Summer Weather

Our outside temperature right now is 96 degrees (feels like 103). I'm thinking about skipping outside time today, especially since Xander already played outside at preschool this morning. When I came to pick him up, his hair was wet from sweat! And that was after being inside to eat lunch for at least 15 minutes. But my other thought is...popsicles and water table!

Xander and I have started official reading lessons. After I finish this post, I'll go do our daily ten minutes from The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading. He likes it even though most of the information is old news to him. It fills in the things he hasn't been taught, like which letters are vowels and which are consonants, and rules for the sounds letters make in different situations. I think if we waited until next year to do this, he would be over it. Like I said, he knows most of this stuff, but we were at a stalemate because he couldn't read many books simply by sounding out the short-vowel and consonant sounds.

Nick is a confident walker now. His hands lower each day and pretty soon he will walk like a normal person. He has a fifth tooth. He now says "ball" and "car" clearly. He also says "shoes", not clearly. He likes to touch the Xanderpants doll's toes and fingers. He loves balls right now, and cars and trucks, and Magnetix blocks, and things that jingle, and the trash can. We are working on the trash can bit. Today I bought him a small nerf football and a small sand pail and shovel at the dollar store.

There is something irritating him these days. Sometimes he cries for me to pick him up and then cries to be let down and then bawls because he's alone on the floor. He's been better since yesterday, but both yesterday and today he had strange cranky periods in the middle of the day. I'm hoping all will go smoothly once he wakes up from his nap. He is in the middle of what a couple of authors call "Wonder Week 55." (more details here if you're interested) A couple of symptoms he has: wanting to be carried almost all day long, and having frustration tantrums immediately when something doesn't go his way. But he is also learning a lot, growing up, and generally being cuter than ever.