Mikro at Four and Three Quarters

Mikro is learning and growing. New things: no longer insists on wearing only NASCAR clothing. He now is happily sporting shirts with insects and dinosaurs on them. He will actually wear gloves and keep his hood up to stay warm. He likes taking a bath (usually). He's not asking to be picked up and carried by daddy unless he's nearly asleep on his feet. He's getting a little better at transitions, but *not* when it comes to having to leave the playground after Nature Class. He howls and carries on something awful. He's starting to learn not to talk over other people, but is far from perfect and very enthusiastic about sharing what he knows, or thinks, or has questions about. He loves playing tag with his homeschooled friends. He's much more patient and willing to try crafty things which before he would simply insist we do for him. He is building bugs out of playdough and plastic parts, helped Kev "excavate" a plastic dinosaur skeleton from a kit, is starting to get the hang of Dino Xcavator (a game like "Operation", where you remove dinosaur bones instead of body parts), is learning to use kiddie chop sticks, has started singing along to kiddie music, has developed almost enough attention span to sit through plays and puppet shows (for 45 minutes he's angelic, anything longer there's squirming and I have to work to keep him quiet). He's much quicker to go up to new kids and join a conversation or a game. He's outgoing with kids and women, but a little timid around tall men. He's no longer running in terror from small dogs-- he'll actually pet them and talk to them sweetly. He's watching a lot of educational programs on Animal Planet and the Science Channel. He sight reads a huge number of words. He has the attention span for longer books, read over a couple of nights. He really retains information about nature and science. He now knows the colors in spanish, and the numbers up to ten. He asks me how to say things (mostly different bugs and animals) in spanish. He's a fun little guy. And very very sweet.