Before we left Hyde Park yesterday, we took AJ on a quick spin through the Oriental Institute. AJ picked up a book at the library last week entitled Bill and Pete Go Down the Nile, which tells the story of a crocodile (Bill) and his �toothbrush� bird (Pete) who go on a class field trip to visit the Pyramids, the Sphynx (Bill calls it the �stinks�; Pete corrects him)
and to a museum where they see sarcophaguses (which Bill mispronounces as �esophaguses�) and mummies. We have been spending a lot of time reading this book lately and we thought AJ might like to see a real mummy. As usual, however, the things that I thought AJ would be interested in were not the ones that captured his attention. AJ was instead taken with cuneiform. Under the shadow of a towering winged bull, which he ignored completely, he pored over a chart that showed how pictographs evolved into cuneiform symbols. He traced the shapes in the air with his fingers. Then, when we got to the Egypt exhibit, he stared at the sarcophagus of Meresamun and stared at the string of hieroglyphs running down her legs, as if trying to decipher them.

We didn�t hear much more about it at home � AJ was too tired. But this morning, when I took AJ for his preschool screening tests, there was a sign language poster in the room we were waiting in. He stopped and stared at it and remarked, �Mommy it�s like Egyptian writing.� I have a feeling I know what AJ�s next research project is going to be.

AJ seems to have had a good time at the screening. The screeners clearly enjoyed spending time with him and AJ came out plastered in stickers � the ultimate reward for just about any preschool success. His scores across the board were shockingly high, even to me. �They don�t get any higher than that,� remarked the school psychologist as he went over the results. �This one�s going to keep you busy.� As for the speech problem, it isn�t one. There were two types of sounds we were concerned about. One is apparently a sound that tends to get resolved later, so they don�t worry about it until kindergarten or first grade. The other he is getting right fifty percent of the time, so they think it�s just a matter of practice and not of a development problem per se. So no therapy needed. And we now have some concrete scores for AJ that should help as we try to work to make sure there will be accommodations made at school to keep him challenged. I can tell, though, there�s going to be a fight ahead.

Meanwhile, AJ is completely oblivious. I dropped him off at preschool an hour late after the screening. He was met with a chorus of voices shouting his name when he walked in. He looked pleased to have been missed and ran off to push balls down an elaborate ramp with one of his friends.

[yesterday's entry was quite late; click back if you missed it]

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