A Snapshot of Peter

I want to make sure I remember Peter right now.

Gangly, loud, and goofy, he's also helpful, intelligent, and eager.

He still is excellent at pushing buttons and stays in such good condition by practicing daily.

At the same time, he loves Topher immensely and comes home each day to say how much he missed that tiny boy.

He doesn't like to clean, but will help when motivated by the desire to play video games and, more recently, by the desire to alleviate my stress.

He is shockingly smart, he always has been, but now his teachers can see it like we can.

For years he has wanted to be funny, but his inability to understand social cues has made humor difficult. Now, however, he's finally picking up on how to deliver a zinger, how to time it right, and when he should keep his comment to himself. He's not perfect at this, but he's improving.

He wants to hang out with Bryan more than with anyone else. I'm not sure how much longer this will last now that we've been in one place for a few years and Peter has lots of friends. But it's still wonderful that he looks up to Bryan so much.

He's surpassed my skills as a pianist. He still doesn't love to practice, but I think he's beginning to see the benefit. He excitedly ran in from the library recently to ask if I'd heard the song he was playing. I said yes, then he showed me that the sheet music was only the right hand with chords written over the top. He was so pleased that he knew each chord, even though all that was written was a letter or two.

He still loves to read.

He also loves to eat and he is ALWAYS hungry.

He's stuck between wanting to play imagination games with the younger kids, but feeling too big and old to do so. This is especially evident when we're at the park and there are other kids around.

He's nearly done reading The Book of Mormon for the first time on his own. I love that he'll interrupt his reading to ask me a question or make an observation. I was two years older than he is now when I read it for the first time. And he's encouraging Cooper and Phoebe to catch up to him.

He's a good kid. No, he's a good young man.