A. His Schedule – We cut back on all of our kiddos
screen time, but if he wakes up before us, Serious Kiddo is allowed to watch
children’s shows until breakfast. He therefore always wakes up before us.
B. His Size – He looks so big and old to me these days,
as compared to his younger siblings. Although I think he’s about average for
his age.
C. His Personality – He’s sweet with his younger sister. But
when asked what he hated, the first thing he thought of was playing with his
younger brother, because his younger brother “always messes up what I am doing.”
D. His Favorite Things
- Colors: Still gold.
- Shows: He’s been
watching an Indian cartoon called ViR the Robot Boy. Recently, at his request,
we bought him the new Pikachu movie, which he’d been campaigning for us to buy
for a solid week, maybe more.
- Toys: He likes toys
that transform, such as Bakugan, and he still likes Pokemon.
- Time of Day: Probably still
the early morning.
- Bedding: He doesn’t
have a special pillow. He sometimes drags his twin-size stars blanket out to
the living room couch (see photo above).
- Foods: Still as before
– he likes sweets, especially chocolate. Some days he says he’s a vegetarian,
while on others he’ll eat chicken. I remember not liking meat as a child too.
He likes potato chips a lot.
- Activities: He still likes
swimming.
- Animals: Still as
before – dogs and sharks (Bear seems to be the one most interested in our cat).
- Heroes: He still loves
superheroes like Batman and Spiderman, though he still doesn’t have a favorite. He also still likes Thanos, a bad guy.
E. Things He Does Not
Like – Not
winning. No one likes losing, but Serious Kiddo seems to take it especially
hard.
F. What He’s Thinking
About – He told me the other
day that he’s “like a robot.” I don’t know if that’s the result of him watching
ViR, but it did give me pause given that I once said the same thing about
myself when I was younger.
G. Surprises – Sometimes his personality seems very
similar to my own mom’s personality. Like two peas in a pod. One unfortunate
surprise happened recently when we were on vacation at the beach – both boys
wanted to buy new toys, a request which we denied. Bear got over it, but
Serious Kiddo did not get over it – thoughts of toy purchases consumed him for
the entire trip. We had plenty of new toys at home due to Bear’s recent
birthday, and we did buy him some shoes and clothes on our trip, so I was doubly surprised by Serious Kiddo’s behavior. I know that in
our current neighborhood, we’re one of the families that has the least in the
way of money, but I think I need to expose him more to people who have less
than he does, both to teach empathy and gratitude. Plus, his behavior spurred me to reduce his screen time (less toy
reviews, less ads, more person-to-person interaction within our family instead
of starring at a screen silently).
H. Best & Worst
Things
- The best things: Still
he he’s nice to his younger sister. I hope they’ll always remain close.
- The worst things: When
he throws what my partner calls “a moody” and what I’d call him having a
persistent bad mood where various things trigger crying.
I. Family and Friends – I feel lucky
to live in a neighborhood with so many children. I really love our
neighborhood.
J. Parenting or
What I’m Doing Differently –
Although it’s harder when I’m sick or he’s sick (like now), I have found that
with screen time comes more time for us to do simple things together. For
example, a couple of nights ago I paid him chore money to help me clean up the
play room. We also did a puzzle together for the first time in months. And once
we’re no longer sick, I’d like us to start cooking together more frequently.
Step 1: Buy containers.
Step 2: Move everything out of the kitchen cabinets and onto my table, for sorting.
Step 3: Put spices into new containers, when practical, labeling as you go. Label the bottoms with the best-by month / year.
If it doesn't make sense to put it in a new container, don't, e,g. large, very specific steak rubs, or rarely used spices (like mace), or when the manufacturer's container is actually perfect.
When I had more than one container's worth, I labelled to be sure that I wouldn't rush out to buy more when I have a second container of it waiting in the wings.
Step 4: Line up everything waiting to go back into my cabinets.
Step 5: Put the stuff back into the cabinets.
