I’m sorry to hear about Xander’s predicament, but he is an absolutely unprecedented human being. I’ve heard several people in the family say “I’ve never met anyone like Xander in my entire life.” I don’t know how mother penguins do it, but I think most any human, even an unrelated one, can hear his unique song.

On top of algebra, he is an *incredible* actor, or was the last time I saw him at work. Those ninja poses were almost Shakespearean.

Please tell him from me that the Brujo’s 9th grade algebra students can’t make change. SRSLY. “If you have $3 and I take $1.50, what do you have left?” “Um, $2.50?”

And when I was an aunt, Rohan even at the age of 3 would say stuff sadly like, “I’m not smart like Yishi.” Because Rishi was 5 and could already count and spell. What a horrific anxiety of influence, which just makes me selfishly glad I was an only child. Though on the other hand it’s a bit of a big-fish-in-a-you-sized-pond situation, and there are cruel realities on the other end of it, esp. when your mom didn’t teach you to remind yourself but instead grounded you and bought you a calculator.

Oh: http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/04/25/twitter.buck/index.html

!!! So you never know, you see….

And she crawls grumpily back to the bed, which is a nest of papers.

I had to go back to the second paragraph about 10 times, though, because after reading the first one, all I could think about was how I wanted to do something nice for Xander. My co-dependent “fix-it” button got pushed, or maybe it’s that I can commiserate so well with what it feels like to be the younger sibling of two spectacular human beings. Once I told my brain to shut-up, though and listen to what you were saying, it was so clear to me that nothing about Xander needs to be “fixed”. It is tough having an older sibling who is brilliant, no matter how brilliant you are yourself, but Xander is lucky enough to have a mom who recognizes and treasures his unique song, and that’s a pretty amazing gift.

and really. Algebra? in third grade?

but at least the struggle will be beautifully written. lovely post!