Summertime!

I've been terrible about posting...

Little Miss survived the tonsillectomy. We found out she's allergic to hydrocodone (so is mommy - VERY glad they heeded my warning on the morphine that almost killed me!). Other than that, her recovery was amazing. She had no pain until 7 days out, when the scabs 'slough' (ick). But after that one day, perfection. She was ecstatic to get the all-clear for popcorn :) Turns out, kids CAN get sick of ice cream!

We did get lots of snuggles and mommy-daughter time, so, as it turns out, it was good for us both ;) . Little man learned that he wasn't the end-all-be-all all the time, and it's carried over nicely, so she doesn't feel shoved to the side. All in all, I am impressed with the entire thing. 

Little Man is doing great. Language (as always over summer...) he's making huge gains. He's reading some more, we work on it... He is SO. CLOSE. He knows sounds. He can draw them out long. I just cannot get the blending to work! Keep on keepin' on... We're working on place value, just started on that. Not sure where we stand yet, but he gets math, so I expect it to go better than reading (haha, remind me of that later...). Mostly, though, I've been enjoying the conversations. He likes to know what we're doing. What we're thinking. At bedtime, he'll call one of us into his room, "Mom/Dad, I wanna talk to you about somethin'." So. Precious. I cannot explain how cool it is to hear how he feels about things, his opinions, his perceptions, his reality. It is too cool to finally get the 'why'.

Small example: he had been chewing on shirts. So I asked him why. He simply responded, "I need something to chew on." I asked him if he wanted me to buy him a necklace to chew on, or another chewy. He said "necklace". He sat down and helped me pick out a chewy necklace. Now he will go get his necklace if he needs it, or one of the flexible headbands (just the rubber Goody ones) that he likes to chew, or ask me to find it, if he needs it. He will tell me, "I need to chew", and he will use the necklace or headband. It amazes me that he knows he needs it, knows what is appropriate to use, and wants to use the appropriate tool (rather than get his shirt wet, which he says 'people will make fun of me' - he's embarrassed!). It's all pretty remarkable to me... He is definitely an amazing kid.