Holy Cow

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving!  I do believe this is the first time I have had Thanksgiving at my house!  Lots of family will be here tomorrow (well this afternoon actually for the ones staying with me!)  I can’t wait!

Good news on the kid front…  He is doing exceptionally well.  The school has moved to its new location and they are splitting his class in half – so he will not be in a huge class anymore!  I think that will really help!

With that many kids in one class, I think it is very hard to allow any child to whine or act up for more than a second! The Doctor says she doesn’t really need to see him.  The hitting has almost stopped.  Bedtime is just awesome.  The name calling is still being worked on, but overall – the prodigy child is acting like the boy I knew was there! LOL

On the workout front, well, losing my workout partner just took all of my motivation and threw it out the door…  Need to figure out how to make working out a part of my every day routine!  I keep trying to tell myself a quote I heard from my friend Andy Core, “When is the best time to workout? – Whenever you will do it” – Good quote!

Progress…

Ok – I now have a new wrinkle in the drama called VPK – my 4 year old’s ‘school’.  Seems as of yesterday morning, he has 2 new teachers…  One moved up to the ‘too full’ kindergarten class to help out, and the other one (the one that said he was the worst student in her class) – ‘Unfortunately has had to resign’ – I have to say that I am not sorry to see her go!  I asked him yesterday how he liked the new teacher and he said she was nice and she didn’t yell and she was not grumpy – PROGRESS!!

For the last week, his new sleep routine has been perfect.  He has adjusted well to the schedule, and now gets up in the morning by himself, on time and gets ready – things are going so well!

Just in case you haven’t read this in any of my other posts, I have an awesome kid.  I just also happened to have a kid that doesn’t like to go to sleep – not sure why yet, but I think with all of us working towards making bedtime fun, relaxing and peaceful – his rebelling against going to sleep should fall away….  so far so good – here’s hoping that continues!  Continuity is the key!

Devastated

I am not sure if I should be devastated or not. After I wrote my post the other day “Trouble already” – I went to the school to pick up my son…

They give him a status every day for his behavior… ‘Green’, ‘Yellow’, and ‘Red’… This is his first week at an ‘actual school’.  Day one he was green – I think every kid got a green on day 1…  Day 2- he got the Yellow for saying ‘NO’ – which prompted my last post…

So when I went to school  to pick him up on Wednesday and saw that his status was a HUGE RED… with the words “very disrespectful to teachers”, my heart just sunk.  I had talked to him Tuesday night AND Wednesday morning – trying to get him to realize that he had to be nice to his teachers.

Well, the teacher happened to come back in while I was trying to figure out what had happened.  I was informed by her that he would not sit in time out, he lifted up her skirt and smacked her on the leg, told her “NO” every time she asked him to sit down or pay attention.  She also let me know that ‘obviously’ talking to him didn’t help (My reaction here was that it had only been ONE day) – then she let me know that my child was the worst in the class.  This is where I ask – should I be devastated or not???  I was – definitely was!

So I tried to write down all of the things that have been going on with him and why he might be mis-behaving.

1. He had 3 different teachers in the last 3 months at the old daycare…
2. Not going to give details, but I have been very stressed the last 8 months – and I think this has affected him…  Actually I know it has!
3. He is the youngest in his class – just turned 4 a couple of weeks ago…
4. we moved to Florida a year ago, and then in May bought this house so we moved again…
5. His father and I have not been consistent in disciplining him when he says no… (I know this is the key)
6. He has always had issues with sleep (naps and bedtime) and now that we have to be scheduled, along with all the changes lately…
7. He is off the charts in height, so he looks like he’s about 6… I believe this makes people expect too much from him!

So I decided to be proactive and make an appointment with a psychologist…  in all honesty I believe that I am the one that needs counseling on how to handle all that has been going on.. All I want is to raise a Happy, Healthy child – and I really do have a great son… so I am going to try to learn how to keep him that way!

This is the way I ended the note to the teacher..

“C really is a wonderful child.  He is empathetic, loving, caring, funny, helpful, and curious. He loves to learn, he asks questions trying to figure things out, has pretty good logic… and if he is interested in something – he really focuses.  I believe that he wants to always ask questions and has trouble when he is just told NO, with no explanation.  We are going to decide on certain things that are ‘RULES’ that he always has to follow without explanation, but I also want to find a way not to squash his inherent logic and curiosity by not allowing him to question things.  Hopefully, between us, the doctor and you all, we can find a way!”

So am I over-reacting??

Trouble already?

Ok – so after only the second day of school for my just turned 4 year old, the teacher ‘needed’ to talk to me.  UH OH.  She informed me that they had a problem with his behavior yesterday.  He told the teachers “NO!”  My question?  What did you ask him to do?  Reasonable right?  ok, maybe – maybe not.

I let her know that we talked to him about that last night and I also reminded him this morning that he had to be good and listen to his teachers.

All I can say is that I hope these are good teachers who are telling him the right things!  This school encourages (actually REQUIRES) volunteer work – I may just have to volunteer to sit in the classroom and watch them for a couple of days!   But alas, that would probably make my darling son REALLY not pay attention to them… and since I no longer have the ability to watch him on a webcam, I have to have faith!!  Oh man is that hard!!

First Day of VPK

My darling son turned 4 years old – which in Florida means that he can attend VPK (Voluntary Pre-Kindergarten)…  Today was his first day.  We went last Friday to the ‘open house’ – where he got to meet his teacher, and a few of the kids that will be in his class…

This morning I was more worried that I wouldn’t be able to get up in time, get him dressed and at the school on time than I was that he wouldn’t like it!  I REALLY don’t do mornings!  When he went to the normal daycare, it really didn’t matter what time I got him there, but school is very regimented!  Good for him, bad for me – hopefully I will survive without too much trauma myself (I am so tired today, going to have to start going to bed before 2 am)

Anyway, we got up, he got dressed in his ‘uniform’, we grabbed breakfast to go, his lunch box, and took off.  When we got there – He ran right over to the bookshelf area, grabbed a book and sat down.  I had to search to find him! What a way to say – “Thanks for the ride mommy… see ya!”  Though I am glad that he wasn’t upset or nervous about going! When I did find him, he jumped up and showed me his ‘seat’ (they had names on the tables), gave me a hug and a kiss goodbye and then started playing with a little girl – I am sure I will find out her name soon!

One of the things I liked most about his daycare was the fact that I could watch him on the webcam.  So today – no webcam… and I don’t think they will let me install one… LOL…  I picked him up and he ran over yelling mommy and gave me a great big hug – seriously – can you beat that???  so then I took a picture – well tried… he was too busy introducing me to his new friends and talking to these 2 cute little girls – he wouldn’t ‘pose’ for me! Great Day!

Cutie!