Pretty much sums it up

I'm not sure why this picture is showing up sideways, but it is too cute not to share. Gummy Bear has been having some adjustment issues with kindergarten. I feel like there are a couple of issues going on. The Bear likes to talk ... and talk and talk and talk. This serves the dual purpose of getting on his teacher's nerves and keeping him from getting his work done. If you have met him once or twice, you also know that he tends to do things without thinking. Like today, he stuck a raisin up his nose at snack time. Why? Who knows. He certainly doesn't. I got a note home, no more raisins. Good times.

What this means is that we've had a lot of conversations with his kindergarten teacher and he has had a lot of "yellow" days. I have to admit that my enthusiasm for her is waning, but we are doing our level best to help him adjust to the new rules of kindergarten. For the past week or two, we have had a lot of discussions with the Bear about asking himself, "Self, is this a good thing to do?" BEFORE he does something.

Today after yet another impulsive decision, I asked him what he needed to do to remind himself to ask his "self" before doing something. "I dunno," he said. Taking a page from my Dad's playbook, I suggested that we write a note for him to carry to help him remember. He was awfully excited about the idea and came up with this masterpiece:

"My mouth is open because my brain is asking myself, 'self,should I do this?'"

He put it in his school folder to help him remember tomorrow at school. Having observed the Bear in many different situations, I feel like his issues are pretty age-appropriate. I think his teacher has a pet peeve that Bear's ... idiosyncracies line up with pretty exactly. He's at the top of his class, academically. It's the social development (sit down, be quiet, don't touch that) that's lagging behind. Sigh. Thankfully, he still seems to be enjoying school. There is a very fine line between addressing the problem and making it the only thing we talk about.

Anyway, I thought the drawing was pretty brilliant. And I think he's pretty brilliant. And I wanted to share the brilliance.