We don't have a lot to report on this week: school started (for Dan and I) and aside from the usual first-week-of school business, not much happened on that front.
Andrew starts kindergarten next week--so you can expect pictures from the first day of school. And Evelyn's little preschool class starts on Monday. Unfortunately, their school times don't overlap at all--but I suppose it will be good for both of them to get some one-on-one mom time.
Actually, what I wanted to post about were some things the kids have done recently that I want to remember. (And I'm discovering that if I don't write things down, I don't remember). I should warn casual readers that most of this is for our family record--and some of it sounds a lot like the effusions of a proud mom--so if that kind of thing doesn't work for you, you probably want to stop now.
Evelyn has recently refined her obsession with my arm. Where most normal kids make an attachment to a blanket, or a stuffed toy, (or an ugly doll, in Andrew's case), Evelyn never has. Instead, for a long time, she's liked to stroke the arm of whomever was putting her to bed. And (fortunately or unfortunately), the feel of human skin isn't easy to duplicate. In the last couple of months, however, she's gone from wanting to stroke someone's arm to wanting to touch this one mole I have on my left arm. It's not a big mole--more like a big freckle that sticks out a little--but Evelyn insists on rubbing it. She's been known to grab my arm across my body if she's on the wrong side of it. And it even has a name now: "Moley." Lovely, I know. This morning, she came and snuggled in bed with me for a while. When I suggested we get up, she said, "Okay, I touched Moley long enough. I need to get up."
Andrew has been a pleasure to watch come into his own these last few weeks and months. It's a strangely proud feeling, as a parent, to watch your child master certain milestones. Walking and talking were all exciting, but as an avid bibliophile, nothing so far has prepared me for the thrill of watching my child read. His reading has been getting better all summer--he surprised his kindergarten teacher during the assessment by reading the little booklet she was showing him--but even I have been surprised by him. This last week, he picked up one of the Magic Tree House books at the library. He read a couple of chapters to me, but then he spent long stretches of time sitting in the couch reading to himself: a sight guaranteed to warm the heart of any book-lover. I'm not sure that he understands every word he reads, but I was impressed by his perseverance. And he understood enough at the end to tell me what the book was about. He also likes reading in bed at night--in fact, sometimes when I come in to give him a hug, he more or less ignores me to read his book. I can't feel hurt by that--it reminds me too much of how I am when I'm engrossed in a book.
Andrew's also been doing well with math. A few months ago we gave him a small allowance ($.50 a week) figuring that this would help him learn some rudimentary math and help him appreciate how much things cost. I don't think we anticipated what would happen. He's been sort of obsessed by money (which I think I've mentioned before), especially with counting his money. As a result, the other day he was able to put all his pennies, nickles, dimes and quarters in stacks of tens and four (for the quarters) and count all his money--up to $16 dollars. And he floored my friend (who watched him for me while I was teaching) with a simple question about time. He wanted to know when her kids would get home from school. She told him school was out at 3:30. It was then 2:36. Andrew said, "Okay, so there's sixty minutes in an hour, and it's 2:36 now, so they'll be home in 54 minutes." I guess that's not exactly typical reasoning for a kid who hasn't started kindergarten yet. It's a good thing he still has lost to learn on the social and fine-motor skills front.
I realize this sounds a lot like bragging--and maybe it is, a little--except that I can't take credit for a lot of it. It's just Andrew, doing his thing. I suppose every parent thinks their child is smart (at least at first)--but I have to admit it is nice to have outside confirmation. At the annual science department dinner last week, Dan ran into the other kindergarten teacher (the one who's in our ward, but won't be teaching Andrew's class), and she said that she was sorry she wouldn't have "brilliant" Andrew in her class. (Her word, not mine.) I guess Andrew's teacher had said something to her.
At any rate, we're excited about the new adventure of a new school year. We'll have more to say next week, I'm sure.
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