Symptoms

Jaden slept over at his Nana's last night so "Santa" could do some shopping together (yes two people = Santa). I had plans this morning, more on that in another post, so Jeff went to pick him up. Whereby I found out Jaden is down with another cold/bug/whatever you call it these days. I finally got to chat with my noodle around 2:30 p.m. by phone.

Mama: I heard you're not feeling well sweetie.

Jaden: No, I'm not.

Mama: Do you still have a fever?

Jaden: No but I have a cough. I need lots of water and vitamin C all day long.

Mama: What other symptoms do you have?

Jaden: Oh you know, sore throats, runny noses and bless yous.

My Little Artist

I've been working hard lately to offer Jaden more opportunities to paint, draw, collage and create at home. I love how sometimes he'll just burst out and say, "I am an artist!"

Here is a painting from yesterday. He didn't like how the colors were blending towards brown, which I have explained many times happens if you mix too many colors. But when I took a look at his painting, I immediately thought of our camellia (sp?) bush right in the back yard.


I said to him, see your color palette is right outside our door in nature! And sometimes artists keep objects around to inspire them. So I clipped a bud and put it on his easel to show him exactly how wonderful his colors did work together. In my non-artist's opinion!

On Lunch

"Jaden, are you getting hungry at all?

"Yes."

"Does anything in particular sound appealing to you?"

"Some shoulders. Or a peanut butter sandwich."

"Some shoulders?"

"I was just making a suggestion for you Mama, whatever you want to make."

"Oh thank you, I'm just not sure what shoulders are?"

"You know any kind of pasta you make would be fine Mama."



Oh! Shoulders! Of course.

How can I stay mad at this boy of mine?

Why?

Last night, about oh 9 p.m., I heard a funny noise down the hall. I said to Jeff, "I think Jaden is playing with something" and he muted the tv and replied, "No, I don't think so."

I am here to tell everyone to always trust their instincts.

A short while later, I went down the hall to get something in the kitchen and I saw a flash of color out of the corner of my eye in Jaden's room. It was his brightly colored duvet flying over his head as he dove into bed to pretend he'd been there the whole time.

I turned on the overhead light and gasped.

The noise?

Jaden going through my little jar of markers on my desk.

The result?




I can only tell everyone this. These items had been safely stored away in one of my famous plastic bins which I recently took out of the garage and brought into my room. I brought the bin in because the items inside were too precious and I felt nervous having them out in the garage for some reason.

Then I thought, I should really scan these photostrips because I never did and as you can see, the one I displayed for years on my fridge is fading fast. Luckily they gave me two strips, presumably one for each friend, in my case two for Mama who will never have another little baby like this.

So I had the strips and diplomas out, exposed and vulnerable.

I never thought my son would do something like this. I don't understand it and keep asking why. Of course he's four and doesn't know why.

Are you angry at Mama? Jeff says no way.
Were you trying to get attention from Mommy & Daddy? Probably not.

Are you pushing the limits, testing the boundaries of bedtime? Maybe.

Did you just want to do art work? Are you pushing the limits of the media you have been provided thus far in your artistic career? Jeff thinks this is possible.

Is my heart broken? A resounding YES.

My Morbid Child

This morning was Jaden's first field trip, his whole group plus teachers and lots of parents made the trek across Bascom Avenue to Le Bou (as Betty always calls it). We all held hands and Andrea ordered a loaf of fresh white bread to be sliced for the kids to try. We sat around a fountain so they could eat their bread, then joined in a circle and sang a song before walking back to school.

Upon our safe return, we again got in circle formation (or the kids did) and Andrea asked each child what they liked best about their trip to the bakery. Child after child said "the warm bread!" with much gusto and enthusiasm.

And then. Jaden's turn came.

"What did you like best Jaden?"

"I thought we were going to a graveyard but we didn't."

Silence. All parents look my way. I shrug helplessly.

Ellen says, "Really? A graveyard?"

"Yes, Andrea said we were going to a graveyard."

Andrea says "Hmmm. That's interesting. I think I said bakery."

Bless their hearts, they (Andrea and Ellen are so supportive of every unique child in their care) say "You look disappointed. Are you disappointed?"

"YES."

"We'd really like to hear more about this later Jaden."

Um Yeah.

Me too!

My Little Frenchie

After Jaden's spontaneous "Je t'adore" on Friday, I decided tonight to offer him another phrase, "Je t'aime" as I was tucking him into bed. He repeated it perfectly. Okay then, "Je t'aime toujours" -- again perfect pronunciation.

I couldn't stop myself after that, so we had French 101 before bed.
My goodness the boy has an ear for this, every time perfect repetition after hearing it once.

"Comment ca va?"
"Ca va bien, et tu?"

"Il fait froid."

"J'ai faim."

"Je m'appelle Maman."
"Il s'appelle Papa."
"Je m'appelle Jaden."

Then I started showing off for my boy, I couldn't help it.

"Jaden? Je vais parler en francais avec toi maintenant."

I ended the lesson with "Bon nuit."

Now he's in bed and I'm looking up our favorite lullaby in French:

Vous êtes mon soleil, mon seulement soleil
Vous me rendez heureux quand les cieux sont gris
Vous ne saurez jamais cher, combien je t'aime
Veuillez ne pas enlever mon soleil

I can't wait to sing it to him! I'm going to try to memorize it.

On Garbage

Getting on 280 for the commute to San Jose today, Jaden says in total non-sequitor mode, "I hope they pick up our garbage today." I reply, "Our pickup day is Thursdays and today is Monday so it won't be today." Jaden says, "Well I really disagree Mama, that is NOT good for our community. We need our garbage to be picked up!"

Thank goodness he is in the backseat sometimes so he doesn't see how amused I get at these things that fly out of his mouth! I know he would say "That really hurts my feelings Mama" because stuff like smiling and the wind and butterflies and wrong flavor of oatmeal can hurt his feelings some days. So he certainly wouldn't understand how being amused by your son is a good thing.

Almost Satisfied

I've been searching and searching and mulling over new bedding for Jaden's room since we moved. The tree is so stunning and I was trying to match it exactly but it was hard to find playful bedding in the right colors.

Today I decided to move the tree across the room instead of right near the foot of the bed, so it's not as critical for the bedding to match. The best part? All the new goodies were only $74 at IKEA (curtains, duvet, pillow, lamp).

The lamp alone is giddy-making, his other lampshade never fit from day one and rattled every time you turned the lamp on & off. Talk about annoying! Adios lame lampshade.

Voila!




Thanks for the little pumpkins Aunt Jamie. And here is the corner that still needs work, most importantly, hanging the beautiful tree.


And below that tree? Is gonna be this!


Sans the bins underneath, looks too bulky to me that way. Getting a train table has been a huge dream of mine for two years now, so I'm beyond thrilled that we have a cute little house with a room big enough for Jaden to have one.

I salvaged one from a yard sale in spring and had plans to sand and paint it blue to match his dresser, but let's be real. I'm having surgery next week and who knows what after that. This is not the time for a project like that, especially when Jeff admitted he likes this one way more than the salvaged one. And me too! The other one has really long sides such that you could not put a chair under if you wanted it. I just never liked the aesthetics but then again, it was free. But anyway I'm rambling because I'm excited.

I want to go get it RIGHT NOW but Jaden really wants to roast marshmallows in the fireplace tonight with us so I guess I have to honor that and go find firewood and marshmallows. Organic ones hopefully.

Conversations with Jaden, I've Lost Count of the Number

Scene: dinner table. dinner was one leftover mini-burger (1.5" diameter) cut into six pieces, two teaspoons of mac&cheese, one teaspoon of peas&carrots. about two pieces of burger and all the mac&cheese had been eaten.

Jaden: I'm full Mama.

Me: Are you sure about that? You know, this is the time to fill your belly for the rest of the night.

Jaden: I'm sure.

Me: How about that trick where you close your eyes and feel your belly? Is it still full?

Jaden: I'm sure.

Me: Do you know how else you can tell you're really full? When someone offers you a bowl of chocolate ice cream with chocolate sprinkles AND M&Ms and as yummy as it looks and as much as you want it, you could not even fit one bite of that ice cream in your belly.

Jaden: Was today a work day and a school day Mama?

Me: Yes.

Jaden: Then you wouldn't offer me a bowl of ice cream on a day like this.

To understand why this conversation makes my son a future lawyer, you'd have to know that we have a new rule in effect wherein Jaden gets dessert on the weekends only. So now you can see how skilled he is at finding loopholes.

Panache

I found some awesome striped socks on clearance recently and Jaden has been wearing them all week. He pulls his own outfits together for school every morning and he's a whiz with them.

Today was no exception.



When Betty saw him, she thought of the word "panache" and read him the meaning from the dictionary: "a grand or flamboyant manner; verve; style; flair." We definitely all agree that Jaden has a lot of flair.

This all happened on our way to the car and so I took that picture with my cell phone. Then we got buckled in and I looked in the rear view mirror and saw the saddest face on Jaden.

Me: "What's wrong sweetie?"

Jaden: "I can't go to school. I'm really, really sick."

Me: "You're sick? What's wrong?"

Jaden: "I don't know. Nana said I have something called panache."

LOL!!!

Of course, I explained that it was a compliment but that only made his face more sour. Lately he thinks compliments are insults but that's one of things about my kid that I haven't figured out yet.

Conversations with Jaden, Part II of LMXVII

Setting: We're in the bathroom last night at bedtime. I'm running the bath and Jaden is going potty first. He looks me up and down carefully.

Jaden: Mama, is that a new skirt?

Me: Yes.

Jaden: Where did you get it?

Me: Old Navy

Jaden: How many dollars did it cost?

Me: Six.


-- He hops off the toilet. --


Jaden: That's not too bad.

Me (silently): Is this my son or my husband? Oh wait, my husband doesn't even ask me these kinds of questions!

Conversations with Jaden

Setting: lunch time at Nana's.

Jaden: So, school was fine today Mama. Alex pushed Owen and I ran over his hands with my tires. But it was Alex's fault! I didn't know that was going to happen. It's not my fault.

Me: Well, when someone gets hurt, what is more important? Whose fault it is or making sure the person is okay?

Jaden: Making sure they're okay.

Me: So did you stop and ask Owen if he was okay?

Jaden: No.

Me: If someone hurt you accidentally, how would you feel if they didn't even stop to see if you were okay?

Jaden: Sad.

Jaden: I don't want to talk about this anymore.

Me: Why?

There is a long pause, and he looks deep into my eyes and then with great sadness says: "It makes me think of war."

Me: Hmmm.

Me: I'll be right back Jaden.

And I ran to my blog.