6 Years

He's so much bigger than a toddler. We went to Annie and the Nutracker last month and he sings Tomorrow loud and off key, but with gusto. He's moved on from his obsession with coin collecting to an in depth study of the presidents. When they were born, died, their affiliated party, whether they were assassinated or died in office. He loved his new electric snap kit - and spend hours over the holidays following detailed instructions and making doorbells, and lamps, and even his own am radio on which we dutifully listened to the christian music every afternoon before it go dismantled to make something else. He plays dolls with Rosie - adopted her nicknames for all of them, bubbah and lala and last week insisted I make name tags for all of them with masking tape. He's still ever inquisitive - Annie resulted in hour long conversations about orphanages and the foster care system, Eric recently had to explain Watergate "I thought presidents always did the right things...?" and he often gets frustrated when he can't understand all of everything all the time.

"Crazy Hair Day" at school

He's so incredibly enthusiastic about school and has been so successful there and incredibly independent. he's reading and writing, and adores his teacher. told me this evening he wished he could have his birthday dinner "in san francscio at Ms. Bresnan's" house. He won't let us pack him a lunch, he adores the cafeteria food so much, tries and loves everything and helps himself to the salad bar - "I had cauliflower today mamma" He's made lots of new friends, wanted to invite the whole class to the birthday, especially some of the girls who he's enamoured with and plays games with on the playground. He literally skips into the school year every morning, running ahead of me and rosie. lots of school comes home and he spend the whole fall replicating everything that was going on in kindergarten at home - name charts, and word walls, and read alouds all happened with Rosie in our playroom. She also got drilled on her letters and numbers and didn't notice that she didn't perform all that well. He's a gentle big brother much of the time, they play together for hours in the morning - "leeky and flocky" their pretend names for each other. He's still fiercly jealous of her a lot of the time, and she learning to fight back yelling and hitting him when she's angry.

We had a banner birthday party. with treasure hunts and pinata's - he was off the wall excited, especially before it started.

he learned to ride his bike a few months ago. taking off around the school year yipping with joy.