The Novelist

I love this new stage that Todd has entered. I refer to the writing stage. These misspelled, hard-to-read notes are so full of personality. Todd wrote his first "story" on a quiet Sunday afternoon, about three weeks ago. Three pages is pretty good for his first effort at writing stories. It was such a nice surprise. I love that writing this story kept Todd entertained for over an hour. I love that Todd illustrated his work. I loved seeing how proud Todd was of his accomplishment. And I love the punchline at the end. It had me laughing. It still makes me laugh every time I read it.
I hope you, too, can feel the love as you read his story.

[The orange highlighter marks are from Kellie. Todd asked her to check his mistakes, but I stopped her before she got too far.] I'll write the translation under each picture.

Once upon a time I went to school and made a lot of art. I made pictures, a lot of things. And I kept all the art. I love my art. I love my art so much. I want to keep all the art. I like all of the art. I will keep all of the art. I like all of the art. I like the art so, so bad. I want to make more. Some of them will be books.

I went on the bus, and my art was in the back. I was so happy because my stop was the first stop. I had a lot of art. We stopped. I went off the bus.

When I got home I looked at my art. My art was so cool. Mom hugged me. My art was so cool. It was very cool. Mom loved it so so much and loved the art so much that Mom forgot to make dinner. The end.

The funny thing is, I broke out laughing after reading the last sentence. Todd laughed with me for a minute, then turned serious. "But Mom, that's really happened before, hasn't it?" More laughter on my part.
[In my defense, I may have lost track of time and had to throw together a quick dinner before. But I've never "forgotten" dinner. It's still interesting to see things for a child's point of view.]

Before writing stories Todd would often make lists--mostly lists of things to do or activities for the day. Now Todd has moved on to writing notices. The following notice was placed by a plastic container which held a baby frog the boys brought back from Oma's house. We were getting ready to leave the house for a little while and Todd left this message.

[On the back side of the paper it read, "Dad, Mom, Todd, Ryan"]

Please do not take our pet. You can look at the pet. It is a frog.
I don't know why this is so funny to me, but it is.

Update on the pet frog: The boys tried feeding the frog a little spider and a "red-bellied bug". The next morning I was able to convince the boys that the baby frog was probably better off living outside on its own than in the little container in our house. They agreed and released the frog. But they can't wait to get a bigger frog that they are able to keep.

Since Todd has shown a greater interest in writing I had him make a list of things he liked about his teacher and his first year of school on a card for his teacher. The class put together a nice group gift, which we contributed to, but I also wanted a little something extra from us. This is what I came up with.

Here, Mrs. B looks at the scrapbook one of the moms put together as part of the group gift.

Mrs. B put on a little closing ceremony for her class. She gave each child a special award ribbon, as well as a certificate predicting what they might be when they grow up.
Todd's ribbon award was for Best Boy Reader. However, I was surprised by her career prediction, "Novelist". Although I just got done singing Todd's praises as a writer, I recognize that a certain amount of creativity is required for successful writing. Perhaps that will come with age. Mrs. B said that Todd has a love for words. He tries very hard to use words appropriately-to use just the right word for something. And she said that he had a large vocabulary. Way to go, Todd!

After his teacher gave each child their ribbon and certificate, she also gave them a bright pink lipstick kiss on their cheek. Most of the kids thought this funny, but Todd was a little embarrassed. He was okay with receiving his kiss along with the rest of the class, but he wouldn't let me take a photo of it and tried to wipe it off right away.

It's hard to believe that the year is over already. Todd had a great time this year, and Ryan and I enjoyed being able to participate in so many activities with his class this year, especially when it involved yummy treats like ice cream sundaes.

It was nice being able to get to know the other kids in the class. I liked hearing the kids greeting me as "Todd's Mom" or "Todd and Ryan's Mom." I'm looking forward to meeting Todd's first grade teacher and the kids in his class.

But I think I will enjoy the time I have with my two boys this summer first.