Just Push

Koi amazes me every day.  Since the day he was born I knew, along with everyone else who looked at him, that he took after his dad.  As the days turned into weeks turned into months turned into years I see that even more with his personality.

He soaked up mama and Koi time doing flashcards and reading books when Momas was a growing ball in my stomach followed by a nursling, and his love for listening to books being read turned into a desire to actually read books one day while listening to Hop on Pop.  That book has a lot of easy words so I thought I'd show him the process in sounding them out.  He ran with it, quickly reading the three letter words and getting frustrated at the words he couldn't figure out.

He is also my child so may get some of his intense emotions from me.

I realized I needed something he could see progress with so I ordered an inexpensive learn to read book online and we began our reading lesson time in the morning.

After a few lessons with Koi soaking up the format of the lessons we learned the best way to go about it was for him to do it on his own and I'd chime in with help if asked.

It was much less frustrating for both of us that way.

Fast forward to him asking me, "Do some people say 'i' for 'a'?"

He saw Thomas spelled out.

I then realized how difficult the English language is when you are trying to explain it to a three year old!  He enjoyed calling Thomas Thom-ass for a while.

Our now four year old Koi loves figuring out how different letter combinations are read, and enlightened us the other morning when it was vitamin time.  B or I always open the vitamins because kids can't open them, the boys pick their vitamins, and Koi closes them. 

He excitedly ran up to me as I came down the stairs and said, "Mom!  Come look!  It says 'PUSH'!  You just have to push!"  And, sure enough, he twisted that vitamin lid right off.

Of course, Koi, you just have to push.

This boy has always kept us on our toes, and has always been able to figure out the process whether it's a baby gate blocking him from something or a child lock on a door handle attempting to keep him in our room.  There isn't a "you should just do things this way to produce these results" with Koi.  And while that can leave us all exhausted at times we're daily learning and figuring out our dance.

And when we feel stuck or at a road block we just push through until we make it to the other side.