Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Reading a Winter Poem

Sincere is a fan of the snow. This is not good for mommy because all though she enjoys looking at it on Christmas morning from the comfort of her own home she does not like to play in it. A beach with warm sand? Yes please. A sidewalk with cold snow? Not so much.

It snowed at the end of last week and the beginning of this week. I got Sincere a book about winter and snow from the library. It is a book of poems and its good because they are like short stories so he doesn't have to stay focused for long but he still gets a funny story. You can tell even at the end of this short poem his attention starts to drift. Its always a challenge with him to keep him focused but I am learning tricks (spelling, reminding him of his promised treats, signal the end of an activity is near, LOL). And sorry for having to remain still the whole time. If I moved the camera shut off. I am hoping to get new a piece of equipment soon. So I am trying to hold out till then. :)

Now for the show-

Thursday, December 10, 2009

Messy Boy

It's been so busy over here that I haven't even had a chance to look for a new camera. So I am stuck with a camera that turns off on its on and cramped fingers from holding down the record button as I record. But I managed to get a video of a wild messy Sincere a couple nights ago. And yes picking up all that mess is as hard as you imagine it is.

I don't know why he came up with the idea about the kitty dying from Santa's presents. Hopefully he doesn't develop a fear of Santa presents. LOL!

Friday, November 13, 2009

Doing Early Multiplication

Sincere has being doing basic math and addition for a while now. The other day I decided to throw some multiplication into the mix. He seemed to grasp the concept fairly easy although I had problems trying to tell him what multiplication's purpose was. I ended up telling him it was fast addition. Lately I have been running into the problem of not knowing how to teach him certain things because I don't know how to explain them. Like how to explain to a phonetic reader how to read words that don't follow the rules. Or how "e" at the end of the word changes can change the vowel sound. Or how to explain to a kid learning the Spanish alphabet not to use that alphabet in English words.

Once I showed him how to work the problem out he seemed to really get it. I didn't know if I was supposed to teach him the times tables first or how to work it out. So since he has a good memory I decided to show him how to work it out and figured he would memorize the tables as he works through them. Lately he has also been counting in his head a lot which has surprised me.

The camera is barely working right now. Right in time for the holidays. We went to Best Buy to price a new one but I need to look up reviews before I buy one. I need one that can take a lot of dropping. :) So this video is in bits of pieces. Everytime I tried to film the camera would turn off and he would stop. So just pieced this together. The last clip was taken after I found him trying to take a bite out of a marker.

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

He is Now 3!!!!

My baby is now 3!!! I can't even believe it. Where did all the time go? I half way expect to see him wake up with a mustache.

We celebrated his birthday on Sunday Nov 8th with a "Birthday Get Together" at the roller skating ring. His friends Aris, Anthony and Bralin came out to celebrate with him. As well as their parents and his Grandma Judy came. He had a good time and he skated a little. He was happy at first but after a few falls and realizing there was presents to open he wanted his skates off. But it was cute to watch him in his skates while it lasted.

Sunday, November 8, 2009

Trick or Treating

I know this video is super late but I have been super busy lately. I figure better late then never. In the clip you can get a glimpse at how much fun he was having trick or treating. Most of the time that night I couldn''t tape him because he ws going so fast. He really enjoyed Halloween this year. :)

Thursday, October 29, 2009

A Chapter From A Scary Story Book

Sincere would like to wish everyone a HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!! In honor of the holiday Sincere will read to you a story from a book he checked out from the library. His reading has been progressing steadily and he is at point were these types of books he can get through without much trouble. He still has focus issues but the use of a bookmark has helped. He is really into real life reading now "Same Great Taste!" or "Twix" off of packages. LOL!

You will have to once again forgive my camera work. Our camera is on the verge of breaking down. It now is doing this weird thing where you have to hold the camera vertical or it won't record and turns off on its own. Not a good sign. Sincere actually read this story earlier in the day when he was rested and had a book mark and it went much smoother but the camera didn't record it. I must of tilted my hand wrong. So after dinner he read it again but he was a lot less focused. :) Hopefully we can get a few more months out of the camera before its time to get a new one.

But enough of that. Without further ado Sincere presents to you....The Haunted House.

Saturday, October 10, 2009

Sincere Won a Halloween Costume Contest

Today we went to our first Halloween event of 2009. They were having a Family Fun Fest not to far from our house so we decided to go. I didn't find out that it was a costume contest till a few minutes before we left so I had to throw Sincere's not yet completed outfit on him. He actually was a good sport about the whole thing. But that could of been because of the promise of candy.

We got there just in time for the costume contest. The list was pretty long but people seemed to really be enjoying Sincere as Michael Jackson from the Thriller video and people kept taking his picture. So when it was time to get on stage Sincere went up there and I told him to do the moonwalk I showed him. I didn't know if he was going to do it or not but all he had to do was notice all the attention he was getting and he was game for it. I love the spin at the end.

He won and got a bucket full of treats, masks, flashlights, candy, etc. I was so proud of my little guy. After that they had trick or treating at local shops. Sincere wouldn't stop doing the moonwalk and this interesting shimmy shake he created. He is such a ham and he just adores the spotlight. His bucket was stuffed to the max.

Please ignore me looking raggedy in the background. I should have won for best costume. :)

R.I.P. Michael! Gone but not forgotten.

Thursday, October 8, 2009

Measuring with a Dinosaur

Sincere found a measuring tape in my stuff and has been carrying it around the house for the last week measuring things. Also in the last week thanks to Dinotrain and Kestrel he grasped the meaning of hypothesis and has told me several of his own. He set up a measuring experiment and he told me his hypothesis was that Bertie Bus was the longest. So I grabbed the camera to document his testing. :)

Oh don't mind the costume. I found a bee and dinosaur costume at the thrift store and he has been living in them full time. He loves them so much I am surprised he hasn't managed to put them on together to become a Dinosaur Bee. He sleeps, eats, plays, dances and I am sure would bath in one if I let him. The fun part for me is that it makes the fits a little easier to handle. Have you seen a dinosaur throw a fit? Much funnier then an almost 3 year old.

Sunday, September 27, 2009

First Day of Preschool

Tuesday was Sincere's first day of preschool. I still can't believe he is so big! He was pumped up in the car saying "We are coming school. Just you wait. We are on our way. Hold on" I got the video at a stoplight on the way to the school. The light turned green but even from the short piece you can tell he was excited. He was really excited about going. Well I should say he was excited about US going. When he realized it was just him he had a mini meltdown.

The teacher said he had trouble sharing and didn't dance during circle time but nothing other then that. I was proud of him. I tried to talk to him about it but he got upset. The last picture was of the art he did on the first day (glue project). He didn't like the picture or his gluing job but I thought it was cute.

Cutest Kitten in the World

I was going through some old videos on my desktop and found this video from July that I just had to post. Not because of Sincere (although he is cute) because of the worlds cutest kitten.

Backstory- In early July daddy rescued an abandoned kitten from the highway in the middle of a rainstorm. How sweet is that? This was during his lunch break so he was in his work clothes searching the side of the highway soaking wet for a little kitten he happened to spot. Sometimes he is a pretty great guy. :)

Anyway so the no kill animal shelter in the area was closed for the day so he drove 2 hours with the kitten in his car back home. When he got here both Sincere and I fell head over heels in love. Crumby as you can hear in the video didn't not. He was up all night bouncing of the walls and even hooked his claw underneath my toenail. So we knew we couldn't keep her and two hearts hurt as the kitten went to her new home. I was upset and resentful about Crumby's attitude for 2 days. But I know he couldn't help it. He gave a lot up for Sincere and I couldn't ask any more from him. I just made sure I got some cute video before Muffin Crumbs (what I named the kitten) left.


Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Counting in English, Spanish and Chinese

So here are some videos of Sincere counting. Now let me give you a warning. The first video is of Sincere counting to 100. It is the longest video ever made. LOL! Seriously its like 6 minutes long so I don't expect anybody to watch all of it. The highlights for me are when he gets to 30 and 50 and he is trying to figure out what they are. You
can see him working through it in his head and he says "Three tens....30" and "Five tens (then he says five two a couple times) 50." But you might lose your mind if watch the whole thing. I thought I would share it anyways.

Now the reason its so long is because he finds it hard to focus on the task at hand when we are doing things. I have been working on finding ways to keep his focus or direct it back if he is all over the place. In the Spirited Kids book the author talked about touch as a way to do that so that's why you see me touching his hair or arm to guide him back.Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.

He has been able to count and recognize up to one hundred for a while and can now recognize (but not count) really high numbers since he knows about the thousands
place, hundreds place, tens and ones place. He has been able to count to 20 in Spanish since before he turned 2 and he just learned how to count to 20 in Chinese. He picked up how to count to 5 from Ni Hao and I printed up the rest.

And yes my video bribe tool currently is Mike and Ikes. He will not perform on camera without a promise of payment in Mike and Ikes.





Sunday, September 6, 2009

Hollywood Here I Come - Don't Pack Your Bags Just Yet Sincere

Well searching on the internet for jobs I came across a contest for Juicy Juice. The contest was to get your kids doing something adorable, funny or amazing. It was last minute so I grabbed one of his bow ties, dads glasses and the only instructions I gave him were "Tell the camera how much you love Juicy Juice." The rest was improv. He does those faces all the time so I thought those would be funny. But I think what he is says is even funnier "Mmmmm...I know I want natural apple juice." That is classic Sincere. "Its scrumcious." Sincere. And he made up the song on the spot. But my favorite part of all is when I ask what his favorite time to drink Juicy Juice and he says "I go to sleep and wake up and get water. And it stinks!" LOL!

Now he didn't win or even place but I thought I would share this video with you anyway because I think it really shows Sincere's personality and how funny he is. But I am bias. :)

Tuesday, September 1, 2009

Pretend Land

I realized I have posted no video of Sincere in his favorite place Pretend Land. I guess I have been lazy since I have plenty of footage of Sincere talking to imaginary cats, dogs, horses, caterpillars, Rolly Pollys (his favorite), ants, baby wolfs, squirrels, worms, seagulls, bears, trains, robots, flowers, etc. He wrestles them, chases them, gets chased, fights with them, laughs with them, gets pushed down by them (he falls down by himself dramatically and says the animal pushed him and starts crying real tears), goes to sleep with them, eats with them, you name it he does with his imaginary friends.

Its funny and cute to see his imagination at play. He has been hardcore pretending since about April of this year (maybe about 2 years 5 months.) It all started with him pretending to be a cat and pirate. Then it went into him creating creatures, friends, bugs and animals to play with. But its not so cute when he throws a fit because you pick up his imaginary animal wrong. Or when your trying to leave and he has to find his imaginary baby wolf. Or when you call Sincere a dog when he is pretending to be cat. When you squish imaginary ants by accident. Or when its takes several minutes to calm him down after he drops his imaginary rabbit. Sigh.

Here is some footage of Sincere that I found of him pretending to have some animals and bugs. He is less intense because this was right before bed but he can get pretty wound up about his imaginary friends. :)

Friday, August 14, 2009

Reading One of My Favorite Books

The other day we found a copy of one of my favorite books from when I was little on a free book table. The copy was beat up and pages were falling out but you can't beat free. Even though we aren't really at the level of reading chapter books with Sincere I decided to let him try to read it. With a mix of sight words and phonics he got the first page pretty quickly. He gets distracted pretty easily so I decided to break up the pages in chunks. You can see him getting distracted in the video when he is imagining a station under one of the words and is worried that I won't get the lollipop out of the garbage (I didn't really put it in there). But I have learned with Sincere you just work at his fast pace, do stuff in small increments and be open to distractions and he will get it.

Its just fun to now being able to share a book I remember reading (although I was much older, LOL!) And excuse the camera work. I am always filming with one hand and a heavy camera so its not the best.

Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Marching to The Beat of His Own Drum

It's no secret Sincere tends to stick out in a crowd. You can have a crowd of 100 kids (don't know why you would be crazy enough to do that but) and I can guarntee you will notice and remember Sincere. And this is true for too many reasons to even list. One main reason is that he marches to the beat of his own drum. No matter what we are doing or where we are at Sincere is doing his own thing in his own way. He knows what is expected of him and how to do things that he is supposed to be doing but he just finds that he would rather listen to his beat then yours. That's just how he rolls.

Need prove that he stands out, marches to his own drum and is Sincere 24-7 here you go. This is classic Sincere. I guess he wanted it to be skins versus shirts. No go.

Monday, July 27, 2009

George Washington

I guess George Washington is Sincere's new favorite president. First it was Obama, then JFK and now Washington. That's an impressive list. :)

In January (old video on here) we got Sincere a president fandax because we know he has a really good memory (which trust makes it hard for me sometimes) and thought it would be funny to see him say stuff like Martin Van Buren and Richard Nixon at 2 years old. And it was funny. He learned 10 right away and every so often we gave him a couple more and he would just add them to the ones he knew. His memory is so much better then mine that I actually have to check if he said the right name because I don't know them.

He now knows all 44 presidents. He knows most of them by heart without the picture but he starts trailing as his attention is directed on a dust ball floating by. It has taken me a while to get the video because getting Sincere to pay attention for a chunk of time on one activity (besides trains) is hard work. Plus I had to wrangle him, flip the cards and hold the camera. Harder then it sounds. But here it is Sincere at 2 years and 8 months going the list of presidents.

Also listen for the Andrew Jackson/Michael Jackson joke that he thinks is really funny. Its fun to watch his sense of humor and level of jokes grow. He comes up with some pretty funny jokes now. Enjoy!

Monday, July 6, 2009

See That Kid, He's Mine- 1st Day of Soccer

Sincere started soccer practice today. Now he is youngest one by far. Most of them are a year or year and half older then he is but I know he doesn't have problems getting along with older kids and he needs a physical outlet for some of that pint up energy.

Today he spent half the day as a spider but by the time he got to the field he was a dragon. And the dragon wasn't to happy about his shin guards. But besides that everything was going good until we got out of the car and he saw the cool playground in front of the soccer field. Sigh. So in true Sincere fashion he spent the whole time fixated on the park. He would kick the ball once and say "I am done can we go to the playground now." And then plop on the ground. He did this 40 times in the course of a 30 minute practice.

He also spent a lot of time using his hands to line up the ball perfectly before he kicked it which caused him to be way behind all the other kids during the warm up drills. But he made it down to the end even though it took a while for him to get there.

During the game we had a lot of Sincere shine through. He made the first goal (Go Sincere) but then proceeded to have a melt down, run off the field and plop down in the grass because the ball they were using was the one he had during the warm ups. With his bottom lip out he said "I am sad." I asked him why he said "That's my ball they have." So I tired to explain that's how soccer works and put him back out there. He spent the rest of the game having his own game on one side of the field after the kids got another ball. Every couple kicks he told me he was done and wanted to go the playground.

After we finished and I got him strapped in the car he looks up and says "I had a good time playing Soccer mommy." THIS KID!

Mustard and Fireworks

This video is of Sincere on the 4th of July. We didn't do much but go to the park (Sincere ate a random unknown berry and stuck his hand in a flying ants nest). And we watched the neighborhood fireworks but Sincere loved it. He was actually on his way to bed (hence the underwear) but they were so loud that he had to go see them. He was so excited.

The second video is of Sincere making a mess with mustard about 2 weeks ago. I had brought the mustard upstairs real quick and forgot about it. I didn't remember it was upstairs until Sincere walked into the office smelling like a hot dog. Anyone know how to get mustard stain out of wood Thomas tracks?

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Feelings on Fathers Day

Sunday was Fathers Day 09'. Sincere and I treated dear old dad to a pancake brunch at Toast. I brought Sincere's trusty microphone to sing the song that he had create for him but he wasn't feeling it. Of course he sang it the days leading up to Fathers Day but the day of he wasn't in the mood. Tempermental artists are so hard to work with!

I got a couple videos from the day. The first one I will post is of Sincere showcasing his "LET ME DO IT MYSELF" stage. He is deep into that stage now and tries to refuse everything you do for him. Well everything expect cleaning up his mess. He wants to open the door with the key and put the money into the meter but he doesn't want to clean up his own mess. Where is all the independence when its clean up time?

Notice how big the pancakes are. He squealed with delight when he saw them. Took like 5 bites and was done. We took enough pancakes for the next two weeks.


The second video is of Sincere doing funny faces at the table. I thought his take on "sad face" was so funny. I was cracking up in the middle of the place and had to pull out the camera. Such a dramatic little guy.





Wednesday, June 10, 2009

library books

Sincere loves the library. I actually use it as an incentive to get him to do stuff. "If you get in the car tomorrow we will go to the library." He does a lot of running around at the library but he also picks out books that he wants to take home to read. I let him pick out what he wants from the kid area and we take them home to read through them. Every week we do this and he has gotten through a lot of books this way. In fact I am signing him up for the summer reading program at the library. I don't know what that will be like for the younger kids but I am sure it will be a challenge. :)

Here is some video from yesterday morning of him reading two of his library books from this week. As always its a challenge to get Sincere to focus enough to sit through the books without getting distracted. He gets distracted really easy but that's just who he is. In between the two books I had to let him play but he agreed to sit down for just one more before he was over it. LOL!



Tuesday, June 2, 2009

Living with a HIGHLY sensitive kid

Ever sit around and think about how it would feel to live with a highly sensitive/spirited kid? If the answer is "yes" then your in luck. I have documented one of the thousands of ways your daily life might change if you had a highly sensitive kid living with you. In this rare video you can see the sensitive kid being "bothered" by the tags in his shirt. This happens all the time. He is also "bothered" by the sun on his leg if he is sitting at the table and the sun is shinning in the window, a tiny drop of water if one lands on his arm, threads in his pants, a noise so far away that I can barely hear it, if he feels me smell him and a piece of dust in his mouth. Watch the video and imagine how many fun times we have. :)

The second video is one I captured the day after we went to see "UP" at the movies. I was in the office and I heard-

"Ladies and Gentleman. Ladies and Gentleman. Ladies and Gentleman. I present to you....Thomas." So I snuck in there and asked him what he was doing. He had piled all of his trains in one corner and told me they were watching a movie. I asked him what the movie was about and he said "Slides." Then he took out a car ramp and had Thomas slide down in front of the other trains. Now this has nothing to do with the movie Up but its funny because he gets the concept of sitting in an audience and watching someone else doing something. He even had Percy and Hector sit close because "Percy is shy."

So I ran to get the camera and I lucked out because I guess there was more then one showing that day. :)

Sunday, May 10, 2009

Mothers Day Storm

We went out to eat at an Indian restraunt for Mothers Day dinner on Saturday night. Sincere was all over the place because he was excited that 3 people were giving him undived attention at the same time. LOL! But he was talking to other patrons, eating sugar and salt and trying to escape. By the time they set the plates down in anticpiation for the food that was coming Sincere was sorely in need of something to play with. He chooose his plate.

The video of Sincere is about 20 minutes after he starting playing with the empty plate and silverwear. By the time the rice got there he was well into the story. The story involved a huge storm that made its way to land and hurt the spoons. I didn't think of recording until people around us started laughing. So this is just a small snippet of a long story of a storm and the clouds causing trouble on his plate. I didn't mind because the story was funny early on but then "the rain" started falling on the floor and table and it then stopped being funny. :)



Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Celebrating Earth Day

Sincere is all about Earth Day. He has been running around all day screaming "Its Earth's Birthday!!!" This morning I let him play with the dirt in the windowsill and thought I would just post some video of his earthy side. So you can all enjoy Earth Day with him. :)

At one point in the video he tells me that "Ladybugs come from the dirt.Its science" and when I apologize for not knowing it he assures me its okay that I didn't. This kid I tell you.

The second video is Sincere talking about his mini compost pile which he loves to check on and add too. Its a really fun and easy project and I am glad we did it.

So in the words of Sincere "Happy Earth's Birthday!!!"




Sunday, April 12, 2009

I Have A New Cat...

and his name is Sincere.

Sincere insists that he is a cat for large chunks of the day. Great display of his imagination but can get frustrating fast when you are trying to get the "baby kitty's" paws in his boots. Or figuring out what "baby kitty" likes to eat. LOL!

After visiting the Easter Bunny we went out to eat and the restaurant didn't know but we brought a cat in. The cat insisted on eating his food off the table. Don't even ask why he is bare foot. Or should I say bare pawed. :)

Wednesday, April 8, 2009

Namaste

Here is some video of Sincere working on his yoga practice. My camera keep running out of space and cutting off so its snipped together but you can still get the picture. Towards the end he starts to move into his "baby kitty" mode. But nowadays he ends everything in "baby kitty" mode.

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

The Great Race

The reading has been on the back burner as we work on math. Sincere could handle doing more then one subject at a time but I can't. LOL! So we started up again this week. He has been able to read this book since January but to get him to sit down for the amount of time to read it all the way through is nearly impossible at this time in his life. Trust me. I got him to do it today and with out M&M's. I think he just wanted to get it over with so that he could do some glitter work. Which is something he could do all day. And the floor of his room proves it. :)



Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Reading Math Problems

So it took me about 3 weeks to get this footage. He gets distracted really easy so I would get the first 2 problems then he would go play trains come back and do the last 3. LOL! I am making math sheets with 5 problems on them. He can do 3 different math sheets right now. He loves "My Math." And when we are out and about he likes to run through them verbally.

I love the way he says "equals." I never thought I would think a equal sign would be cute. Enjoy.

Thursday, February 26, 2009

"Si, senor he is a chatterbox"

Sincere has been going to Spanish class for toddlers once a week and has really responded well to it. Which is good because I suck at foreign languages. In fact I sit in with the toddlers and am learning things. They just sing songs and do some activities. He can say lots of words and some phrases. But they don't teach him how to read Spanish. So the other day when I saw a deck of Spanish cards I decided to get them. He loves reading and so I figured why not. Well he picked up reading the Spanish words quickly which is saying a lot since he has a 15 minute attention span as you can tell in the video.

The second video which is super long, was just some footage I took of his non stop chatter because I had the camera sitting there. Whenever we are not having a conversation with him he walks around the house talking to himself. And you have to remind yourself that this is him at about 60%. LOL! But seriously from the time he gets up to the time he goes to bed its nonstop talking. So he spends his day either singing, having a conversation with me or talking to himself. Notice his over the top acting abilities too. And the train he hears is really far away but you can hear it some days. Sincere loves it. Enjoy.

Sunday, February 15, 2009

American Idol Sincere Style

Sincere is a singer no doubt about it. He sings almost all day everyday. Sometimes I feel like I am living in a musical. He makes up songs for his daily activities and has a long list of traditional favorites he visits anytime the singing mood pops up.

I got him practicing some of his favorites tonight. I show you at the end that he will make up a song for anything. I could of said baby blog and he would of gone to town on it. He is just a singing boy. Now I said he was a singer. I didn't say he was a GOOD singer. Enjoy.

Thursday, February 5, 2009

1+1= Sincere and Mommy Doing Math

Sincere resisted math since the first time I tried doing it with him. So I set it aside and we worked on reading which he enjoys. Recently he started to use my fingers to count out stuff and for some reason that helped him become more interested in math. Or maybe he just wanted to do it now and not before. Who knows with this kid but here he is showing some of the addition and subtraction he knows.

Disclaimer- I got him to do this on camera with a bag of gummy worms after failing without gummy worms. I set them on the window sill with a promise for him to have some if he let me record him. Its amazing what the promise of a gummy worm will do. LOL!

Monday, January 26, 2009

Some More Reading

We haven't really been working on the reading this month because its been super busy. But he is still working his way down his reading list and we are currently on story number 5 on the list. I captured this video today of the last book he finished, Mox the Fox. We are now onto Gus the Duck which should be fun since there is a bug in the story and Sincere is scared of bugs. LOL!

Thursday, January 15, 2009

In Honor of the Inauguration

Sincere would like to present to you the last 10 presidents!!!

Like 2 weeks ago we were in Barnes and Nobles and I spotted this President Fandax. Sincere is good with names and faces so I thought this might be a fun party trick. I am always looking for new ways to entertain guests. Well he has been picking them up quickly. Funny things from behind the scenes (consider this your bonus material on the dvd). Sincere calls the first George Bush, Herbert Bush in order to avoid confusion with the second. But his original name for him the first time we went through the cards was Rat Bush. I kid you not. Out of the mouth of babes. :)

He kept calling Richard Nixon "scccaaarryyy" I don't know why put he was scared of him. He says Jimmy Carter like he is talking about the tv show "Welcome Back Carter" and insists on saying Lyndon Johnson's name in a high pitched voice. I just report the facts I don't even question.