It’s that time of year when Huck brings home relics from the classroom and makes me scream in high pitched sounds of delight.  Yesterday he proudly handed me his weekly journal, a heartbreaking little notebook filled with his attempts to spell and write words that describe his weekend.   I love how Huck speaks so articulately about matters that I don’t quite understand (math, science, optical illusions, what have you), but he’s still at that tender age where actually writing about it makes him seem like a drunken neanderthal.  It’s one of the few areas where I’m still smarter than him and I’m going to hold onto that as long as I can.

So here are a few of my favorite journal entries from first grade. We’ll begin with my favorite one from the very beginning of the school year, which was in response to a Tomie DePaola story.  I am happy to say that it stars my mother, Grandma Hottman, and her annual joke used to torture her vegetarian daughters:

“Every time my grandma makes food she always tells my mom it has a little bit of chicken in it and everybody laughs about it like this: Haha!”

“We had dinner.  First my mom and dad made stir fry.  Then we had dinner and I ate the whole meal with chopsticks.”

I woke up and lost my tooth.  First I woke up and found my tooth was gone.  Then I called “Daddy!” and he came.  Next we went back to sleep.  Finally we woke up in the morning.  I felt great.”

“I went snow tubing!!!  First we ate lunch.  Then my mom pushed me and thought I was going to die!”

(True story.)

“I saw AN ORDINARY FAMILY at my aunt and uncle’s church.  First I sat in church.  Then I ate lunch that was a sandwich, grapes, crackers and a cookie for desert.  Next I saw my movie.  Finally I went to my aunt and uncle’s house.  I was happy!”  (His drawing is from the scene where his character Jack says “Oh sorry, I was in a daze!”)

It’s really going to break my heart when his handwriting looks less caveman-like.