My Kid Circus

So, the boys came home last week with “How Am I Doing?” reports.  This was, of course, the little guy’s first ever progress report.

Here are some remarks from each of their reports.  I will let you guess which remarks go to which child. 🙂

A)  He is doing “pretty well”

B)   “He prefers playing to artwork”

C)   He is an “intelligent, lively, and cheerful student.”

D)  “A delight to have in class!”

As you might notice, there is a slightly different tone to the first 2 than to the second 2.  Interestingly enough, the better progress report went to little D!  In some ways I was happy to see this.  Although at home his behavior can be a bit, um, challenging, I was hoping that he might be able to show a different side in the school setting.  It appears that he is!  (Sigh of relief!)

That brings us back to Mr. Z.  Honestly, his progress reports have always had some room for improvement.  (I feel the need to note that I always had some problems in my progress reports.  Even in 1st grade I got an N in conduct. I think I liked to talk a lot.  I won’t even get started on my husband’s childhood progress reports.)  Anyway, this dear child, who usually shows very good behavior at home, seems to resist some of the structure that comes with school.  Apparently he needs help with; sitting still, being attentive,  listening and following directions, and completing work in a timely manner.  Oh, and his cutting and coloring skills need some work too.

Now you might think these are some normal things for an almost 5 year old to be working on.  That used to be my assumption too. I learned last year, however, not to ask my friends if their children had similar notes on their progress reports.  They didn’t.

He is a kid who just generally knows what he likes in life.  For example, he LOVES building.  If the class is having a building project, he is participating well.  If, however, it is a coloring project, he just is going to resist.  He does NOT like to color.  He has never liked to color.  It just isn’t for him.  I think I had a very similar response to Trig in high school.  Unfortunately, coloring is a frequent activity in preschool.  Poor guy.

That is okay, though.  He got good marks for some of the things that matter most, like, “treats classmates with kindness and respect, respectful to teachers and other adults, and verbally expresses self wants and needs”.  I always said that one of the things that I want the most for my children is for them to be kind.  Of course I want them to follow directions, but if they have to be independent thinkers with a kind heart, I will take it.

I have recently taken up photography as my first “hobby” in many years.  I thought I would share a few of my favorite so far.  (Note-  this is a very NEW hobby.  I will post more pictures as I learn more! 🙂 )

Z- 4 1/2

D- 2 1/2

Picture of K coming soon!  (As soon as I can take one that I like as much as the ones my sister-in-laws have taken! 🙂 )

We have just had a wonderful day today.  I guess the stars have all aligned. 🙂  I had all 3 of them at Target today and a woman stopped me to comment on how well behaved my children were.  I started to burst out laughing, but I just accepted the compliment, and bought the boys some new books to celebrate. 🙂

I started telling a friend about our last couple of days, and I just had to laugh.  (It seemed better than crying).

Let’s start with yesterday afternoon.  One of our dogs, Parker, has four infected paws. 🙁  Unfortunately my life as a baby- mom has made me not quite as good of a dog-mom, or maybe I would have realized this sooner.  Anyway, the vet prescribed 2 pills for her, plus 2 topical medications.  She warned us that the steroid she is giving the dog might make her drink more than normal, and have “more urine than normal”.  Well, as I got home from the doctor with all 3 kids yesterday afternoon, I walk in to a line of “more urine than normal” all around my kitchen!  Ahh!

So, I unload everyone from the car, give them strict instructions to stay on the couch so that I can scrub the kitchen.  Well, as I dealt with the dog mess, D peaks his head around looking sheepish.  Yep, he wet his pants.  On the couch.  I think he even realized what bad timing this was as he just looked at me and said, “I so sorry”.  Aww.

So, clean the kitchen, clean the sweet boy, clean the couch cushion.  Hope for a better day the next day.

Wake up to get ready to take Z to the dentist for his first filling.  🙁  I go to feed the baby before I have to leave, and she has a fever (thanks to the 4 shots she got yesterday).  So, I sadly leave my pitiful baby girl to take Z.  When we get there, they tell me that I have to wait in the waiting room, and my heart breaks again watching him walk away with such a trusting look on his face.  He did great, but then cried all the way home saying he really needed to find his lips and his cheek!

When we got home, the boys went to visit Grandma for a little while so that I could take care of the still-pitiful baby girl.

The boys then return to a quiet and clean house which they promptly destroy.  (And I ask myself yet again, “Why do you bother cleaning?”)

We have lunch, and the boys go to their rooms for “rest time”.  No rest actually occurs.  Both of their rooms now are disasters.  Oh well.

After rest time, we spend some time together, and I tell them that they have to clean up a little bit before dinner.  Z is very sweet and agreeable, but the little guy will NOT help clean up.  He sits in time out.  I tell him that he can get up as soon as he will help clean up the blocks.  He sat in time out for AGES!  I finished cooking dinner, and Z and I sat down and ate it, and D STILL would not pick up a single block.  Grandma comes over, and he runs to hug her while giving me dirty looks.  Sigh.

It is open- house at the little guy’s preschool, so we get ready to leave but he will NOT use the bathroom.  At this point, I don’t have any fight left in me, so we just go anyway.  We get to meet the new teachers, see all of the class artwork, meet the other parents, etc.  I was really enjoying myself until the little guy has another accident.  Do I have spare clothes with me?  No.  And I now get to be the parent that his new teachers will remember for being on my hands and knees scrubbing the classroom carpet while the other families were enjoying cookies and lemonade.

We then got home, and Z had talked his Grandma into giving him Silly Puddy.  He isn’t allowed to have Silly Puddy right now since he got it stuck all over the couch and carpet.  He knows this.  I’m pretty sure I actually did have steam flowing from my ears at this point.  Luckily, Daddy was back from out of town (did I forget to mention that he had been gone for a few days?).  He took over with the boys while I sat down for some ice cream!

My husband and I love Phil Vassar’s song, “Just Another Day in Paradise”.  As things get crazier and crazier, I catch myself singing it.  I think it is kind of like therapy for me.   🙂

I have been meaning to write about the beginning of school, but as usual, things have been a little crazy around here. 🙂

Z started attending a Mother’s Morning Out program when he was not quite 2 years old.  At the time, I was pregnant with D, and pretty much an emotional basket case.  When we attended the beginning of the year orientation night, I cried through the whole meeting, thinking about being away from my sweet little guy for 8 whole hours a week!  (Come to think of it, this may be why my husband seems to conveniently have work meetings every year when this meeting comes up.  I’m pretty sure he was mortified about having to sit with the pregnant crying lady.  I promise that I won’t do that again, honey!).

Anyway, Z shed a few tears over the first couple of weeks of school, but all in all, most of the tears were mine.  Of course it wasn’t long before he loved going to school, and somehow I found some things to do with my time. 🙂  This is a picture of Z on his very first day of school.  We still love this picture, and how proud he was of his backpack.

So, when D was almost 2, I went back and forth about sending him.  Although I thought he would eventually like it, D was very attached to me, and had difficulty being left with anyone outside his very small circle.  I was dreading trying to work this out with him.  It ended up being taken out of my hands because we moved during the summer, and the preschools near our new home did not have a slot for D.  In actuality, I was relieved.  Even though Z did it at that age just fine, I didn’t think that D was ready.  I think for D, as a now middle-child, it was really a blessing that we had that year of quality time together.  I got to take him to Gymboree and do some of the things one-on-one with him that I had done with Z, but had never been able to do with D, as my second child.

This year, however, I felt like D was ready to join Z at preschool.  He is a busy, busy, busy guy, and keeping him stimulated throughout a day is hard, so I really thought he would benefit from a few mornings in preschool.  Besides, the little guy misses Z so much when he isn’t home, I really thought it would be good for him.

I tried talking it up for weeks before school started.  He mostly appeared to be ignoring me, but would occasionally say, “no, I will stay home with Mommy”.  I was worried then that we might have a problem.  He went to his class party before school started, and luckily there were cookies, so he did pretty well.  Then came the first day of school.  I dropped my two boys off at carpool, and he got out of the car hesitantly, but without tears.  I drove away from the school in a state of shock.

That afternoon, I was the first car in line for pick-up.  I think that will tell you something about my anxiety level during the day that he was gone.  I knew the news wasn’t good when one of the head women of the school brought him to the car.  She opened the door and said, “well, he settled down after a while.”  Uh-oh.  I said, “I guess that means that he WASN”T settled for a while??”.  Pretty much what I expected.  One of my friends’ children came home and told her mom that D just cried and cried at school.  🙁  Oh, how that broke my heart.

Then it got worse.  The second day, that little guy was NOT going to get out of the car.  I unfastened his carseat, and he jumped into the back of our minivan, got down on the floor in the corner, and refused to move.  I had to park the car, and attempt to coax him out.  He finally go out with me, but held on with a death grip as his teacher tried to pry him out of my arms.  He finally went with her, but continued crying, “No, MOMMY!!”  Ahhh-  talk about ripping my heart out!  It was terrible!!

The next few drop-offs were slightly better.  He seemed to like his teacher, and would at least go with her.  She told me that he was really doing fine with the exception of bursting into tears any time he saw Z.  Poor guy.

Fast forward a few weeks, and he seems to be doing well!!  He is getting out of the car happily, and getting back in happily.  He somehow has already learned the classic line that kids give parents, however.  Me- “What did you do at school today?”  D-  “Nothing.”  That is all I can get!!  He is not even 3 yet!!  Oh well.  At least he has a smile on his face!

D's first day of school

I had a wonderful conversation with my dear friend, Karson, this morning.  There is a link to her site on my main page.

Anyway, we were remembering a time that she came to visit when Z was 2.  She went to our weekly playgroup with me, and then we were heading to Chick-fil-A for lunch.  On our way there, she asked me if we ate fast food very often.  I immediately said, “Oh, NO!”, and went on about my plans to feed my children healthy meals.  So, we pull into the Chick-fil-A parking lot, and Z throws his hands into the air, and yells, “We’re Home!!!”.

Luckily, she is too good of a friend to call me an outright liar.  Besides, Chick-fil-A is pretty healthy, right? 🙂