Thank goodness for recycled paper

Thirty short days as a Kindergartner, and all this boy wants to do is write. He can't seem to complete a regular task without infusing some writing into the middle of it. Last night, while getting ready for bed, Trevi ran out of his room, got a piece of paper, and started making a checklist of things to do each day. Then, he set about checking off all of the things he'd already done (which is, in my opinion, a great strategy for making quick progress on those pesky checklists). Here's a close-up and translation:
• Mummy gets lip balm (love this one – clearly he understands my addiction)
• Bed
• Homework
• Dinner
• Breakfast
• Lunch
• Jammies
• Dinner (he realized he'd written this twice, and said, "That's because a healthy dinner is very important for a healthy body.")
• Brush
• Cookie

Then, when I walked in the room, he wrote some instructions for me:
"No Mummy" and "Don't peek"
He pointed frantically at his words as he told me that he just couldn't get his jammies on until his checklist was finished. It won't be long before he realizes that I have too much of a soft spot for emergent literacy to enforce bedtime when such a marvelous thing as a checklist is in the works.

And, the piece de resistance....a story! I drew the lines, and reminded him about spaces between words, but other than that, everything is 100% Trevor (as is clear from the plot):
"A clown goes to the store to buy a bum (yes, bum). He needs it for his circus tricks. Now he wants a toy train for the tricks. The end. By Trevor." Picture the devilish gleam in his eye as he wrote this. I can just imagine what was going through his little head....."Wow! Mummy's letting me get away with potty humor! All I have to do is write about it, instead of just saying it, and she doesn't stop me! Amazing!"

I love this stage so much. Phonetic spelling exists for the teeniest window of time, and then it is gone forever, turned into boring old conventional spelling. So forgive me if I blather on and on about it. It just makes me boundlessly happy. That and the fact that I had mint chocolate chip ice cream tonight. Does life get better than this?