The end of the school year...for everyone

By the end of the week, Josh and Isaac will be out of school (no daycare over the summer). They leave for a one-week trip to Pittsburgh on Monday. In 5 weeks, I may be able to join their fun (at home). My defense is July 16th and my talk will be at 11am at Brandeis. Anyone who wants to come is welcome.

It's been a tough couple of months as Josh pushed to complete the final lessons and finish grading while I prepared my manuscript for press and organized old projects into thesis-ready chapters/appendices. Through all this, Isaac has continued to grow, sing and change.

One of the big change-instigators was that we set-up a toddler bed in Isaac's room. Instantly, he fell in love with his "big-boy bed"and wanted to play in his room all the time. Since we set up the bed, we have struggled with more wake-ups than the crib and don't know always how to handle Isaac requesting to get out of his room, "Please, open the door. Pleezze, open the door!" He also now wakes up about an hour earlier (around 5am) with, "I want Mommy! Open the door!" I just bought a new daytime/nighttime clock that uses a bunny light on a timer to teach when morning should start. I'm optimistic, but not holding my breath that it will work.

Isaac has also become much more of a climber (inside and out). When we go to the playground, he used to prefer to passively sit in the swing. Now it's all about finding bars for him to hang from. He's pretty good at holding on, but I admit I have small heart attacks when he climbs this one particular structure at Victory Fields that's meant for a much older child (my imagination flashes images of his head hitting a bar on the way down or falling from the top). He still is kind of clumsy and doesn't always look where he's going or what he could hit/be hit by--body awareness--that can be frustrating to watch. Last night, we were walking by a basketball game and he was watching it instead of the ground and missed a small hole. Needless to say, he fell over and scraped up his knees.

Last story--the other morning, Josh and I were lounging around while Isaac was reading to himself (an absolute favorite pastime) when all of a sudden he starts singing, "A, B, C, D..." and you will not believe it, but he sang the ENTIRE song. Yes, "L, M, N, O, P" sounded like, "elm, no, pee"but Josh and I were startled. When we tried to sing along, he scolded us saying, "no touching!"--his go-to command to stop talking, touching, singing or interacting with him. So, I guess it will just solos for Isaac right now!

So that's my catch-up. As you can see, Isaac is talking a ton and has plenty of opinions. I just bought the Pierre book because it is a childhood favorite and Isaac loves it. It just reminds me, that's never been a problem for my guy: he CARES!