Puddle jumper!

The best thing about rainy days is playing in the puddles that are left behind!!!
N and the big boy had a blast playing outside this afternoon and the fresh air did us all good. I'm so ready for spring!!!

45

That's how many valentines N and I made last week!

We had to make lots of valentines this year, both for the MOMS club party and also for school. I'm so grateful that the kids were in FL and I didn't have to help with theirs this year too. Although it was very funny when I told their Dad that he would have to deal with them himself. He had no idea that they even needed them! Probably because I have always handled it or they have been out of town in the 6 years I've worked for them!

I like to try and make them as I think they are so cute and I'm never sure about handing out candy with all the allergies that different kids have. Thanks to Pinterest I had lot of inspiration and went with crayon hearts. Super easy although taking the paper off the crayons got old fast! N loved filling up the heart baking cups and watching them melt in the oven.

N's first valentine from school was very cute. He was so happy that he got to use his favorite color!

Quick school update

Today was the first day that N went off to school with NO tears!!!
I usually dread telling him its a school day and put it off until he's had breakfast and I need to get him dressed. This morning when I told him it was time to get ready for school he jumped up, got dressed and brushed his teeth in record time. Then he was ready to leave, half an hour before we needed to too :-) I tried to stall him, but he kept saying that we needed to go and that his friends would be missing him. So we headed out the door. Luckily he got distracted by playing in the snow, so that took up a little time and we ended up being only a few minutes early.
He walked into his classroom. Found his name to hang on the board and headed off to do 'sewing' without a backward glance!

Baby love

Last Friday I finally took N to meet my friend's not so tiny, 6 week old son. N fell totally in love with the baby and hasn't stopped talking about or playing pretend about him since! He helped me feed the baby a bottle of BM and proved to be an expert burper! He will make such an excellent big brother one day.

We ended up having a super busy weekend, which is rare for us! On friday night while N and I were with my friend and her family for dinner,  J celebrated her first day at her new job! She got a promotion and I'm so proud of her, she works so hard for us and nobody deserves it like she does. 

On Saturday we went to our neighbour's for a Groundhog day party. The very first one that I've ever been to and even heard of. The groundhog day movie played in the background, but really it was just an excuse to get together, eat pizza and drink beer! 

Sunday saw us at another friend's house for a Super Bowl party. I really don't care for football - just don't get all the time spent standing around doing nothing. But we had a great time at the party. N got to spend more time loving on my friend's baby and also had a blast running around with all the big kids. There were 10 kids ranging from 6 weeks to 7 years. Our friends have a great indoor climbing frame in their sun room, they put a mattress on the floor so the kids could jump down safely and jump they did for hours! It was hard to get N to stop and eat anything and even harder to get him to leave!

Caemon

I am one of many that hugged my boy a little harder and longer yesterday after learning of Caemon's passing. RIP little croc.

Homeschooling.....

Otherwise known as the preschool update!

N's first trial week at school went pretty well. On the Tuesday he was a little nervous when I dropped him off, but the teachers were great. They were in the middle of story time when we arrived and he made it pretty clear that he was not going to join in and sit with the other kids. So the teacher directed him to the area where he had played during his previous visit. As soon as he got the toys he wanted he was happy to kiss me goodbye.
My stomach dropped a little as I walked out of the class room without him. The director told me to give her a call in 15 mins and she would tell me how he was doing. Of course he was fine when I called and she assured me that she would call if he was too unhappy. He was mostly hanging out in the same corner I had left him in, just watching and checking everything out! I sure was happy to pick him up at 11! He had a great time but hadn't wanted to sit for snack.
On Thursday while I was getting him ready for school he told me he didn't want to bring snack. I told him I would pack it just in case, but that he didn't have to eat it if he didn't want to. He got a little upset about the snack thing, so I offered to talk to his teacher about it. That was all it took to get him going and happy about heading off to school. He held onto my hand so tightly on the way in and I was a little worried that this was going to be THE day he would be upset. But he was fine, again thanks to the teachers who directed him towards his favorite toys. I passed on the message about snack and the teacher said as long as I was fine with it, she wouldn't push it. I told her I was fine about it right now, but would like him to move towards joining in a little more. After all that's one of the reasons he is going to school in the first place!

Here are the pics from his first day at school!

Since that first trial week drop off has been much tougher. It's almost as if he realised that this is a regular thing and not just for fun. He pretty much starts crying as soon as I start getting him dressed - it is so NOT fun! I'm told that he's fine as soon as I leave but I've become THAT mum, calling to check up on him after he's been there for an hour. They assure me that he's fine and that they would call if he's really too upset. The funny thing is that I totally know it's all for my benefit, I've seen it so many times with other people's kids, but I really didn't want his start at school to be like this. He's doing fine when he is at school - he now sits for snack and was telling me all about the story they were read the other day, so he must have sat with everyone for that too which is great :-) He's always happy when I pick him up and on Tuesday I managed to watch him interacting with one of his teachers before he spotted me, which was so cute. They say that he's really chatty and loves doing the crafts.

I was joking on FB the other day that I was considering homeschooling and got lots of responses. We are not really interested in homeschooling N, I don't think either he or I have the personality for it. But if he doesn't settle at school soon we will probably pull him out and try again later. As he is still 2 years away from actually starting 'real' school I have no interest in making him (or me) miserable. 

Success

I woke N at just after 9 to get him ready to go and see the school. He was perfectly happy when I woke him and through breakfast, but he wasn't too happy about getting dressed. He started to say that he didn't want to go to school and I think my heart skipped a beat! I managed to wrangle him into his clothes and out to the car we went.
Luckily school is only 2 minutes away, we could walk to it, which would be nice on the way there but the huge hill that would be so easy to walk down, would not be fun on the way back up! I rang the bell to be let in and then waited and waited some more....hmmm not a great start, especially as it was cold this morning. N was happy to check out the mural on the wall so he didn't seem to notice. Finally the door was answered and I was told the director wasn't there...hmmm strike 2. We were shown to her office where we ditched our coats and hung out for a while until the 2 yr old teacher came and took us down to look at the classroom.
The director arrived while N was checking out the toys . She's a very sweet Irish woman who has been at the school for 20 years. N continued to look around, venturing away from me and then coming back to grab my hand and make sure that I was close by. After about 10 minutes I told N that I was popping up to the office with the director and would be back in a bit. He didn't bat an eye, just carried on playing as I walked out the door on unsteady legs. LOL
We chatted about the school, it's history, the teachers and the curriculum. I told her about N, his personality, likes and dislikes and our family. I guess it's the first of many times that I'll have to out our family at school. Overall I liked the school - it's certainly not my dream school. But $14,000 a year for the preschool that the big boy goes to is so NOT happening! The building is older and the facility isn't up to date or state of the art, but it was really clean, quiet and calm. Both of the teachers in what would be N's class were really nice and all the staff have been with the school for over 10 years, so that's a pretty good sign. They have a low teacher to child ratio at 1-7, even though our states requires 1-10. On the busiest day they have 10 kids, so it's quite a small class. Most of all N had a great time! He was so happy to show me all the things that he'd played with while I was gone. When I told him to say goodbye to the teachers he offered up hugs (unprompted) - which is so not like him. He is pretty tight with his hugs and kisses, even with us!
I was told that we could have a trial run before signing the contract, so I could drop him off for a couple of morning session and see how it goes before committing. They are also pretty flexible about making up missed days so that's great as my work schedule can get a little crazy sometimes when the kids are off school or sick. So I think we are going to try that next week and go from there!