He told me last weekend, “Mom, I’m going out to play. I’ll be back later”. I wasn't sure if he could unlock the door, but he assured me he could. Then he went out and played. I came to check on him later and there was a deer eating apples in the yard while Moriarty played trucks in the dirt. His independence grows every week. It’s a tiny bit scary but mostly awesome. He’s been very into making his lunch lately. I’m teaching him to wash fruit and close the tupperwares fully. We’re expecting him to solve more of his own problems and he’s rising to the occasion.
I was getting frustrated about the general level of mess/clutter and challenge getting the house chores done. To combat this as a team, and be good role models for Moriarty, we instituted Family Clean-up Time. For 10-15 min after dinner we all clean something (other than dishes). This has been a great chance to help show Moriarty how to do chores. He’s got his own little broom and dustpan. We bought a handheld vacuum that he can use. And he doesn’t just spread the dirt around. I’m showing him how to sweep properly and he’s learning! When he spills cheerios on the floor he’ll go get the vacuum and clean them up! OMG!
I know many preschoolers are helpful but I’m still insanely proud of his excitement to help. Sometimes it’s a bit hard because he wants to help so desperately sometimes I can’t just get stuff done. I put him to bed a few nights ago and needed to do laundry and take out the trash still. He came out of his room unexpectedly and I hid the trash bag around the corner so he wouldn’t see I was doing chores! One night Pip and I had some surprise he knew was coming up but had forgotten. We had this charming conversation:
M: Is it family clean-up time?
P: No. What's better?
M: Laundry!
Like all mammals he wants to be included in everything. He wants to understand the reason we laugh, he wants to know what Pip and I are discussing, and he definitely wants to see any picture on our phones. Pip was showing me a funny tweet one evening and Moriarty wanted to see. Pip replied, “it’s just words” and showed him the tweet. Moriarty laughed and said “words” as though that was the punchline.
In some ways his language skills are amazing. He told me the other morning, “When I am in the chair in the living room you can join me”. But he’s still not always rock solid on his sentence construction and word usage, which leads to funny results. He’s getting better at she/her and tense agreement, but he still mixes up things like leave vs stay. He pulled this gem out the other night. He was telling us about a girl in his class: “She's not a man. She's not a person. She's a girl person.”
The deer have been coming a lot this summer. Momma deer and the baby deers. Moriarty has been feeding the deer apples. They're becoming quite comfortable with each other. There is one male, 3 females, and 2 babies.
Here’s some fun videos. We have a microscope and look at bugs and things we find in the yard. This caterpillar was quite alive though. I bought him some new boots that were too big. This is Pip showing him they were too big! We bought a swing and use it nightly. And he’s giggly. All the time! It’s awesome.