First Day of Pre-School

Well, blogger is being a poophead again and I cannot upload any photos so I will have to do that when they get it fixed.  Today was Baylor's first day at preschool.

 Our sitter for the last two years, Mrs. Brenda, is retiring in June so we knew we needed to find a new place.  He had only had two sitters, Nana Heidi and Mrs. Brenda, in his life.  They were in his life for a reason and at the right time when he needed them.  Now we have found Mrs Mary Loreman and her daycare/preschool that she runs from her home.  She is part of the Early Learning Network and has a three star rating.  For our initial visit after driving 18 miles, complaining the entire way about how far it is, then talking to her, I left there saying it was the place I wanted him to go.  She was so calm and patient and I was impressed with her teaching methods she outlined for us.  She showed us the progress books they keep for each child and how they use seven methods of teaching and they like to hit each one for each lesson.  It is not a fancy place, just her basement that has been renovated over the years to three age areas and teaching/eating area.  She only has three stars because she does not have the fancy facility of a church or corporate run preschool.  It is clean, she can hold a child in her lap if the child needs it (some day cares steer away from contact for legal reasons, and she teaches in a way I wish more schools would teach.  Every child learns differently and can appreciate her methods.

He started today, and we did not make too much fuss before hand.  I guess I still remember the shy Baylor from last year at this time who hated to know what was coming next.  There was no preparing him beforehand by telling him where we were going.  That lead to tears and protesting.  He would always follow along anyway but I hated going through that.  But he has come a long way in the last year from my shy son how said he just missed me when he had to do to the sitters to the friendly outgoing son who wants to play with everyone.  Lori took him today and I was torn about going.  I decided for his first day it may be easier for her to take him because he can be more emotional with me around.  We did prep him for the change from Mrs. Brenda's to Mrs. Mary's and this morning he was skipping out the door with his little back pack strapped to his back.  Lori called me after she dropped him off for a report.  She said he went right in and Mary greeted him at the bottom of the stairs.  She took him to the table for breakfast of cereal and a banana.  Lori said he sat right down and started eating.  A boy next to him introduced himself and Baylor said, 'My name is Baylor, B-a-y-l-o-r".  She also picked him up today and we met at Hoss's for dinner.  It is his favorite place to eat so we thought it would be a nice treat for his first day of school.  I read the note they sent home with him.  Some highlights are:
--He fit in very well and had a wonderful first day. (insert Mommy grinning like a goof)
--He chose Old MacDonald to sing and told them he wanted to be a Vet when he grew up. (I am surprised he did not choose Wheels on the Bus and in the morning he said he wanted to be Santa Claus and I checked with him twice on that one)
--Lunch was baked fish, rice, broccoli with cheese, and applesauce.  Baylor ate everything and was the first one done.  (Half of that he would turn his nose up to at home)
-- He needs to work on how he holds a pencil. (OK, so I am a bit lazy about that around here)
--He has very good manners, excellent social skills, and cleans up his toys. (grinning Mommy again and why does he not pick up his toys around here)
-- He is very enthusiastic about school and learning, always ready to try new things and seems to learn quickly and easily.  (my cheeks hurt from smiling out of pride)

The only downer was he was too shy to ask for help with his jeans(they had a slide instead of a snap) and he had an accident.  But we had packed a change of clothes in his back pack and he came home in that.  I had put his potty shyness on the get to know him sheet because he did the same thing at Mrs. Brenda's.  He would get shy about asking to go to the bathroom or wait too long.  Oh well!  If that is the worst that happened, I will take it. 

He horked down dinner having his usual Hoss's feast: melon (honeydew tonight), green peas, Italian Wedding soup, and ice cream.  At home he was a wild thing so we played in the basement together until that energy was burned off.  He said several times that school was great and the kids were fun.  Friday he goes again and we have homework to do.  Hopefully he will have just as much fun on his second day! 

Over the Ground Lies a Blanket of White

Or beads as it were early on Saturday.  He wanted to play with his beads and they ended up all on the floor.  Since messes can be cleaned up, even though I know I will be helping him, I let him play. And unless and until it gets out of hand and he starts flinging them across the room, he can play in them for as long as he likes.  Eventually the call of the snow was strong and we picked up the beads. 

 

 

And he then scooped up two cups of snow from the deck.  I tasted mine and found some dog hair and rock salt from the deck in my cup.  So I showed him how to scoop carefully from the top of the snow and not digging down to the deck floor.

 

And after lunch we had a winter wonderland in our area.  Finally a change in the back yard photos. 

 

Baylor loves snow: playing, shoveling, throwing snow. 

 

There is something about the rosy cheeks and the tousled hat hair that just draws me to him in these photos.  He looks so grown up, like 19 instead of 4, and I just don't know how this that is happening. 

 

 

It was a nice snow and just made the world look like a new place.

 

He loves to shovel which is more like pushing rather than shoveling snow. So while he pushed and ran and climbed I did the actual shoveling.  But I am sure if you asked Baylor he would say he did it all by meself.  Once it was shoveled, the snow never stayed on the driveway again.  It is still clear two days later. 

 

We made big pile of snow in front of my shed and he used the pinwheel to 'blow' the rest of the snow away and then planted his flag to claim the snow pile for Baylor.  He loves to climb his pile of snow, kick the snow, throw it back on the driveway. He does it at every snow pile he comes across in parking lots or anywhere. 

 

Sunday was cold and sunny but no new snow was falling so we headed to Grandma Karen's for our Christmas visit.  When I told Baylor where we were going he asked, "You mean that place where I play with the trucks?"  Grandma Karen has a box of old trucks that he loves to get out.  They are mostly metal where as all his cars and trucks are mostly plastic.  There are cranes, orange garbage trucks, plows, and semi tractors. 

 

I saw a bluebird out the living room window and since he missed it they went to look at the birds in the back yard.  Head on chin, legs shoulder width apart, looking so cute, they checked for birds on the bushes and lawn. 

 

While they were checking out the birds, I was checking out her decorations.  She always has wonderful settings all around her house. 

 

After visiting and playing and eating her pretzels and ice cream cake roll, we headed out.  We tried to get our annual photo of the two of them.  Baylor was not into it but I think this one is pretty good of them. 

 

We headed to the grocery store and stopped at Target on the way home.  We found some bedtime slippers for Baylor.  He has been asking for his own pair since he found my pretzel slippers before Christmas.  I finally found a pair of fuzzy slippers that he liked, they are red with a sparkly button but he did not care.  They are like Mommy's and that was all he cared about.  He feel asleep on the way home and woke up after it was dark outside.  I think he was confused and thought it was morning because he asked me if I had slept in my clothes and he asked for waffles to eat. He walked me to the bed room to change out of my clothes.  He was just a sweet heart and lovey bug and just a reminder of his sweet nature.  He is a joy and light in my life and I look at him in amazement that he came from my body.  I don't think I will ever wrap my head around how that happened!  And that is OK with me. 

I think he knew it was Christmas

Christmas Eve day was a big day for my little man and he crashed on the couch early in the evening.  I swear he grows every night because he is getting bigger right in front of my eyes and I cannot seem to see it happen. 

 

 

He must have been on the good list this year because Santa was very good to him. Mamma and I were on the good list also because he was very good to us too.

 

 

Baylor decided to leave some candy for Santa instead of cookies.  He seemed to like the peppermint patties and the red licorice this year.

 

He slept well but I did not.  I am not sure what my problem was but I was awake for most of the night and woke up sick.  We all woke up at 5:30 and Lori egged him to go out to see if Santa had showed up.  I heard his squeal with excitement to see he had arrived and left lots of gifts under the tree. He at least waited for us to come out there and for me to start the coffee.  And then it was game on and paper off.

 

He even helped Eddy open her gift.  She was feeling poorly that day also.  I am not sure what her issue was but both of us felt better by Wednesday. 

 

In typical four year old style his first interest was simply ripping the wrapping paper to open the gifts.  Then he went back to see what he received.  I was trying to enjoy the moment while feeling pretty bad.  Lori was having her traditional Christmas morning nap on the couch as I was putting together the tiny Lego vehicles and the Playmobile pirates.  That stuff is my job anyway I was just not feeling up to it at the time.  But it was Christmas and he needed he toys put together to play with. 

 

Then he wanted to play in the snow so we dressed up to go outside.  He received a snowman kit for Christmas from a great Aunt.  The snow was still on the ground but was already starting to melt.  It packed together well to make the snowman but right after we were done, it fell over.  He enjoyed stomping on the remains, just like he did last year.  He is all boy and destruction is a part of his gene make up. 

 

Baylor really loves snowball fighting which is hard for me to fight back with me backing away with the camera.  But I got him again later when I was camera free. 

 

After we came in I remembered that Santa may have left some gifts by his little tree in the basement. We raced down there and lo and behold there were three gifts under the little tree.  He was excited for a few more gifts and one he decided to take to play with at Buddy's.  By 11:00 we were on our way to my parents for lunch.  I was not sure if I was going to be able to eat it but the rest of the family still had not had breakfast.  We stopped at the gas station for gas, coffee and something for them to eat until lunch at 1:00. We opened gifts before lunch and Baylor did really well handing out gifts to Buddy and Grandma. 

 

See the Lincoln logs? There were found in the basement tree and he wanted to keep them at Buddy's.  They are fun to have someone build a fort for him to tear down.  

 

He was like this the whole time!  Laughing and happy and saying, "Well look at that!" at everything he opened.  He was so cute and Mom was still taking about it today. 

 

For some reason he still wants to sit in the high chair at Grandma's house.  I remember the first time we put him in there and he barely could hold himself up. 

 

We ate lunch but I was so tired Mom said she would be fine if we just headed home. So we did.  Baylor was good and played well while I just tried to keep up with him.  Thankfully at 6:30 he said he wanted to go to bed.  But right before that we received a phone message from my friend Molly telling us she broke her leg, was in the hospital and her cancer had spread.  We tried to call her back but she could not talk so I called her this morning. 

She had fallen after the Church service on Monday night so at least she with with other people and not home alone.  She broke it right near her hip joint.  They did surgery on her leg Tuesday night and she was walking around already on Wednesday.  The Otho Dr did not think the cancer was in her bones and she is going with that.  She was diagnosed with thyroid cancer not long after I met her which was in the late 1990's.  She had several treatments back then and it has been in remission since then.  She said their first mission is to heal her leg and then they will worry about the state of the cancer.  We are going to go see her this weekend to share our Christmas gifts since she usually comes to our house for New Year's.  I am looking forward to seeing her and I hope she gets some good news soon. 

 

 

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve day we headed up to Meme's and Pap's for lunch.  Since Eddy loves going up there we took her along.  We had to stop for gas and coffee and I took a few photos of my baby girl.  She is 11 now and getting around well and full of pep.

 

 

Baylor loves holding the leash but she tends to drag him along.  Before we left she darted off and he fell on his knees on the patio.  But at Meme's he kept up with her and we called her to the porch so they did not run off together.

 

I have not been to their house in a long time.  With our different schedules we do not travel much together by Baylor and Lori have gone up there several times to spend the night with them.  He has a tote of toys in the closet under the stairs and he headed straight for it.  In typical four year old fashion, he loves to play the same way with the same toys.  He had to show me his tractor with a string and how he dangles it over the stairs. 

 

We ate lunch, making our poor little man wait for his gifts.  We were sitting there talking and we hear Pap and Baylor opening gifts.  I had to run out there to see what it was.  I guess Pap was excited for Baylor to have his new RC car.  And Baylor was excited about it.  We even used it to deliver a few gifts to Meme.

 

Baylor also 'plays' the piano at Meme's.  He was playing Rudolph for us and later a few other Christmas songs.  He was a natural full of flourish and emotion. 

 

He pulled out his little chair and a step stool and put his feet up like Mamma did. 

 

 

He picked out a Christmas throw for Meme on a shopping trip and after she opened it he wanted to put straight away on her spare bed that he and Mama sleep in.

 

For which she was very thankful!

 

Aww, my girl had a full belly with lunch leftovers. 

 

Meme found several nice little gifts for Baylor and he loved them all.  Of course he loved them for a moment and then it was on to the next one to love. 

 

The black cat he is holding has been lost at our house for months now.  Meme said she was changing the sheets in there bed and out she dropped.  We turned the house upside down looking for her and he is super happy to have her back.  She is sleeping next to him right now on the couch. 

 

Another ritual is the feeding of the birds.  First he had to check the bird bath which was frozen.  We pulled out the ice saucer and crashed onto the driveway. 

 

Meme brought out the fresh bag of bird seed and they filled up the new feeders and the suet feeders.  It was a whole process and he explained it the entire way.  Then he reminded us that the birds are sure glad when he comes there and feeds them.  I am sure they are. 

 

Then apparently they sit on the porch and wait for the birds to show or or the neighbor's cat.  They also threw some lunch leftovers in the ditch for the cat.  When they were cold enough he was ready to come in for some cocoa and a craft for Meme. 

 

I found a Gingerbread house kit in the dollar section at Target and thought it might be nice for Baylor to do with Meme since she does not come down for our real gingerbread party. It had stickers to put on the house and while he used his own design sense he did a great job. 

 

While we were sitting at the table, the cat showed up to eat her turkey dinner.  We were all excited to see her.  When we saw a few flakes in the air we headed home.  Baylor said goodbye to Meme and Pap and we drove him headed for a white Christmas. 

 

Baylor was excited to play in the snow with his little Santa on a snow mobile Meme had given him. He was so excited he wanted us to pull over on the turnpike so he could play in the snow like now!   He was worried we would not have a good Christmas if it did not snow.  How would Santa know to come,he asked, if there was no snow.  There is no need to worry about that now.  We have snow. 

After I brought in the gifts I gave Baylor this bag of food for Santa's reindeer. 

 

 

And then it was snowball fight time! 

 

And Mommy got him good in the top of his head when I slid my hand down the railing onto his bent over head and back!  Mommy almost went on the naughty list for that move. 

 

He bathed up and put on his Christmas Jammies.  The top fits but the pants are for someone much taller than him. 

 

So he is wearing thermal bottoms and the slippers he found in my closet.  He has never worn slippers so he does not have any his size.  But he likes these and that is fine with me. 

 

Even though he looks like he is from Pennsyltuckey.  But if you look closely, so does his Mamma, who is from Pennsyltuckey.  My theory is western PA should be another state like Virginia and West Virginia only we would be Pennsylvania and Pennsyltuckey. The line would be west of the tunnels on the turnpike.  It is another place all together over there!  It takes Lori a few days to get back to an eastern state of mind when she comes home from there. 

 

Tomorrow is Christmas and little man is going to love it!!