Waiting and Questioning

I finally had another parent ask me if Ned would be skipping a grade next year. It was asked casually so I could answer with a casual “yeah” and an even more causal “not sure yet” when asked what grade he would be going to. I found it a bit freeing to finally answer the question to somebody, and also interesting to have the added “what grade,” because I don’t know that I would ever assume or guess that a kid was going to jump more than one grade if I wasn’t in my shoes. I know it is the first of many questions about it that we will get, and I hope that it is always as easy. Although we haven’t talked with Sam’s parents about it yet, so I’m guessing not.

We have our next meeting at school in a couple of weeks. It is officially his IEP meeting, although as I discussed with his teacher, it is going to be hard to write an IEP if we don’t have grade placement figured out, so I have to assume that there will have to be another meeting after this one. Ned seems more convinced then ever that 3^rd grade is the place for him. He really likes the teacher he is working with in 2^nd grade and she will be teaching 3^rd next year. He is also starting to make friends with more of the 2^nd graders. Yesterday at the park he was playing with a Kindergarten and a 2^nd grader. The 2^nd grader told me he was in his class and the Kindergartener chimed in that he was in his class too. Neither seemed bothered by this.

I sent in the application to an organization that helps parents of very smart kids. I don’t know if Ned will be accepted or not. Sam thinks he is a shoe in, but I’m just not so sure. So I wait. We should here by the end of the month. Unfortunately we will probably have to make a school decision before we get any advice from them, although the school is aware of the application so maybe we will stall any final decision. That might drive Ned nuts, which I understand, but I don’t think he grasps how hard a choice this is for everybody involved.

In other news, soccer season is in full swing and Ned is doing great. He moved up in age group, so he is now on the young side, although 7 of 9 on his team are his age. They are facing older and larger kids but they are 6 and 0, with a few hard fought victories. He loves to play and actually has some natural skill which often surprises me because Sam and I are not at all athletic.

8 Months

Mica is changing everyday. He is such a different kid from his big brother. He is exploring so much with his hands, he likes to touch and manipulate everything. He is sick right now (dang croup) but he is on the mend and I see short moments of glitter in his eye alternated with lots of cuddle time. He has added dada to his vocabulary and lots of other babble sounds. He loves to clap and wave. He does this odd hand out/reach/wave thing a lot. He does it when he meets people but he also does it when he is looking at something. I’m not sure exactly what it’s purpose is yet. The major sucking face took a break while he didn’t feel well but that has returned a bit for good and for bad. He is cruising more and more and I’m pretty sure it will only be a few weeks before he can circle the ottoman without any trouble. I think walking is still a bit off but he might surprise me. His top 2 teeth have broken through, so he now has 4 teeth. Oh and he has entered the stranger danger phase, I don’t recall Ned ever going through it but of course it is very normal at this age. It made Easter gatherings a bit hard because everybody just wanted to hold him but he just wanted me or Sam at least until he warmed up.