Brain explosion

This'll be quick, because I didn't get enough sleep last night, and I need to nap before going out for dinner with a friend tonight, but ...

Wilder's brain is exploding lately.

A little backstory: Yesterday, after we came home from school, I opened up Wilder's backpack to find his homework for over Thanksgiving week. They wanted us to work with our kids on writing stories. Essentially, they are to draw pictures from their days and then write a couple of sentences about it. I thought, "Hmmm, not sure he's ready for this. Should be interesting."

This morning, my niece Allie came over to watch the boys. When we got back, they were in our backyard. I went out to say hi and there was Wilder, writing a sentence on the sidewalk: "The big monster had wrath" — or, "The bing mostr had ratth." (The homework notes stressed that spelling is NOT important — what is important is that they are learning to express themselves and feel confidence in their abilities to tell a story ... as a writer myself, I love this.)

At any rate, I was very excited that he'd taken that initiative on his own w/o any input from Jer or I. He continued to think up words and spell them the way he thought they were spelled. He even wrote "Thanksgiving."

I know this is normal for kids ... it's just really so cool to experience your own kid doing it.

Just now we got home after a trip to the Butterfly Pavilion and after lunch the boys ran outside to play for a bit. Jerry went to check on them and then came and got me: "Kris, come see this picture Wilder is drawing."

For the first time, he drew a picture of a person complete with a head, a torso, two legs, two arms and feet. This is a first. And for a boy who just last week told me he couldn't draw a picture of a bee, this is pretty cool. His art teacher gave him very high marks on his report card, and I think he's getting a lot of confidence both from her and from school in general.

I should also mention that Hunter is writing all kinds of letters now and even spelling his own name. He never spells it correctly, but the point is he trying and his handwriting is amazingly legible for a 3-year-old.

I'm gonna go take some picture of all this and post later. I'm just being a proud mom. Indulge me :-)

The wily reframing of meaning

"Servant! ... SERVANT!!" This is Wilder, yelling like Ghengis Khan.

Silence.

"SSEERRVVAANNTT!"

Me: "Whose you're servant?"

Wilder: "You."

Me: "Um, no. Not on any level."

Wilder: "OK. Hunter, you're my servant!"

Hunter: "Nope. No I'm not."

Wilder, adopting a matter-of-factness quality in his voice: "Um, Hunter ... servant means you're a really good master."

Hunter: "Oh. OK. I'll be the servant."

Wilder, continuing his dictatorial tone: "SERVANT! COME HERE!"

A herky for W (figuratively ... I can't actually do herkies!)

A full week of two thumbs up. Wilder is hitting his kindergarten stride, and I couldn't be more proud. More bumps in the road will come, but for now, we're on smooth ground and we're feeling good about it.

Dear older Wilder: Never forget what a great kid you are. You consistently rise to the challenge. You listen and you make changes. You know you can be a leader and you're working toward that.

I love you, kiddo.

That's all.