Fast times and wild living with (the former) Baby Whozit…
Posted in Jessica, Second Grader, Simon says... on Jul 8th, 2015
I know I’ve blogged about the nightly Dolphie theatrics before. Or at least I’ve written about how Simon has been role-playing with Dolphie for some time. A little over a year ago, Dirty Dog and Dirty Dog’s twin were upstaged by a little rainbow stuffed dolphin who became Simon’s surrogate sibling. Well let me tell […]
Posted in Jessica, Second Grader, Simon says... on Jun 28th, 2015
To date, all of Simon’s summer camps from 2010 or so to the present have focused on things I knew he liked: nature, animals, tennis, soccer. This year also has a soccer and nature focus, with Simon going off to Jefferson Memorial Forest two weeks ago and spending two weeks hence in soccer clinics. Then […]
Posted in Jessica, Second Grader on Jun 14th, 2015
After a busy spring of Community Relations Council activity, PTA events, legal maneuvering with my neighbor, a property value assessment appeal, and soccer, I am back behind the keyboard with time to think and write about things. Of the many possibilities, I think I’ll begin with soccer because it’s a big part of our life […]
Posted in Jessica, Second Grader on Apr 27th, 2015
All signs point to Simon not being a little boy any more. I think he’s just a boy without qualification, and “young man” is within sights. How can I tell? Let me count the ways: He’s starting to make his own food. He’s showering with no assistance at all. He’s doing things like homework without […]
Posted in Jessica, Second Grader on Apr 22nd, 2015
Wow, long time no write! Not here anyway. Everything has either been much the same as ever or knee-deep in minor emergencies; hence either nothing to write about or no time to write about anything. But here’s a little ditty to jump-start the habit again. Last week was Simon’s half birthday. This was a big […]
Posted in Jessica, Second Grader on Mar 17th, 2015
Naive though he still may be, Simon is learning the gentle art of white lies in the promotion and defense of self interest. Simon used to be so timid that he had a hard time standing up for himself, especially if the unwanted attention or action was physical. I used to worry that he would […]
Posted in Jessica, Second Grader on Mar 12th, 2015
She doesn’t know it yet, but my mother volunteered in Simon’s class yesterday. Or at least, a younger, shorter, darker version of her did. Those differences between the two of us aside, she surely would have recognized nearly every word that came out of my mouth. And that would be because today, for the first […]
Posted in Friends, Jessica, Second Grader on Feb 2nd, 2015
Not-so-rhetorical question: How old does a child have to be before it is OK to dislike him or her? Don’t get me wrong, there are 3-year-olds I dislike. It’s just that when a child is hard to like at age 3, you have to assume the child is unhappy, off-schedule, stressed, or a normal 3-year-old […]
Posted in Jessica, Second Grader on Jan 28th, 2015
Last night, Simon and I sat down to work on math word problems. He was supposed to to learn the following: How to use addition to solve a problem; How to use multiplication to solve a problem; How to combine the two in to solve a multi-step problem. Instead, he learned this: It’s hard to […]
Posted in Jessica, Second Grader on Jan 23rd, 2015
In a bit of irony that nearly drove me to tears, I got a note from Simon’s teacher last Wednesday that he has made a complete 180-degree turn in class. He is no longer shy, no longer hesitant to raise his hand out of fear of making a mistake, and is fully and fearlessly participating […]