akwe

my little michelangelo

2008-02-28T17:55:00.000-08:00

today you brought home two beautiful pictures. One was a butterfly stencil that was so many colors and a little heart that you had cut out and pasted in the top corner. The other was a picture of a toucan. You had started coloring it like a rainbow at school and you wanted to finish it. You colored on the floor and baby mary kept getting into your markers. I told you to move to the dining room table. After working on the table for a while you decided to glue the two papers together and then up on the wall. You stood on the arm of the couch to put it way up high where baby mary couldn't reach it. Then you stared coloring your picture on the wall. I was reading my book and handing you the next color you needed. When I had a hard time getting the blue marker you said, "that was challenging for you mom." I laughed at your beautiful observation and said, "yes it was."

it was so beautiful to watch you coloring your picture on the wall like some primordial michelangelo. Sometimes I believe that you will be a great artist some day sam. I hope that we are able to honor that in you if it is your genius. I love you so much.

weezer

2007-01-31T12:04:00.000-08:00

Sammy's favorite song is by weezer. And I don't know the official title of it but we call it "the workers song" becasue we get to scream "the workers are going home!" And I like to change the words to "the worsheks are going home" so that sammy will tell me that's not the right words. jajajaja its like pushing a button.

my favorite thing

2007-01-31T12:02:00.000-08:00

my favorite thing is to be the first thing my children see in the morning with a big smile on my face. and now when sammy wakes up he always has a beautiful smile for me in the morning.

letters and numbers update

2007-01-31T11:57:00.000-08:00

We have been playing more games with Sam that have numbers and letters in them. I especially try to get him to play cards with me. Whenever we play cards he knows all of his numbers. And we are learning about J, K, and Q jajaja. Grandpa also asks him lots of number and letter questions. The other day he knew all of the letters in Omaha. Hello! I didn't think he could do it. He obviously knows more than any of us give him credit for.

culture

2007-01-19T09:52:00.000-08:00

It exascerbates me that everything is a race that Sammy has to win. What minion of culture reached into my child's brain and made him everything I didn't want for my children?!?

His favorite race is the race from the car to the door. Then he has to beat me at eating - even when I am not eating. It's cute but it makes me sad. And when I say everything doesn't have to be a race, I see it floating over his head. Maybe if I keep saying it, one day it will click and I will have triumphed. Like when my dad says that if you want it done right do it yourself, and now I have to do everything myself like a super control freak.

He also brings home these cute sayings that he picks up from the other kids at school, like "WHAT!?!" and "that's wild". I picked him up one day and he was gazing adoringly at an older boy who said that snow tastes good. Then sam said, "yeah, snow tastes good."

But the cutest thing that Sam does is tell us very adult things. For instance one day I asked him to get me something (yes, I have become one of those parents that asks their kids to get things for them so they don't have to get up. sigh.)and he told me "why do I always have to finish your activities?" That is pure Sam all the way. I love you Sam.

my baby

2006-11-30T10:57:00.000-08:00

sammy doesn't like to me call him my baby anymore but I still do. Last night he slept with us for the first time in months (yes, it only took 4 yrs to get you to sleep in your own bed). He seemed so small and it felt so good to have my whole family asleep with me. It made me realize how much less attention I have to give to him now that Mary is here. He has started telling me he doesn't like me anymore. Then I tickle him and he gets what he wants. I love you Sam. I am sorry I sometimes choose the dishes over you.

boo

2006-11-06T13:04:00.000-08:00

sammy said he didn't love me for the first time last night.

puzzles

2006-10-25T08:00:00.000-07:00

yesterday I got akwe a 60 piece dinosaur puzzle, and he did like 85% of it all by himself. I am so proud of him. He may not be language oreinted but he is a super puzzle master. He always has been. It is so fun to watch him progress over the years and see how he uses more logic now to fit the pieces together.

alphabet blues

2006-10-23T08:38:00.000-07:00

so sammy's favorite thing in the world is not the alphabet. i think he is just not language inclined but Mike freaks out a little bit about it. So we are trying to do more alphabet stuff with him. On Thursday night we told him that he couldn't watch his favorite cartoon tomorrow unless he could tell us what letter it starts with (A is for Avatar!) SO when I went to pick him up Friday afternoon, first thing he said to me was "avatar starts with A". It was sooo cute. So we are slowly blackmailing him with Avatar time to learn his alphabet. Not sure how I feel about that in my soul, but I guess it can't hurt too much.

however, his manners were very cute this weekend (and this is not something he gets from us. we are not manner-inclined jajaja)so he randomly says "no, thank you." instead of just "no" and he says to me "yes, man" I think this is supposed to be "yes, m'am" but that just makes it cuter.

Also I went to a montessori parent training on Saturday, and they said, "never do for your child what your child can do for himself" because it undermines their self-confidence. so on sunday morning I asked Sam if he would please get himself dressed. And he did! it was so awesome. He got his own clother out and got everything on by himself. I was so amazed. And then this morning, Mike was going to dress him, and I asked Sam if he wanted to do it, and he did it all by himself again. We were very proud of Sam this weekend.

a rose by any other name...part 2

2006-10-20T11:06:00.000-07:00

So now you may be asking how the trinity decided on akwe. And honestly this was four years ago so I am sure that bob will yell at me for remembering none of the details. She will have to fill the holes in my memory jajaja. I only remember that we were super excited to pick out a name for you, akwe. and we wanted it to be meaningful. So all I remember is going to Barnes&Noble, where bob worked at the time, and we would look through all of the baby name books. We really wanted to name you malik but that didn't go over too well with papa. so we randomly flipped through international baby names. I have a special affinity for Africa so we saw "akwe" and it is Igbo for peaceful. We thought this was perfect, because the world was going to hell in a handbasket after 9/11 and we needed an antidote to the warmongering of the time. I saw a quote at a Codepink booth that said something like, 'I will not raise my child to kill your child. I will not be the source of your tears.' I wanted you to respect peace, to know that there is another option. so that is your soul name - Akwe - full of peace.

2006-10-19T14:19:00.000-07:00

a rose by any other name....

We have always put a lot of thought into our children’s names. We, as in my husband and I, and as in the trinity and I. Separate names, separate processes. Mike and I would take long walks throwing names back and forth. We decided on Samuel after Samwise Gamgee from Lord of the Rings. Sam is my favorite character of this wonderful story. I love him because he is loyal and steadfast and a great friend. He isn’t the biggest or bravest or the best fighter, but in the end Frodo would never have made it through his journey without Sam. It shows that the little acts of love we give to the world can make all of the difference in the end. That really means a lot to me. I think it has proven a wonderful name for my first baby who impresses me always with the depth of his love and kindness and innocence.

Mike wanted Sammy to be Samuel David, but I said that was too, too biblical. And thus was born Samuel Michael. (As a sidenote, I at first wanted to name my son, Joseph, in the Ruwe tradition, but Mike would have none of this. However, he was all for naming Mary after his mother hmmm….) ‘Michael’ is after his(sammy’s) father, but as Mike likes to say, also after the greatest of angels.

2006-10-18T12:29:00.000-07:00

This is a blog about my baby boy, Sam, otherwise known as Akwe, who is really not a baby anymore. As he would say, "he is a big junior now." Sigh. I think this is where I am supposed to say, "they grow up soooo fast." jajaja but no I cannot be that trite.

We took Sam to get some professional photos done two nights ago and I learned that my montessori-taught child is horrible at following directions. Independent he is, since we never demanded obedience from him in that horrible follow-the-leader sort of way. Just goes to show that there are pluses and minuses in recognizing the sacred humanity of your child. Not that I would make a different choice in hindsight. If he grows up to respect others, because we respected his right to self-determination, it will have been well worth it.