Five on Friday

1. Calder is getting so excited for the end of school. He happily told us the other day that they were done reading at school for the year. This is his perception since they having the leveled readers sent home anymore!  Calder is counting down the days to summer (not surprisingly of course and the number is 8 including today). Calder was incredibly excited last week when one of his favs hoisted the Stanley Cup. We recorded it so Calder could soak in every moment when he got up the morning after. He is going to be in TV withdrawal the next few weeks. We don't have a lot of time for TV in the evenings typically, but we were letting Calder stay up later to watch the playoffs! Late = 8 pm. Hugh was SO pumped that Calder got obsessed with the playoffs!  Calder was recently speculating how great it would be to be a bird. "I could fly wherever I wanted. . . I would mostly want to just fly home or to the lake, though." In other bragging news, Calder can add and subtract integers. This math-teaching-mom couldn't be more pumped!
2. Boone has tamed down on the lying. This isn't to say he doesn't do it anymore. He now just tells the truth on occasion.  Boone has been crying more than usual as of late. We have been telling him to be tough, because can come to us with barely a scrape and be bawling. His response every time is, "But I not tough." LOL  Boone continues to be the slowest eater alive, the only consolation is that he eats anything we put on his plate. Calder and Boone are VERY competitive. They take after Hugh. Lately the competitiveness has been bringing Boone to tears, because Calder will announce after any little thing, "I win!" These two little words immediately send Boone into hysterics. To try to eliminate the meltdowns we have made it a Hamilton rule that "EVERYBODY WINS". Now, any time Calder announces he has won, Boone simply responds, "No Calder. Everybody wins."
3. Lawson has added a couple of words to her repertoire. She says, "yah", "dah"(dog), and "up". Add that to "Dada", "Mama" and "Buh" (Boone) and she has doubled her list!  She does equally well with signing. "Dog", "please", "more", "all done", "milk", "cat", and "thank-you" are basically the comprehensive list.  She has a ways to go before the 18 month milestone of 20 words! LOL  Lawson has started identifying and pointing to body parts and does a pretty decent job listening to directions, "Go find Daddy", "Give everyone kisses goodnight" "Find your shoes", and "Clean-up your books."  She loves to read and her current favorites are That's Not My Truck, That's not my train, and If I were a dinosaur.  I do not recommend the last. The final line talks about having wings and flying across the sky. Dinosaurs do not fly. Pterosaurs do. This bugs me every. Single. Time. 
4. Chris Stapleton. My neighbor across the hall at school gave me a formal introduction to him and I can't get enough. Check out a couple of my favorites. Fire Away and Traveller. 
5. High school is winding down (while elementary school winds up!). Today is the last day of classes. I am so excited!  I honestly can't wait for the next week of marking, organizing, and planning for the fall. #loser

Have a great weekend, everyone!  I plan to spend some time tending to my garden, reading The Walking Dead graphic novels, and simply not leaving my house. #loser may also apply here and quite frankly, I don't care one bit!

Happy Friday!

Update #1:  I just had the most amazing supper last night. Calder had one of his best buds over for supper. We were talking about numbers (Dylan initiated it) and Dylan said, "I know what 20 - 21 is." He then took a slight pause for affect and said "negative 1". I just fell out of my chair with happiness. We then spent the rest of the meal talking and working with integers. I was seriously in heaven.

Update #2: I was paying closer attention to Lawson yesterday and she also signs "help" and "bath" and says, "done".  She also hollers and points a lot!