The next 2 weeks

One more week of school, then exams and then we are going home!
Except our home has been rented out...

He's finishing his first year in primary school in 2 weeks! WOW!!

He's not losing so much stationery nowadays, although occasionally he will do stupid things like sharpen his pencils both ends, break them in twos or saw them up with his ruler.

He had a few problems with his class bully earlier on in the year. Had food picked off the floor dumped into his soup, scratched his cheeks, hands, kicked, tripped etc. But last I hear, he says things are alright now, the bully doesn't bother him anymore.

So when yesterday he came back with a scratch on his cheek, I asked him how he got it. Refused to tell at first. I left it as that. But later, he did open up and told me he had a scuffle with his best friend's brother on the school bus. An older kid. Kid's brother took his 'shark' (he's into origami nowadays - it was a paper shark) so he grabbed that fellow's with his hands / fingernails but stressed that he didn't scratch him because there weren't any marks on the fellow's arm. Fellow retaliated by grabbing his face. Scuffle was broken up by bus auntie.

He's learnt how to add, subtract, count money, tell the time, recognize right angles and do 1-10 multiplications. Chinese speech and writing has improved dramatically and he's started reading chapter books by himself - Diary of a Wimpy Kid.

He's taller too. It became apparent after winter. His pants - the ones he had before the cold season, have all shrunk against those skinny legs of his.

He swims. Picked up front crawl, can swim 8 laps or so in that style without too much effort, and do a total of 16-20 laps during his hour-long lesson. He's also now learning backstroke.

Music education on the other hand, is a disaster. He punches the piano like he does the computer. Randomly and forever searching for the right keys.  He also dropped out of the school choir and joined the paper-folding / origami class instead. Finally, he is still struggling to hold the violin properly and plays it like an executor with severe finger spasms.

He lost 2 baby tooth and has a couple more loose.

I see only fleeting glimpses of the baby nowadays and so when he ran back for a voluntary second hug and kiss before going to school this morning, something he never does nowadays, I was reminded. He's not yet seven but will be soon, all grown up.