Independent reading

Evan has taken a huge leap forward in reading. He’s reading by himself. I don’t mean he’s reading to us with no need for help as we listen. I mean by himself.

For example, he reads in bed after we’ve tucked him in and turned off the lights. He’ll turn the lights back on and read ahead to see what happens next in the chapter book we’re reading. (Of course we don’t condone this, but how mad can you get when he’s reading?!)

And yes! Chapter books! He’s not reading books to himself that have just a few words on the page and lots of context provided by the pictures. He’s reading books that only have pictures every few pages!

Does he know what every word on the page is? I’m sure he doesn’t, and I don’t think it matters at all. The more he does it, the more words he’ll get.

We’re really proud of him!

I’m also relieved to report that the motion sickness he would get when looking at a page or screen in a moving vehicle when he was younger no longer seems to be an issue. He read an entire Magic Treehouse book in the car the other day (in about an hour of unbroken reading!)

My run today

I just had to go out for a run today. So warm and nice. Unfortunately, I left the iPod at home. “I will use this as a chance to experience nature!” I thought. So I trotted off down a trail that leads into the woods (watershed land maintained by the town of Norton). At first, I was psyched… it actually feels really remote along that trail; hardly anyone travels it. “Perfect!” I thought, “I am all alone and no one knows where I am.” Then I almost ran into a guy ambling along with no shirt on and beat up shoes… and as I approached him I thought, “Wait a minute! I am all alone and no one knows where I am!” Turns out the guys was pretty friendly… waved and smiled as I whizzed by, and I felt foolish for having that moment of panic.

When I got back, I spent a short amount of time with Google maps to see if I could figure out where I was. I was surprised at how quickly and easily I could not only look at the area I was in, but also draw a line of what I thought my running route was. I think I can even link to it. Try clicking this. What also surprised me was how something I can feel remote when I’m in the midst of a place, but when I looked at the Google satellite view… well it is really apparent that I was smack dab in the middle of civilization.

Bits and pieces

Evan had a dentist appointment today. It’s clear that braces are in his future! He’s lost two teeth so far, and the tooth growing in to replace the most recent lost tooth is coming in behind his other teeth. It’s looking crowded in there! His first adult tooth is also coming in with a soft brown spot (the dentist did not say the word, but I heard “cavity”) that will need some “bonding material” when the tooth has come in all the way. It’s not the result of poor brushing, but more likely he hit his tooth on something while it was still below the gum.

Yesterday, the first grade went to Sheep Pasture, a farm/protected land area here in town. There, they visited with sheep and chickens and learned about farm animals. Evan came home with a wool bracelet wrapped around his wrist!

Scott’s been away more than here, this month. First he was in San Francisco, then Lexington, Virginia. Life’s tough, huh? Evan and I stayed here in chilly Easton and snuck in a “breakfast for dinner” night. Scott doesn’t like to do this, but Evan and I love it. We had bacon and eggs . . . mmmmm!

Evan’s getting some great coaching in baseball this year. The games don’t start until next month, but we’ve been having evening practices. Unfortunately for the parents, who are not running around, the warm days we’ve had haven’t been practice days. Practice day, so far, has meant “evening temperatures in the high thirties.”

Evan’s last Sunday school class was last Sunday, and they had a little award ceremony for all the grades & classes. He was named as the best behaved in his class! And he got an award for being the first grade “outstanding student” for making good contributions to class. We’re proud of him! He had 3 different teachers over the course of the year, so he’s a real trouper.

We also just saw his first grade teacher for parent-teacher conferences. She had some very nice things to say about him. He’s above grade level in reading, for example, and reads with great expression. She also said he grasps concepts very well, and often helps her out by translating them into “kid language” to help the other kids understand.

Our cat Eponine has been losing weight, and we took her to the vet. It turns out that she’s got kidney problems. It can’t be cured, but we’re just taking care of her symptoms and babying her. Other than the weight loss, she seems perfectly well–playful and loving.
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Baseball schedule

Evan is on a baseball team again this spring and would love to have some fans come to cheer him on! His schedule is below; if anyone wants to come to a game, let us know and we’ll give directions to the field.

5/2 – 5:30

5/3 – 3:00

5/6 – 5:30

5/10 – 3:00

5/15 – 5:30

5/17 – 1:00

5/24 – 1:00

5/26 – 5:30

5/31 – 9:00

6/2 – 5:30

6/9 – 5:30

6/11 -5:30

First Trip to a Movie Theater

Yesterday, Evan saw a movie in a theater for the first time!

Many of you know that this is a big deal for him, since movies agitate his empathetic heart pretty severely. He resists watching them, and we hadn’t been in a rush to have him faced with one on the big screen.

But lately he’s been reacting better to movies, and I kept hearing that Horton Hears a Who was great, so we suggested seeing it in the theater, and he was game. In the company of Mom, Dad, his cousins Andy and Emily, and his Uncle Adam, he went, he saw, he giggled! Bits here and there were a little distressing, but he gave a big thumbs up to the whole experience. He even enjoyed the previews!

Museum Trips

Last week, Evan had his February vacation.

For 3 days, he went to Maplewood, where he currently does gymnastics one afternoon a week and where he’ll be attending day camp this summer. Going to Maplewood is fun for him, since he gets to play games, see magic shows, attend live animal presentations, learn to make balloon animals, use the climbing wall, and so on. We kept asking him if we could come, too, but he didn’t think the director and counselors would go for it.

On Monday, Friday, and Sunday, he had museum trips with Mom and Dad. Monday, we went to the Children’s Museum. It was a rainy holiday, so it was a bit crowded, not as bad as we feared. This was Evan’s first visit since they replaced the old climbing structure with a new one, and he loved it! We returned to that several times. Friday, we went to the Museum of Science, where Evan enjoyed showing us some of the things he’d seen with Grandma and Grandpa Daryl, and then exploring more exhibits.  The place is huge! We were there 7 hours and still didn’t see it all. We’ll definitely be going back.  Then on Sunday, we went to the Harvard Museum of Natural History. In addition to the famous glass flowers, we saw lots of fossils, insects, stuffed animals, and minerals and gems.

And now we’ve had our fill of museums for a little while. Come on, spring! We want to be outdoors!

A first!

Evan lost his first tooth today! Wonder if the tooth fairy will come!

Christmas–Snow–Maplewood–School

Christmas!

I got the Wii for Christmas from my mom and dad. A Wii is a type of game that games can go on it, like Wii Sports, Star Wars Lego, and other Wii games. I also got this really cool Playmobil set. Actually, two. One was a tree house thing. One was a vehicle. I got a lot of Matchboxes and Hot Wheels and some awesome tracks for them from Santa and a lot of other people. I got a ton of Webkinz from Santa, too.

Snow!

We built a snowman, “iceman” and I built a baby snowman, “baby iceman” and a snow dinosaur, the “tyrannasnowus rex,” or for short, “snow rex.” I also made a mouse or a dog or a cat. That’s it about snow.

Maplewood!

I go to Maplewood starting a few weeks ago. It is fun. I do games. I do fun running games in the gym. I go in the afternoon on Thursdays. The bus ride is very noisy. We just switched buses.

School!

We watched a movie and we are learning about the poles on the earth. I am going to get report cards soon. I’m going to Hannaford’s for a school field trip. Hannaford’s is a grocery store. We are going there to learn about healthy stuff that you can eat. I like to eat pears and apples and watermelon.

Well, that’s the blog today! See ya!

Happy Turkey Day!

Hope everyone is having a safe and enjoyable holiday!

Oh and by the way, I just added a bunch of pics to Flickr. They haven’t been described yet, but feel free to take a look! Don’t forget to sign in! There are a ton of private pictures.

New car!

We have a new car! Last Tuesday, we picked up our charcoal gray 2008 Toyota Matrix. My car, which it replaces, had 120 thousand miles on it, and our garage estimated it needed repairs totalling 3 to 4 thousand dollars. It was time.

We’re thrilled to have a new car, and thrilled that the car-buying process is over. It was endless. But worth it: Scott is a terrific negotiator, and got the price down further than you’d think possible. And then they didn’t have the color we really wanted (red) so he got the price down even more! (We got the distinct impression that they did not like us at the dealership, and couldn’t wait for the deal to be over. Right back atcha, guys!) We did our homework, researching prices, and Scott did the talking, and we ended up paying far less than people in this area usually do on this model.

I insisted on side curtain airbags. Since these don’t come standard, we couldn’t get the base model. Consequently, we have some bells and whistles on this car, such as a sunroof.

The Matrix is replacing my car, but unless we need the cargo space of Scott’s Outback, it’ll be the car we take as a family, so many of you will see it soon!