Did I mention the quiet?

I never thought I'd say this. There was quiet at our house this morning. Baxter has begun, more and more, to enjoy sitting quietly on the couch, reading. Not leafing through a book, whining, "Mommy, reeeaaad to meeee!" or flipping casually through a few books, jabbering all the while, and then lurching up to leap off of a stool and onto his brother. He can actually read some of the easy board books and, this week, those "I can read" level 1 books. You know, "The dog is running." (turn page) "The boy is running." (turn page) "They like to run!"

I am having flashbacks to my childhood. The hours I spent up in my room, just reading and reading and reading. I was very Baxter-like in my energy and enthuasiasm and, yes, hyperactive tendencies as a young child. But when I got older, all I wanted to do was read. I can hardly imagine this in our household, but is it possible that Baxter will someday be holed up in his bedroom, reading a book, even though the sun is shining and the rest of us are going on a hike? Today I see a glimmer of that possibility. Part of me is thrilled beyond words (does it mean I might get to read a book, too??) but another small part of me is sad to realize that he won't be "around" as much and I will probably be very nostalgic for these days.

And, I'd like to add, there is an added bonus here. Baxter is actually modeling the quiet sitting-down-with-a-book for Lyle! Lyle may grow up to think this behavior is normal in our house. Now isn't that strange? Earlier this week, I grew alarmed when I was cleaning up the dinner table and realized that the house was silent. I turned around and there they were, reading books together in our "book nook" (and we wonder if they'll be bookworms?!). I had to take a picture.

Today, when Baxter sat on that couch reading quietly to himself and then later started drawing quietly with his MagnaDoodle, Lyle just played happily on his own nearby. I considered getting down on my knees and thanking God, but then worried that I might attract their attention and lose the moment.

Kindergarten Images

Halloween is almost here, and our kindergartner is, well, hyper. Not hyper as in "a little bit excited". No, more like where-the-hell-did-we-put-Baxter's-Ritalin-? hyper. Spinning around non-stop on his chair hyper. Singing "John Jacob Jingle-Heimer-Schmidt" (could there BE a worse song?)at the top of his lungs during dinner, seemingly unable to stop, hyper. Yes, it's bad.

He's going to be a dinosaur for Halloween. A very obscure dinosaur (read: we couldn't buy the costume), the Iguanadon. So we made one out of a brown paper bag (thank God it was supposed to be a brown dinosaur) and crafted (I use the term loosely) a mask for him with the notable "turtle-like beak" (it looks more duckish). The all-important thumb spikes are there, too, stuck to his fingers which are encased in a pair of my small black stretchy gloves. The overall effect is totally heinous. When his teacher mentioned that she couldn't wait to see his costume and I told her it was atrocious, she looked a bit thrown. Maybe most Moms don't use that word to describe their kids' costumes, especially when they've made it themselves. But it's really the only word one could use. You'll understand when you see photos.

Speaking of dinosaurs, his teacher told me that he was in front of the class again, playing the part of Professor Baxter today. "Any time I'm feeling tired and am losing my voice at the end of the day, I just call Baxter up to the front of the group and we ask him to tell us all about dinosaurs. We love it!" My Lord. This I'd love to see. He must be in heaven. His friend Ella came running up to him as we were leaving this afternoon, saying with a big grin, "C'mon, Mr. Allosaurus! Chase us!" They spent the next five minutes in serious deliberations about which dinosaurs each would be tomorrow.

This kid is so happy, so at home, at Jefferson School. We really did make the right choice.

Stars and Memos

We seem to have entered the Twilight Zone here at our house; Baxter is drawing. There is suddenly a whole new clutter management issue: what to do with the piles of paper that are covered with "memos", stars, and Baxter's self-portraits (my favorite is himself on the monkey bars at school with all of his friends shown in stick figure form, gaping open-mouthed at him in wonder). Do I throw them out? If I were you, I'd say yes. But then I come across the page from a Spiderman coloring book that he spent about 3 hours on, coloring with his little colored pencils so carefully, finally caring about coloring inside the lines, and I just put it back in the pile and find some other clutter to deal with, not sure how to proceed.

I wasn't even a big fan of that Spiderman coloring book. I mean, Spiderman? Yuck. One of his classmates apparently handed out coloring books at her birthday party and that's what he lucked into. But when I saw the motivation it triggered: the quiet sitting at the table, the tongue out and slightly to the left in utter concentration, and the pure pride he felt when he colored that verrrry thin web purple all the way...well, I guess I'm okay with Spiderman at the moment. (Did I mention the quiet?)

Baxter's teacher mentioned a couple weeks ago that we should give him some extra encouragement with fine motor activities at home, noting that they are doing a lot of writing and drawing in school and some additional practice will make it easier for him when he gets to first grade. I had thought he was doing pretty well since he could write all of his letters with pretty good form and although his drawings were rudimentary, they didn't seem too bad considering he shied away from it until so recently. But kindergarten ain't what it used to be; from what I've seen at Grattan and Jefferson, most kids are coming in able to write, and their drawings are, well, a bit more sophisticated than Baxter's. His teacher was quick to point out that when he draws he has an intricate and fascinating story line going, and she said that she could tell he's been more focused on big ideas than the actual getting-them-down-on-paper part. She's got a point there.

From what we're seeing this month, all of that drawing and writing at school is really exciting for him and he is practicing non-stop. He has needed no encouragement from us - he seems to be spending the majority of his free time on those activities. I've attached pictures of him hard at work trying to write numbers for the first time today, and also of the stars he drew yesterday. I taught him how to draw a star a few nights ago and I am pretty sure he worked on it for 24 hours straight.

It's safe to say that he's learning a lot in school and that he's incredibly motivated to work on everything he's being exposed to. What more could we ask for?