My boys at year's end...

Spencer is terribly sweet. He is cuddly and kind, tender hearted and meek. He has developed an obsession with trains. He is still learning his letters, but can do most anything with his hands. And is far more assertive than his brother.

Spence enjoys the little things in life: the itsy bitsy spider he finds on a walk, the beam of light from his flashlight on his bedroom wall, his pink silk "wooby" that he totes everywhere. . .Spencer never meets a stranger and has a knack at bringing out the best in everyone he meets.

At nearly three, he needs speech therapy. We are hoping that his adult teeth prove more straight than his baby set. But alas, we fear braces are in his future. Hopefully, that will be the sum of his teen problems.

Edmund is officially starting school in the fall. We are looking at Webb School of Knoxville. This means that we have spent most of this fall thinking about finances, references and a lot of soul searching. He is still terribly shy, still totes Bunny everywhere, still has sensory issues...

He is also incredibly stubborn and mischievous. The social skills need A LOT of work. And, Edmund loves to challenge authority- especially his parent's authority. He seems to do alright in other settings as long as strong boundaries and structure are in place.

Edmund loves all things scientific: weather systems complete with Doppler, the electric circuit board he got for his birthday, model rockets that blast off (he can assemble simple ones himself now), anything having to do with NASA, model airplanes and remote control helicopters. (The little guy wants to become a pilot one day.) Edmund has requested a crane and a better microscope for Christmas so that he can "see small stuff on my computer".

He also loves golf and riding horses. His lessons with General have been a highlight of his year and have only strengthened his desire to play polo when he gets older. Sigh, I was hoping he would grow out of that one... A guy at the yacht club let him drive the committee boat and now he is all gong ho about trying to sail. At least that won't cost us any extra.

Both boys try to play violin. Edmund has a 1/16Th. Spencer has a 1/32Th. Both boys are pretty awful. At this rate, it will take us several more years to get through Susuki Book1. Edmund has no sense of rhythm whatsoever! Oh well, I suppose this is a golden opportunity to praise the effort put into the work rather than the outcome.

Finally, both children seem to enjoy Awana on Wednesday nights and Classical Conversations on Mondays were they can play with other kiddos. This has been a rough year of transition for all of us. It is nice to see the boys emerging from all of the family drama reasonably unscathed.

Firsts

We had two firsts yesterday.

Edmund did his first load of laundry. He sorted out all of the light colors. Then, he gingerly climbed a step with his booty. Triumphant, Edmund loaded the washing machine and measured out the detergent. My son selected the warm water setting, turning the knob to the heavy wash setting. Finally, the preschooler started the machine.

When the wash was done, Edmund placed the wet clothes in the dryer. Hurray! Can you say one less chore? By the end of summer, I should be able to let him wash his and Spencer's own clothes. That's one more step toward Mommy Independence.

The second first that Edmund had yesterday was with his telescope. I usually set it up for him to see large objects. But, last night, he got the telescope out and set it up on the front stoop without help. Then, he carefully aligned the sights, adjusted the lenses, and re-aligned.

I thought that he was just playing around; but when he called me to check it out, he had focused on a very good image of a ring shaped galaxy. Excited, Edmund proceeded to tell me that he didn't need his star chart. Sigh, OK. We did a happy astronomy dance in the moonlight at his newest discovery.