Success!

I am very relieved to report that Dylan had a terrific first day of school! He's been complaining about school for weeks and I was so happy to see him get off the bus with a huge smile on his face. He was happy, energetic and confident. It was great. He says that "Second grade is a lot funner than first". Of course once homework starts he my feel differently. For the past two years he had SO much homework, it was ridiculous! His teacher gave out a packet of info and in it she states that 'her goal is to make sure that homework is stress free for you and your child'. Let's hope so! She emailed me within an hour of school ending to give me a positive report. I'm very happy that she is communicating via email.

Cameron missed Dylan today. As soon as Dylan got home Cameron ran upstairs and came back down a few minutes later with a ziplock bag full of pretzels and a cup of ice water for Dylan to have as a snack. It was cute. Dylan felt super special.

Another good thing is that Dylan is actually calling his teacher by her name, Mrs. Pontius, when he's talking about her ...unlike kindergarten where he only referred to Mr. K as "boy teacher". :)

Today he had gym class. As Dylan was talking about his gym teacher he said 'he'. I said "Oh, did you get a new gym teacher?" He said "No." I said "Well, I thought your gym teacher last year was a girl." Dylan said "Oh yeah, I forgot." I asked "It's the girl teacher who looks like a boy?" He said "Yes". It was hard to keep from laughing. Not sure if you remember, but Dylan thought he had a male gym teacher for 1/2 the school year because "she" was so manly... just envision a stereotypical female gym teacher. She looks so much like a guy that Dylan forgot she was a girl and assumed once again that she was a he. Creepy.

He was also SO excited that he could eat his dessert first (before his healthy food) at lunchtime. FREEDOM! One day last year I had lunch with him and halfway through I realized what I was doing... "Don't wipe your hands on your shirt", "Not so much ketchup", "Aren't you going to finish that?" I stopped myself midway though and said "Sorry". I realized that it's his special time to eat HIS way. It's one of the small freedoms that kids have at this age. He was thrilled that he had his dessert first today.

I was told that they stopped teaching cursive writing, but I see that they are starting it already midway through 2nd grade.

Cameron is our little environmentalist. He doesn't eat meat and he wont let us kill even the smallest or nastiest bugs. When we went crabbing at the beach Chan said "Next time we'll have to bring a bucket so that we can keep them." Cam said "No, we should just let them go. I think they'd like to just be free and die on their own." Today there was a centipede downstairs and Cameron said "When dada gets home, can you make sure that he takes it outside and carefully lets it run free instead of killing it." He has such a sweet heart. He busts into tears if you swat a fly or step on an ant. The other day when his frog died he asked if the frog was in heaven with the red ant. I said "What red ant?" He said "Remember that day when we were at the cub scout store and Gabriel squished that red ant?"........ Yes, I remember. It was several months ago! He's still sad about it. When we asked him what he wants for his birthday he said "Whatever people want to get me. I like everything." He didn't have a long list of wants. I asked him what he wanted for his birthday theme and he said "Gabriel really likes dogs, so I want dogs. Or trains, Gabriel likes trains." He's always thinking of others and not himself. Today we were playing Candyland. He's always red (it's his favorite color). He said "Red is lucky. It always wins. Mama, I want you to be red because you never get to win." I said "That's ok honey. It's your favorite color, you be red." He said "No, I want you to have a chance to win.". Again, always thinking of others. :)