Wednesday, November 24, 2010

"...my own little sign..."

Nathan is quite a good reader these days and while it seems crazy that he can read most anything on his bookshelf by himself, I witnessed the progress each step of the way. It's been sort of fantastic. The writing has come on much more suddenly, perhaps because he lacked the fine motor skills previously, but he's getting there. He practices by writing signs and notes for every occasion. His spelling and grammar is amazingly accurate. These are a few recent notes we've gotten:


"thanks for playing with me"

"I read the red the little red hen today is non ficshin"

"Mommy Im wateing for you to print it"

"I have a surprise for you"


Recently he became annoyed with us and he promptly stomped into his room, shut the door, only to reappear moments later to post a sign on his door that read:

"don't come in here"

Requests to watch television or use my computer are incessant and now come in written format as well:

"Can I watch tv I am done with my bike. Love, Nate" (Watch?? Maybe Shaun helped with that one, I'm not sure.)

I suspect there was a Veteran's Day prompt at school for this one, but I still love it:


"I am thankful for my Grandpa soldier"
If you receive an emotive email from me, it may be that my five year old has broken into my email account and feels the need to express himself. Yes, and he knew exactly what he was doing. Somehow, this frightens me. Must password protect my account.

Since the conclusion of his acting class, he has started writing a play about "women going to jail for speeding and making kids fall out of the car on purpose." Hmmm... Also there is a scene about leaves falling and monsters turning children into hammers to pound on the trees, making the leaves fall--a regular nightmare. And then there was this, I sorta prefer it over children falling out of cars. (I give it to you verbatim as I found it on my printer.)

YOUYOUYOUYOUYOU
You are...You are the earth.
I can see you are the best.
Chesty is too and family.
we....we love our cats.
The leaves are falling down on Silly hats and birds
the leaves are falling down.

Saturday, November 20, 2010

Parents Are People, Too!

Written and directed by Jill Costanzo

These kids put on a heck of a show, and had a good time too!

Parents Are People, Too! from David Newman on Vimeo.

Monday, November 1, 2010

Scary Arrived 2010

This was our most fun Halloween ever! It was the first year Nate was even remotely into the scary aspect of the day; in the past he wasn't too keen on even going into the Halloween costume stores, this year, he couldn't get enough. He contemplated the costumes, tried on all the masks, and eventually had to be pried away from a display involving robotic zombies, bloodied baby dolls and lots of troublesome audio. As much as I pitched the pirate costume, he wanted nothing to do with it. We left with his original idea of a scary ghost. Not entirely secretly, I was pleased that he still looked like my baby angel without the hideous mask on.

Auntie Celine joined us in full awesome costume regalia as is tradition. Also, Sam, David and Jarrah joined us for our first ever neighborhood trick or treating excursion with the Klingers and the gang on M Street. The kids ran at top speed from house to house, each intent on collecting the most poundage their treat bags would hold. It became hysterical to them to wish each house miscellaneous holiday greetings other than Happy Halloween. The laughter was complete joy, none sugar induced, they hadn't had a piece. One house even distributed not just full size candy bars, but the ginormous, king size bars--as if that weren't enough, this festive household also passed out jello shooters for the adults!

Eventually our group found ourselves headed home with nary a complaint from our candy laden ghost and witch.

It was quite an evening.


As an aside, please note the difference in photos taken within seconds of one another. Granted, David may be the better photographer/editor/techie, but still, I covet the camera.