last day of school

At first I had the day off because Nikki was on vacation and then I ended up needing to be to work extra early, so I missed out on taking him to his last day of school, but at least Scott got to go.

With very specific instructions to recreate the above picture, which shows the first day of school, I left Scott in charge of taking the last day of school pictures. I really wanted to see how much he's grown.

And it was Cathryn who blogged about eliciting a natural smile out of a 3 1/2 year old. It looks like we have a kid on our hands.

Avery had his very last day of preschool last week. He absolutely LOVES going to school and it really impacted his social development...in both positive and negative ways. At the beginning of the year he sat back and observed, didn't really participate. However, by the end of the year, he was consistently interacting and playing with his little group of friends. Avery is typically much more of a follower than a leader and doesn't mind in the least being bossed around by his peers. We have seen his aggression and back-talk increase because as Nikki observed, he watches his classmates closely as they demonstrate these behaviors and end up getting their way. Oh, life lessons! 

More importantly, he can easily make new friends at the park or gym and is increasingly comfortable in social situations. This was our ultimate goal for school because as far as I know the standardized tests don't start for another few years :)