Of Rodents and Routines

I remember really liking that Bill Murray movie from years ago ... But anyway, happy chubby rodent day to you all. Not sure what Punxsutawney Phil declared yet -- have you heard? Regardless, snow is forecasted again, beginning tonight and into tomorrow. The initial -- and exciting! -- 4-6 inches have suddenly dwindled to a piddly 1-3. Ugh. Not even worth it.

I have my usual Monday on tap -- laundry, laundry, laundry. Call the physical therapist. Continue rearranging our boxed up life in the attic (provided I have some energy left over from Laundry3). Cook a giant ham for dinner and hopefully have a month of leftovers. Respond to a few potential buyers on Craigslist. Hopefully today I will bid a (bittersweet) farewell to our cartop carrier and a gorgeous rug we once used ...

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Aidan got his report card on Friday, and I have to confess that, in spite of myself, I got those nervous butterflies in my stomach as I opened the envelope. Sheesh -- I gotta get over that. He did very, very well, but what pleased me even more was how happy he was about his own accomplishments. Two-thirds of the report was divided up into categories with three boxes: doing something with perfection; doing something with just a few errors; and needs practice. Aidan's checks fell mostly into the first category, a few in the second, and with two checks landing in the "needs practice" category. They kind of made me laugh:

1. Apparently, Aidan holds his pencil incorrectly. This didn't come as a surprise -- his teacher informed us of this back in the fall when we met with her for the conference. I thought it was a rather silly thing to harp on -- she explained her reasons but I still didn't really buy it. I talked to Aidan about this and he, too, didn't get it. He told me that the way he holds his pencil is the most comfortable for him. Isn't that what matters? I mean, it's almost a "normal" hold -- it's not like he holds it like a shovel. He just uses two fingers on the top instead of one. Big deal.

2. Aidan apparently cannot "retell" a story for the life of him. While he got "outstandings" when it came to his skill in listening to stories, answering questions about stories, being able to predict what comes next in a story, he somehow cannot retell the story. Hmmmm. I mentioned this to my mom and she made an interesting observation. Retelling a story involves the imagination. It's one thing to memorize the facts of a story and to answer specific questions, but it's another thing to actually retell the whole thing -- getting inside of the story, putting it in your head as a whole. I guess it makes sense.

The final third of the report card were number-rated items, 5 meaning "outstanding", 4 "good", 3 "satisfactory", and so on. We went over the entire report card together -- I explained, he listened, he commented, I listened. He was just beaming with pride -- the good kind. He is one of the most confident kids I know, and my heart overflows. I was not this child -- while I always did exceptionally well in school, I completely lacked the confidence that Aidan possesses. It's a beautiful thing to see.

Now off I go to hang Laundry Load #1 on the basement line and start Laundry Load #2. Yet another Monday, full of rodents and routines. That's not such a bad thing ...