End of the school year

I have a few minutes before I have to get dressed to go to Petru's end of year slideshow. Petru is already outside - this morning he was up at 6am, prepared the little presents for his classmates (because today is also a birthday celebration for him since his actual birthday is in the summer), brushed his teeth, ate breakfast, unpacked and packed his backpack without any reminders. Wow!

Yesterday I picked him up from afterschool around 5pm. I try my best not to have him sit there by 6pm, although I don't think he'd mind. He was watching a group of 5 kids play pool, patiently waiting his turn. He asked to stay a little longer so that he can have his turn, and I agreed. He started playing with J, a kid who has teased him in the past. They were both playing nicely. Petru had no idea how to play and was holding the stick awkwardly. J's father showed up and was the big cheer leader for J which was a bit comical. P did so well. He ended up losing and J said "I won, you lost" and P said "I lost" with a visible sad face. We left and he was sad, but I was able to comfort him and tell him how proud I am of how he handled this loss. I told him that I wouldn't have been more proud has he won; he played a game he had not played before, took a chance, lost but had fun in the process. His face demeanor changed. When Chris got home we praised him for this again.

I remember hating to lose as well. I was lucky and generally much more athletic than Petru, and also an internalizer. Somehow I managed to be the leader and have all the kids want to play with me when I was his age. Much easier for me that way. I did not lose often, but when I did, I worked very very hard to improve. This is something I want to instill in Petru as well, and I think both Chris and I are doing a great job with this so far. Visualize and make it happen, do your best while accepting that sometimes things might now work out the way you envision them to, problem solve and adapt, and never give up.

Time's up. Off to the celebration and then to work!

Update

June 17, 2013

I am sitting in the Arlington Children’s Theatre watching Petru rehearse for the Little Mermaid. I have been here for 2 hours and have finished all the work I brought with me. Then I remembered the blog. This past week I shared the blog with Petru, now an almost 8 year old. He loved it. He laughed hearing about how he used to be, the conversations we used to have, and how he made sense of things when he was much younger. This motivated me to get back to the blog.

So lets rewind and update first.

Petru is almost done with 1^st grade at Dallin. He had a great year, with lots of learning for him, but mostly for Chris and me. This year shattered many of the parenting believes that I used to hold, and helped me grow so much as a parent and as a person. 

Some highlights of the year:

We took  a trip to Florida to see cousin Landen and  meet cousin Oliver. Petru and Landen had a ball (and several competitive arguments, ha!). We went to Legoland, we went to Wet and Wild (water park!!!) and enjoyed time with Buni and family.

We took another trip to North Carolina where we spent time with cousins Izzy and Michael, and played a lot of mini golf.

Some favorites:

Traffic lights continue to be huge

Drawing

Mini Golf

Water park (memberships for Watercountry have again been purchased this year).

Music – Taylor Swift is big nowJ

Piano

Petru started Russian Math this year and has been doing very well. Amazing to see him strive in that environment, and go from being unable to sit and work through any problem that was not “easy”, to trying to figure things out on his own (and succeeding). I think he inherited Chris’s math geneJ More importantly, he is super proud of himself and often announces that “I am good at math”.

More recently Petru took off with his reading. I think this is a function of reducing the computer time.

He continues to take piano lessons, and has his second recital tomorrow afternoon. He will be playing “chimes”, which he composed, and Rodeo. He has been working on learning how to play “I knew you were trouble” and is excited to play it in front of all his friends on Monday.

Pictures some other time..