Monday, September 3, 2012

A

A few days ago I wrote a post about all the cute things that D does. I am having the hardest time writing a similar post about A. There is an edge to him that makes cute the wrong word. When I think about what I want to remember about him from this summer, I think of all the things that he has worked really hard on.  It has been a summer of challenges and achievement for him.

Some of the things he's worked on are skills:
  • Swimming: He can take several nice long strokes before stopping to breathe, and he can sit on the bottom of the pool.
  • Legos: He can follow visual directions for building with some help, and he can make creations of his own.
  • Bike riding: He is up to 4.5 miles.
  • Reading and spelling: He can sound out most three-letter words and can read about 30 sight words.
Others are more social-emotional development like:
  • Understanding that every family in this country does things a little differently, and he follows the rules of this family.
  • Meeting new kids at the park and playing with them in age-appropriate and culturally-appropriate ways. 
  • Being a good big brother without trying to be the boss.
  • Managing his emotions. This has been a big one, and it is pretty astounding how far he has come. He's developed a lot of self-awareness about his own anxiety and triggers, like hunger or not knowing where he is.
I guess it's not cute because it's been hard work, and hard work is not cute. But it's brave and purposeful, and pretty awesome.

9 comments:

  1. After the enormous changes, it sounds like A is doing really well. He is sure making amazing strides. So impressed with his reading! Holy moly!! :-)

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    1. It took about a month for the letter-sound connection to click, but it's really helped that he's very interested in words. It is pretty amazing to watch a kid learn to read!

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  2. The hard work and the growth on the other side is the sweetest in my opinion (said by a mom with one kid that is also less "cute" than the other, but also works really, really hard).

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    1. I am really glad to hear you say you have one kid who is less cute than the other. Glad I'm not the only one to feel like that - I've been feeling pretty guilty! But he is too complex to be cute.

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  3. Hard work, indeed! He sounds like such a deep kid. I remember him being more serious when we were in Addis. Sounds like that was the case. Good for him, though for making such astounding progress.

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    1. I'd forgotten that you knew him in Addis! Sometimes he just seems so grown up!

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  4. That does sound pretty awesome.

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    1. Awesome and sometimes pretty difficult but still awesome!

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  5. Yes, awesome! These kids are really amazing aren't they? so much information, new experiences and change for these kids to sift through w/ no context! Glad to hear how well everyone is doing. Yes, it's terribly hard and I lose sight of how far we've come pretty frequently =) Love your updates!

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