When Ben was three, I developed a one pager for him to take to his new preschool teachers. It turned out Ben was more interested in his page than his teachers. It had pictures of dinosaurs and whales on it. As I look back at his three year old page, I see many similarities - hugs for teachers is still one of the highlights of Ben's day, dinosaurs, whales and now prehistoric sharks are passions of his…and we are just beginning to get into dragons.

What has changed, is him seeing himself as an "expert" in all things dinosaurs and really prehistoric life. Every year at his school, there is a dinosuar week - for two weeks! These two weeks are the highlight of Ben's year other than his birthday and Christmas. He has been reading about all things prehistoric since he was 2 ½ (well Mom has been reading to him). He is quite the expert among other five year olds and some teachers. He brings some of his dinosaur books, fossilized shark teeth, and fossilized whale/dolphin bones home with him.

Stuttering has also become a part of Ben's life. We noticed it a bit last year and now realized it is "real". His teachers noticed it is more revelant when he is speaking to the class or trying to ask a question of his teachers. We are waiting on speech therapy to start in early 2012. So there is some frustration for Ben. He has all this knowledge he wants to share but struggles to share as much as he would like. We hope the therapy will resolve his stuttering or at least give us coping techniques, in addition to what we do now.  We ask him to take a deep breath if he gets stuck on a word. His teachers let him know they are listening - he has their attention.

Ben will go to public kindergarten next year. This is a bit scary for me - the transition away from the comfort of friends he has known for 3.5 years and teachers that really know him. Thus, I am starting drafts of his one page profile to provide an introduction to Ben to a new school and new people. The one page profile is so much more for me than Ben!