though.

Noah has a difficult time adjusting to change. The first few weeks of school are brutal, and we are trying to hold things together, praying that he saves his outbursts for home. If we can weather another week or so, we should be OK for a little while at least. But honestly, in some ways it feels like the end of the world. He gets so upset and angry and will not be consoled and responds angrily to any attempts to help him. We are working with him to learn to control his anger, to express it in appropriate ways that do not involve pushing or yelling at his sisters, but it's hard. He resists any attempt to give him a space or some time to calm down. He's unhappy, so unhappiness should rule everywhere.

So, I think he really did have a headache this morning. He really did have a sore stomach, but I have a feeling they were anxiety or stress related, hence the mental health day.

We had a fantastic day. We played board games, ate lunch together, read 3 chapters of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Then he received a gift card from Chapters in the mail (thanks Uncle Greg!) and we went to Chapters to spend it. (OK, so I'm still a little iffy about whether I should have taken him when he was supposed to be "sick", but there it is.)

It was great to spend time with him alone. Now, to figure out how to do that without calling in sick to school and work.

Halloween conversations

So, as usual Noah has known for weeks what his costume is going to be for Halloween. It may surprise you to learn that he will be dressing up as Harry Potter. Now, once he decided that, I decided I was going to make a Hedwig costume for Hanaa, cause I'm like that.

Now, Molly is a little different. She changes her mind every day (princess, witch, bunny rabbit, poney . . . ) Part of me wants to convince her to be Ginny Weasly - perfect right? But, mostly I want her to be happy with her costume.

Here's the conversation we had today:

Noah: Molly, do you want to be Ginny Weasly?

Molly: Is she a girl?

Noah: Yes, she's a witch. She has red hair.

Me: Well, Noah, Molly doesn't really know that much about Harry Potter and the characters, so maybe she wants to be something else, you know, not from Harry . . .

Molly: I was thinking I would be Hermione Granger.

proud mommy post

So, I have 13 minutes before the kids get out of school, so this will be brief.

I am so impressed by Noah's ear for music. Last night he did NOT want to practice, but was going through the motions in very bad humour to earn some computer time. Even though he was angry and acting out, he could not help but listen to what I was playing and play it back to me. I don't love the attitude, but I love that he has an ear.

Hanaa is now pointing at all letters and saying: H H H. Too cute. She is also learning to use the potty. Exciting times.

Molly is loving nursery school. She loves to share about the things she learned and things her teacher said and what colour her teacher's jacket is.