John Thomas - October 27, 2009

Growing Up

October 27, 2009

Extreme Close Up

John Thomas has been in school now for over a month, and he is having a great time. We had a few hiccups the first few weeks, but he seems to have gotten into the groove of Kindergarten now. He takes the bus everyday and had his first field trip last week.

Waiting for the bus the second day of school - John Thomas on the left

While it is hard to pry details about his day at school out of him without asking very specific questions, everything he does share is positive.

Ready for school on a cool fall morning

As part of adjusting to school, John Thomas was showing not great behaviour at home. We took away his guns, swords and Star Wars toys for a while. He has since earned most of them back with good behaviour. With this lack of Star Wars influence, his interest in dinosaurs has soared. Mom found out that the Museum of Nature was free Saturday mornings and we went with Nyssa a month or so ago. He was overwhelmed with all the bones. We tried to go again this past Saturday, but it was closed for the month for renovations. Thank goodness they still have a few installations outdoors to appease our dinosaur needs.

Checking out the dinosaur's tongue

Under a dinosaur

John Thomas and the Woolly Mammoths

Mommy has been borrowing books and videos on dinosaurs from the library, and Daddy bought him the Jurassic Park trilogy on DVD as an early birthday present. He is also enjoying the new TVO show Dinosaur Train. He has three shirts with dinosaurs on them, and they are in heavy rotation.

We signed John Thomas up for skating lessons again this fall. We've seen a huge improvement over last year. Last year he learned very well how to get up on his skates on his own. This year he is hardly spending any time on his knees or bum on the ice. And while he is not the fastest going forward in his group, he is amongst the fastest going backwards! He isn't gliding on the ice yet, but doing a pretty good job scooting around on his skates.

At his first skating lesson of the season

John Thomas had his second check-up/cleaning at the dentist today. On his previous visit he did not get through the entire scheduled visit. This time Mommy tried to talk it up, explaining that she wanted to take a picture of him in the big chair, wondering what colour bib he would get, and what kind of sticker he would choose at the end of the visit. It appears to have been the correct approach, as there was only minor squirming towards the end of the scheduled visit this time.

Ready for his cleaning

There has been a LOT of Halloween talk around here. John Thomas has particularly enjoyed decorating for Halloween, and tries to spook visitors with all the skeletons/skulls we have on display. John Thomas plans to dress as Spider-Man, with Mommy as Venom and Daddy as the Incredible Hulk. He will be trick or treating with the kids on the street while Nanna Fran hands out candy for us.