A week of beginnings

School started back this week in the Land of Nages, and with it my guys started a lot of new things.  I have long promised myself not to let my boys get over scheduled.  They are three (almost four!) and 16 months.  They do not need every day scheduled. I want them to have time to play and, hard as it is, time to be bored.  I really believe boredom breeds creativity.  If I'm always telling them where to be, what to do, and how to do it, how will they ever find themselves?  Not to mention half the time LO's take on how to do something ends up being much better than what I had in mind!  Still, it is so exciting that they are getting to the ages where they can do things, that it's hard not to sign them up for everything and see what they like.  DH has become my barometer in this area.  I can be a bit of a Tigger and he a bit of an Eyore.  He always thinks about how much of a pain something will be and I always think it's worth the trouble to the point that I just never stop.  We work well together that way.  He slows my bounce a little and I buoy him into some fun stuff. That said, I am really wondering whether I've signed us up for a great fall or if we're a little over committed.  At this point, I'm pretty excited about things.

LO on the first day of preschool.  I put little red hearts on his palms to remind him we love him. He is holding his hands out so they "won't come off. "

Monday LO started pre-school in the three year-old classroom with Ms Katie.  While I've always called his school "school" it has previously been a mother's day out program.  Now he's moved upstairs with the big kids.  Our first day he was a little anxious and went back to his old ways of whining and crying before drop off.  Ms Katie's first rule of the classroom is to "come with a happy face."  I let LO know it was against to rules to be crying and he straightened up.  Yep, he's definitely my kid, a rule-follower. His class from last year got split up, so his best buddy Maddox isn't in his class anymore, but neither is "C" the kid that I thought might have been part of LO's school anxiety.  They will still see each other on the playground, in Spanish, and for other group activities, but they won't be together all the time.  We hate to miss Maddox, but I'm really curious to see if the absence of "C" helps.  LO's zoo buddy "K" is in the same class but on different days.

K, Ms. Katie, and LO at open house

He came home the first day saying it was a good one.  He was especially excited that the kitchen in his new classroom "has a microwave that really dings mama! It doesn't spin around though."  I think he has made "cupcakes and treats"  in that microwave every school day this week. He has also brought home preschool worksheets every day.  We are so accustomed to hand prints and feet prints.  He did those weekly (if not daily) last year.  At first I adored them, but there are only so many places for those dear little prints!  This week DH looked at me and said "Look at that (LO's worksheet) I feel like he's in school!"  Well, honey, he sort of is.  Pre-school anyway.  This week he's been working on tracing lines in preparation for beginning to trace letter.  He already can right a "C" on his own, and this week he traced "U" "Y" "W" and "T" with me.  It really is amazing to see him begin to write.  His other drop-offs this week went smoothly, so we're off to a great start.

Tuesday saw the return of gymnastics for LO.  He has a new teachers, "Ms Sparky" and "Ms Amy,"  and just two other children in his class.  That small of a group means he gets lots of turns and lots of focused instruction.  He trotted off to his first class pretty easily and had lots of fun showing off.  He's still practicing forward rolls, balance beam, strong arms on the bars, hopscotch and trampoline. One of the little girls in his class is very excited to learn cartwheels, so there has been a promise for them to try those soon. Even though he has had just nine classes since the beginning of summer, I can tell a big increase in his confidence.  He's taking more boyish risks and having fun doing it.  Many nights before bath the runs around naked spinning, doing forward rolls, and inverting himself with his feet on the wall in what will soon become a handstand.  This is all good stuff and I think we'll let him keep at it as long as he can enjoy it.

Wednesday was school day again for LO, and that meant NB and I got a little time to ourselves.  I was ridiculously excited to take NB to his first Kindermusik class this week.  Tuesday night I had this sinking feeling that my expectations for NB in class might be a tad high.  He LOVES music in ways different from LO.  He often smiles, sways, bounces, or claps whenever he hears it.  It really seems to bring him a joy that is contagious.  While LO learned to love Kindermusik, I think it will be a more natural fit for NB.  I think I'll also be more relaxed about letting NB find his place in the different activities than I was with LO.  So, my expectations were high.  This is the first thing NB and I have really done together and I just really want him to love it as much as I do.  Somewhere in the cobwebs of my mind, I recalled LO's tendency to just tank things to which I was especially looking forward.  I thought I might need to prepare myself for NB to do the same.  Sure enough, Wednesday morning NB woke up WAY on the wrong side of the crib.  The boy was grumpy!  I was a little disappointed, but still optimistic.  We scooted off to class and he, true to his budding personality, was either fussy, snuggly (tired) or giddy the whole class.  Sometimes he just giggled through the song and dance, other times he shook his head and let Ms Mary Chris know that he, under no circumstances, would be playing that drum!  We sing through most of class, but when the teacher turned on the CD player, he was either drawn to this music or to the lights on the player.  I had just known that the rocking part of class would be his favorite.  He snuggles and rocks with me for minutes (sometimes 20) on end several times a day.  When rocking time came though, he was off to the CD player and then to touch the sticky gel clings in the windows.  Who knew?  Overall it was a good first class.  I'm really looking forward to the weeks where he is better rested though, I just know he's going to love it.

Thursday was LO's first day of soccer practice.  I really think that experience is worthy of a separate post, so stay tuned for it (hopefully) soon.  Here I just want to say that DH, LO, and I were each really excited about this in different ways.  DH has long loved soccer.  He played forever as a kid and even coach a Y team when we were dating.  I have fond memories of us kicking the ball around near dusk at a local park in our early days.  DH tried to teach me a few things, and was sweetly patient with my lack of skill.  One of our first purchases for LO was a soccer ball rattle.  (Not such a wise purchase as it was hard and he kept smacking his little head with it as a newborn!)  You would think, then, that DH and I might have a tendency to pressure LO into playing.  I'd like to say that I really don't think we will.  We did, however, find out last minute that a very good group of people would be forming a Y team along with LO's buddy Sam.  We were invited to join them, and decided this a was good time to let LO try it out.  It turns out that he know about half his team and his coach, so we thought that an ideal situation.  I have no idea if LO will love soccer beyond this season or if he will move on to something else, but I hope we'll make the most of this season.  As soon as we told LO he'd be playing, he was excited to start kicking the ball with DH.  We don't have a yard to speak of, so DH let him kick the beach ball in the sun room.  For several nights in a row I made dinner to the sounds of DH and LO kicking that beach ball.  I don't know if I can accurately convey what I heard, but if nothing else comes of this season, those nights will have made the whole experience worth it. DH encouraged and instruction LO so gently, so lovingly, and LO just ate it up with a spoon. I have no idea if LO was actually kicking the ball with any sort of skill, but DH had me convinced he was grooming the next Pele out there. I never could have (or even would have thought) of starting LO out the way DH did, but I had to tell him is gave me warm fuzzies. (Reason number 532 that my husband is God's gift to our family). After DH had LO so excited to play, I thought it would be good bonding to let the boys go forage through the sports store to garner their gear.  They came home with cleats, soccer socks, shorts, and  size 3 lime green ball. (I already had the shin guards).  With that, our big guy was amped up to hit the fields, and Thursday, on a humid August evening, he did just that.

So that's the scoop on our week of firsts.  The fall schedule looks something like this: school for LO Monday, Wednesday, Friday. Tuesday morning is gymnastics, and afternoon is soccer practice.  Wednesday is Kinermusik for NB, Thursday afternoon is soccer games.

Now I know how we all get over-scheduled.  If I don't post again until November, we'll all know why!