Spy Games

Sam has a terrible time remembering names. I’m sometimes surprised he remembers his own. If he is having fun doing something he will call the person he’s playing with “Papa”. Apparently he directly relates the experience to the person. If he is feeling suddenly over flowing with love he calls the person he’s with “Mom.”

He told me yesterday that he dropped his jacket on the bus and was really upset about it and the bus driver found it for him. He said he accidentally called him “mom” and the bus driver said, “WHAT! I’m not your mom! Where’s my purse I’m going to beat you with it!” (I found this a little creepy) and all the kids on the bus cracked up laughing. He loves his bus driver because apparently he does an impression of whatever you call him.

Anyway back to the point:

Sam told me on the first day of school that he had an idea of how he was going to make friends. Great, I said, how? He went into great detail of this elaborate “joke” he made up. First he told all the kids he was 10 and that he was actually a spy. He was in the class to recruit spies. He would “hire” a classmate and then after he knew they were friends he would tell them the truth.

He comes home almost every day remembering some one’s name and talking about them. When I ask who they are he always answers, “They’re on my spy team.” I told J I was a bit concerned about this and he says, “What can I say, he’s a cool kid.” which is not exactly what I was thinking… I was thinking more along the lines of  ”weird”.

Sam has two friends in particular that he talks about all the time. Danny and Kaylen. Danny writes Sam notes during “post card time” (though I don’t know if that’s what it’s truly called) and I’m so impressed. Sam brought home a picture of two stick figures with an arrow pointing to each person and a title “SAME” and “DANNY”. Sam can hardly write his own name and this kid is writing other people’s names. I am impressed. Kaylen has glasses and Sam filled his note book with pictures of glasses. He talks about her ALL the time and wants to have a play date. I’ve talked to her mom and we’re working on setting something up. When I told him this he jumped and punched the air, “YES!”.

I’m really enjoying this stage.