Tenacious X

X is a talker. He tells tall tales, spins yarns that include other homes he owns and is planning to move to any day now. Today he's planning on packing up and heading for New York, where his favorite Great Aunt lives. He owns the house next door, ya see. He's made her several Valentines today (I got some, too!) to put "in the mailbox with a real stamp" tomorrow. At the grocery store yesterday he informed no less than 10 fellow shoppers that he got puppy dog Valentines for pre-school and one of the puppies is eating a sandwich! Once we reached the check-out he counted to 100 by tens approximately 642 times for the checker and all of the bag boys. Are bag boys still bag boys? Is there some PC term now like "grocery engineers"? Anyway, that boy loves to talk. And perform. We are treated to nightly concerts paying tribute to Weird Al. Let's just say he got an accordion for his 4th birthday. The boy is obsessed. He knows as many Weird Al lyrics as I do, and that's a LOT. The boy can sing and dance well, too, and loves to be on stage. He is my last chick, about to go to Kindergarten. He is doing great in pre-school--writing his letters and numbers, writes his name. He's really interested in learning to read. He loves to ask "how do you spell ____?" and will write stories. They all run together, but you can recognize words. Right now he's playing a game called Dog! Cat! Hamster! He is running back and forth, following the pattern on the floor and yelling "Dog! Cat! Hamster!" Every now and then he'll stop and say FISH! He never stops moving. He isn't afraid of anything except snakes. He'll have no truck with snakes. He climbs any and all climbable structures with zero forethought into how he's getting down. He just wings it. When he falls down he is already saying (sometimes tearfully) "I'm OK!" before he walks it off and moves on. He's also relentless. My husband nicknamed him Tenacious X. He gets what he wants, hook or crook. Usually hook--he's really charming. He is loving and wants to please. He tells me "Mommy, you're so beautiful!" just about every day. X is 5 and a half. He turned five the day before school started. No way was I sending this wild child, five years old for one stinkin' day, 3rd percentile on the growth chart BABY to Kindy. We thought about it and entertained it, but deep inside we knew a long time ago we'd red-shirt this guy. We didn't want him to be labelled, spirited as he is, as a bad kid. He wasn't ready to behave and listen and sit still for 7 hours a day. No way. He's almost ready, now, though, I think. By the time Kindergarten starts he'll be ready. It was a good decision. Plus I get to have him for another year and get to hear his stories and help him learn to read and write. WINNING!