1st year down

This week marked Grant's last day of preschool for the school year. At the end-of-the-year party, Grant was sprinkled with the much anticipated "magic glitter" which turned him from a 'younger' to an 'older'. He is ready to be one of the big kids on preschool campus next year and to be Miss Carrie's helper. 

He made good progress this year. He completed 100%+ on his last assessment: colors, letters/sounds, shapes, counting to 100, months, days of the week, his birthday, writing his name etc. Miss Carrie also gave him a little reading assessment and to my surprise, he sounded out a full page of words. It makes me laugh. We worked so hard with Grace to help her learn to read and write at this age. We haven't put nearly the same amount of work into it for poor Grant, but he is picking it all up anyway. He is one of three kids in his class that is making early reading progress, and Miss Carrie is really excited to help them along next year.  

Here he is playing a round of "Drip, Drop, Splash" (Duck, Duck, Goose AZ style).

For months, Grant looked forward to the annual field trip to the Phoenix Wildlife Zoo. It was on this field trip last year when Grace was in Miss Carrie's class that Grant fell in love with his future teacher on the log ride and decided that he might just like going to preschool. It was bittersweet for me. Last year, he was still so shy, still my little buddy glued to my side. This year he has become his own little guy, more confident, a class clown. 

 He was brave enough to feed the giraffes this year. Those long tongues make me a little jumpy too. No telling what they might do...

And, of course, the log ride with Miss Carrie. He loves the picture below, "Look how big I am smiling, Mom!"

     

Some other things about Grant lately: He can be quite the fastidious cleaner, when he wants to be. Though I have to constantly remind him to pick up his clothes, toys, and dishes, he is very good about helping me on our cleaning days. My love for clorox wipes seems to be rubbing off. I can get him to rub anything down. The other day, I caught him scrubbing his favorite star wars shoes.

He is our official car DJ. We can play songs off my phone through the car's bluetooth connection. He will sift through the album art and select songs for everyone in the car. Whenever I play a new song that he likes, he will ask to see the album picture and makes a mental note of the music that is surrounding it so he will be able to find it later. It is always so cute to me to listen to his selections. He really pays attention to the songs that people like best.

A couple of cute things he has said lately:

• "Mom, I may have to give you some of my money. This is the best dinner ever!"
• "This is kinda the most fun day. Don't worry, mom, I'm having fun." (Spoken over a quesadilla that was shared at a Dell Taco in a chunk of town I was not familiar with, but in which we were stuck when my car battery died and I couldn't get him to school.)
• "Will you give me a face/leg/back/foot mashage (massage)?" (Question that makes its appearance every night during family scripture time. All three kiddos will line up like a crescent of sun rays with their feet in my lap and I will rub legs while Cori reads. Keeps them quiet :) Grant is always the instigator.)