I think I might have a bit of a perfectionist on my hands in my middle child. This isn't really a surprise—Noah has always been very particular about certain things, and he's a "details" kind of guy when it comes to how things go together, how they work, and the mechanics of it.

However, knowing this, I was still surprised by an incident the other day wherein he attempted to write his name for the first time. He finished colouring the bulldog red (still Noah's favourite colour—and he is still in a monochromatic saturated colour phase), and I casually suggested he write his name, which—a bit to my surprise—he began doing. He said the letter names softly to himself while he was writing, but when he got to "a" he started wailing as if his world was coming to an end.

"It not wight! Its not a 'a'! Whaaaaaaa!"

I was a little taken aback, but tried to reassure him that he was a doing a great job, and he should just keep going with the "h". Nothing doing. He insisted I help him. So, grasping his pudgy little hand in mine, I gently helped him correct his "a". Once that was done, though, it was now the "o" with a problem.

Not wanting to completely mask his first name-writing attempt with my corrections, I suggested we write his name together in the bottom right corner of his paper. He agreed, and after seeing his name so nicely and neatly there, was much mollified about the imperfect letters his solo hand had imprinted.

The next day, I tried printing off a "name printing practice" sheet I made for him on the internet, to help boost his confidence, and although he was happy to trace the broken line versions of "Noah", he still would not try the letters on his own. Oh, well. I guess we'll just work a little more on the pre-printing practice for a while.

A picture that Jude recently drew on the Magna-Doodle. It's Wall-e, the Pixar film hero, surrounded by his towers of compacted garbage and playing showtunes on his sound recorder.

When we were in Ft. Smith for the symphony, we stopped at a little coffee and sandwich shop for supper, and I marveled at these birds holding evening court. Maybe they were having coffee, too! (The line was even longer on the right side of the pole.)

Dolled up and ready for a night at the symphony!

Jude in his pre-altered gii. (I still didn't hem it short enough, I guess. Even after it was altered, he still rolls up the pants two or three times!)