Raising Watsons

This from Aunt Lindsay.

Tucker on vegetables:

“Spinach makes grown-ups big and strong. I’m not a grown-up though. I’m just a kid, so I don’t really see the value in it just yet.”

Tucker on school:

Tucker Watson is 5 and 3 months and a Tic Tac Toe shark.  The director at school (Ms. Lauren) today informed me that he beat a teacher (Ms. Elizabeth) five times recently.  Thing is he will get you talking so you stop paying attention, because, you are competing with a five year old after all and then – the strike.  We’ve wisened up and fully concentrate now. He got me yesterday by writing really lightly (left corner of the picture below).

So, I’ve started teaching him Sodouku. It’s single player and one of my favorites.  (So much in fact, I was part of a commercial for it.)  He picked it up pretty quick and now talks of columns and rows.  It’s all coming together…

First camping trip was a big success.  It was great to get the kids out of the house and away from any screens – no iPads and we only used our phones minimally to capture pictures.  Since it was the first time, Ben and I thought an overnight would be appropriate.  Which it was, we were pretty tired by Sunday (which also happened to be Mother’s Day).

We got to the site pretty early on Saturday for set up.  Lake Perris isn’t a very popular camping spot so we had plenty of room.  The sites around us were all empty which gave the kids lots of room to play “soccer ball”.  Emilia didn’t quite understand the boundaries at first and went running off into other camp sites and other people’s tents.

The early afternoon was spent at a museum nearby where we learned about the Native Americans and made our own clay pots (ie: stabbed a clay ball with a poker).  Afterwards the kids went wading soaking in the river while throwing handfuls of silt and rocks.  It was pretty chilly so we didn’t change into our swimsuits.  That was a mistake.  Once we were back to the campsite everyone hopped in pjs and we laid our wet clothes out to dry.  Tucker soon found a mini swiss army knife, the kind with three extractables (a tiny dull knife, nail file and scissor).  Ben and I told him that he wasn’t old enough and should throw it out before he cut himself.

The next morning Tucker cut himself on the swiss army knife.  He authoritatively declared he was not old enough to play with swiss army knives and threw it out. When not cutting ourselves, the kids also enjoyed playing swords with sticks, extending a tape measurer repeatedly (measuring nothing), rolling around in the tent and chasing chipmunks.

Me: Tucker, did you leave your jacket at school?

Tucker: Mom, 1 bark means “yes”, 2 barks means “no”,  3 barks means “I don’t know”, 4 barks means “maybe yes”, 5 barks means “maybe no”.

Me: Okay, 1 bark means “yes”, 2 barks means “no”,  3 barks means “maybe”, 4 barks means “maybe yes”, 5 barks means “maybe no”.

Tucker: No, Mom.  3 barks means “I don’t know”.

Me: Got it.  Tucker, did you leave your jacket at school?

Tucker: No.