Now You're 5

To My Oldest,

Today is your 5th birthday. It's hard to believe that you are now 5. Over the past year you have grown so much! You have increased your self-esteem tremendously and are becoming independent (even made your own peanut butter & jelly sandwich yesterday!). You are so kind and loving. In the evenings before bedtime, you even enjoy cuddling on the couch with Mommy while watching a little TV! You enjoy doing things for your little brother and helping out.

We are starting to prepare you for this next year as you are very into having a schedule. You signed up for Kindergarten a few weeks ago and in just over a week you and Mommy will be in a summer bowling league. You have a lot of friends and have had many "girlfriends" this past year. You can write your letters and your name. You enjoy reading books and building with Legos or blocks.

Mommy and Daddy are looking forward to watching you grow and seeing you experience new things over the next year. We love you!

Love,
Mommy

To My Littlest

To My Littlest,

Today is your 2nd birthday. I have found every moment with you to be an adventure and I know that we will be expecting more adventures as you get bigger. You are a wonderful little boy and are very good at making sure everyone knows what you feel you are entitled to! You have really increased your vocabulary recently and will now try to talk over your brother and answer for yourself. You are very independent and enjoy climbing, running, and jumping. You have even started talking about using the potty! This makes Mommy very excited! You have become much more interested in books recently and love it when Daddy reads Goodnight Moon to you before bed. I think your most favorite thing to do is to play outside with a ball or be chased by Mommy or Daddy. You have gotten so big (even if you are a little small for your age) and are very "tough." I love you very much and have enjoyed watching you grow from a baby to a little boy. I am anxious to see what other changes you encounter over the next year! Happy Birthday!

Firsts

There have been a couple of firsts in this house the past couple weeks. On March 27, we took the entire family to see a movie. It was the first time Thing 2 had been to a movie in the theater. We decided to see How To Train Your Dragon. Excellent movie, by the way! Thing 2 did extremely well. Before we went into the movie, The Mr. and I were discussing which one of us would leave the movie with Thing 2 if he became loud and rambunctious. We were both being overly polite as we both said we would leave the movie if needed. Luckily, the only time we had to leave the movie was to take Thing 1 to the bathroom and change Thing 2's diaper! As long as Thing 2 had full access to the popcorn, he was fine. He ate a piece at a time and drank the water we brought with us. He really seemed to enjoy the movie and would point at the dragons as they came across the screen. The movie did become a favorite in our house and everyone talked about purchasing it once it's released on DVD.

The next first that we encountered occurred yesterday. We took Thing 1 to sign up for kindergarten! It wasn't an emotional experience as I thought it might be. Mostly we just filled out paperwork. We only have one piece of paperwork left to bring before Thing 1 starts school in the fall and that is to prove that he has had a physical. (His annual check-up is at the end of the month.) We will be attending some sort of open house at the end of May so that we can learn about the kindergarten class and Thing 1 can see his new school. Very exciting! I am a little nervous and feel there should be a support group for parents of children who are about to enter kindergarten. I believe the kids will be fine, it's the parents who need some support!

I am sure we will have many more interesting things to discuss, with the boys birthdays this month and Thing 1 starting school in the fall.

Happy Easter!

We have a lot of news to share that has occurred over the past couple weeks. Until I am ready to share, here's some pictures of the boys enjoying Easter.

Painting eggs:

The Mr. sprinkling the eggs with glitter:
The finished product:

The boys outside posing for pictures after church this morning:

The baskets the Easter Bunny left for us to find once returning home from church:

The Case of the Moving Superhero

This morning Thing 1 was playing in the living room with his superheroes. He noticed that The Flash was up on a shelf. Here was the conversation:

Thing 1: "Can you get The Flash? He's way up there."

Me: "How did he get up there?"

Thing 1: "I don't know. He must have jumped up there. And he won't jump down because we are looking at him!"

Too much Toy Story watching?

I Expected This Behavior From Children

On Monday, I picked the boys up from daycare around 5pm. When I went to Thing 1's room to pick him up I was told that some of the children were moved to the 3 year old room due to ratio issues. So I proceeded to collect Thing 1's belongings and go outside to the playground to pick up Thing 1 and Thing 2. I wandered onto the playground to find Thing 1 sitting on a bench at a picnic table. Once he saw me, he ran over crying. He had huge tears rolling down his face and seemed extremely upset. I gave him a hug and held him and asked him what was wrong. All he could say was "I want you." Now, let me say, he is NEVER like this when I pick him up. I sat down on one of the pieces of playground equipment to ask him what was wrong. He didn't want to tell me. I told him that he could tell me either in the car on the way home or when we get home, but I did need him to tell me what made him so upset. (Meanwhile, Thing 2 wandered over to me, so I did end up with both children.)

We left the daycare, loaded up into our car, and began to drive home. It was very quiet in the car on the way home. This is very unusual as I am usually asked for 2 minutes of peace and quiet just so my head will stop spinning! About halfway home, I asked Thing 1 what had happened at school to make him so upset. Thing 1 said that one of his teachers (which will be known as Ms. Meanie) called him "poopie." Yes, a teacher called my son a name. (Let me also let all of you know that when Thing 1 was in the 3 year old room, we had issues with this teacher sending him home frequently - almost weekly - for diarrehea. Thing 1 was having issues with his bowel movements. We have since resolved the issue and found it to be a medical concern, not a behavioral issue.)

I was extremely angry, frustrated, and upset. How could a teacher call a child a name? Isn't she supposed to be a role model? This is my sensitive child that she just hurt. He has been working very hard this past year on his self confidence and improved greatly. I felt that this name calling from a so-called professional was really going to push him back. We spent the evening role-playing what to do if anyone, including a teacher, says something to Thing 1 that he doesn't like. We also spent time listing positive things about Thing 1.

On Tuesday, it took everything for me to drop my child back off at school. I had to walk past Ms. Meanie three times that morning. I contacted the directors of the daycare around 10 on Tuesday morning and requested a meeting for that afternoon. I met with the directors and told them everything that had happened. I requested that Thing 1 never be placed in the 3 year old room with Ms. Meanie again. I was also informed that my son was in the room with Ms. Meanie for only an hour. He had been in his classroom for the majority of the day. The directors were understanding and did tell the teachers of the 4 year old room that Thing 1 is not allowed to go back to the 3 year old room if there is ratio issues. I also told the directors that if they are really having issues with ratio, then they can call me and I will pick up my child.

Throughout the week I was told by the three teachers that Thing 1 has, that they were sorry for what had occurred and will not be moving Thing 1 to Ms. Meanie's room. I had a talk with Thing 1's main teacher (let's call her Ms. Montessori) on Wednesday afternoon. During the conversation I found out that Ms. Montessori had complained about Ms. Meanie to the directors on multiple occasions due to how Ms. Meanie speaks to the children. Ms. Montessori and I scheduled a meeting for Friday afternoon for a parent-teacher conference (it just so happened to be the time of year to schedule one and I figured it would be a good time to discuss the event of earlier in the week and my child's self confidence issue).

On Friday, I met with Ms. Montessori. We went through all the regular things in a parent-teacher conference from what I can tell. I was told what areas my son was progressing in and what areas he was doing well. I pretty much knew these things as The Mr. and I work with Thing 1 on the areas that he needs assistance. When it came time to talk about my concerns, I brought up my concern with Thing 1's low self-confidence. Ms. Montessori agreed and said that he had improved greatly in his self-confidence since moving into her classroom. I expressed my concern on how the event on Monday could effect Thing 1 and that I was not sure if I wanted to keep him at the center (especially since Ms. Montessori will be leaving in 2 months to have a baby and Thing 1 loves her!). Ms. Montessori understood and suggested I look into summer camp as a lot of the children in the 4 year old room who are 5 or will turn 5 by summer will be leaving the center for summer camps before starting kindergarten.

I left the meeting with some stress relief but still unsure what to do with my son. I was at the point on Monday afternoon of taking him out of the center immediately and keeping him with me forever. However, I knew that wasn't the right thing to do. I am already having issues with him starting kindergarten in the fall (my baby is getting so big and growing up so fast!) and that I have to learn to let go. I just didn't think that I would have to start letting him go so quickly. I thought that daycare would be a safe place and that the teachers would protect him. I expect that children will be mean to other children, I just didn't expect this type of behavior from a teacher.

The Mr. and I have begun looking into summer camps to put Thing 1 into. We are also starting to look at new daycare centers as Thing 2 will be in Ms. Meanie's room in a year. (If Ms. Meanie is gone, before Thing 2 enters her room, then I will probably keep him at that center. However, he is a different type of kid, so he won't necessary internalize something like that if it happens to him. He would be more likely to punch the teacher if she said that to him, than cry after the fact. I would probably prefer that response.) Until decisions are made regarding what we are doing with our children, particularly Thing 1, I will be stressed and I think I will forever worry about Thing 1 and his self-confidence. I am hoping that getting him to an extra curricular activity once kindergarten starts will help him improve his self-confidence. I feel for my son. He is just like his mother, that's for sure, and I know how difficult it can be growing up with low self-confidence and being such an empathic person. I just hope we can help him to improve his self-confidence so he doesn't go through some of the things that I did.

It's Been One of Those Days

On Tuesday of this past week, my husband and I started the day by arguing over who would go to work. Daycare was closed and my program was closed, so he won. I really wanted to go to work as I had been home with the kids for 4 days by this point and was going stir crazy. Well, I didn't expect the day to go exactly as it did.

First, in the morning, I left the boys in the living room to play while I went to the bathroom. I came out of the bathroom to find that the boys opened the baby gate, got into the kitchen, pulled out the dog treats, and dumped all of them in MJ's cage. MJ enjoyed this as she had multiple snacks at her disposal without having do to anything to earn them!

That afternoon while the kids took naps at the exact same time (believe me this is rare), I decided to clean some of the house. When the boys got up, I thought that would be a good time to give them a bath before The Mr. got home. Bathtime went as usual - washing and splashing. After bathtime, I put the kids in the living room, again, to play, while I cleaned up the towels and such from the bathroom. You would think I would have learned from the mornings incident. However, I did not. I came back to find that the boys had gotten into the markers and drawn all over themselves. They had drawn on their hands, faces and the back of their necks! By this point, I couldn't wait for The Mr. to get home. I wanted to get my coat on and run away screaming! (Of course, I didn't.) Instead, I sat on a chair and talked to my mother on the phone while I had the boys pick up the toys in the living room. While on the phone, Thing 2 opened the door to the entertainment center. I told him multiple times to close the door. He just stood there and stared at me. He knew exactly what I was telling him to do. I then stood up, he then closed the door.

Once my husband got home, I told him that I was done parenting for the day and it was his turn.