Wordy Wednesday

Tonight Chris and I had some library time, after Kindermusik class. I showed him where the non-scary comic books are. He had gotten one last week that gave him nightmares from the young adult section. I told him he can't get a book there again until he's 13. He seemed ok with that, though 13 was arbitrary.

His favorite area at the library is now the superhero shelf, and the lego shelf. ;)



Mommy took advantage of a sale the library coffee shop was having: buy a latte, get a kid's cocoa free. Oh my. I picked him up a banana split cocoa. It had chocolate, carmel, and banana syrups. Wicked. It was nice of me to save some for him. He was quite a big fan too.



Heaven is a Batman: Brave and Bold book and a cup of hot cocoa!

The Open Door Policy

My son is Enchanting. I think you knew that. However, the extent of his enchantments never cease to surprise me.

For Valentine's Day, I met Christopher at his school. The parents were invited to participate in gym class, so Kathleen borrowed Sam, and I went to gym class. We did an obstacle course.



And I realize I'm very out of shape. Hula Hooping, Balance beams, Jumping Rope, and a potato sack race. And FYI, Jumping Jacks should be illegal for people with busts like mine. But I was one of three parents to show up, and for that I was grateful, and Christopher was also grateful.



It was crazy. I may have overdone it, and gotten a little sore. But after gym class, I helped out in the classroom for a bit. We waited a while before having a Valentine's Party. Turns out Christopher is an excellent reader. Not only did he write down every student's name on their Valentine's, he was able to read his own handwriting and put them in their own boxes. He was only of about 3 kids that could read their own writing, or read it at all. It was very impressive.




After school we did a quick flush, so we could go out to dinner with the Julius's. Chris got to play with his favorite girls, and it was great.



It wasn't until the next day that I opened every Valentine and realized he had gotten an extra one, from someone not in his class, it was one of the .50 cent valentines with a fruit snack that someone bought. It said, Happy Valentine's Day from H-Your Secret Admirer. Oh my goodness.

In kindergarten, he's getting the secret admirers. It could be anyone! I couldn't believe it.

On Sunday, we had a special play date, when Audrey came over to play. She hasn't come over in a long time. The last time she did, we told her she couldn't go up on the top bunk until she was 5. Her birthday was in November, and a few days after, she told her mother that she had to come over and get in Christopher's bed because she was 5 now. This unnerved us parents. We didn't get around to setting up the playdate until now. I guess it's because Chris can only play on evenings and weekends, and evenings are pretty rough around here, what with flushes and homework and all. But Audrey came, and within minutes they were in his room and on his bed.

There was one rule, Eric laid it out. If girls are in your bed, you Will leave the door open! I modified it to if there are any girls in your room at all, then the door will be open.



Although all I think they did was read. ;)

Today was President's Day. Last week Chris came home with E*'s phone number, and we set up a playdate with her today. She's such a sweetie, and her family is great. It was pretty enough to play outside.



Little E* was desperate for Christopher to spend the night, but her Daddy put his foot down. That makes sense. I defer to all fathers in matters of comfort with coed playdates or slumber parties. I didn't think the differences in girls and boys and how the play needed to be monitored or worried about at age 6, but I guess it's time to watch. And time to make sure the doors stay open.

Persistance Pays

Sometimes my son amazes me.

You know what happened today? He came home with a girl's phone number. This girl was not on The List, you know the parent approved list that only 7 parents, including us, put their names on. No, this was a different girl. Now I've met her and her Mom, and they are the sweetest you ever saw, so no this sweetie is not any kind of hussy. In fact, I'd put my money on her being Valedictorian in another 12 years. But Chris has been trying inviting himself to her house. He's been bugging me for 2 weeks! I went into their class and the two of them cornered me and he informed me "I want to go home with E* after school today!" And she told me, she wanted him to stay over. I told him that her Mom and I would need to talk. I thought that was the end of it.

But No.

Chris kept bugging me. He's been most persistant in playing with his girlfriends. I get requests for me to arrange playdates all day long. This morning on the way to school it was, "Mommy I want to go play with Emily on Sunday after church for dinner." Uh, OK, I'll see what I can do. Only when I asked Kathleen about it did she say, Uh, Good Thing we're close enough that you can invite yourselves over to our house. Uh yeah, little rude. Whoops. Guess it's rubbing off on me too. Goodness gracious. I hate to see what VALENTINE'S DAY will bring.

So today, he brings home E*'s phone number, in small child handwriting. What are the odds that a kindergartner can get a girl's phone number, slim right? Sure. OK, sure, I'll try it. What do you know? It was the correct one. And apparently the young lass has been going on and on about our little sweetboy too. Darn it. He really is going to have a girl in every port.

I will say, at least it took him 2 whole weeks to get the girl's phone number. At least she held out for a while. But it just proves, once again, he's irresistible.

Oh yeah, so what was I doing at the school for half the days a couple weeks ago. We were having trouble, not flirty flirts troubles. I don't think I mentioned the bus problem. He spanked a kid on the bus, and that was Chris's third strike, in our book anyway. It's been months since the busdriver called us, but last time, we threatened him with making him become a car rider, so towards the end of January, when we had an incident, we pulled him from the bus and we've been chauffering him ever since. At first, it was successful, it was a fate worse than death to not ride the bus anymore.



But now he LOVES it!

**

It's a refreshing opportunity for him to get some quality time, sitting in a car line for a half an hour a day will do that for you. And I'll admit, in the morning, is when he's at his best. It makes me feel better, instead of him using up all the best he has to give at school, I do get to experience some of his sweetness again.

Like this, he was telling me to give him smoochies in his "Tunnel of Tuff". He wears this brown coat, that used to belong to Eric, so it's 30 years old, and Chris calls it his "Tough Coat". When he zips it up all the way, there's this little tunnel around his face, you know, the awesomely 80's retro cool. Yeah, that's Chris all over. Only, now he's bringing back the awesomeness, and next winter, you'll be seeing these coats all over the place. Because Chris knows cool.



Sam's not as big of a fan of the daily ride, and having to nap earlier (or go without) in order to pick up brother. But both boys tell each other how much they miss each other during the day.

**

Oh yeah, so why I brought up the bus thing. Well, after his third strike, we pulled him from the bus, and he's been car riding. Only he was still getting in tiffs. Two weeks ago, I arrived to find him being huddled in a teacher's arms, Miss Jill, who turns out to be the Special Ed teacher, and has met Christopher in meetings and things, and she was giving him bear hugs and compression therapy because he'd had a meltdown that friend cut him in line while they waited to come outside. The setup being the kindergarten car riders get in a line, leave the classroom first, then wait by the door until the entire school empties out (i.e. mass hysteria goes by) then they go outside and wait for car.

Yeah, he was getting on edge for the noise and chaos, and one little thing set him off. So I asked for a meeting with his teacher. God Bless Her! By the time we went in, she'd been talking to all kinds of people, and had a couple options all prepared. She and I make a good team. What we decided was that there's an older girl, very shy, that they'll give the Job of coming and getting Christopher, and escorting him Outside. No mass chaos in the hall, she gets a friend, he gets a friend, and he gets dropped off by Miss Jill until I make it through the line.

And he had gotten a dart in reading class, so they had communicated, and decided that a little OT may be in order before he goes there. OT disagreed, so Mrs. N is doing Classwide exercise break before they split for reading. Did I also mention that the reason Chris leaves for Reading is that he's in the highest reading group? Yup! I'm a little bit proud.

After this meeting, I decided to sit in on story time when Daddy got the boys ready for bed to hear Chris do some reading aloud. Sam chose Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Suess, and we let brother start the reading. Only Chris didn't stop. He read the whole book! 60 pages, and he read it! I will say long about page 35 he started to stumble, getting tired, but I just said, Oh I don't know if he can do the WHOLE THING. And like any boy with a challenge, he accepted, and knocked it out of the park.

He got all green smileys last week, and 2 purple character awards in the last two weeks. One from his regular teacher, and one from his reading teacher, both for independently Showing Responsibility.

I am so Proud of him.



**- Pictures that Christopher took during our car time.

Rock On

My Hero

It's Super Hero day at school today.



This is how I sent him off, with backpack, coat, and Superman costume equipped with muscles and cape.

I love him.