The Templeton Blog: Best friends

I just dropped Andrew off at school and wanted to sit and write a blog about this stage in his life. He is in his 2nd year of preschool, will be 5 in a month, and will start kinder in September. It really does fly by and he's transforming into a big kid right before my eyes. When I dropped him off, 2 boys yelled- "Andrew!!! Hey Andrew!!" with such excitement and it just warms my heart to see him making friends at school. :) He will soon welcome a younger brother to the family (who he insists on naming Emmitt from The Lego movie- and we've actually considered this name- but I've been calling him Ethan and it's growing on me). :) A few weeks ago, Andrew's teacher Ms. Lisa sent a note home in his back pack from another child's parent. It read- "Dashiel would really like to have a playdate with Andrew. He talks about him all the time and he would really like to play with him outside of school. I was wondering if you could pass this along to Andrew's parents so we can try to set something up." That made my heart melt. :) Andrew has talked about Dashiel quite frequently, so of course I contacted his mom and set up a time for him to come over for a playdate. It was the cutest thing ever and I just can't believe Andrew is old enough to have friends over to play. :) Last week- right after Andrew got off the bus yelling, "Bye Dashiel!" he ~~asked~~ told me he was going over to Dashiel's to play. About 10 minutes later, I got a text from his mom asking when would be a good time to get the boys together again. :) I love that he has a best friend. He talks about him all the time now and they are such a cute pair. He is going over there tomorrow afternoon during my IEP meeting for Andrew.

Andrew keeps talking about this show called Paw Patrol (a show that he claims he saw in the mountain house in New Mexico and then of course that techie kid of mine found it on YouTube and has been watching it daily- he truly amazes me). He says Dashiel has all the Paw Patrol characters so he wants them for his birthday. :) ( we recently spent 20 minutes in the Paw Patrol toy section at Target-when I turned my back for a second- there was a Paw Patrol back pack, 3 of the characters, and a massive Paw Patrol station in my cart....lol!) I think I know what to get him for his birthday.

As I said- I have an IEP meeting for kindergarten placement tomorrow and we just received all the results from his testing. The day of his testing- I was told he just kept going and going with the questions/puzzles (his teacher was shocked when he told her Texas was the biggest state in the United States and New York City was the largest city... lol!) He's doing really great (the teacher in me can already see he is going to struggle with writing and probably master math and science), and he will be in an inclusion kinder class with some outside support. I had to laugh a little when I read that he needed some help with pragmatics in the classroom setting (IE- announcing to the class when he has to use the restroom or answering the question "Why do we wear clothes" with an answer such as "Because they say vroom vroom!!" followed by laughing)- because yes- that is my Andrew. :) And I'm sure he was getting very tired of the testing (because he IS 4) and began answering deliriously. I am so proud of my little guy and how much he has accomplished. He is really a sweetheart and plays so creatively lately (he has had to resort to using other toys to "pretend they are paw patrol characters" :) I know he will go so far in life with his kind heart and problem-solving abilities. Even while wearing clothes that say "vroom vroom.". ;-)