Day Two of Pre-School

Noah went to bed a little early last night.  I told Nerdstar that had me worried about how early he would  wake up.  Well, he woke up around 3:30 or so with either a nightmare or a really empty tummy.  He really wanted a cup of milk when she got up there!  Poor boy didn't have his usual number of pre-bedtime snacks.

Anyway.  He was tired when I got him up this morning.  I don't usually have to wake him up, it's not pretty when I do.  He was happy to get dressed.  Then, he didn't want his morning juice, or any snacks, or to watch George. He wanted to go downstairs and out to the car Right Then.  Well, ok, it was only twenty minutes before we needed to go downstairs and to the car.

Thankfully, there's a long way we can take to get to his pre-school.  Then, there was one of his favorite songs on the iPod before getting out of the car.

Because it had been a morning of NOs, I was pretty sure getting him into the classroom wouldn't go smoothly.  He walked away down the hall, then he hid behind my legs, and just really didn't want to go.  He came close to tears, but there weren't any.

It didn't take more than a couple of minutes though to get him into the classroom - his teacher was really helpful.

Generally, once he's re-directed to something he's happy.  But still, driving away, I was a little worried.

When I went to pick him up, one of the assistants told me how much fun he had with water colors, naming all the colors.  And he played with playdough.

Coming out of the classroom, he was all smiles and laughing again and telling me what he could about eating his snacks.

The note in his backpack said he was better today about paying attention to the teachers for clues about what to be doing.

All in all, day two seemed to be a success.

First day of Pre-School

Our boy had his first morning of pre-school today.  We've been talking to him about school, and going to play with kids, and having snack time, for a few days.  We know that until he's been to school a few times and puts it together with the words, it's hard for him to understand.  But that's ok.  Mostly he just wants to go play with kids.

He was pretty excited when we got there.  He walks through the school naming all the things on the walls.  He's not good at standing still, yet.  And he pretty much ran into the classroom and started playing.  I'm sure the other moms thought I'd filled him with his morning coffee.  He was the only kid not standing quietly by their mother.

I realized today what a "presence" he has.  He's not hyper, but his energy takes up a lot of space and the house really does feel empty without him!

After I dropped him off, I went to the grocery store and got a few things.  I came home and worked on mowing the back yard some more.  And I went to the mall to Bath and Body Works and got a lot of hand soaps.  Yes, I missed Noah.

When I went to pick him up, he would have been happy to stay and play a lot longer!  But he was also happy to see me.  He was laughing as we walked to the car.

Once home it was time for a snack and juice and a nap!

This is when I wish more than anything he had the language skills to tell us all about it!!

My Buddy

Noah starts pre-school Monday. Six weeks or so ago, I started a list of things to get done while he's at school. Things like getting the car inspected, getting an old laptop repaired.  Things he might not like to stand still for.  I have a feeling that by week 3 I'll really, really miss having him do all those things with me even though we'll still have T/TH to hang out all day.  He's been my buddy almost 24/7 for 3 years.  I enjoy having him around.  I miss him when he and Ching go run around together.  I'm happy he's going to get to be around other kids.  I hope school will be good for him.  But I'm going to miss him.

Sending Noah Out Into The World

This morning Nerdstar, Noah and I went up to Noah's pre-school for a meet-the-teacher session.  All of the paperwork is turned in.  All of the supplies are purchased.  We're all set for the first day on Monday.  Sigh.  There will be twelve kids, one teacher and two teacher's assistants.  Looks like it'll be nine boys and three girls. 

I have mixed feelings about all of this.  I keep reminding myself the reason Noah is going to pre-school is because he loves being around other kids.  So, our only goal is for him to have fun.  Noah was definitely the most outgoing and talkative this morning.  We love how he tends to make himself at home in the world, wherever he is. He's also the kid other kids take toys from.  It happened two or three times in less than an hour.  He always lets them.  He always waits for other kids to go up or down the ladders at the park.  It's going to be interesting to watch how he grows socially over time. 

Now, is it a good thing they're also going to teach our boy to walk not run, use an indoor voice, and follow directions?  YES!  In fact, we're pretty happy someone else will succeed in this, as we haven't.  (We haven't really tried.) 


From just about the day he was born, I've prayed that God would protect him, body, mind and heart.  Now, more than ever, that's still my prayer.  The world can be hard on sweet boys. 

Noah Snacks

 

Morning: Cheese and crackers, an apple, a banana, veggie sticks, small bowl of raisin bran

Afternoon, pre-nap/post park: ice cream and a few french fries at Dairy Queen plus 12 oz of lemonade

Evening: slice of toast, granola bars, apple sauce, string cheese, an orange, small bowl of cottage cheese

throughout the day - 3 8 oz. drinks of water/white grape juice

He'll also add a small glass of milk as his post-bath night cap.  

Pleasant Surprises

The weather this last weekend was amazing.  And having amazing weather in August makes us very happy.

Saturday night we headed out to find and try a new-to-us butcher shop.  First pleasant surprise was there wasn't any traffic, which is stunning.  It makes life here so much nicer when it doesn't take an hour or more to go fifteen miles.

The butcher shop was a disappointment, but that was ok.  We discovered a whole new little shopping area we didn't realize had been built in the last couple of years.  It's in the same neighborhood where I used to work as a phlebotomist sometimes.  It's basically across the street from the Korean grocery store we used to go to before we found a closer one.  And it's also just down the street from the place where I would go pick up the sperm to do Nerdstar's inseminations.  Heh.

The area is in the middle of up-scale shopping tiers.  One very pleasant part was this little water fountain where there were six little areas water would sprout up from.  This was next to a grassy area and next to a movie theater that had a big screen on the outside showing movie previews and some cool  short videos.  Nice area.

It took about five minutes for Noah to even walk around the water area.  We asked him if he wanted to take his shoes and socks off - "NO".  Asked again a few minutes later.  "NO."  But, he was walking around, watching the other kids, checking it all out.  About twenty minutes into it he came over to me and said "shoes/socks" and I took them off for him.  It was just a nice way to spend an hour.  Even nicer because it was unexpected.

There was also a chocolate shop that had some outstanding little chocolates.  It really reminded me of the stunning chocolates we had in Tokyo.  mmmmmm.

Then we also found a cupcake shop and Cold Stone Creamery.  Heh.

We topped all that off with an unscheduled trip to the Korean grocery store.

Sitting by the fountain I just felt blessed and content.

Noah's Fun Weekend

We spent Friday evening where we spend a LOT of evenings this summer - at the park.  Noah had decided that the best thing to do was grab handfuls of the wood mulch and throw it down slides.  Now, this is all well and good as long as there aren't other kids on that particular slide - a distinction Noah failed to grasp sometimes.  This is where his stubbornness is a problem.  There is just no deterring him other than taking him home. 

The upside of park time is seeing how sweet our boy can be.  A few times now, a kid has fallen or cried for some reason, and  Noah goes over to them and pats them on the arm or back and says "ok, ok".  Melts my heart!

Mostly he loves to slide and run and play chase.

Last week, after not having been down there in several months, Noah started saying "water" to me.  OH, yeah, there is a creek down behind the baseball field, with a trail and a bridge!  Noah has started a "redistribute all the rocks" campaign, moving them from the trail and throwing them into the water!  At least it got him away from throwing mulch down the slides.

Saturday was County Fair day.  Unfortunately, I thought it opened about two hours before it actually did.  Bleh.  But, we finally got out there and had a good time.   It took him a few minutes, but he warmed up to seeing all the cows and sheep and goats and pigs and chickens.  He even petted a couple!  Then he rode a few rides.  That's going to be a big advantage to his being tall - not having to wait so long to be tall enough ride some rides.  The down side is he isn't very brave to want to ride a bunch of them. 

Yesterday, we went to the big kids consignment sale.  Ten pairs of pants, fifteen shirts, five sets of pajamas, a fantastic red Mickey Mouse robe, and two toys for $126.  Love it. 

The toys are a little Mickey Mouse phone and a very pink Marie Mouse doll.  (I assume it's Minnie's sister?)  He saw them both and started carrying them around.  I knew he liked Minnie and was planning on getting him one to go with Mickey for Christmas, but this is fine. 

I've mentioned that Noah is a fan of Sofia the First.  Hmmm.  I figured out that what he likes about it is all the music, so I finally got around to seeing if there was a soundtrack or something on iTunes.  There is!  So, I downloaded it for him last night and we played it after his bath.  Oh my.  There might have been a little prancing going on.  And that show is really just a gateway to show tunes!!

We joke about having a metrosexual boy on our hands.