I was a little hesitant to post this.  So I guess I'm adding a disclaimer.  The internet has a way of allowing people and families to filter out the rough stuff.  To appear perfect.  Bragging-Christmas-letter style.  I'm torn.  On one hand I don't want to be apart of something that isn't honest, something that makes life seem like something that it's not.  But on the other hand I can't bring myself to publish things about my kids that aren't their best side.  At this point they are little kids, I don't want them to be defined by the struggles and immaturity that accompanies being 3 years old.  So I find myself not posting things.  I stop myself from bragging because I don't want to present some obnoxious Leave It To Beaver life.  As I was writing this post I made a list of several things that Win is bad at.  But why?  So here is my decision, this blog is a celebration of Henderson high points.  It's not a cross section.  I will be editing, filtering and censoring before I post.  So please, if you must compare, compare your best days and times with ours and omit difficult parts.  And please note, I remove all of my pimples and blur my wrinkles before publishing any photograph of myself. Also, there seems to be some unwritten rule that parents are allowed to claim that their children are kind, thoughtful, sweet, beautiful and energetic.  But when it comes to claiming that a kid is smart that is somehow obnoxious and taboo.  At the risk of being obnoxious.  My kid is smart.  He's really smart.  And I'm proud of him!   There I did it.  Let's celebrate :-) So here is the blog post that I was too insecure to post without a huge disclaimer. Win hasn't had the easiest couple of weeks.  He hit a rough patch emotionally.  And I've noticed that irritability tends to indicate an ear infection.  Usually we ride it out, but this one wasn't going away and it had been over 2 weeks.  Then he started running a fever, so we got him into the doc.  Yep, he has a nasty ear infection.  He's on antibiotics now, but his fever hasn't broken yet.  So, this is a little window into Win's life.  He's been moping around the house in his pajamas escaping into books--lots of books. When I became a Henderson my in-laws regaled me with stories of pre-school Jared reading stacks and stacks of books.  The stories claim that Jared was reading by age 3 and reading Tom Clancy in the 2nd grade.  Now I believe it.  I can't hardly keep enough books in the house for Win.  He read the entire Magic Treehouse (all 68 books) in less than a month.  I gave Stuart Little to Win the other morning.  He'd finished it before 11am and read nearly all of Charlotte's Web before night.  I kid you not, he is a faster reader than I am.  On average he reads about 100 pages a day.  I know that I sound like I'm bragging.  I am.  I'm really proud of him, and excited for him that he's found the joys of reading so early. As for my part of this apple, I got a lot of ear infections as a kid.