Pivots

Harlan has learned to pivot his body when he’s walking. Now he is even faster than before, and he goes down the hallway, waits to see if you’re coming after him, and then he reverses course and races back to make sure you’re looking and noticing. Unless, of course, he’s really after going somewhere he shouldn’t and disrupting the environment. He loves to go into the other boys’ room and take their clothes out of their drawers. I was fussing at them about it, until Gilbert said, “That’s Harlan doing that!” Well, okay. Harlan also loves to be outside; yesterday, Seamus was carrying him around during a rainstorm, and Harlan was laughing his head off. Today, he played in the garden, got super dirty, and then got his other favorite thing–a bath!

Porter had his last art class today. He loved it, since it involved painting, drawing, stickers, feathers, and more. He’s developed an imagination! Today, he set up a nest, and put an “egg” in the nest, and then he was Horton sitting on the egg. He acted out the entire story with the excitement in his voice evident on “My egg how it’s hatching!…An ELEPHANT BIRD!” Books are a huge source of inspiration for his world he’s created, and he knows the Franklin the Turtle books inside and out. He uses them like canon to create his own fan fiction stories. While Seamus reads Harry Potter to keep up with his friends and to understand the teeniest details, Porter wants us to read, and he studies the pictures to add more building blocks to his fantasy world. The other boys want to know why he’s abandoned Elmo, but he assures them he hasn’t. And last night, he was Cookie Monster at the table.

One thing I’ve noticed about the boys reading Harry Potter is that they use that world to create their own play. For instance, I discovered them playing Wizard Chess with each other. They’ve made wands, and they’ve worked out a way to play Quidditch with Lacrosse sticks. Reading as an adult, I never thought about how to use the games of Harry Potter to make up my own games. That’s fun to see.

Patrick and I worked on the garden today. We’ve had a long stretch of rain, but here’s hoping for some sun and growth!

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