Recently, S has fallen head over heels for silly rhyming books like Dr. Seuss' One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish. After reading one of these books, S will start to play with words and make up his own silly parables. So much so that he will lie in bed at night or at naptime for long periods of time just playing with words.

The other day we encouraged him to make up a poem and we wrote it down:

Sleep and the Leaf
Sleep in the lightbulb
Sleep in a tennis racket
Sleep in the forest
Sleep in the sunflower
Sleep in a bumblebee
Sleep on a camera
Sleep on a computer
Sleep in the restaurant
Sleep in the hot chocolate
Sleep in a jungle
Sleep in my shoe

As part of S's bedtime routine, I sing a couple of songs with him. This is actually relatively new. We used to sing to him a lot when he was very young as a way to soothe our difficult to settle baby. But once he was able to fall asleep better, we stopped doing it.

So after a story and tucking in, I will sing a lullaby, usually a tune from Mother Goose or Music Together classes. But no matter how soothing the lullaby is, it is always followed by a rousing rendition of O Canada. At the top of S's lungs.

I think he first heard the anthem on Kids CBC and one day I just started singing it and he already knew half the lyrics. Now, he can pretty much sing the whole thing on his own. Including his unique interpretation/pronunciation of the lyrics.

Nationalists would be proud of our child.

S started preschool last week. We’ve been excited and ready for him to start preschool for a while now. He’s at a stage where he needs more structure and routine. As well as stimulation other than ourselves or the unstructured daycare he was attending.

On his first day of school S woke up with the birds in anticipation. We did all the rituralistic stuff: new backpack, new shoes to wear inside the classroom, picked out his clothes, etc. S even ate his breakfast without the usual dawdling and the usual chitchat. When we got to school (early, of course), the hand off to his teachers was smooth. We found his cubby, he put up his picture and he barely realized that I was leaving. He needed to go do some work!

When I arrived that first day to pick him up, he was coming out of a music class and he was surprised to see me. Actually, I think he was a bit disappointed that it was already time to go. As the rest of the morning progressed, S talked about the little bits and pieces of his first day at school.

Now that we're into week 2, he loves going to school: “I want to go again and again and again!! I want to go everyday!! It’s so much fun!”

I hope that positive attitude holds up--he's going to be going to school for the next 20 or so years!

Yesterday I babysat our 5 year old neighbour Tess. Clearly, she and S have been exposed to different worlds:

Tess: S, do you know what fairies are?

S: No.

T: Well, fairies are tiny little people that fly and have magical powers.

S: (eyes light up) You mean like superheroes?!!

T: What are superheroes?

S: Superheroes have super powers and they rescue and help people and save them from volcanoes and geysers and fires. What do fairies do?

T: Nothing. They just fly around.