Life of a First Grader

Caden is one in a million.  He's always making us say things like "only Caden."  For example, last week he somehow got inexplicably knotted into his seat belt while sitting in his booster seat.  By the time I climbed back there to see what was going on he had pretty much created a noose that kept getting tighter and tighter around his waist.  I had two friends climb back and try to help, at one point they lifted Caden off the seat in his booster to see if taking the pressure off of him would allow the seat belt to release.  It didn't, he let out a blood curdling scream and started to cry hysterically.  At this point I ran into another friend's house screaming that I needed scissors or a knife.  We got him out just in time with only a seat belt burn all around his waist and a $200 trip to the dealer to get the belt replaced.

In Septemeber Caden came home with the handwriting bear, an award for the student with the best writing of the day.  He was so excited to have the bear, but also acting really funny about it.  He told me I couldn't see his certificate.  By the time we got home from piano he came to me in tears and showed me the certificate.  We don't know how it happened, but the teacher's aide read Caden and presented him the bear when clearly the certificate and award for the day was for Connor.  He felt bad he had taken Connor's turn to take the bear home.  I texted his teacher and let her know what happened.  She was so embarrassed, she told him to just enjoy the bear because he always has good writing anyway.  She then awarded Caden the bear the following week, and this time it was for real!

I'm loving Caden's toothless grin this year!  It has been a little problematic with his speech.  This is a conversation I had with his teacher about that.

Proudest night of his life to share his art talent at the ward talent show!

Only Caden!  He is also the sweetest little boy I know.  He was so excited to every time we went to the store to look at baby girl shoes for Gracie before she was born.  He tried to convince me to buy some gold sparkle shoes by saying, "she is going to be the shining star in our family, she needs these shoes!"  I finally let him pick her out a pair and he went with pink glitter.

While I was pregnant I had a vein in my leg and a blood clot that looked really scary.  One morning before school Caden was sitting on a stool eye level with my leg.  He said, "your leg looks beautiful today mom."  I laughed and said, "you mean scary!"  He said, "that's what I was thinking but I knew I'd get in trouble if I said that."  I makes me wonder what he is really thinking when he hugs me and says, "you look pretty Mom."

A few days ago he was telling me about some drama on the playground among the little girls that he plays with at recess.  I gave a suggestion to solve the problem and he said, "you have no idea about what I'm going through in my life."  He's probably right.  I already know he's smarter than me.  Only Caden!  I love his heart of gold.

3rd Grade Update

Ethan is loving school this year and I am so grateful.  In general Ethan is pretty happy and easy going, there were a few weeks there at the beginning of the school year that I just felt like something was off.  Clark took him out for pizza and they had a good chat and he seemed happy about everything.  I started praying that he would develop a little more confidence in himself.  Well, that prayer was answered.  The end of September Ethan came home thrilled that his teacher had chosen him to be Student of the Month.  The same week he ran for class representative.  He made some awesome posters and gave a fun speech using emojis.  He was ecstatic to be elected.  A few days later the school contacted me to see if they could start testing him for the Gifted and Talented program because of his high test scores.  One day shortly after he said, "3rd grade is my year!  I got voted class representer, I'm student of the month, and I must be like the smartest kid in my class."  We had a little talk about humility and not bragging, but I felt like my prayers for my boy had been answered.

Celebrating the new elected official with some ice cream!

Ethan's teacher has reported to us a couple of times now that Ethan really pushes her to research and learn more because he's always asking questions that she doesn't know the answer to.  I love his scientific mind.

You know it takes confidence to show up to pajama day at school wearing high water Angry Bird jammies.

3rd grade is off to a great start!