This and That

Tyler's last soccer game. He loved playing and we will be doing this again next year. It was a lot of fun to see him hustle after the ball. And then of course stop, look for us, and start jumping up and down madly and waving to us. You could tell he was having a blast.

We had parent-teacher conferences this week at the school. At first, I thought this was kind of strange, but I love it. It's nice to see they see some of the same things you do and it's a great chance to ask whatever questions we may have. Plus, some of the things they see can be quite surprising. Deacon's was on Monday and this was the one I was dreading. We've been having issues with him biting and there was a time not too long ago that nearly every day I was getting an incident report that he bit or hit or did something he was not supposed to do. I'm raising a hoodlum, was what would go through my mind every time I had to sign one of those. Fortunately, I haven't gotten one in at least a week. Maybe we're finally moving past that stage. At any rate, his teacher, Sally, had nothing but good things to say. She chalks that biting and hitting up to the stage and reassured me that he was not the only hoodlum in the class. Just kidding, he's been doing really well. He's hitting all the targets that they look for at this stage and he's a delight to have in the class. You can tell she really loves him and I know from watching his interactions there that he loves his teachers. Ty and Deke race each other in the morning to get to class, and there have been some afternoons that Deke doesn't want to go home because he's having too much fun. It breaks my heart a little, but at least I'm glad to know he's somewhere he enjoys. It would break it a lot more if I had to drop him off and have him cry and cry because he didn't like it there. I give him the option of staying and having Daddy pick him up, but he always chooses to come home.

Tyler's was today and I wasn't worried at all about his. His teacher, Natasha, just adores him. Again, he is meeting or exceeding all expectations. This is strictly just meeting the behavioral or other targets you'd expect from a 4 year old, like listening when they're told to get into circle time, or washing their hands when they come in, being able to write their name, that kind of thing. His language skills are at a E and that's where we saw most of the "E's". She is just blown away by his vocabulary as am I. The way he says things sometimes, just surprises me. The other day, when I was bringing him home, he was talking about sharing some candy with Deacon. Deacon would get a "smaller serving of the candy." "Smaller Serving", really? I love to hear him say "frustrated" too. His big words just crack me up. She also mentioned his creativity. He is one creative child and she loves the stories he tells. He can tell a story for 25 minutes or more and they are so entertaining. What's funny, is Sally was Ty's teacher when he was in that group and she had mentioned Ty's stories when he was that age when she was telling me about Deke. He can tell some stories, but they tend to get a little long. I really should pay more attention and try to write some of those stories down. Maybe he'll be a writer some day. All in all, they were both some good reports and I'm proud of both of them.