Creed style...update on the boy...

The twins have turned 5, so it's time to update on their lives, their developmental milestones and of course: their style! Credence Paul is a party boy. He is adorable, sneaky, kind and smarter then we think. I say that because something very interesting happened last month. Friends were in town to visit: my old pal, Seth and his partner, Christopher. We had a wonderfully enlightened time. It just so happened to be at the end of the twins' 3 week vacation between Ecole summer camp and the start of the new school year. In other words: school was out and they were nuts. Creed was taking every opportunity to push all buttons, boundaries and manipulate everyone and everything in his path. So, one afternoon, while Evan, Seth and I went to visit my mom in the hospital - as she had recently broken her hip - Christopher and a friend of his stayed home with the kids. Now, Christopher is very, very wise, observant and has dealt with lots of kids so we were eager to hear what had happened while we were gone as the dynamics with our two kiddos are usually out of the ordinary.
I won't go into great detail but a power struggle ensued between C & C and Creed learned a good lesson as did we. When describing the events, Christopher started with: "First of all, Creed is extremely smart. Really, really smart." That stopped us in our tracks for several reasons. We have dealt with many doctors, educators, and therapists during the short 5 years of their lives and the message has generally been repeatedly: Zelda is so very smart and Creed is so cute and friendly. Wow, what had we been doing? We had let this sink in and begin to cloud our expectations and general view of our childrens' characters. Sure, we knew that both assessments were true - but to have already pigeon-holed them at age 5 in our own minds? It started me looking at Creed in a whole different light. But wait - it's not that I didn't think that Creed was smart, it's just that I had always heard that Zelda was the smart twin. Ackkk!!! I was horrified, embarrassed and felt like someone had just opened a door to my view of my own son. Thank you Christopher!
Anyway, Creed is in his 3rd year at Ecole. The twins' missed the cut-off for Kindergarten as their birthday was the 15th. He is the oldest in the class and it's great to look back on how far he has come. He understands everything in French and at times, even responds in his 2nd language. He loves to help the younger kids. He is still generally sweet and kind, despite turning into a rock-'em, sock-'em kind of boy. He runs, crashes and explodes into everything in his path. His imagination is exploding as well: "Mom, I am going to marry Millie. We need to go to Home Depot and buy paint and wood to build our house in Mexico. Dad, can I borrow some tools?" Or the other night, "Mom, I am so tired...but I still want to go to the Continental Club to hear music."
Creed wants to continue with ice skating lessons and expresses interest in taking ballet. It will be interesting to see how he'll handle contact sports as he becomes more aware of  the shunts in his brain. We have started talking about them and he is aware of the tubes in his head. He is able to talk about his vision and will tell us about his good eye(left) and his bad one (right). He's been potty-trained for 2 years now, pees standing up and never has accidents at night. He prefers to be naked when at home but still likes us to pick out his clothes for school. With that said, it's fun to pull out all of the vintage kids' clothes we have collected over the years - stuff we have been stockpiling - and then put them in when they arrive at the appropriate age.

Creed is getting tall and slim - like his dad. And he looks great in a pair of vintage jeans.