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The other night, I was snuggling with Elliott before bedtime. He likes to have all the lights turned off, no singing, and just snuggle in silence. He sometimes says to me, “Don’t talk,” but other times, we will chat and it’s often when he drops some of his best pearls.

I asked him, “Remind me, what do you want to be when you grow up.” Sometimes, he’ll say paleontologist, but i think it is just to appease adults who ask. He seems acutely aware that he does not really know and his answer will change.

So he said, “I do t know.” To which I responded, “I don’t know what I want to be when I grow up either.”

“But Dad, you alweady grown up!”

“Yeah, buddy, I guess you’re right.”

“So you…you a nothing!” Haha. He laughs and finds this quite amusing. Then he gets serious.

“It’s ok. I understand. I a nothing, too.”

“What do you mean, E?”

“Well, I just a kid. So I not know what I want to be.”

“Yeah, that’s true. But you’re just four years old so you’ve got some time to figure it out. No one really expects a kid to know what he wants to do.”

We lay there in silence for a bit. “Well…you are my Dad.” It was dark, but it sounded like he said it with little smile.”

“Yeah, buddy. And that’s probably the most important think I can ever be.”

Snuggling resumes. And both of us feel a little better with our place in life.  🙂

natalie had her third receital. We are lucky that both grandmas could come in. She had two numbers with her class, a daddy daughter dance where she and Jordan were front and center, and was chosen to read! So many people ask her – are you nervous? Answer is No. this confident girl is well prepared and loves the limelight.

The 2018 pre-kindergarten pictures are in!   Hooray!  I’m not going to brag and say that he is the cutest kid in the school.  But I will factually state…he has to be the cutest kid in the school.  Just look at that boy!

And here’s a new Elliott-ism for the blog.  We were at the airport last week and going down an elevator under the runway.  I told him that we were entering the core of the earth.  I was expecting a reaction like “No!” or maybe some feigned fear.  His only response?

Which one?  The inner or the outer core?

At bedtime elliott wanted to copy me. I ran out of things to say so I did my Holyoke stem academy pitch to Funders. (We are opening a. New science, technology, engineering and mathematics middle school.). He repeated everything I said including our students being passionate learners, effective communicators and resilient problem solvers. At the end he said- I will give you $2. That’s all my money.

Only $99,998 to go!

pS here’s an article tangentially related to this Work

http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/next_gen_learning/2018/04/from_problem_to_prototype_the_story_of_a_weekend.html

artwork on display at KiddliWinks!!!

Nat was scared after a show so guess where I found her tonight? In her little bros spare bed. With the light on.  May they always love each other this much

Natalie loving on her Daddy…

Happy Birthday to the sweetest boy -who has been counting down to his birthday since early january. More text to come later but here are some pics!

Elliott’s parent-teacher conference isn’t for another few weeks, but I’ve been so impressed with him lately!  Tonight, we were reading an Arthur book about a Spellathon, and he confidently said he’d win his spellathon at his school because he knows how to spell out the words.  I asked him DOG and CAT, and he got both right on the first try!  We tried BIG and BED next – some trouble with the short vowel sounds, but he did great with the consonants.

Even more impressively, this was a conversation the other day….

Elliott: “Mom, did you know that 10, one time is 10.  10 two times is 20.  10 three times in 30.  10 four times is 40.  10 five times is 50.  10 six times is 60.  10 seven times is 70.  10 eight times is 80.  10 nine times is 90.  and 10 ten times is 100.”

Me: “Whoa, bud, that is amazing.  How do you know that?”

Elliott: “Its easy peasy.  I can just figure it out in my head.  And, do you know that five four times is 20?”

Now, to be fair, he struggled today when Auntie Becky – a math teacher – quizzed him on two different ways to make 10.  So, we’ll work on that next.  But, what’s best, is he seems to like learning and is proud of his learning.  He’s also learned so many letters and improved his writing so much this year.  I cannot believe my baby is really getting kindergarten ready!