Comme ci comme ça

Aidan and I started speaking French spontaneously at the table, while he was working on his homework. Nothing particularly complicated.

Aaron was at the table with us, and Aidan directed a question at Aaron, "Est-ce que tu sais ce que je dis?"

Aaron responded in English, "I always want to say yes."

So, we encouraged him to say, "Oui," which he did.

A2: "Est-ce que tu n'est pas stupide?"

A3: "Oui."

M: "Il est intelligent, très intelligent!"

A2: "Est-ce que tu est intelligent?"

A3: "Comme ci comme ça."

And we all laughed :)

Sounding out words

On the drive to skating lessons today, Aaron was sounding out the words, p-r-e-d-a-t-o-r and d-i-n-o-s-au-r. He's discovered that he can use phonics for all words, and a whole new world has opened up for him!

Rock climbing

We signed Aaron up for a rock climbing class and he loves it!

He wears full climbing gear, including a harness and helmet. The only hard part, is having to wait his turn in between climbers. He's a good sport, though.

He made it to the top, two out of three climbs. Luckily, he doesn't seem to have his dad's fear of heights.

Quote of the day

"Mom, did you know that the whole world is our home?"

Our "Glass is Half Full" Boy

On Sunday morning, I was making waffles. When I started up the mixer to whip the egg whites, Aaron came bounding down the hallway, calling, "Are we baking?!?"

I responded, "I'm making waffles and I'm almost done."

A3: "Almost?!? ... Yay!!!"

So he pulled up a stool to the counter and gleefully joined in the final steps.

First time on a snowboard

It was a dark and foggy night when Skye took Aaron, Austin and Iain up Seymour to celebrate Iain's 18th birthday. Much bustling about the house to locate various pieces of winter clothing and gear, finished with three boys and Skye all suited up in snow pants, boots, mitts, toques, all toting snowboards with bindings.

Iain worked out that his freshly-mounted bindings were about 18 years old, the snowboard boots are Skye's from 18 years ago, and the board is about 16 years old.

Aaron used the board Austin started on, when he was 6. We put Aaron into a pair of snow boots that are a couple sizes too big - just fitted him with an extra pair of socks for good measure ;)

Aaron rode the chairlift with Skye. They couldn't tell how far from the ground they were, because the mountain was so socked-in with fog. When they dismounted the lift, Skye placed Aaron and his board between his legs and held him by his armpits. They slid down together through the darkness. Whenever Aaron could see nothing but dark and fog, he was really scared. But when he saw Austin and Iain, he was happy and laughed.

We have a small pair of skis that will be perfect for Aaron, once we find the boots to match! And the next time we take him to the ski hill, it will be daylight.

Giving me words

On the walk to school a couple weeks ago, Aaron chattered most of the way down the trail. When the trail met the road, Aaron turned around and looked up at me to say, "You are giving me words. And I am giving you words. I'm giving you more words. ... We are talking!"

I liked his distinction that he was giving me more words (than I was giving him). ;)