Elijah's Projects

Fortunately, despite my concerns and the emotional first day, Elijah loves Kindergarten. He has blossomed socially. He feels right at home at Braelinn and whenever I pick him up at school he's greeting everyone around him enthusiastically. He has made a ton of new friends, he talks about playing with about eight different kids at recess. And, his teachers have commented more than once (including on his report card) that he's "very well liked by his classmates." His social skills were what we were hoping he'd develop in school, since he's always been such a personallly motivated academic learner.

In fact, it's so funny, he taught himself to read this summer. Having been a Kindergarten teacher, I've always been interested in watching him develop academically. I knew by the time he was three and a half that I could've taught him how to read. But, I purposely didn't. I wanted him to wait and learn it in school if possible. I knew that he'd inherited Scott's math brain, so Kindergarten math wouldn't be too challenging. Therefore, I figured it'd be good for him to at least learn to read in school. But, nope, he had other ideas. All summer long, he asked for us to read to him. While this isn't necessarily unusual, this summer he had specific requests. Whenever we read to him he wanted to point to the words while we read. And, if possible, he wanted to read "adult" books. We ended up reading a lot of travel guides to him so that they'd be appropriate books with lots of words. Yep, by the end of the summer Scott and I realized he was reading.

Fortunately, there's another little boy in Elijah's class who's at his level in reading and math. The Kindergarten teachers were relieved to have two to put in a group together for centers time. Elijah's teachers seem to be very concerned about keeping him challenged. They have Alex and Elijah reading in first grade readers now, they try to give them separate work whenever possible and they even enlisted the help of one of the gifted teachers. Usually, kids aren't even tested for the gifted program until the end of Kindergarten, and they aren't served until first grade. But, I guess Mrs. Nash was concerned enough that she asked the gifted teacher to give her some suggestions. The gifted teacher even agreed to pull them on Fridays to work with them. Mrs. Taylor told Scott that the gifted teacher hadn't found Elijah and Alex's top level yet, but that last week they were working on second grade math. One of the reasons Mrs. Nash and Mrs. Taylor may be differentiating for Elijah so much is that they work with his Daddy, and they want to keep Scott happy. But, truly, Scott and I just want Elijah to continue to develop socially. We're tickled and amused by all his talents, but we don't want to be annoying, demanding parents. And, we want Elijah to be well-rounded, with a good head on his shoulders. I'm just so happy that he likes school and has become so confident and comfortable socially.

One of the reasons Scott and I have never worried to much about him being challenged at school is that he's always been a self motivated learner. Each weekend he has some intricate project that he creates and wants to work on. At the beginning of the year, we continued reading "adult books" and pointing to the words. Then he started playing school with Scott and I, making up worksheet for us to do and grading them. Next, he created worksheets for extended family and friends, addressed envelopes and sent them off. Then, he wanted to make base ten blocks out of paper. He's always been fascinated by Scott's math manipulatives, including the base ten blocks. He decided one weekend that he wanted to make his own set out of paper. Scott ran with the idea, created them on the computer and posted them on his classroom website as an extra credit option for his students. Elijah spent every moment of his free time for at least a week meticulously cutting out and glueing them together.




A week after making all the base ten blocks he decided to make pumpkins using some of his blocks. That whole weekend was spent making pumpkins, and once Daddy helped with the templates, kitties and ghosts, too.



Lately, the last two weekends his projects have been Legos. It was the first time, we introduced Elijah to "big boy" Legos. He's always had Duplos (Legos for toddlers). But after browsing the Lego aisle and buying a birthday present for a school friend's birthday party, we realized Elijah was probably the perfect age for Legos. He's always loved carefully following instructions, and we had a closet full of Star Wars Legos waiting to be enjoyed. Scottie is a huge Star Wars and Lego nerd and once he found out I was having a boy, he and Dendi have been stockpiling Star Wars Legos. They were a huge hit with Elijah as he loves following instructions and rocket ships. Daddy and Elijah spent many happy hours meticulously assembling and raucously playing with their spaceships.




It was some great bonding time for my boys.

Retiring Elves

I'm sure many of you have wondered why I still have up our Jib Jab Elves from last year. I've kept it up because it's Keira's favorite part of the blog. Whenever I'm working on the blog or looking at it she requests the dancing elves and watches it over and over again. I'm going to park the link here. Hopefully, that will meet with her approval. :)

Personalize funny videos and birthday eCards at JibJab!

Elijah's First Day of Kindergarten

Wow, writing that title felt surreal. Of course, he started Kindergarten a few months ago and we've happily settled into our new daily routine. But, still, writing the title felt so official and strange. I'm flooded with that lately. I see Elijah as the elementary student that he is, but I also have strong memories of the baby and toddler he once was. Everyone always comments on how quickly these precious days zoom by. Yet, saying that doesn't even seem to do it justice. It all moves at such a breathtaking, break neck speed. It seems to have only sped up since Keira was born...

Elijah's first day went off without a hitch. I was able to snap a few pictures of Elijah before we left. I'm going to try to take a picture of the kids on the front rockers on every first day of school to track their growth.





I also took a few of Elijah and Keira holding hands as we headed out. I purposely dressed her up a bit for the momentous occasion. I love how in the second picture he seems to be walking away from her toward school.



Once we got to school, we met his class and teachers in the cafeteria. It was a little excruciating to wait. Fortunately, one of Scottie's friends took over his class for a few minutes so he could spend a few minutes with us.


I wasn't sure if we'd be able to accompany the kids to the classroom that first day, but nope, they left us in the cafeteria. Elijah lined up with his class, and walked in line down the hall to his new classroom and new life. I cried. I even feel a little tightening in my chest right now as I type this. It was a very emotional day. I was full of mixed emotions. On the one hand, I was excited for him. But, I was also sad that Keira and I would miss him, now more than ever since we really seemed to have hit our stride together. Also, Elijah was only ever lukewarm about preschool and I was hoping that he'd like Kindergarten and school, since school is such a big part of a child's life. But, I was also looking forward to spending more quality time with my girl.


When we got home we spent a long time enjoying our rocking chair front porch, rocking in the chairs and reading a giant pile of books while she snuggled on my lap.

Paint and Glitter

Imagine It inspired us to pull out the paint and glitter on the weekend before Elijah started Kindergarten. As I said in my last post, Keira was absolutely enamored with painting, so I definitely wanted to give it a shot at home. While Keira painted, Elijah experimented with glitter. Eventually, he tried his hand at some painting, too.





I savored my last week with both kids and we had a magical time. I was feeling conflicted about Elijah starting Kindergarten. On the one hand, I was excited for him. As I told him, I LOVED elementary school. But, also, I felt like I had finally gotten the hand of being home with both of them. That week we swam at the pool, played and read for hours in the house and obviously painted and played with glitter, too. I even attempted a solo trip to Atlanta with both kids. We went to Trader Joe's. And, surprisingly it went off without a hitch. Elijah was extremely helpful. He held, read, and crossed off the shopping list for me. I was worry about the logistics of the long drive and the long shopping trip. We don't go to Trader Joe's very often and when we do, we STOCK UP. I told Elijah he had the choice of sitting in the back of the shopping cart with groceries piled around and on top of him or walking. He chose the cart and we laughed our way through the store while his pile grew bigger and bigger. He was such a big help.

Imagine It

On the last weekend before Daddy went back to work I wanted to do something special. We decided to visit Imagine It again. We had a great day. Interestingly, Scott and I thought the museum was a little run down and worse for the wear (possibly related to the economy), but the kids didn't care. They had an absolute ball. Keira had a blast running around and exploring everything as it was her first visit. She enjoyed playing with it all including the moon sand and the kitchen.



But, Keira's overwhelming favorite was the painting wall. I'm almost a little embarrassed to say that she'd never painted before. We'd done lots of coloring with crayons and markers, but never paint. She loved it! We went back multiple times to that area where she would carefully, and with alert concentration, paint with one color then the next. She outstayed most of the kids each time and had to go up several times to refill her palette. I loved watching her rapt attention and careful technique. Elijah visited his sister at her favorite spot and did a little painting of his own. I love watching him paint and draw now -- he seems very interested in depicting something now, rather than just playing with color. Fortunately, it seems Elijah got Scott's gift of realistic depiction, I was never very good at that.




As in the past, Elijah's favorite destination was probably the ball machine. He spent most of his time refilling the ball machine and watching where they came out. This trip he seemed to have a much more sophisticated understanding of the different routes and how to interact with the machine in different ways. Yet, he also enjoyed the store and playing an intricate game with the cash register and scales. I got the best Elijah smiles of the day from a little milk display. It was a wall mounted center that showed the process milk takes from the cow to the store. At the end, it burst out in song "I love Milk!" To Elijah's amusement it was based on one of our favorite Kid's Place Live Songs.




One of Elijah's favorite parts of visiting Imagine It is playing at the park across the street. Even though it was HOT, we crossed the street for a snack and a quick play time.




Both kids crashed out in the car on the way home. They'd earned their full day of play.

Second Lake House Trip, Part I -- Elijah The Water Warrior

Elijah has improved leaps and bounds in the water this summer and the second lake house trip was no exception. First, once again, he got to drive Babo's boat. As you can see from the pictures, there were times that Babo wasn't even helping. Crazy!




Elijah also went out on the Jet ski again. The impressive thing for me was that he went out with someone besides me or Scottie. At first, he was a little nervous/excited to go out with Babo, but very quickly he couldn't get enough. Babo was laughing about it when they got back, saying that Eli kept telling him to go faster and chase the wake so they could hit the big bumps. One time, they were almost swallowed by a huge wave, but Elijah, showing what a big boy he's become just shook it off!



Another amazing thing that Elijah did in the water on this trip was go on his first ride on the tube behind the boat. Once again, Babo was a huge help, as Keira was in no shape to let me tube with Eli. Babo offered to ride with Elijah and Eli accepted. I was amazed. He had a blast. Like the jet ski, he couldn't get enough, and he wanted to go over and over again. On a side note, it was a little trippy to watch Elijah and Babo on the tube from the boat. The tube is pulled far enough away from the boat that it almost looked like Babo and Uncle Brian as a little boy instead.



Finally, Elijah surprised me once more on this trip by swimming off the boat in the middle of the lake. He'd only ever swam in the swimming area before, and he'd had not interest in swimming in the middle of the lake. But, this trip, almost immediately he went in the water with Babo, Roz, Katrina and MacKenzie. Eventually, he even got brave enough to let go of Babo and swim by himself.

Second Lake House Trip, Part I -- Lots of Help!

On July 8, Keira, Elijah and I drove up to the Lake House to spend the week with Grammie, Babo, Aunt Roz, Katrina and MacKenzie. Scottie stayed at home to frantically finish up his Master's classes. I was a little concerned heading up to the Lake House with the kids by myself. But, amazingly, everything went off without a hitch. The ride up to the Lake House was even successful. And, once we arrived, I realized how I had underestimated the help that I would get from the family. They were wonderful! Thinking about going to the Lake House without Scottie I had imagined would be work. I didn't imagine it would be very relaxing or vacation like, but, fortunately I was very wrong. In some ways, it was the most relaxing vacation I've had in a while. Which was amazing, considering I was husbandless. The first surprise was how famously my kids and the girls got along. Elijah was immediately enamored with both girls and told them within the first two days that he loved them. In many ways, the girls were the reason that I was able to relax. For most of the week, the kids were off playing together. The girls were like two enthusiastic and free babysitters. It was fabulous. And, it was so fun to watch them all interact.
Not only were the girls helpful, but all the adults were extremely helpful, too. Everyone was aware that I was a single parent of two small children for the week so everyone offered to pitch in whenever possible. It was very sweet and extremely helpful. Specifically, schlepping everything down to the waterfront and back was always a little tricky, and most of the times someone helped. Often, Grammie grabbed one grand baby to take up to the house dry off and changed while I wrangled the other one. So nice.