Overall, school is going well. His teacher has started giving them homework and he loves it, especially the math which is a lot like his beloved activity books. We turned it in on Friday and he already had stars in his eyes thinking about how she'd be giving them more to do on Monday. He's also starting to cast off a bit of of his shyness with the new kids in his class, slowly learning their names and responding to them when the initiate conversations.
Thursday, he got a haircut after school. He was quite fascinated with the mechanism that made the chair go up and down.
Friday was his first day at aftercare. One day a week, he'll be picked up from school (along with his three best friends) and taken to the rec center. He was having such a great time playing there, that when Steve swung by to check on him, he insisted on staying longer.
Saturday morning, we had visits from Karen's mom, who brought him a great 50 States jigsaw puzzle, and Tara & Moira, who brought him a Pokemon watch. Zeeke introduced Moira to his Tsum Tsums. He made wooden sculptures in his art class .
Sunday, all three of us headed up to the Wissahickon for a Family Nature Walk. We enjoyed the fall foliage, ate smores, played by the water, and saw some excellent critters (a tiny salamander and a large millipede). When we got back to South Philly, we headed over to the Bok for a block party, which turned out to be a mistake. The loudness of the live music frightened Zeeke so much that Karen had to carry him and in their rush she stepped on a piece of sidewalk chalk and they took a tumble. Zeeke got a nasty scrape on his back where he hit the street. After we had recovered, we headed back to check out the bouncy castle, but Zeeke deemed it to be too crowded and we headed home.
Conversations with Zeeke:
"Daddy, did you know that one time I went to deepest, darkest part of the way down ocean and it was full of sea monsters?"
"No way! Really?"
"Yes, and I saw the legendary Saber-Toothed Tiger Shark!"
"Whoa! Cool!"
"I didn't see the Kraken, but down in the inner ring, I saw the Ghost Whale!"
"You have such a good memory, Zeeke."
"That's because I have a little creature in my head that tells me what to say when I don't know."
"Daddy, how many ghosts do you see in my hand?"
"None."
"Well, that's wrong because there's about forty-seven."
"Wow, do they talk to you?"
"They talk to you, Daddy. They ask you questions all the time and they don't understand why you don't answer them."