Too many words and time for kindergarten

I'm pretty sure Reid grew into a kid this weekend. He is definitely not a baby anymore.

Between Friday and Monday, I think he added at least 10 new words to his vocabulary. He now calls his Pepere by name. It's very sweet. He also can make the sounds for almost 10 different animals. Do those sounds count as words?

If that wasn't enough, Jack finished preschool... forever. He'll never go to preschool again. That's crazy!

Thank goodness we left for a weekend getaway. I thought I might have a complete emotional breakdown last Thursday when I realized what was happening with our boys.

Reid spent our weekend in Michigan playing with the "big" kids. He chased his cousins, Sophia, Matthew and Emmett, all over the place. He ran around a children's museum with reckless abandon. This kid usually hangs pretty close to me at play dates and parks. Not any more. He was mister independent on our trip. Well, except when he wanted Daddy.

I also couldn't believe how much he was talking and communicating. He didn't have any trouble getting what he wanted whether that was something to eat or drink, a new diaper, or playtime with the kids. I guess 18 months means he's a kid now.

And Jack... well he's definitely a big kid. All weekend long he wanted nothing to do with me or Steve. He just wanted to play with Billy or Grandma Sue or Emmett or anyone else. It took a little getting used to seeing him just take off and play without hesitation.

I didn't see him much at the children's museum. When I tried, he ran away. When we were at the house, he was heading down to the beach or to fly a kite or just downstairs to the other condo to play. I did get to read him a book Saturday night. That was nice.

In the end, it has been very gratifying to see our boys come in to their own over the last week or so. They are both pretty amazing kids.





Jack's first day of preschool


Jack's last day of preschool

Is Spiderman real?

Lately, Jack has been trying to determine what is real and what isn't. He focuses mostly on people.

At first, I found his questions unsettling. Is Curious George real? Well, no. But do I ruin his innocence in a great story? I did tell the truth.

He's been asking the "Is ... real?" for about a month or so. And now I'm really enjoying watching the learning process. I think I might be learning a little myself, too.

Is Elmo real? Well, yes and no. How do you explain the reality of a puppet by the fictionalization of a character? That lead to a wonderful discussion about creating stories.

Jack was very disappointed to learn that Bill, the country kid friend of Curious George on the cartoon show, was not real. "I really like him." I tried to reassure him that he could still really like Bill, he is a pretty great character.

Today's question - is Spiderman real? That was a toughy. I didn't want to destroy his belief in super heroes. The picture of Spiderman that he was looking at was of an actor's portrayal, not a cartoon, making it a little more difficult. At first I tried to defer and say I wasn't sure. But that felt like a lie. So I went back to the character explanation.

But that got me thinking too. Can't characters be real? I mean, can't they come to life in their stories? I can't count the number of books that I have read where I feel like I have a relationship with the characters. And now that we read to the boys so often, we share those feelings about the characters in their picture books too.

These characters become a part of our reality. We talk about what they do, what they look like, what they experience just as much as the "real" people we know. Jack tells me about the things George does at least three times a day.

So how do we decide what is real?