Isaiah starts kindergarten in one week- next Tuesday.

Ever since we started discussing the topic with him his reaction had ranged from semi-interested to outright denial.

One day a few weeks ago Ruth took him to the school he'll be attending to get registered. He got to meet the principal and the secretary and toured the building. After that he was mildly excited, but still wavered depending on his mood.

Yesterday, Ruth took him back to the school to pay his fees for the year. This time he learned who his teacher would be and he got to have a look at his classroom. Fortunately, after this experience his attitude has been transformed.

His classroom has a computer area, a science corner and a little play house! He is now as excited about kindergarten as I've ever seen him excited about anything, which is an encouragement and a relief, but not unexpected. We figured once he saw his classroom (and the computers in it) he would feel more positive about it. Still, it was good to have all uncertainties dissolved.

This morning as Ruth and I were just waking up, Isaiah burst into the room to ask if he started kindergarten today. I told him that he begins kindergarten next week and that he needed to back to his own room for a while.

Gideon is, of course, getting very big. It is already time for us to move the mattress of his crib to the lower position because he's almost tall enough to fall out if he grabbed the side rail and stood all the way up. He can't stand on his own yet, but he's been able to stand up with very little assistance for several weeks now. He's got the strength, just not the balance skills.

He's also showing tiny gleams of white- the evidence of teeth coming through his little gums. He's figured out how to clap in the past couple of weeks and he'll frequently do it in response to someone else clapping at him. He's also learned how to ask for a particular snack he's fond of by name.

The last item above is the most impressive to me, representing the foundation of cognitive language skills. Ruth got him some Gerber Finger Foods Banana Puffs and he loves them. When he's wailing, shoveling them in his mouth one-by-one as he finishes them will usually stop the noise. If you keep up with his demand, that is.

He has, however, learned that they are banana flavored and when he is in a good mood but the rate of shoveling is not up to his expectation he will gently chide the shoveler by saying "na-na, na-na".

Yes, I realize this amounts to "Oh, your baby says 'na-na' when he wants a banana treat. How amazing!" accompanied with a suppressed eye-roll, but hey- he is our baby and I think it's pretty cool. It's fascinating to me how these things just develop as he recognizes repeated patterns around him and forms neural pathways to transform the tabula rasa of his infant brain into a thinking mind.