Laraway Family

So, November began with some cooler weather, but we were still wearing shorts. This was the first night that it was comfortable having the fireplace on and snuggling on the couch to watch a show. :) Chas, Mommy, Starks and Anthony nestled down and toasty. The month was full of teacher conferences, days off, field trips and Thanksgiving fun, of course! We headed to the SF Zoo with friends on a day off from school. There were five families together (two had 2 kids and the other 4 have 3), and we had SO much fun!
Chas wasn't interested in having his picture taken this day, so I'm putting ones of Starks and Anthony with his friends Peter and Zachary in front of the Grizzly Gulch! The Grizzly Bear came into the water right up to the glass! Anthony had been learning about bears in school and was most excited!

In teacher conferences, very nice things were said of the boys. Chas is an angel in kindergarten (what the?), a little peace keeper and police officer, and he's very smart- just like we knew. :) He's reading at a beginning to middle 3rd grade level, listens well and works independently. Anthony is accelerated in math and reading (I think most of his books are middle-end 4th grade.), and he, too, works well independently. His teacher has all of the immature kids in 2nd grade, and I have to think that's why he's there. His teacher wrote "Anthony is the perfect student' on his evaluation, and she only noted he needs to work on being more social. She and I agree that he's perfectly happy being on the outside, watching or even playing alone, but she said she'll try to get him involved in group activities during recess. Anthony has enjoyed being chased by the girls lately- stating "It was the best recess I've ever had!" And so it begins... :) Starks didn't have a conference, but if he did, it would go like this:
Starks is doing very well in 6th grade and misses his brothers in elementary school. He's the top scorer on the football field, and he's looking forward to playing forward in basketball this winter. He seems to be healing well after his skateboarding accident, and it hasn't interfered with his ability to participate and lead his teams in gym. He seems to be adapting well with the kids in class regardless of his being only 2.5 years old. The only thing I would suggest is to add some calories to his food- maybe give him double portions of dessert since he expends so much energy every day. He is very well behaved and listens to instructions better than most children in class. He should be ready for high school in a year or two.

That's Starks! He's such an awesome 2 year old, and I think he's a 25 year old stuck in a 2 year old body. He's just an old soul.... :)