5 posts tagged “preschool”

When I picked The Bug up from school on Friday afternoon, the report was not good. Yes, he had taken a nap, but that was about the only positive thing that could be said. Where to begin? In no particular order, here are some highlights:

The assistant director had to speak to The Bug about appropriate behaviour at lunch. As in, it is not appropriate to sit on the table with ones knees on either side of ones plate.

He got up from his nap, and his teacher noticed that he had gum in his mouth. The Bug reported that he got the gum from underneath his cot. Ew. When instructed to put the gum in the garbage, The Bug swallowed it instead.

There was a small poop accident, so he came home with soiled underpants (in a plastic bag, inside his backpack).

The Bug and two of his friends were overheard having an animated conversation which apparently consisted mostly of the word "fuck."

He demonstrated that his listening skills are truly horrible by once again ignoring me outright when it was time to leave school. He did finally acknowledge that I was speaking to him, though. He told me "No, I'm not going."

When we left school, he ran down the sidewalk and expressed his affection for my car by giving it a full-on mouth-and-face-smashed-up-against-the-wintry-salty-muck-just-below-the-gas-tank-kiss. Again, I say ew.

Either right before, or right after, the kissing of the car, in the two seconds it took me to put his backpack on the seat, The Bug tried to run out into middle of the parking lot by himself.

He is what the experts call a spirited child.
No wonder I'm tired.

He's so funny I can't keep up. Some recent items:

Me: Did you have a good day at school?
Bug: It was a hard day.
Me: What made it so hard?
Bug: All the rolling around the room.

Please note that there was no activity that could even remotely be construed as "rolling around the room" in school that day. Or pretty much any other day.

The Bug to the assistant school director's computer: Come on, you piece of junk.
After which, the computer actually did what the assistant director had been trying to get it to do.

This morning, on our way out of the house, he held the door for me and said Come on, Mama darlin'.

Tonight at bedtime it was I love you, MommyConfusing.

I'm sure there are a dozen other things that have cracked me up in the last few days, I just can't remember them. Would it be too much to just record him all the time?

In Bug-speak:
"Dark Later" = Darth Vader
"pumper fish" = puffer fish
"ravioli-os" = ravioli
"emandeminos" = M&Ms

The other day I opened up his bedroom windows, to let some fresh air in, and he immediately went to the window and shouted out "THE NEIGHBORS ARE BROKEN!"  Several times.  What the hell does that even mean?

He followed that up with "THAT GUY IS COMING TO BRING THE BUG PIZZA!  THAT GUY... IS BRINGING PIZZA!!  FOR THE BUG!!"

There was no one in sight.

At school the other day, they made bird feeders out of empty toilet paper tubes.  You know, you cover the thing with glue, roll it in bird seed, punch a couple holes in it, string some yarn through, and call it a bird feeder.  So The Bug showed it to me, and pretended to eat it.  And I told him "no no, silly, that's for birds to eat."  And he went to the (closed) window, held the bird feeder up in the air, and yelled "BIRDS!!!!!  COME AND EAT DIS!!!!  BIRDS!!!!  COME ON, BIRDS!!!!"

Can you tell he's big into the yelling right now?  I might have to get ear plugs.

Then there was the day he was sitting at the desk, playing with a small pile of change.  He handed me several pennies and said "Mommy has to get paid.  It's forty dollars, for Mommy." 

And my personal favorite, "Bug needs to pay for ladies."  Over and over and over.

He meant "pay the lady."  Like, in a store.  Really, he did.  He says it properly now.

The best one, though, the one that made me have one of those cheesy mom moments, was this.  Before my grandfather died last November, The Bug and I visited him a lot.  Like, once a month from March through July or August, I think.  Which is a lot when you're commuting from Chicago to NY with a toddler.  So The Bug was about a year and a half old, maybe a bit younger, the last time he saw his great-grandfather.

My grandfather almost always had a toothpick in his mouth.  Always.  Right up until the end.

At least six months after the last time The Bug saw him, I happened to put a toothpick in my mouth (please don't ask me why). 

The Bug looked at me and said "Mommy is great-grandpa."

He remembers.  Everything.

Today was a much better day.  When I went to pick The Bug up, he didn't even notice I was there for quite some time, he was so involved in the play-doh.  And when he did notice me, he showed me all the cool things he was doing with the play-doh.  He was not so interested in leaving.

Also?  He took a much more reasonable nap (read "longer").

Also?  He actually ate some lunch.  Not much, but some.

I don't expect that he's over it entirely and that everything will be fine on Monday, but it's a step.

I should be going to the grocery store, finding an exterminator (damn ants), making a follow up call to this guy about this job, looking for places I'd like to work, maybe doing some laundry.  But those things can wait.  There is time enough this morning for me to sit down with a cup of tea and think about some things.

This is The Bug's first week of preschool.  It doesn't seem possible.  He'll be two next month.  Until now, The Bug has been at home with me.  And because I'm such an anti-social, slacker mom, he hasn't been subjected to a lot of classes ad playgroups and such.  I would be doing us both a disservice by keeping him home any longer.  He needs to learn to socialize and not have mamma around all day long, and I need to get back to having a life that has some more adult components to it. 

So on Monday, we dropped him off at his new preschool.

And he had a great time.  When we got there, he was so excited.  And he had an awesome day.  He even napped for an hour and a half.  My kid, the one who would only nap in a dark room, all by himself, napped for an hour and a half in a room with a bunch of other kids!  When I got there to pick him up, he didn't want to leave.

Tuesday was another good day, but with a shorter nap.

Wednesday?  It all started to go to hell in a handbasket.  He had a rough night's sleep on Tuesday, so was tired and cranky to start with.  Then he didn't want to eat breakfast.  And he didn't much want to go to school.  Once he was there, he was mostly okay, owing to the fact that it was Valentine's Day and they had candy and cupcakes and treats, oh my.  But he didn't eat any of his lunch, and took an even shorter nap.  When I arrived to pick him up, he was wearing his winter hat and carrying Mr. Elephante (his lovey) around and he had just recently started crying.  So. Pathetic.

Yesterday?  Oh, dear, you don't want to know.  From the moment he got up in the morning, there was wailing and gnashing of teeth.  It was terrible.  He. Did. Not. Want. To. Go.  I was told that when his Daddy dropped him off, it was not a pretty scene.  Again, no lunch.  Again, shorter nap.  And not pretty when Daddy picked him up, either.

This morning, again with the wailing and gnashing of teeth.  I somehow got him calmed down enough to sit at the table and have breakfast, and I sat down and talked to him while he ate.  Here's a little sample of the conversation:

The Bug:  Bug stays home with Mommy.

Me (as cheerful as possible at 8:15am with no caffeine in my system):  It's a school day!  You get to go see Miss Anna and all your friends, and you'll do really fun projects!!  It's going to be such a great day!!

The Bug:  No, Bug wants to stay home.

Me:  Tomorrow is a stay-at-home-with-Mommy day.  Today is school!!!!  Hooray!!!

The Bug:  Bug watch Street.

You can see how this conversation went...  Yeah.  I'm not sure whether it made much of an impression on him, but he was a bit better this morning when it was time to go to school.

I know that there's an adjustment period - it's a huge change.  And I know that he'll be okay.  We wouldn't have chosen this school if we didn't trust them to take care of The Bug.  And I know that for his development, and my own sanity, this is the right thing.  But damn.  It is heartbreaking to know that your child is unhappy.