Cooking with J!

This week was a cooking week in Two and You. On Tuesday, we made yellow cupcakes. On Friday, we made corn muffins. As you may have surmised, the color of the month was yellow. ;) I could have sworn we made scrambled eggs for one of the days when Simon was a two....? Maybe kids are less likely to eat those though. ;)

Jonathan didn't eat either baked good (he's gone picky on me all of a sudden)... but he did enjoy the making of them quite a bit, especially cracking the eggs! He didn't get one on Tuesday and was pretty psyched when he got a turn on Friday!

I heart Two and You. I seriously wish we could stay forever and I am trying to savor every moment of this special time with my kiddo this last time around. One of the moms on Friday actually sked me if I was okay because she thought I was too quiet. (as in, not socializing with all the moms...LOL!) Don't get me wrong, I love the moms there and love chatting with them, but, the truth is,  I'm actually doing my best to focus as much as possible on Jonathan while we're there and tune everything else out, partially because it's a great opportunity to get in a little extra speech work, but also because, well, this is my last chance!

It's already going by too quickly!

Jonathan is 25 Months Old!

Dear Jonathan,

Today you are 25 months old!

I have to say, I am really enjoying your company these days. You are so happy and fun and silly!
The combination of the big brothers going back to school and you finally talking has made an amazing difference.

You have become a RIDICULOUS early bird. Most mornings, you are up at 6:30, sometimes even earlier. I can't be annoyed for long though because as soon as I hear the thud of your feet hit the ground, the next thing I hear is "thumpthumpthumpthumpthumpthump" as you run full speed down the hall, which always makes me laugh. I meet you at the top of the stairs and you grin and lift your arms to be picked up over the baby gate.

Your morning routine is cute too. First, you run to the refrigerator and ask for "juice". (way more pleasant than the whining there used to be). You'll even specify which color juice you want now. Sadly, you've become sort of anti-milk, but I've been so excited you were asking for juice by name, I've overlooked that. Gotta try to get that back on track this month. ;)

After juice, you thumpthumpthumpthump to the living room (still at top speed... this is pretty much your only speed, really) and ask for "bets", which is your word for the Leapfrog Alphabet movie. For awhile there it was "The Lorax" instead, and we all had to watch it 42,000 times. I'm grateful for a replacement, although this one is getting old quickly too.

Once you are settled in with juice and bets, (and duck and binky) I don't hear from you for awhile because, though will not admit it, you are still half asleep. This is the time I use to pack the big boys' lunches for school. ;)

School! School was rough for the first couple days there... you didn't like the transitions between activities. Now you are understanding the flow though and you love it and I love taking you. Your favorites there right now are the kitchen set (because it has a sprayer like mommy's kitchen sink), the fake food, the wooden blocks, the dry erase board, painting and, of course, the playground. Can't get enough of the playground, which is probably why snack (which directly  follows the playground) is still a little dicey sometimes. :)

The other shoe finally dropped on your fantastic eating, by the way. (probably a combination of "it's just that time" and the fact that you are drinking way more juice than you should) I rarely get a decent dinner into you anymore and you now shun things you loved -- yogurt, applesauce, chicken. Lunch is my only hope for most of your nutritional needs these days... even breakfast is kind of iffy. Bah.

Your speech has taken off in ways I found it hard to imagine it ever would as recently as even six months ago! You can say anything and everything... you repeat everything. You ask for things by name and you even use some consistent phrases! "I want that", "Don't cry" "Help me", "My turn." To say it has improved our lives would be an understatement!

We have discovered you are a super routine-oriented kiddo... basically any change at ALL throws you for a total loop and sends you spiraling into possessed toddler/pea soup mode. The fun part is that you can get locked into a routine after only doing something ONCE. So I have to be careful ALL DAY LONG that I don't do/say/give you anything I don't want to have to do/say/give you any other time we are in a given situation. It's nervewracking sometimes!

Your napping has become a dream... on days when I don't have to wake you up to be somewhere, you'll take almost three-hour afternoon naps. Ahhhhhh... even better, just this past week. You have started letting me rock you until you are almost asleep. You wouldn't even let me do this when you were an infant once you had finished eating. Truly... this is the first time EVER I've gotten to do this with you and I am loving it!

For the most part, little manner, you are a joy! The older you get, the easier and more fun you are. So far, so good on our third round of the terrible twos ride. ;)

See you next month JJ, Johnny Applesseed, Sillyboo!

Love,
Mommy :)

A Peek at Simon's View of the World...

Simon brought home some papers from art class on Friday. I forgot about them until this morning when I was packing up his tote bag for school. 

First, I give you, his self portrait, complete with the usual circles on his head to represent his curls. In art, they have been learning how to draw facial features, which is why his portrait, for the first time ever, has ears and a nose instead of just eyes and a mouth. 

The whole thing just makes me laugh. I liked it so much that I scanned it in and ordered it on a tee shirt for him and a mug for me. LOL!

Okay, so then... the family portrait. I think it's safe to say who Simon thinks runs the show around here...  please note that his brothers are placed off to the side and are approximately 1/6 and 1/16 his size.  On a positive note, we are all HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY!  ;)

It's a School Miracle, Charlie Brown!

Jonathan is getting the school thing, for the most part. It's still a different experience than having a 2-1/2-year-old in the class, but we're getting there.

His biggest problem has been the transitions between activities. The majority of them were resulting in meltdowns or whining or just plain not wanting to participate. Until yesterday, out of three classes, he had actually sat at the snack table exactly once. The other two times, it just made him angry and he actually dumped his water out on the table and tossed the cup to the floor. AWESOME, I tell you.

So, I was relating my woes to our speech teacher on Wednesday when she asked how school was going. She suggested I make him a little ring of picture cards that showed his school routine. I had already taken those pictures of him on the first day anyway, so the next day, I printed them out and assembled them.

Did not see it coming that he was going to LOVE it. I handed it to him and he giggled. Then he walked around with it on and off for two days talking about the pictures. I gave it to him in the car on the way to school yesterday and said we were headed to school and talked about the routine, "First x then x!"
He was oddly excited...

Then, and this was a total bonus, when we got to school, I noticed Miss Sally had the same kinds of pictures velcroed to the back of the door in order of the routine.  I guess these teacher-types know a thing or two. LOL!

I showed the door pictures to Jonathan and he was enamored with them. At every transition, he would wander over to the door to see what was next. Totally into it.  He even got two of his class friends into it too. Not sure those pictures have ever had so much class attention.

The miracle? Not a single meltdown. Participated in EVERYTHING. ATE SNACK happily. Not even a whimper of discontent.

I was so proud of him!

Tuesday I will be throwing a wrench into things, because we have to leave a little early, before his beloved music time, so I'm a little worried... but we'll see how it goes.

Anyway, amazing!

Day Off....

I was dreading yesterday. The schools were closed for the Jewish holiday. Further on in the school year, it's really nice to have a day off to do nothing in particular, to not have to pack lunches, or rush out the door. But we JUST got into our school groove. September drives me nuts. There's another day of next week too. (sigh)

Anyway, so I was looking down the barrel of a very VERY long day with the boys who were bound to be bored. I knew we had to go SOMEWHERE or do SOMETHING.

The bouncy places had open play, but all of them were for ages 6 and under until later, which was J's naptime.

The apple orchards are all too far away.

We're all tired of our nearby playground and I wasn't up for chasing Jonathan around the inevitably packed bigger nearby playground.

Nevertheless, the weather was absolutely perfect and beautiful. So out we went...

We ended up at the farm near our old house. Their fall activities are not technically open yet, so we were spared any awful crowds. It was quiet and empty... the animals were out and the boys were able
to run around in the hay maze. They each had a cider doughnut that was still warm from the oven and I bought some honey for a recipe I was making later. Jonathan made friends with an exceptionally social bunny rabbit.

Then we drove the slow, "meandery"way home. The boys played in their rooms for awhile while I mixed up dough for some challah bread that I got the bright idea to make, it being Rosh Hashanah and all.

While I was still elbow-deep in dough, my sister-in-law texted me and said she was in the area and asked if she could stop by with my niece.

Adult conversation? YES, PLEASE!  So they stopped by for a bit.

Somewhere in there, Jonathan took a decently long nap.

We played outside for a couple hours, the boys rode their bikes, threw frisbees, drew on the driveway with sidewalk chalk. Then Aunt Debbie showed up and played for awhile! YAY!

The day ended up flying by and I don't think the boys were bored at all. :)

Now, I just need some plans for Yom Kippur. LOL!

I Love This Kid...

He always has a smile or a funny pose for the camera. I was joking to Tom this morning that, well, you know how people refer to certain people as "old souls"? This one?

 Definitely his first time around.  

To him, there is nothing too small to be worthy of excitement and wonder.  :) I love that. 

Simon + School....

Simon, like Ben, is often hard to get ANY details from about school. He's somewhat better in that it's not because he doesn't WANT to talk about it, he's just too busy doing other things to stop and remember his day.  But when you get him talking and ask the right questions, watch out.

He talked to me ALL night long last night about school -- things that happened, who got in trouble, what made him laugh, things he learned.

1) One little boy gets in trouble a LOT. Simon is, thankfully, astonished, and not amused, at the infractions, which range from not raising hand, to not standing in line, to running away from the teacher in the hallway.

2) "Did you know books have a table of contents page? It tells you where EVERYTHING in the book is! And then there is THIS, it's called the TITLE PAGE."   LOL!

3) The cafeteria is WAY too loud and I have to cover my ears.

4) The power went out at school the other day when I was standing RIGHT in my classroom!

5) Mrs. B said Spencer had to leave early yesterday because he was going to a country called NEW YORK. One day, can you pick ME up early so we can go to New York? (no, but I can pick you up early on Tuesday for a flu shot?)

6) And lastly... and possibly the most exciting --  I discovered last night that the wheels are really starting to turn in the sounding out words department. He spent a good half hour sitting on the floor of his room with me last night making words out of letters from our alphabet puzzle and switching out letters to make new words. He's been good with letter sounds for quite awhile now and could sometimes sound out words when pressed... but most of the time he would just get silly and do something like  "C-A-T "Cuh" "Ah" "Tuh" ....that spells BALL!

Anyway, he seems to have been bitten by the reading bug... thank you kindergarten teacher and peer pressure for lighting the fire under him! I laughed because he also excitedly informed me he can read "Today there are 21 friends in our class and 0 friends are absent." (which is one of the morning activities they read together every day) LOL!

Too funny. He's never been all that interested in sitting with me and doing structured learning type things. So, I really have never pushed it much, leaving most of the structured stuff to school. Preschool definitely gave him a good start. Good to see he's enjoying learning in kindergarten!

Is It That Time Already?

I was sitting minding my own business waiting for Ben and Simon this afternoon at school pickup. All of a sudden, a mom busts out of the parent pickup line yelling something about puke and chasing a kid out the door while flagging down teachers.

Lo and behold, right behind the chair where I was sitting was a lovely puddle. The kid had yakked and just kept walking. Apparently he also hit the rug in the vestibule and the sidewalk outside before they corralled him and walked him back in with a trash can.

Seriously.

Gag.

Can't handle other kids' puke. Can barely handle my OWN kids' puke.

I'm such a baby too... jumped out of my chair with Jonathan and hightailed it across the lobby.

Other moms who were waiting were heroically and helpfully gathering paper towels and tracking down the nurse. Not me. Nope. I was just cowering in a corner trying to will the puke germs away from me.

I can handle a sick, puking kind. Fine. But in our house, it starts with one sick, puking kid and works its way through, so it's around for what seems like forever. THEN, I just have to pray that when I inevitably get it, it's on a day when Tom can stay home and help out.

As I was pondering this and having my selfish mental freakout, one of Ben's teachers appeared on the scene and I heard her say, when she saw the culprit, "Ohhhh... yeah... his sister was out sick today."

Guessing this means the sister is in Ben's class (though he says no one was out sick) or has this teacher for reading, which means she spends time in that classroom... which means those awful puke germs are floating around where my kid hangs out and gahhhhhhh... please no... please no puke.

I made them all scrub their hands like crazy when we got home. LOL. I may even go so far as to wash Ben's backpack and lunchbag this weekend.

Crazy? Maybe... but puke + all five of us is kinda one of my nightmares...

They Take Turns...

It's Ben's turn to have issues now...

He has been teary the last three school dropoffs. He's always fine when I pick him up, but teary in the morning saying he doesn't want to go to school. The reasons vary, ranging from: "Third grade is too much" and "Third grade is boring.", to "No one at my lunch table will talk to me."

GAHHHHHHHHHH....

Tuesday, I had to have Simon walk him in. This morning he wouldn't even get out of the car, so I had to let Simon out ("Bye mom!!!"), circle back around and park and walk Ben in, still crying. NOW he was worried that people would see he had been crying and make fun of him.

OMG.

Somehow I got him down the hall and off to his classroom.

I've been trying to stay out of the teacher email game, especially for Ben, since he IS eight years old and should be learning to speak up for himself by now. But, something had to give and I knew the teachers would understand.

I came home and wrote both of his teachers an email about the last three days. I did ask if he could move to another lunch table if possible. Thankfully, they were VERY understanding and I got very, very kind replies. His reading teacher told me she just adores him and loves having him in her class. He's so sweet and gives her the most interesting answers. She said he seems happy in class.  She said she'd be happy to move him to whatever lunch table he'd like to sit at and would also encourage him to ask to take these reading quizzes he needs to take. (the kids have to take the initiative to ask and he just plain WON'T... and it's for a grade!!) Anyway, so that was very helpful.

The teacher for all the other subjects replied that she feels my pain. She actually has a son at the same school and apparently he has a lot in common with Ben. "We need to compare notes", she said. LOL. She's going to try to make him feel more at ease if he seems worried... but she did say he's "very hard to read" and always seems happy in class. Yep. That's Ben.

At least he has kind and understanding teachers this year... we can't go wrong. Just have to figure out how to get him to worry a little less about things...

First Day of Two and You....

So, today was Jonathan's first day of Two and You. :) We took the traditional first day shots, which he was as cooperative as usual for... (basically, not at all) But, I managed to get two semi-useable ones. ;)

The day went well, I think. There was only one meltdown and it's one I had anticipated, actually. The painting center is out in the hallway and after he went out to paint for awhile, we heard the cleanup song coming from the classroom, so I told him we needed to go back in. He did his usual boneless, crumple to the the floor routine. Thankfully, I was able to redirect him to something exciting in the classroom before it got ridiculous though.

He wasn't thrilled about craft-time, but whatever.

Story time was also not his favorite.

The mom of his class twin (they were born four days apart and have been being dragged to pickups and drop-offs together for the last two years for older brothers) and I were talking about how stark the difference is between these younger 2s and when our older ones came through the program. Three to four months doesn't seem like much, but it really does makes a world of difference when it comes to cooperation and participation. He really is still very much a baby compared to a same-age child who has a spring birthday.  Part of me wonders if I should have held him off a year. But I figure, worse comes to worse, we'll just repeat next year. Definitely continues to give me more food for thought about kindergarten though.

At any rate, he had fun and seemed to enjoy most of it.  I figure, he gets out of it what he gets out of it... trying to make my expectations match his age. :) If he has fun and learns to share, sit sometimes and wait his turn, it will have been a successful year.

Speech Day!

... and I'm so excited to show Miss Cindy Jonathan's new trick!
If you ask him who Jonathan is, he answers "Me!" while pointing to himself. So ridiculously cute.

His vocabulary has taken off now to include almost entirely spontaneous word usage and TONS and TONS of verbs. He is also starting to do the two-word phrase thing a little more regularly. (though still not all the time) Still no family names though... I'll be very excited when that day comes. I really want see how he is going to say his brothers' names! :)


ETA: Yay for a good speech day. Well, after I almost made it a bust by switching up Jonathan's usual "speech" seat (his highchair) with his booster seat. He said a ton of new words, finished some fill in the blank sentences -- she'd say, "This is a _____ " and hold up an item. He said star, bus, boy, ball, snake, car, ice cream, hotdog, girl, sock and dog during this game! He used the phrase "I want" and learned a total new word, "gear". She also worked on his M, B, P, N, L sounds. He still can't do N or L at all.. but did a great job with the others. :)  So fun!

Preschool Open House...

Preschool is finally starting on Tuesday. :) I'm excited... both for Jonathan to have two days of scheduled playtime/structured time, but also for me to get to have some adult conversation on a regular basis. Ahhhh....

This morning was the little open house where they can meet the teacher and play for a bit in the classroom. We hit a small speed bump when we walked in and he wanted to slide on the slide in the big room. (because that what he always did when we were waiting for Simon last year) I probably should have told him he could do it one time (he does well with handling "one time, then ______." ) But I was so excited to get him to Miss Sally's room because I was forever dragging him OUT of there last year and he was always trying to get IN. Sooo my excitement backfired on me and he lost it, briefly.

I showed him a fun ball toy in Sally's room though and he got it together after a little bit, thankfully, and spent the rest of the time on the floor with the other little guys playing blocks and trucks. :)  Suffice to say he did NOT want to leave and it was a LONG time successfully extricating him from all the fun when it was time to go.

I was SO excited to discover that, by some strange happenstance (probably that half of them are third-born children and boys) half his class is also speech delayed and enrolled with the county infants and toddlers program. LOL! One of the kids even sees the same speech teacher we do, so that's kind of fun. I think that's going to be really great this year... for the kids and the moms. :) It's a nice, chilled out group of all (I think) second and third-time moms.

Let me just tell you, it will be SO nice and SO refreshing to not have to constantly be hovering over Jonathan to make sure he's not walking all over /taking things from some helicoptering mama bear's precious wide-eyed firstborn prince or princess, (who, by the way, at two, is already making great progress on the kindergarten sight word list, wants to read Stuart Little instead of Goodnight Moon at bedtime now, and can conjugate at least ten French verbs, just so you know!)

I think we all get by this point that they will do their toddler thing and probably knock each other down here and there and you know what? It's alllll good, and if you wouldn't mind, please pass the Starbucks coffee and give me a chair to put my feet up on while they play until they drop or knock each other out, whichever happens first.

Yay for preschool! :) And yay for a relaxing, fun year! :)

Talky Tuesday...

Speech on Tuesday was different. The speech and language pathologist came with our regular teacher and Cindy let the SLP take the lead.

This would be all well and good, except that the SLP is not particularly firm or forceful with Jonathan. And frankly, he kinda needs firm and forceful sometimes. You really can't give him an inch. She also didn't move quickly enough to keep his attention. The regular teacher is constantly switching out the toys on him and while she's organizing what to do next, she keeps him engaged with her very excited, "WOW!!! What's IN here?!?!??!" and super exaggerated facial expressions and whatnot.   The SLP would turn her back and take her time digging through the bag... meanwhile, Jonathan was attempting to dive out of the highchair. He also whined and cried a ton, which he doesn't do for Cindy at all anymore.

(sigh)

Finally, they put him on the floor and Cindy took a little more control of the situation. This was when crazy fun new progress happened and he started repeating 2-3 word phrases! "Want that one", "Hold that", "Have that" and "My turn!"  He really got the hang of turn taking and we've been practicing it a TON. This is well-timed, seeing as how school is starting Tuesday.

After the teachers left together (but in separate cars), I immediately picked up the phone and called our regular teacher on her cell to BEG her to not send the SLP to us alone EVER. She just isn't going work for Jonathan... he's going to steamroll right over her and we'll get nothing done. She laughed and agreed that she needed to accompany her the next few times she comes for sure until she gets the hang of how Jonathan operates.  Thank goodness the SLP is only once a month, because I couldn't handle her more often than that. Super nice and all... but wayyyyy too timid and quiet to be dealing with toddlers, especially ones that are already easily frustrated. LOL.

Two-Year Well Visit....

Jonathan had his belated two-year well visit this afternoon.

Interesting stats! He's four pounds heavier than Ben at the same age, and 2-1/2 pounds lighter than Simon at two. Still right in the middle!!  (and actually, statistically too, he's about as middle of the road as he can get!)

Heightwise? He's a quarter inch TALLER than Simon was at two, which kind of blew me away! I didn't write down Ben's height at two for some reason.. just that his percentile was 10th... LOL. So he's clearly substantially taller than Ben was.  Did Ben being such a poor eater REALLY make that much of a difference in his size? Crazy!

At 24 months:

your child is 28 pounds, and that is
at the 49th percentile for weight.

your child is 34.25 inches, and that is
at the 42th percentile for height.

He's in perfect health and Dr. B was pleased to hear about all of his speech progress, which we talked about at length. He was actually surprised at the level of services we are still getting from the county based on where he is now with his talking. He says they usually back off once the kids have that verbal explosion and begin putting words together. I told him I think Miss Cindy just must really like coming to visit us. ;)  (In truth, he really does still need it though!) 

Two shots...the second of his hep A and his flu shot. He cried, but it was quick and then we were off. Back in six months instead of a year, which I thought was odd, but he said he likes to see them at least every six months until they are three... so we'll be back sooner than later, I guess.

Back to School....

Back to School Night was last night. I always end up going alone because well, we have kids and SOMEONE has to stay home with them and I'm way better at taking in and retaining school information than Tom, quite frankly.

So off I went. I got there twenty minutes early, which scored me a prime spot in the actual school parking lot as opposed to the field, the nearby neighborhood, or on the street.  This meant I got to wander the halls while all the PTA moms set up various tables for their various endeavors.  They are just a totally different breed, I tell you. And I am not one of them. Plenty of them are perfectly nice and lovely ladies and I know several from our years at the preschool together. These are the kind of people who, if they were not busy running a school function, would be running a fortune 500 company. I think their dedication is commendable and SOMEONE has to take on these leadership jobs, of course... but frankly, their energy and level of intensity and just a certain well... je ne sais quoi about them sort of frightens me.

Anyway, so back to school night. I started with 3rd grade. The third grade teachers present the curriculum as a team, so that was something new for me. I always sort of liked seeing my child's classroom and sitting at their desk. This was in the cafetorium. Eh.  The teachers were all wonderful, funny, and engaging though. Ben's were my favorite.  :)  We learned all about what they would doing in all the subjects this year.... they stated over and over again that there is no formal GT identification until the second half of January. (I think so many parents there must ask CONSTANTLY about it and it works different at JES than almost any other school at the county for some reason, which confuses everyone)  There are several field trips this year,  a science project where they have to build a race-car that carries its cargo safely, an economics project, and, the big third grade rite of passage project -- the biography. They spend months writing a biography about someone they know, publish it, and then bring that person to class with them to read the book to them in front of everyone.  Needless to say, I will be encouraging Ben to choose anyone but me as his subject because I wanted to throw up just thinking about that... but the project itself sounds so amazing and fun. :)  This is a big year too because they take the big state test in March. Apparently this is the kids' favorite week because they get all kinds of extra recess, snacks and a party. LOL.

After that, and a confusing 15 minutes that was supposed to involve all the specials teachers, it was off to kindergarten...

Oh how I LOVE Kindergarten. Say what you will about the full day and the academic demands placed on five-year-olds that we didn't have at the same age... but kindergarten is *still* a sheltered, protective and nurturing oasis in the bustling elementary school.  Coming off of the third grade talk about actual letter grades and MSA testing, it was like walking into the most peaceful, happy, carefree place ever.

I knew I loved Simon's teacher, but I love her even more after last night. She is absolutely HILARIOUSLY funny, it turns out. Her talk was almost as good as any comedy routine, sprinkled with funny anecdotes about the kids from the past week. Her story about how she has to spend time every year doing a class lesson on how to correctly put on a marker cap until it clicks, "Does everyone hear the click? Everyone?" and why not to stick your marker in the hole in the top of your clipboard just had me in stitches.

I also loved how she told us she gives them a little 20-minute rest time in the afternoon with the reasoning of "Look, I'm a mom... if a kid falls asleep during rest time, and sometimes they actually do if they've had a hard day, I LET THEM SLEEP. They obviously need it!"  You won't find many teachers in the county who will allow 20 minutes for their class to lay on the floor with soft music much less let them actually continue to nap if they need to.

It was fun. And she's great... very laid-back, seen it all, nothing fazes her, funny, warm, affectionate with the kids, but she's also very no nonsense. Basically if were to write a Mary Poppins-esque letter and craft my perfect idea of a kindergarten teacher, it's Mrs. B. LOL.

So that was back to school night. I'm really liking this year so far and so are the kids! Just good everything all around. Looking forward to what the year will bring. :)

Speech Update....

Another speech day for Jonathan. Today it's his regular teacher plus the speech pathologist. Apparently, there is a subtle difference in what they do/look for. Specifically, his teacher told me that the SLP will be listening for things like whether he drops the beginning sounds of words, (which he does -- "No" is "oh", for instance) and then will hone in on the issues and work on fixing them. The teacher just works on getting him to say word approximations... basically any attempt will do.

Also, his regular teacher just got back from a big conference and wants to use Jonathan as her guinea pig to try out a new technique she learned. I told her to go for it. I forget what it's called, but it involves me taking a LOT of photos of everything he encounters in a day.  Anyway, all in the name of science. Sounds fun.

No dice on the other little preschool. Because of how the program is set up, he would absolutely have to do both days. So... we'll see how Two and You goes. At least I know the county program is always a possibility if regular preschool were to be a miserable failure this year, which neither of us foresee, but you never know. I keep reminding myself he is SO young. This late-ish birthday thing is going to be a monkey on my back for several years, I think. I mean, not only is he a boy, which automatically puts him at a disadvantage, but he has a speech delay and is on the hyperactive end of things. If I keep him on the school track for which he is technically eligible, he'll forever and ever be the absolute youngest in his class. Knowing him, I just keep thinking this is setting him up for failure... behavior issues from not being as mature as most of his classmates, mostly.  But, we have some years to consider it and see how he is. It's just on my mind a lot lately.

This is not to undermine the progress he has made, which is substantial... or the progress I'm sure he WILL make in the next six months or so, which honestly should get him basically caught up to his same-age peers. He's really coming along well.

It's just hard to not compare him to his brothers at the same point in the year... and I have to keep reminding myself that they were five months and 3-1/2 months OLDER than him in September of the year they were two years old and even those few months are so huge in terms of development.  If I compare him to Ben at the exact same age, there's isn't a whole lot of difference. I have to take Simon out of the equation though because holy geez that kid was a talker. I had kind of forgotten the extent of how much he could say until I stumbled upon a blog post of mine for him the other day and had to double check the date to make sure it was actually his second birthday I was reading about. He was just in a totally different ballpark that way...  Three kids down and I still can't get over the whole "inborn timetable" thing...  how they just do what they'll do when they are ready and how not much you do can really change much about the "when".

Humor from the Serious One....

Jonathan was in an especially disagreeable mood yesterday for goodness only knows what ridiculous toddler reason. At one point, we opened van for the boys to get in and Ben attempted to get to his seat (in the middle) by going past Jonathan after he was already in. J immediately started screeching his horrible, awful baby dinosaur screech that makes all of our eardrums bleed.  

Not missing a beat and with a completely serious tone, Ben said to Tom, "Um. Can you open the other door please? Jonathan is being a living gargoyle." 

LOL!

The funny thing is that the more I thought about it, I realized that is probably the best description of Jonathan's current state anyone has come up with. 

Yep. This seems about right.... 

Sunflowers! (and bees)

There is a farm near our house that plants sunflowers... fields and fields and acres and acres of them... every year. (except last year, for some strange reason) Anyway, everyone I know goes there and takes pictures of their kids and family portraits and just pictures of the amazing sight that is this seemingly never-ending field of flowers.  We had never managed to get up there in time, so this year, I was determined.

I give you...

...the sunflowers.

Here's the small catch of which I was painfully unaware until we arrived... these flowers? All nine million or so of them? COVERED IN BEES.

Now, in fairness, the bees are just honeybees and bumblebees and are happily doing what bees do best, scouring every square inch of every flower for pollen. They pretty much ignore all the camera-wielding, flower tromping humans.  Good luck convincing my kids of that though.

It IS a little freaky... there were at least 3-4 bees on most flowers... multiply that by that whole field and... yeah... a LOT of bees. So much for a honeybee shortage!

Anyway, still, an awe-inspiring and gorgeous sight! Photos do not do it justice. It's breathtaking!

Friday...

The first full day went great! I know the true test will be several full days in a row... but for now, my kindergartener still loves school with all his heart.  "Today we got to go to art! We drew pictures of ourselves!"

He also brought home his first classwork, a scribble-colored picture of a school bus with his name on it. I filed it away, remembering Ben's first piece of classwork, and the shaky way he also wrote his name at the beginning of kindergarten. I treasure these pieces because I know over the course of nine months, those scribbles will evolve and the shaky name, written in all capitals, will be transformed into more legible upper and lower case letters. It's so amazing to see how much they grow this first year of school! I especially look forward to the day this year when reading really clicks for him and he picks up one of those little take home readers and reads it all by himself. We're both going to be SO proud.

He didn't seem at all fazed by the long day, bounding out of the parent pickup line with Ben. We got home and he hidn't seem particularly tired or cranky. In fact, quite the opposite he was bubbly and agreeable and cheery. Weird, I tell you... I just keep waiting for the kindergarten crankies to kick in....

I will say, it's making me glad I put him in the two days of full-day preschool last year, which was a happy accident. (I had wanted half-day, originally) I think maybe it helped more than I knew with adjusting to the long school day!  I will have to keep that in mind with Jonathan...

Anyway, here's a candid shot of the boys hanging out together last night. :) Thought it was so sweet.  Ben and Simon are even getting along better now that they are separated all day long.

Yes, life is good now that school has started.... ahhhhhh....