Less is More

The first full week of school and day care is one day away from being in the books (aka its Thursday night, finally). We have embraced the idea of not overbooking our children, which has been fairly easy up to this point. L is only 4, there just aren't that many options for 3 and under. With the school year beginning, L is suddenly doing swim lessons, soccer practice, soccer games and violin lessons. To be fair, violin lessons are during school hours so they probably don't count, and soccer games don't even start for a few more weeks. Basically we have two nights dedicated to kids events and that will soon change to two nights and a weekend day. I think team sports and swimming and music are all valuable experiences, I just think I don't want to venture down this wormhole this early.

My first run at retrieving both girls from both different locations after work/school took almost an hour and a half. That's about 45 minutes too long. Unless I start leaving work at 3:30 everyday, we will not be making it to our scheduled events. I'm sure as road construction projects end and I learn the process for two different pick ups, we can shave some time off our new routine, hopefully. Today though, was not that magical time in the future where I'm suddenly the organized, non-frazzled mother that effortlessly gets all this stuff done; today was the harsh reality that you can't fit 60 minutes of stuff into 15 minutes of actual time.

Obviously, since I haven't mastered picking the girls up from school yet, I didn't have a nutritious, delicious and amazing dinner prepped for tonight either. After 60 minutes in 98 degree weather watching L watch her teammates, my husband nixed my vote for pizza and suggested Panera, if M would eat something there. M agreed to a PB&J with the one condition that nary a molecule of jelly even think of touching her sandwich. We agreed.

I'm not sure if it was the white bread, the not natural peanut butter, the non-organic yogurt, or the three potato chips they each negotiated away from their father, but tonight, those girls ate. L even ate the crust of her sandwich, M ate all the way to the crust. M has this unnatural ability to separate, with almost surgical precision, her food from its crust. They even had a few bites of my apple. It was one of those family dinners you see on tv that makes you roll your eyes because never has an actual dinner been eaten by real people that goes that well. We had two delightfully happy and chatty little people eating their dinners with little to no threatening or bribing. I don't know what happened but I do know I plan on eating dinner at Panera, in that booth, every single night until the magic stops or they kick us out.

If you recognize this booth, stay away, the magic is all mine.

Karma Re-Balancing

M goes to the same daycare/preschool as one of her cousins. As we were marveling (out loud) at how enamored she is with the new place, how easily she had taken to the new routine, we heard the opposite reaction from her cousin. Maybe M could meet up with said cousin before drop off? Of course, we just invited a great karma re-balancing by bragging on our kid, M wouldbe happy to help.

Today M woke up grouchy. To be fair, we woke M up from a deep sleep. We had been out celebrating the birthday of a great grandmother the night before and our routine was off. She was out cold, we dressed her before she had any idea what was coming. M was not in the mood today, for anything. Would you like yogurt? NO! Would you like toast with peanut butter? NO! I WANT YOGURT! Ok... NO YOGURT! You know, toddler stuff, the entire morning.

At drop off my husband obviously ran into M's cousin, who was handling drop off like a little champ (because re-balancing). Because I married into good people, my brother in law didn't make the sarcastic quips I would have "Oh, YEAH, M loves daycare..." Instead we got a thoughtful email about an hour later reassuring us the M had settled down after my husband left and was happily playing with some toys.

Hopefully the rest of the day went a bit better for everyone involved. L had her first full day of PreSchool, I would say I'm sure it went well, but I've learned my lesson for the day. We will what shape we are in after I pick everyone up. I'm not expecting much, so maybe the universe will reward us with spectacular days and full meals eaten. There's nothing to make a toddler mood worse than choosing Starve on an already tired, grumpy day.

L had a great morning. She was super excited to begin violin lessons today. This is her perfected Why-Is-My-Sister-Acting-Like-This face. I'm grateful they generally take turns having rough days.

Because the Universe deemed it so

I tend to ignore the astrology stuff, the significance of your birth date and all the meaning it supposedly carries. But, if I sit down and look into it, it does appear to be awfully accurate about things.

L is an Aquarius. She is quiet and reserved, creatively follows the rules when/if she agrees with them, and likes to evaluate situations before jumping in and participating. She needs time alone to decompress. Yesterday, after a full day of Church, school tours, time at the grandparents and such, we found her in a room by herself quietly coloring on of those adult coloring books. She was fine she said, she just needed some quiet. She's FOUR. This isn't unusual for L, even when she was two we would find her kicked back on the couch leafing through a Highlight's magazine or reading something to one of our two dogs.

I'm not sure Pederson really enjoys her stories, but for a Shiba Inu, he tolerates both our girls with amazing patience.

L started school today. She is excited about the coming year. She actually told us summer was too long. This is the same kid that freaked out on the last day of school because she hadn't learn to read yet so she couldn't be done with school. L loves learning, she loves mastering new skills. Once she understands the basics, she will attack a new project, practicing, learning, questioning until she feels she has it down.

L quickly caught on to the "rules" of Eat or Starve. She doesn't always like them, but she's willing to play by them. She has tried more new foods in the past few weeks then she did in the last two years. I don't count 6 months to 12 months because, as good parents, we shoved a new food into her mouth every 3-4 days, because you must wait 3-4 days in case they have a reaction to something. Mostly we ruined cute onesies.

As L begins her second round of PreSchool I hope she can come out of her observant little shell a bit more. She possesses such an unique and quirky take on things; I love hearing the spin she puts on her day. We know its difficult for her to branch out and open up to other people. We've been pushing her, both in food and social settings to try new things. She's been wildly successful at the food side of things, hopefully it translates into the social side as well. L is well on her way to becoming the beautiful person she is destine to be, maybe her horoscope today says something about preschool, I need to check.

M is a Libra, that is for another day.

With style like this, how can you not want to know how her day went. Thank goodness for uniforms.

Ethical Reporting

I just signed up for Class Dojo. I'm not really sure how to use it yet, but M's teacher has been leaving little updates on it all week that I'm just now reviewing. I work off the assumption that any human that can willingly and even joyfully work with a room full two year olds is a good, honest, trustworthy person. Most of Miss A's updates seem right on "M sat on the toilet but didn't actually go to the bathroom," etc. This is 100% my experience with attempting to potty train M. She will ask to use the potty but has never actually used the potty. She does love flushing the toilet though, LOVES IT.

My question is this, Miss A said that everyone tried the pulled pork that was served for lunch on Thursday. M has tried pulled pork once only because we hid a piece under some watermelon. She instantly spit it out and refused to eat any more watermelon the entire day, just in case. Could Miss A be exaggerating? She reports M is eating, not with gusto, but she's trying her food. I'm assuming they would tell us if she wasn't eating, right? Are Miss A and Miss S so much better at this that M is eating pulled pork? I wonder how much it would cost us to find out their secret techniques, the price I'm willing to pay goes up a little each meal.

This is not from day care, but I'm pretty sure this is the face I made when I read she was trying all her food.

Wasted Energy

M didn't just survive her first day at day care, M thrived at her first day of non-family day care. I was relieved she was willing to leave and come home with us at the end of the day.

Uniform, check. Favorite stuffed animal, check. New tennis shoes, check.

We arrived almost on time to a building full of emotions; lots of first day jitters mixed with the returning kids and parents happily greeting friends and teachers. Luckily M is much more social and outgoing than I am. We walked into her room and greeted the assistant teacher, Miss S. M gave me a hug and kiss and one obligatory "Tay here wit me" before succumbing to the awesome new adventures calling her name. I talked to Miss S just long enough to know I needed to leave before my presence caused to M to think there was a reason to worry. I glanced over my shoulder, wrapped the reassurances we've received over the past few days around me, and left. No tears or scenes at all, she was a little rock star. I'm not a rock star but I managed to make it to my car before any tears started.

My husband and I met in the afternoon to pick her up. We walked into similar organized chaos that is the inevitable result of having 100+ kids 5 and younger in one building. M's teacher was standing in the door, holding a smiley M. Lucky for me, as soon as she saw us she exclaimed "Mommy, Mommy!" and wiggled out of her teacher's arms and into mine.  Its reassuring I can't be replaced in one day by amazing people with cool toys and a playground. We got a detailed rundown of the day. M had a great time, a few tears at nap time, but nothing major. She had a wonderful first day, supposedly ate some hamburger. Miracles do happen.

The car ride on the way home was an explosion of toddler story telling.

She excitedly jibber-jabbed the entire way home about her new adventures, mostly the playground. Today was her second day. My husband dropped her off. I received a text saying "M gave me a hug and a kiss and walked off to say hi to Miss A, like it was day 117 in school."

Everyone knew it would be a great first day. I'm glad I have some undeniable proof to remind me each morning until my jittery emotions calm down enough to read the notes left for them by my calm, rational brain.