Report Card, etc.

I know, my post titles are so exciting.

One thing that is actually pretty exciting is the report card we just received. Gaz aced everything that's been introduced except shoe tying, but with some direction she's already showing she *can* do it. It's more an issue of how attentive she is at any given shoe-tying attempt. I filled out the authorization form for gifted testing (which isn't mandatory, but since our school has a gifted program we don't have to strain ourselves to get Gaz tested), and so that will take place at some time in the near future. Mrs. K. says she thinks Agatha will do well with that, and I know we will soon reach the stage where she needs more challenge at school. Now that she's got a better handle on the social and time challenges that full-day school pose, she's probably going to be chronically bored by the end of the year. Mrs. K. also gave us a tip on a young author's contest that either the school or CPS overall does, so we'll see if she might want to do that. She tells some killer stories.

Another bit of excitement has been with some local friends, Lis and Todd, who were expecting their son Gabriel in early December. He decided to beat the holiday rush and made his grand appearance this week, and is now enjoying the full-service care of their local NICU. I got to see him on Thursday and he is tiny, pink, but he nurses like a champ. His only problem is that every time he has his paci, he stops breathing and forgets to start up again. While he's really not as sick as many babies I've known, this is still quite the problem. If you're in the habit of thinking good thoughts for the health of babies, they would not go unappreciated.

Gaz, of course, is totally stoked to get to hold Gabe as soon as humanly possible, not to mention cousin Grady, and the impending Rizen girl (whose name, I am relatively certain, will not be Charlie, much to Papaw's chagrin).

I am daily amazed by what my girl can do, and what she chooses to do. She picked out one of her animal cards to give to Gabe (a strawberry poison dart frog, which Lis noted Gabe somewhat resembles right now), and lent him a book (the board book version of "The Monster at the End of This Book") so he can hear stories while he's in the hospital. She already has plans to teach all the babies about her favorite dinosaurs and impressive words. She's definitely a helper. Maybe not so great at helping at home, but at least she's an able assistant for just about everyone else.

Perhaps I should make her a "Minion" shirt. That would make a pretty good hand-me-down for when she's old enough to graduate to "Mad Scientist."

I know I am way, way, WAY behind on uploading pictures. Part of the problem is that I have misplaced the cable for my camera. When I do find a bit of time to do stuff like that, I have ended up spending it searching for that damn cable. One of these days, I will find it and I will then have to spend a year sorting and tagging everything. But I'm running out of places the cable could be hiding, so it will probably surface soonish. I hope.