Schoolboy

Last month, Zeke started his second year of preschool. As you know, this was to our mutual great relief. It still seems a stretch to call it "school" as he still only goes two days a week for a few hours at a time. 

These are a few shots of him modeling his school gear from before school today. You can see his lunchbox which held up from last year. It is an Americanized bento box and I have become entirely too interested in bento boxes. (I may write a separate post on this at a later date. We now have a small collection of bento gear and cookbook, but I have slowed down now. I stopped myself mid-order of the most awesome Totoro bento stuff when I realized I should not order my 2 year old a lunchbox from Japan.) Two other boys in his class have the identical lunchbox, so now his has a little dog luggage tag on it. One of the teachers say that the three boys like to sit together at lunch. I wonder whether they think they are supposed to or whether they should.

My favorite addition this year is the backpack. Again, completely unnecessary, but too cute to resist. The same line includes backpacks with a bunny, panda, polar bear, lion, shark and squirrel. I'm still trying to figure out what one to order for myself. Really -- don't I deserve stuff this cute? As a sidenote, I feel of late like I have been shouldering the entire American economy (at least kids' stuff). Being at home gives me too much time to think of stuff to buy. Like a backpack for a 2 year old who never needs to carry stuff -- that is why he has me after all. It is entirely gratifying that Zeke likes his backpack as much as I do. He has to wear it the 10 feet from the front door to the car.

Z. did not warm up to school as quickly as he did to his school gear, though. I thought we might skip that period of adjustment, but no. For the first month, he was various stages of unhappy when I left him, though always calmed down and had a good day. Luckily he is always excited to go to school and willingly goes, shouting over his shoulder at the door, "Bye, Maggie! I see you later. I go to school. See you later, alligator!" I think the adjustment might have been due in part to switching preschools. We loved loved his school last year and his teacher comes over now to babysit occasionally. However, I was looking ahead and not excited about the older classrooms. I wanted more communication with the school and a clearer alignment with our views. One perfect example of many: on the last day of school, Zeke was a mess. I don't care -- I send him to school so he can be messy there and not at my house. The teacher apologized and explained they had eaten ice cream. For the most part, no big deal and I didn't say anything. However, we had never given ice cream to our poor deprived offspring because as of that point we didn't give him many sweets and because we didn't give him dairy products. You know, LIKE it said on his student info sheet where we wrote, "NO DAIRY."

So, I started Zeke at another neighborhood preschool. I would have sent him there last year, but they don't take 1 year olds. This school has a curriculum for all of its classes (none of which have worksheets), a green schools commitment, and a very loose Waldorf orientation. (That is to say, they have a very homey environment and play with plain wood toys, but leave out the weird Steiner stuff.) The kids do lots of crafts, sew, sing, play in the dirt, and make communal snacks. Of late they have been making apple sauce and bread. Awesome -- I love that my kid is baking bread and will be glad for him to bake some at home. I like his class, but I really am head over in heels love with the older classrooms. The last time I went into the 4 year old class, the kids were making a bear cave and writing stories about being bears. Older kids also take yoga and Spanish. Next week, we have parent teacher meetings and every day they have a closing circle. Fits the bill for what I wanted. I also was really excited that two of Zeke's lifelong friends are in his class. He talks about them every school day, but also talks quite a bit about two other little girls. His teacher thinks he is friends with them because one is like a little mother to him and the other sings as loud as he does! And did I mention, this is for a little cheaper than the other school? Fingers crossed, I hope to keep our schoolboy here through kindergarten.

Layers

This boy has his own sense of style. Often he'll tell me what shirt he wants and almost everyday he picks his own shoes. He has been a little overwhelmed, though, by my recent going through of his clothes to prepare for the new season -- simply too many choices.

Last night at bedtime he insisted on picking out multiple layers from the drawer I was reorganizing. It is a little hard to see from my phone photo, but this is what he ended up with: Finding Nemo swim trunks, bug pj bottoms, blue cow t-shirt, all topped off with Hanna star pj top. He did try for more but just could not fit them over the base layers.

It was a little seasonally cool last night, but he did agree to remove at least two items before finally going to bed.

My little ray of light

It's on/off raining and pouring. My shoes got wet in a puddle, and rain got in my coffee. I spent all morning running errands that I thought would take an hour. I haven't gotten any chores done or eaten and now I need to pick Kidlet up at school in ten minutes. I'm starting to work on all the things necessary for our great migration North by car next week. Every song on the car radio sounds nostalgic and melancholy. The cashier at Target told me I need to perk up. Let me say that again...the cashier in the Deathstar of Capitalism just down the road told me to "perk up."


Deep breath. That's better.

Cheap entertainment

To remember before I buy the next expensive toy: $1.50 bag of balloons from drug store = couple hours of entertainment for busy toddlers

Fathers and sons

The Kid, his cousin and their dads at Papa's pond: talking turtles, skipping pecans.

Papa turns 90!

Back to what we do best: providing photos of my adorable kid. These are some photos of said kid and his Papa who we visited in NC to celebrate his 90th birthday. Zeke loves to talk about his Papa and definitely has a special relationship with him that he doesn't have with anyone else.

Little ears, part II

Forgot one that I love.

Zeke will look at you, hold up his index finger, and say, "Stay - right back". That is, "Stay here, I'll be right back."

Weaned

I'm wanting to write something more than just this. Maybe recap some of the highlights and challenges of nursing. (Hives, anyone? That wasn't mentioned in the hospital class.) Gush some about my relationship with Zeke. Some thoughtful reflection on his growing up. Toss in the variety of perspectives you get on nursing from those close and from society. (In brief: it is amazing what people say to strangers! it is amazing what people say to friends!) Somehow, I'm not really able, though -- strange as I am generally able to throw out about 1000 words or more to express any basic event or thought. Anyway, in the process of leaving Zeke for five days last month, we brought a close to nursing. Zeke handled it well for the most part, though he still asks in the morning. I probably handled it about as well. I was ready and suggested it, but had really been hoping Zeke would initiate. When I came home, I knew that we could easily restart and I wavered on whether to or not. I definitely had a sense of loss and I think it got a little mixed in with an overall sense of recent loss.

To ease that a bit for me, I tried to add some ritual to it, something very indirectly related to what I read about some traditions based on the feast for Issac's weaning. One of Zeke's friends weaned at about the same time. At a recent dinner our families had together, I gave a special dessert to the boys and we told them about how they were growing up and how we loved them. I also gave Zeke a small gift and then made a donation to his honor to the World Food Programme's Fill the Cup drive so that our blessings change into blessings for other children. That was all helpful, and now I'm ready to take a break before any more big milestones towards independence.

We survived

(Another catch up post)

As dear readers know, I have been on the road a lot recently. On one of the trips in the middle of last month, we had a real milestone: I left Zeke at home and spent the night away for him for the first time in his life. (I still have to take a deep breath as I write that!) In short, I wanted to do it so that I could focus on helping my family with my grandmother's effects and estate. Even if Aaron came with and took care of Zeke, I would inevitably still be focused on Zeke's routine -- eating, snacks, bath, bed -- and he would still be focused on me. That just didn't seem like an effective use of limited time. So, Zeke stayed at home with Aaron who had a few days off from work. 

The hardest time was when I pulling out the driveway, knowing that it would be a few days before I would see him again. I teared up a little as he said, "Bye bye, Mama." Despite that start, everything was very smooth. Zeke cried for me some when he woke up, but no more than he does when I am here. We saw each other via computer every night and then through regular picture updates. Most of the pictures prove that Zeke did not lose his appetite while I was gone and that he was getting fed. I did miss my boys terribly, but on the upside I'm sure we all grew a little more confident and independent. Also, I had lots of toddler-free meals and toddler-free wake ups. That was a first I could really appreciate.

Catch-up post: Tadpole

Here's one from the summer highlight reel. This summer was...umm...interesting. I dropped my consulting gig, Zeke didn't have school, there weren't regular playgroups, and we tried a little potty learning. We were at home a lot and that was an experiment that I will not likely repeat. (Apparently, I am only capable of maintaining my barest level of sanity if I have at least 8 hours of childcare a week, the amount that preschool provides.) We did try one new activity and that was to take swim lessons at our neighborhood, newly renovated with the tots in mind. It might be a little much to call them "lessons" though. I usually just referred to it as the "time with two teenagers and a kickboard" and by the end there was only one super bored teenager who for some reason did not have to go back to school like the other teachers/lifeguards. However, it was super super cheap -- about the same as we would have paid just to go to the pool and the pool was only open to us at that time. And, we definitely got our money's worth out of it. Zeke was very hesitant that first lesson and barely got in the water, let alone jumping in like some of the other kids. After the second "lesson" (again, we have to use that word very loosely), though, he had to be dragged out of the pool. Literally, dragged. In addition to going to the lessons twice a week, we went to the pool at least one other afternoon during the week. I was so sad that we weren't able to get a few more times before they closed on Labor Day, but we will both look forward to next year. Sorry no pictures of swimming -- there is a no photography rule at the pool.

One of the side effects of going swimming so often during the summer was that Zeke really changed his bath routine. Zeke has always really enjoyed taking baths, except for a very brief phase when I could only get him on the bath by letting him sit on a little plastic Ikea stool in the bath. It didn't take him long to get over his bath-phobic phase, but the plastic stool didn't go away and we could not get it out of the tub. Not a big deal, but a little inconvenient to take it on trips, which we had to do if we wanted him to take a bath outside of our house. After that second lesson, Zeke let me take the stool out of the tub so that he could lie on his stomach and kick and "swim" in the tub. He also started asking a lot for us to play the song "Tadpole" (lyrics listed below). He had heard that song before, but mainly in utero as Aaron used it as the sound track for Zeke's ultrasound video. Anyway, he asked for us to play him that song while he was taking his bath.

Tadpole, wiggling in the water 

Brand new world is there for you to see 

Lots of time till you grow to be 

A big frog like me 

Tadpole, haven't got a worry 

Biggest job is swimming peacefully 

Wonder if you know you'll grow to be 

A big frog like me 

Changes happen as time passes by 

Soon enough, you'll be grown 

With a home on a lily pad 

And some tadpoles of your own 

Oh, little tadpole, wiggling in the water 

Far from all responsibility 

Take your time till you grow up to be 

A big frog like me 

Tadpole, take your time to be 

A big, green grown-up frog like me