Potties, Baseball, and Reading

Overall I'd say things are going pretty well. Aidan went to school in underwear and took an extra pair just in case. We're sure to mention that he will be rewarded even if he can't go when he sits on the potty. He is almost always successful. He's absolutely using the potty more than he's going elsewhere. And he seems to be naturally holding it at night. Now if we can just get Jason over the stress that he takes on when accidents occur on the floor, we can proceed with this potty training thing.

Aidan's development in baseball is starting to scare me. I think it scares Jason too. If he keeps this up, we're going to need a serious coach in a year or two. If we were better pitchers, he'd hit it far better but as it stands he hits it well and often. He stands at the back fence in the yard and nails the ball so hard that it goes over the garage and into the driveway. Yesterday he proclaimed, "I hit the ball clear over the house, Mommy!" Not sure where he heard that phrase, but it's definitely Kentucky jargon. He's so funny how he'll get down on himself whenever he misses or hits a foul ball. Of course, we're telling him "Great swing!" and he says, "I'm not good." Already has an internal critic. I wasn't aware that those were genetic.

In a few weeks Aidan is changing classrooms at school. Jason and I are both feeling a little ambivalent about it. This past year his class had some kids older and some younger so that he was just in the middle. In the next class he'll be one of the oldest in the class. Since he's showing great progress both physically and intellectually, our concern is that the new class won't be challenging enough for him. Everyone has told us that by teaching him to read now, we'll open up a new world for challenging his brain, no matter what learning situation he is in. We've worked on ABCs and sounds of words and have decided to start working with sight words a little each day. By making it fun for him, hopefully we'll help him seek out meaning in his environment.