Light up the world

Today we had our very first parent-teacher conference for Sawyer. His teachers have identified him as a "feisty" child who is passionate about everything he does. There are three kinds of temperaments born into this world, we learned: flexible, fearful and feisty. Only about 10 percent of children are considered "feisty." According to the definition they: "Tend to live with zest and let everyone know when they are pleased or displeased." They can have long, intense attention spans and need lots of warnings when the activity is about to change. Sawyer is also sometimes fearful, especially in new situations (we knew that). He has very strong verbal skills (thanks to all the reading we do with him), and they are teaching him how to better express his feelings. We also learned that his favorite color is brown. Sawyer is very mature in many ways, his teacher said. Almost like a little adult. And, sometimes, it's easy to forget that he's one of the youngest kids in the class. He loves to be in charge. When the class acted out the "Monkeys Jumping on the Bed" song, lots of kids wanted to be monkeys, lots of kids just wanted to watch. Sawyer immediately volunteered to be the "Momma." Whenever a monkey fell off that bed, Our Sawyer got on that phone, dramatically, called that doctor and — stealing the doctor's line — said: "No more monkeys jumping on the bed." Good thing the doctor was a "flexible" child. So the long and short of it is that Sawyer's kind of high maintenance. As a mom, that's not easy to hear. I had a really hard time with the Baptists on that topic. They just called him stubborn and he spent a lot of time warming the chair in the corner. What I'm pleased to hear is that these teachers are working with him and seem to know the right techniques to help him be successful.

The reward, they say, is that Sawyer lights up the room whenever he walks in and he has made the whole school a livelier place. Now, that's the Sawyer I know and love.