Grant

Grant is a really cool kid. He isn't SO unlike other boys his age, but he doesn't exactly fit the mold either. And that seems to be perfectly ok with him.

With the exception of golf, he hasn't really cared much for any of the sports he's tried. Flag football was the most recent, but he's also tried baseball, soccer, karate, and basketball. They're always ok to start, but he gets bored with them. We'll try golf again in the spring, because he did seem to like that quite a bit. He will play soccer or basketball with the majority of the boys at recess if he's in the mood, but he usually chooses to play tag or pretend with a couple of other boys instead.

He really likes to spend his time playing outside - either on his bike, scooter, swing set, or trampoline - or inside playing Minecraft, watching videos of other people playing Minecraft (which I don't understand), or reading Diary of a Wimpy Kid books. He also likes board games, Legos, tinkering with electronics, wrestling with Daddy, and tickle fights with me and Hope.

He has a somewhat unusual fashion sense. Not strange exactly, but more like what you'd see on a teenager than an 8-year-old. Most days he just chooses some random shirt and some random pants, but when he's in the mood, he's specific about his outfits and hairstyle. It's never preppy or classic, but usually lands somewhere between sporty and hipster and cool dude.

Grant is a great student, and takes a lot of pride in his work. Sometimes he rushes through his math and makes careless mistakes that result in bad grades, but he can always find the errors when we make him do it over again. His handwriting is neat (for 2nd grade) and his vocabulary is off the hook!

Once a month we have to drop Hope and school early for Leo Club, and we've started a new 'thing' where Grant and I spend that remaining 45 minutes before he goes to school walking around the park with a smoothie for him and a coffee for me. These are quickly becoming very special times for us! He might start off quiet, but if I let him ramble, he'll lead the conversation wherever his brain takes it and we'll end up talking about every little thing. It's priceless!

Grant has been asking about piano lessons for over a year, so we just bit the bullet and got him a starter piano and lessons once a week with Mr. Kevin. Our understanding is that he can't quit for at least a year, but I hope he never quits. He's only had two lessons so far, but he seems to enjoy it. I love the idea of him playing. And this morning he and Hope played their first song together - him on the piano and her on the violin! It was a very beginner song, but hopefully the first of many.