Simon's First Day of Preschool...

Today was Simon's big day! We walked in and he headed right for Miss Sally's room. Wait, that's not entirely true, he tried to take a detour to the train table, but I redirected him and THEN he headed right for Miss Sally's room.

Once inside, he got right down to playing with blocks and cars and trucks and the playdough. He made tons of stars out of playdough and sang Twinkle Twinkle to Miss Sally. Then he did a little coloring. :) It's nice to have a child who is into coloring... Ben never much cared for it. (still doesn't, although interest has picked up a bit since kindergarten started.)

After that, it was playground time and he explored all over. Did some sliding, some running, some climbing, some bike riding and some boat driving.






After that, it was back to Miss Sally's room for a snack, some coloring, a story, more playing and some music. Whew! He loved every minute of it! He was especially into the story and music time.

We sang the goodbye song and he told Miss Sally goodbye and ran into her arms for a big hug. I'd say he's a Miss Sally fan after only one day.

SUCH a great morning! :)

Hopefully Yesterday's Curse Has Lifted...

Gah. Yesterday was so bad, it was comical. We were nearly late for the bus in the morning, and actually, I don't even know why. Oh wait, yes I do. Simon was fussy because he was all snotty. He didn't want to wear shoes and screamed his head off when I put them on. Then he insisted I carry his 32-pound toddler self all the way to the bus stop.

Let's see... the cat marked some territory yesterday too. That was annoying. Counting down the days until he gets the big snip snip and hoping it will stop him from feeling the need to do that. He also cried all day long because he wants to be outside.

In an attempt to remedy that last issue, I was headed to Petsmart to get a lead so I can put him in the side yard, at least... but then Simon nodded off in the backseat and I had to pull a U-turn and hurry back home to as not to mess with the nap. Put him down for a nap two hours early.

Things progressed nicely after that for awhile.... then we went to get Ben from the bus and Simon was all cranky. He wanted everything every other child was holding. If Trey was holding the blue lightsaber and he had the green one, he needed the blue one. I brought out our OUR green and blue ones, but he wanted Trey's, despite the fact that they are identical. Then poor Ben picked up one of them and Simon threw a full-on fit, so we just came inside.

Inside, I put Ben's backpack on the counter so I could sift through it and then when I moved it, it caught on the coffee bot and the carafe fell to the floor and broke into a thousand pieces.

Cry.

I ordered another one via two-day shipping on Amazon because yeah, THAT'S an emergency in our house.

At bedtime, we've been having MAJOR issues with Simon not wanting to go to bed. Since he has been napping in the bottom bunk happily, I decided to try the bedrail on the bunk again and let him sleep in there. Yeah.... not so successful. After an hour of going in and telling him to be quiet, Ben was finally the deciding voice. "Mommy, can you please get him out of here so I can have quiet?"

Bedrail back on Simon's bed. Much screaming ensued.

He finally passed out on my shoulder around 9:30.

Oh, and then at 2a.m., the cat marked some more territory with a lovely #2 at the bottom of the stairs. The smell actually wafted up the stairs into the bedroom and woke me up. I wondered how long it would take me to start calling him "Damn Cat". Turns out, approximately one week, two days.

So yeah. Here's hoping today is an improvement! It's Simon first day of preschool, so it has the potential to be full of happy, fuzzy, rainbow goodness.

Crossing my fingers.

Flu Shots....

Are getting the H1N1 flu shot for your kids?

For yourself?

Talk to me... I'm all confused on this topic. After a very little bit of research last night, I'm leaning toward getting it for all of us... but I have heard conflicting things from what other peoples' doctors have told them about whether or not to get it! Which reminds me, I need to go track down a REGULAR flu shot today because they say if you are thinking about getting the other one, you should get the other one at least a few weeks before.

ETA: Talked to the pediatrician this morning and the kids will be getting their regular flu shot in a couple weeks. She said they really know very little about what will happen with the H1N1 vaccine... they MAY be getting a supply soon, but no idea when. So I guess, like Erika, we'll be playing the waiting game. Simon, with his asthma, I'm sure will secure one if they get them and we decide he'll get it...

As for myself, I think I'm in wait and see mode too. I'm currently NOT in any high-risk category, if you catch my drift, so if there's a shortage, the decision to get it or not get it will likely be made for me, I guess. In the meantime, I will get the regular flu shot, like every year.

Should This Bother Me?

Edited to Add: OHmahgah... it's actually a song. And now it's forever burned into my brain.


Edited AGAIN to add: And then I found this which was also very interesting...

Ben brought home his "Friday Folder" yesterday. This is the one that holds printouts of all the songs and whatnot the kids learned that week. Among other things, yesterday's folder contained this:



Okay, so I GET the point of it. It's a pre-reading thing... the teacher actually sent home a long explanation on the day they did this activity about the point of it. And that's all well and good...

...but it kinda gives me a weird feeling that they used fast food brands... (btw, the other side adds in Dunkin Donuts to the song) Also, it's a little weird to hear Ben do the chant. He sounds like a commercial.

Then again, when I pondered alternatives last night, I realized these really are more universal than pretty much anything else they could have chosen, I guess. I might have felt better about though if it went more like, "Mickey Mouse, Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Goofy and a Mickey Mouse." (shrug) Or, if they want to stick to signage, "Enter, Enter, Exit, Exit, No Parking and and Enter." LOL!

Weird. Tom actually theorized that the whole activity was spondsored by Yum Brands, which, if this were true would seem REALLY wrong... but I don't think Dunkin Donuts is a Yum Brand. Hrm...

In other news, kindergarten has already started having a positive impact on Ben. He is suddenly VERY into drawing, something he has always been pretty indifferent about. He was trying to get the cat to hold still last night so he could study him to do an accurate rendition. LOL! He also asked me this morning to help him sound out the word "Meow" for his picture and when he wrote his letters, he did them slowly and carefully and talked himself through it... "up down up down"! (he's one to usually just hurry through it... the child HATES HATES HATES writing...but hopefully that is changing!) Still couldn't convince him to use lower case letters though. Heh.

All in all, I can't complain. I just think the fast food thing is a bit odd. I'm sure it's not even his teacher's thing. My guess is that every public kindergarten in the county does this activity... but I can't imagine they don't get at least a few parents complaining about it. ?

Simon is 28 Months Old...

Dear Simon,

Today you are 28 months old.

This is the month you started enjoying a little "only child" time since Ben is now gone for seven hours a day. I was worried you'd be a little lost or upset. Turns out, I didn't need to worry. You settled into your only child role just fine.
You are much more easy going and agreeable when it's just you. You answer me with, "Okay, mommy." and just generally hang close to me all day long. We've done a lot of playing and reading and drawing that was harder to engage you in when you had big brother around to play. I have really been enjoying having this special time with you every day.

You have also become SUPER chatty. You talk nonstop from the time Ben gets on the bus until he comes home. If I get on the phone, you get closer and you talk LOUDER. It's wall-to-wall Simon talk the entire day. I'm not sure having just you home is any QUIETER than when it was you and Ben here together!

You visited your preschool yesterday and had a blast. I can't wait to watch you really get going there. What I'm NOT looking forward to is the policing I am going to have to do because you are the child who thinks nothing of just taking something out of another child's hands. You have also started pushing and hitting lately in those circumstances and we are struggling with that. You are really sweet and affectionate most of the time, but you seem to lose control of your hands when you get angry... so yeah, this needs work.

You are still napping (except today, sigh) thank goodness!

Not much else has changed this month... you are still into all the same things, namely sports and balls. It's too bad you still have two years until you can join any teams. ;)

That's 28 months, buddy... next month, we get to see how you REALLY like school! :)

Love,
Mommy

Month 29 Side-by-side

Simon's Turn...

Today was Open House day at the preschool... upon walking into the main room and realizing he got to stay and play? Simon's comment was, "Ohhhhhhh..." He was in total awe!

The traditional front of the church doors shot


Meeting Miss Sally


Having a snack


Stacking cups


Playing a tune with cousin Anastasia


Fun in the kitchen


He hasn't stopped talking about the train table


Lego table with some new friends


Building Legos is serious business.


Anastasia got in on it too!


"Yook at dah BIG HUGE FISH!!!"


Welcome to Preschool..


Deep in thought...




Were it not for a cup of goldfish, there would have been a knock down drag out fight over this toy...


WONDERFUL morning... Simon, of course, ran right to Ben's old teacher's room because that where he got used to going last year. Being in there made me a bit wistful for Ben's days there... his little cubby is now someone else's. Oh well... time to move on to Simon's years there. :) He LOVES Miss Sally, loves the toys and I think we're going to have a great year! :D

Back to School Night...

Last night was BTSN! I was pretty excited, mostly because other than the first day when I spent an hour in the classroom, I really have only a vague idea of what goes on there for six hours a day.

So, first things first... we were hoodwinked into a PTA meeting. It was NOT mentioned in any of the letters that were sent home about BTSN. Tom and I weren't the only ones confused/annoyed either. We were sitting next to another couple and we were talking amongst ourselves trying to figure out if we were even in the right place! Here we were, there to see our kids' classrooms and found ourselves sitting in a cafeteria holding a meeting agenda in our hands. At least they kept it brief. But, YUCK.

After that, there was a talk from the principal about the school and the most recent test scores as they compare to the rest of the county. (which were awesome...so yay!) Then they paraded out the faculty. And then, mercifully, after THAT we were released to go to the classrooms.

Tom and I collected the handouts and then situated ourselves in the tiny primary colored chairs. We noted that Ben had been given the job of calendar helper for the week, which I was surprised he hasn't mentioned. He's big into the classroom jobs thing. :)

The teacher gave us a play by play of how they spend the day. MAN, do they pack a lot into that day. It's actually pretty amazing. Tons and tons of time is spent on phonics and writing. We learned about "kid writing" (which encourages the kids to write the sounds they hear in a word and draw a "magic line" if they aren't sure of a sound or how to make a letter, so they don't guess and learn to spell/write things the wrong way) and "teacher writing", where she writes below it and thus, shows them how to do it the right way.

She showed us all their centers... the kids are broken into five groups of five and each group is assigned a center for the day with a "must do" activity and then another fun option for when they are finished with the "must do". Right now, the groups are random, but she said to expect the kids to come home and say they've been moved to a different group because she moves them around according to skills they've mastered/things they need work on.

Every single activity has multiple purposes... it was really fascinating/overwhelming.

For instance, each day, they change out a number board for what day of school it is, which teaches them number recognition, counting and place value. Then another piece is added on to the caterpillar on the wall that will eventually crawl all the way around the room... the multiples of 2 and 5 are colored differently so they can eventually count it by 2's and 5's...

They also have a daily counting jar, where she puts a number of objects into it in the morning and each child has to come up and write how many are in the jar... so they are doing both counting and number writing.

There is a morning message that she writes and they read it aloud together and then do an activity with it... yesterday's was circling all the capital letters.

They have a book of the week (This week's is Mrs. Bindergarten Gets Ready for Kindergarten) that they do a different activity with every day. On the fourth day they have writing workshop where they write their OWN book based on that week's selection and on the fifth day, they have a celebration where they read their book. There is a vocabulary word that comes out of the weekly book ("prepare" for this week) and they add pennies to a box every time one of them uses it correctly that they eventually COUNT. And it goes on and on and on... so much thought goes into everything they do with them! It's amazing....

Anyway, so we left pretty impressed. I like his teacher and she seems to enjoy the kids and what she does, which has always one of the most important things to me. Ben still says he LOVES kindergarten, which is awesome.

So, other than the sneaky PTA meeting, it was a wonderful back to school night and we got a really great peek into what goes on every day. It makes me very excited to watch the year unfold!

You Knew This Was Coming...

The official first day of school movie... many thanks to my SIL, Krystyna, for the song! (it's The Imagination Movers, in case you are wondering!)

My Little Apple Didn't Fall Far from the Tree...

I can count on one hand the number of times I got in trouble in school. (Mandy we won't count that note writing incident in our college Marketing class...) In fact, I remember each and every time as if it were yesterday.

* I had to put my head down in kindergarten because my friend Philip was chasing me with a picture of an alligator and I screamed (to this day, I contend this was completely unfair)
* I got a frowny face in second grade because I forgot to bring in corrections on a spelling test
* I got a tally in third grade because I didn't get my homework up to the homework mailbox by the appointed time in the morning
* I had to sit out of recess once in fourth grade for not having a book cover on one of my textbooks
* I got detention once in seventh grade for forgetting my library homework

Yep. Five times. And each and every one was completely and utterly traumatizing. I think I cried all of those five times.

So Ben, as it turns out, is going to be my little rule follower too. I knew he was well behaved in preschool... but I didn't realize he took it so seriously until he started coming home from kindergarten with his daily updates about which children got in trouble for which offense. He also rattled off "the people who don't get in trouble" at the dinner table the other night. The list included himself and four other kids. He told me he thought a joke on the morning announcements was funny but didn't want to laugh because there is no talking allowed during announcements. LOL!

This is all well and good... but, I'm sure, at some point, he will let his guard down and talk out of turn or something and end up in a time-out... I dread this day because I think it will probably ruin his ENTIRE school day and he'll probably come home in tears.

Believe me, I'm thrilled to have this child and not the alternative. He's not so angelic at home all the time, and I'm sure after hours of being good at school all day all the time, we'll have our share of acting out here at the house. But the fact that he 100% respects rules and authority away from home, makes it worth whatever I have to deal with when he gets back! ;)

In other respects with school, he is totally my husband... post coming soon about that... but at least in the behavior arena, he's all his mommy. ;) Thank goodness! (Tom was always in trouble at school for various things) ;)

Take Me Out to the Ballgame...

Tom got some free O's tickets from work, so we headed out for an afternoon at the ballpark. we stayed through the 7th inning stretch and the boys had a blast! :)




A visit from the Bird...




Spelling "ORIOLES!"



Hotdog Races on the Jumbotron


"Charge!"


Watching the game...





Just hanging out...

Soccer...

So, as it turns out... Ben? LOVES soccer. A LOT. My camera, thankfuly, did not eat yesterday's pictures, although I was sitting further away for most of them, so they aren't as good as the ones that got eaten. :( Nevertheless, here the are:

Warmups:


Dribbling:


Waiting his turn:


Hey, guys!


Drink break with daddy...


Ben and Hailey... Hailey pretty much runs circles around the entire team. She's the next Mia Hamm.


Trying to steal the ball from Brady


Goal!


I finally wised up and moved closer...


So many things to ponder...


Getting ready to kick...

Meet Our Newest Family Member...

This is Davy Jones. Ben named him because he's into Pirates of the Caribbean right now. We also figured if he catches any mice, we can say they went to Davy Jones' locker. The other options were: Figment, Jack Sparrow, Cody, Kenobi and Lucas (last three are SW references)




We went to the animal shelter just to LOOK this morning and yeah, don't ever do that, it doesn't work. I dare you to go there and not come home with an animal.

Davy, though very cute, wasn't the CUTEST kitten there or the tiniest... but we decided on him because a) he's VERY friendly and seems to like us and b) he's four months old and thus, bigger and sturdier than the younger kittens... less chance of him getting stepped on in this crazy house o' boys.

He has made himself at home pretty quickly. This is what I like about cats. They're easy. We brought him in, showed him his litter box -- he christened it. Then we showed him his food and water and his scratchy box, all of which he partook of. He found the sunny spot by the french doors and took a nap. Yeah, he's pretty comfortable.

The boys, allergy wise, are fine so far. They are in love with him and won't leave him alone... poor cat. Thankfully, he's fast.

I'm itching and sneezing like crazy. Hopefully that will settle down soon... otherwise, I guess I'll be living on Zyrtec and Benydryl.

Home Again, Home Again...

Success! :) He says it was a fun day!

The Wheels on the Bus Go Round and Round...

Thank goodness Ben is not like *I* was as a kindergartner, or this would have been a whole lot harder! He was so excited and got right on with his friend, Sophia! :)

I barely even got him to turn around and say goodbye!

Sorry for the shaky camera job, I was taking still pictures with my right hand and video with my left. LOL!

Bus Day! :D

Today is bus day! Today is bus day! :D Yes, there will pictures... and I'm hoping one of the other moms (for whom the bus thing is already old hat) will take video for me since I can't work both at the same time. LOL! Gah. I'm such a dork.

Also had to pack an extra snack in the lunchbox today for the afternoon. They have a 15-minute snack time after their special. I have labeled it "SNACK!!! DO NOT EAT UNTIL SNACK TIME!!!" but ten to one he eats it at lunch. We'll see.

Quote of the Day...

When I picked Ben up today, I asked him if he had a good day at school. His answer?

"Mommy, it turns out, EVERY day at kindergarten is a good day!"

Be still my heart. I think he likes school. Hallejuah!

He also successfully bought chocolate milk in the cafeteria today. What a big kid! ;)

Day 4....

Second 1/2 day! I'm very, VERY glad I won't have to be doing the take to school/pick up routine five days a week, at least for this year.

It's just ridiculously hard to get the two kids dressed and out the door. I know that sounds really wimpy and whiny for a mom of two, (and the moms of >2, not to mention the working moms who get two or more out the door every.single.morning. to daycare are probably laughing at me right now) ... but Simon is at a ridiculously difficult age for this right now. He pitches a fit 9 days out of 10 lately when I try to put PANTS on him. So yeah, the day I can just take him outside in his jammies and walk big brother down to the bus stop? That will be a good day. In fact, that will be TOMORROW. Hooray!

Ben didn't buy anything in the lunch line yesterday, despite me reminding him to do so. I had wanted to mention it to his teacher at drop off, but they were very strategic about where they PUT the teachers yesterday to prevent the lingering parent issue. The teachers were a good 20 feet down the hall, lined up three across collecting their respective classes. The assistants stood guard at the doors and only let KIDS in. LOL. It was pretty clever if you ask me.

Anyway, so he is headed to school today with a note in his folder telling the teacher to please encourage him to go through the lunch line for something, anything... I don't even care what, I just want him to know how it works.

At bedtime last night, he was chatty, so I worked him for information. I asked him in his teacher ever got mad. (because I figured if a teacher is actually visibly MAD or short-tempered in a way that is perceptible to a five-year-old the very first week of school? That's a little concerning) I was a little surprised when he said, "Well, she did get mad ONCE." I asked why and he said she had asked them all to choose books from the bookshelf and one little boy yelled, "NO!". He said she made him sit in time-out. I was relieved. I just didn't want hear she was snapping at them already for things or being impatient. But if a kid was outright defiant... well then, by all means, yes, toss his butt in time-out, please. ;)

He gets a little update pasted into his marble notebook that I have to sign every day that says what they did that day. I really like that. :) Apparently, Tuesday, homework will begin. I'm kind of dreading that with Ben... but maybe I'll be pleasantly surprised. We also have to make a "book box" for the take home readers they'll be getting. This must be a county-wide thing because his neighborhood friend at another elementary school has to do the same thing. :)

Oh, and I was looking over the class list yesterday and I *think* one of the kids in his class went to his preschool (but wasn't ever in his class), which is wacky because his preschool is pretty far away! I need to ask around at the preschool to see if anyone else recognizes the name.

Stay tuned later to see if Ben actually goes through the lunch line! ;)

Funniest Quote of the Day, Hands Down...

Ben was telling me a little bit about his day on the short drive home from school... I asked if he made more friends and he answered:

"Yes! Kazia, Anaya and Yasmin! And guess what? They are all from the same place!"

(cringing because I had a feeling I knew what was coming) "Oh yeah? How do you know they are from the same place?"

"Because they all have brown skin! But it's weird, they don't speak a different language or anything."

Lordy day, is my kid sheltered. It doesn't help that there was approximately ONE African-American child in his preschool. His new school is pretty diverse... heavily Asian ESOL kids and a decent African-American population too... so his world will get a little bigger this year, which is always a good thing. ;)

Coming out of school!

Day 3...

Today Ben has to go through the lunch line. It's chicken nugget/fish nugget day (ew), but he wants me to pack him PB&J, so he's just going to buy chocolate milk and a special snack or something. Oy. I'm nervous for him. It took me three months in public school (in the EIGHTH grade, no less) to get up the courage to figure out the lunch line. Thankfully, they have helpers who are teaching them how to do it today. I could have used one of those... sadly, they do not provide them for middle schoolers. LOL. Btw, they have PIN codes now. Wacky, I tell you.

On the Filling Out of the Forms...

I have had quite enough of form filling out for this week, thank you very much. Yet, I'm told there are more on the way. Joy!

The teacher sent home one yesterday that included, among other things, the question, "Is there anything you would like me to know about your child?"

I pondered this for a moment. I realized I had only two options.

1) Play the part of the cool, laissez-faire parent and just leave it blank. Look at me, I'm an awesome, low-maintenance-type parent who will not bother you with how smart my kid is and I have full confidence in your teaching abilities to figure out what my son is like and what he needs from your class. Aren't you grateful I didn't write you a novelette like some of those OTHER parents to read about how precious and wonderful and smart and special my little darling is?

2) Write a novelette about how precious and wonderful and smart and special my little darling is.

You see, there is no middle ground with my on these sorts of things. I have filled them out on the preschool forms three years running now and I just have no self control once I get going. So I knew, once I started writing, that there was no turning back.

So... I started writing. And I erased and rewrote, erased, rewrote. (Ben's perfectionism/ocd issues come honestly, they really do)

You see, there are lots of things I wanted to make sure she knew because I can't depend on Ben to volunteer answers to things she asks or mention things like, for instance, that he can read. He'll often claim he can't read or doesn't know something or can't do something because just doesn't FEEL like it. As his mother, I find this exceedingly frustrating.

I tried to balance negatives with positives so I didn't sound like a totally obnoxious mother. I mentioned how easily he gets distracted and how he gets so frustrated with anything involving fine motor skills, like writing or cutting, how he'll probably complain LOUDLY about having to sit still, how she may have to coax him to answer questions or participate because he won't be the one in the front row with his hand up going "ooo! oo! Pick me!" (I don't know how he is a product of Tom and me and doesn't do that, but anyway, I diegress), how he gets fixated on things and it's hard to engage him in any activity that doesn't center around his current obsession.

Then I started on the positives -- that he generally gets along with other kids well, he's very sensitive and that he probably wouldn't present any major behavioral issues except for the possibly aforementioned complaining about sitting still.

I told her he'd probably tell her he can't read, but that he, in fact, can and not to let him pull that over on her, that she may have to prod him a little. I said he's very logical and math-oriented and mentioned the fact that he can rattle off math problems that make my head spin. I also wrote that he's intense and very serious and a natural leader.

I wrapped it up with that he can really be a high-energy handful, but that he's a really intelligent, curious kid who LOVES to learn. That we enjoy him and that I hope she will too.

I handed the whole kit and caboodle in this morning. Crossing my fingers she finds it more helpful than obnoxious and that I don't get labeled "that parent", but it's probably inevitable....

Day 2....

Another hour-long school"day".

This time, the parents were held captive in the library while the kids hung out with the teacher.

We heard from the principal, the nurse, the counselor, the kindergarten assistant, the reading specialist and the assistant principal, during which time I learned the following:

1) My total intolerance/impatience for staring at a handout and having someone read it to me verbatim has not changed. I also hate Powerpoint.

2) The library has a "bible" section. Odd and surprising.

3) The school neglected to tell ANYONE what time to be at their appointed bus stops and they didn't seem to think anything was wrong with this. Fortunately, it was not something I was particularly concerned about since we have tons of neighbors on the bus and I know they are all standing there by 8:50. But still... strange?

4) I can now use the terms "dibling" and "dibled" in a sentence. As in, "We will be dibling your children three times over the course of the school year."

5) Ben had more fun than I did.

6) Should the need arise, the school has a "lockdown" plan. That's not something I want to think about, but I suppose it's good to know.

7) The moms at my table were not very friendly. Ew. Thankfully, they all had kids in a class that is NOT Ben's.

8) Half the parents don't read anything that is sent home. THREE people asked what night Back to School Night is. That date/time has only been on at least four handouts that have come from the school already. READ, people!

Anyway, Ben seemed to have fun. They read a story about a monster who didn't obey the school rules and then did a little coloring project.

Tomorrow is a half day with his whole class AND he eats lunch there. NOW we're making progress!

Oh, and his teacher spelled the word kindergarten right on the chalkboard today. LOL.