A Boy and His Blog

Archive for March, 2009

A few weeks ago, we took Owen to The Works Museum.  This isn’t too large of a museum and is housed within a community center.  The Works Museum’s website states: “The Works is a “hands-on, minds-on” museum that makes learning about engineering, science and technology interesting, understandable and fun.”  Owen has had a passion for engineering and science since he was about 18 months old.  Owen’s recent passion of course is robots, and the museum had a special exhibit going on about robotics.  We even got in free because the event was open up to the public.

As soon as we got into the area of the museum that had the robotics, Owen was super excited about what was going on.  He walked up to the displays all by himself and was not very concerned about us holding his hand or standing right next to him like he usually is in new situations.  He would approach the exhibits and start trying to work them all by himself.  He really enjoyed the displays and as the day progressed he got more and more bold and even started leading us around the museum to new exhibits.

At one exhibit Owen got to control a robot by himself.  He drove it around and around and was really enjoying himself.  The robot then crashed into him but he didn’t let go of the controls so he was a little confused for a moment there until we stopped the robot.  Owen led us around to several other exhibits and was able to try many things at the museum.  He saw a lot of robots and other engineering and science things that he also loved.

Going to this museum made me realize that Owen is very inclined towards robotics, engineering, and science.  I was very happy to see him acting like a completely different child in this environment.  He was completely at ease and excited, not at all shy or affected the by crowd like he usually is.  He seemed to have a lot of self confidence and natural curiosity in this situation and I hope to find ways to continue to encourage this in him.

Here are a few photos of some recent family fun times we have had.  The first is a trip to the historical society.  Owen had fun playing bus driver.  The last picture is Owen watching a video of himself.  He had to say what he would like to see displayed at the museum.  He said he would like to see R2-D2.  He thought he was quite hysterical when he watched it.

The second is a few random pictures.  Owen at “Rock the Cradle”.  Owen and Lyric playing around.  And lunch time with Owen and Lyric.  I try to make a complete meal like this each day, but I don’t always succeed.

This is our little Oscar party.  We had lentil soup (which wasn’t that great), haystack cookies, and a really really good black bean salsa with my favorite lime chips!

Here is Owen the other day with all his tattoos on

I’m going through photos today and was reminded of this fluke occurrence.  This photo was taken on January 25th.  That day I walked by Owen’s room a few times as he was scribbling on his chalk board.  He eventually told me he was drawing a dolphin.  I said, “oh, okay” because it didn’t look much like a dolphin, but then none of his pictures look much like anything at this point but scribbles.  He’s actually not very great at representational drawing and will only do the classic circle with a face and lines coming out for arms and legs with a lot of prompting.  He is much better at abstract paintings.  But, when I came back in the room, his dolphin was complete and here is what appeared on the chalkboard:

I was very surpised, because I thought this looked exactly like a dolphin.  Even the line going up to the top is exactly where the water spout should be.  I am pretty sure this was a fluke because he has not drawn anything like it since.  I am not even sure if he intended to draw a dolphin or if that is just what he saw in the drawing at a certain point.  Either way, I think it’s pretty neat.

Owen has been growing and learning and changing, as usual.

Preschool

Owen has been doing alright in preschool.  A couple times he has cried when I left and not wanted me to leave, but usually he just goes into total denial mode and wont even say goodbye to me.  He has been “protesting” by not doing the art projects or eating the snacks at times.  When he does do the art projects, they put them in his back back to take home.  One day around Valentines Day, I opened up his backpack to find a colored blue heart on pink paper, and it was folded into a card.  The cover of the card said “Mom & Dad” and the inside had the heart and said “Love, Owen”.  As soon as I took it out of his bag he started beaming, and I said, “oh, did you make this for Mama and Daddy?”  And he said “yes” and he was smiling so wide and so proud of himself.  It was so adorable.  He rarely plays with the other kids though, but last week they told me he was playing with another child for awhile in the “big” room which is sort of like a little gym.  He doesn’t like to sing songs or do the hand motions while sitting in circle time either.  I have watched him through the glass window sometimes when I come and pick him up, he sits in circle time silently and completely still while everyone else does things around him.  That is why this is so important for him, he needs to learn how to interact with his peers.

Owen and Lyric

I have been babysitting Lyric for a couple months now.  At first Owen was very upset by this change and it was really difficult for all of us to help him learn to play with another child.  He finally has learned for the most part, and Lyric and him generally play together happily for most of the day.  They demolish the house together, and through every toy he owns into a corner of his room, ever single day.  They dump out his three bins, which are three different colors and sizes, and they build stairs with them to run up and jump on the couch.  Then they make “jump stairs” by rearranging the bins into an uneven pattern, which forces them to jump up and down and then onto the couch.  They play with Owen’s play silks a lot, which are baby blanket sized pieces of dyed silk fabric.  They tie them around their necks and they become “capes” or we hang them up around chairs and they become a fort.  When they have the capes on they ask me to put on a record so they can run around and dance.  Owen’s favorite record is the “Annie” soundtrack, while Lyric is partial to “Free to Be You and Me”.  When they want to dance they ask for “Cha Cha” which is a Fred Astair inspired album of instrumental Cha Cha music meant to help teach people to dance.

Our Big Kid

Owen is approaching four, and lately he sounds like a big kid with some of the things he says.  Like he will declare “that’s boring”, and I don’t even know where he learned what “boring” was.  Sometimes when I ask him what he did at school he says “I-n-know” and shrugs his shoulders.  He always says “that why”, meaning “so that”, for example they are building a new building on the way to his preschool and he said “it’s good they are building a building there, that why I know where my preschool is”.  Or we’ll say “why are you doing that?” and he will say “that why I can get this”.  He’s talking and moving and playing and interacting like a bigger kid now.  He is even doing better with going to bed at night, and he will even ask for us to put him to sleep now.