"Brighton School"

I got Brighton to myself today. Miss Barbara had the day off so that meant, I was ‘on’. Once B got wind of this, to my surprise, he announced the schedule like this, (I will leave out the start and stops and the do-overs.) “Mom, when we take Julia to Miss Winsor’s, we can go to ‘Starbooks’ and have apple coffee (juice) with a lid and I can do my ‘spellin' wurk.’ Right, Momma?” Spelling work, I thought. What was that? So I asked him. He didn’t know either. With a few more questions I found out that he wanted to do school with me at “Starbooks”. Not a problem. I happily do coffee. I have preschool worksheets. I answered his favorite question with his favorite answer, “Right, Brighton!”

From the time I got him up this morning to the time we dropped off Julia, I bet he asked me 4 times where we were going next. I think he just liked the way it sounded coming out of my mouth so agreeably. He even had an opinion to which one we went to. I loved every minute of this little guy with me this morning. His grin he gives away so freely is contagious to those who see it. He was visibly enjoying himself. As we were hovering over the worksheets I took to honor his wishes of "doing school”, every now and then he would say, “Just a minute, Momma. I need a ‘dwink’.”

We visited the potty, oh, 3 times maybe? Our first visit, as I was waiting on him to wash his hands, I was checking my messages while digging in my purse. I heard the well known sound of complete 4 year old frustration (not much different from 3 year old frustration). When I looked up, he was flailing his little hands madly in front of the paper towel dispenser, the kind you just reach up and pull out the paper towel. I figured it out and decided to watch. He’d wave one hand, then the other. No towel. He’d look at me. I’d raise my eyebrows and shrug my shoulders. More determined this time, he planted his legs firm and tried both hands at the same time, reminiscent of something the Karate Kid might do. (Aging myself, aren't I?) Still no towel. After a pretty impressive effort, he finally surrendered and said, “This won’t ‘wurk’. It needs new 'battries'!” I walked over, simply pulled the paper towel and handed it to him. With brow furrowed and mouth frowning, he looked at the dispenser then the towel in my hand then his own hands and said, “I don’t need it. My hands are dry.” And no wonder....

Picture above: "Grandparent-ish" information" This is one of his weekly crafts from Zoo school. Get this. These are the horns of the "Lesser Kudu". Next week, the "coati". Hello, Wikipedia.