LOL.

An accomplishmant from June. So, proud of the little guy. At kindergarten graduation, with 8 adults on stage, over a hundred little kids, he was not only the only one to not just get on the stage from the wrong side, but he remained blissfully unaware despite the counter urgings of all the adults as he crossed over to get his certificate. If you are going to be in the 1%: own it.

Seems worth mentioning as I'm sure it will remain in family lore and be retold to all future dates he may have.

I didn't buy the rainforest one, but I thought about it! I did get a few other M&D 48 pc puzzles for Christmas. A princess one, horse one, and another 24 pc. We work on a 24 pc M&D one with safari animals right now. She's very good with picking patterns that match, but not as good at figuring out where they go right away. With a little guidance from me she often gets it and can pick the next piece out.

She is finally starting to talk more! She tries to name all the letters now. Before she would (could?) only sign them.

This is a true, unadulterated brag.

I took my three year old to a store that sells swtiches and capacitors and stuff. You know the type, shelves full of dusty. narrow boxes with labels like "mystery logic" and "broken stuff with parts." We went to get a magnet and some lightbulbs (because I, acting like Red Green or somewho, blew his with a bigger battery).

DH and the younger one were a little worried about us when we got back out the door 1.5 hours later. I honestly had no idea we'd been in there so long.

My three year old enjoys spending 1.5 hours compairing switches, examining miniature drill bits, and trying to find an excuse for buying engine parts. (He is going to build a viking ship with a triangular sail, electric motor, and fighters on it, apparently... next year when he's an adult)

He's... just... so... awesome.


Edited to add: So is the store; the clerk understood every word he said. That never happens. They talked about the Mars rover, and the viking ship, and building a marble sorter out of cardboard.

I pulled out the addition flashcards I had made two years earlier for my older boy. My younger one just started second grade. They are things like 8+9 = 17 or 5+ 7 = 12. He knows them all cold, even though we never did them formally! I'll check subtraction next week, but he probably knows them.
My older boy has a processing disorder learning disability, so we did flashcards (addition, subtraction, etc.) almost daily with him for 2 years. He now knows them cold too but it was a big time commitment.
My little one also knew all 500 second grade words the teacher gave us at back to school night, as words they should know by the end of second grade.

Tonight DD9 says to me "I think I should go to bed at 8:30 tonight instead of 9:00. I was really tired this morning, and you know how long it takes me to fall asleep. Actually, you know what? Maybe I should go to bed at 8:00. If I do, can you wake me up at 6:00 so that I'm wide awake for school?" (which starts at 8:47)

Wow. Can you say "executive function development" ?

(you'd have to know both my erratic, impulse-driven kids to understand how freaking AMAZING this is)

Yesterday in school my 6 year old informed her 1st grade teacher that tongue twisters are alliterations.

Funny: DD4 likes old Roger Miller novelty songs, so the other day as I was getting her out of the car, I sang the lyric, "You can't go fishin' in a watermelon patch..." after which she responded, "Actually, Daddy, you can if you're fishing for watermelons."

DD7 had her first soccer game of the new season, with a new team. She scored the first goal of the year, and assisted on two others. She had one more goal taken away by a teammate, when she broke out on a clean breakaway, her teammate ran her down and stole it from behind her, then stumbled and lost the ball.

You can still see her being ever-so-careful in tight quarters, because she doesn't want to cause anyone to get hurt, but it's a huge improvement from this same time last year, when she was so careful she might as well have been a spectator.

my first time posting on the Brag thread! ... not sure if this is anything to brag about or not? Just realized my DS2.5 can do pattern block puzzles? I never showed him ... he got seriously attached to DS4's Leappad two weeks ago and hasn't let it go since and in those two weeks has learned how to play all the games and read the books, etc. ... and just now I overheard the UmiZoomi game telling him "congratulations! you fixed 7 toys!" ... and I look over and see him working on pattern block puzzles! lol ... I love it when they figure stuff on their own! On one hand our biggest problem is that both boys are so self-directed ... but that's just what makes them be the person they are!