children, gratitude, health, humor, kids, mommyhood, motherhood, parenting, self care (or lack thereof)

Help Me!

It’s not easy to ask for help, is it?

I’m trying to let go of control a little more and give my babysitter more responsibility.  I know this will get easier with time and my life might even feel more manageable.  Imagine that!

First up, I gave her a litany of instructions and let her pick up Full Speed from school.  This way I could go get my monthly allergy shots which are available at the most inconvenient times. 

She picked him up without a hitch and I survived my three shots of lord knows what and all was good.

Once I returned home, I picked her and Full Speed up and we headed to T.Puzzle’s school.  I added her to my child pick-up list and showed her the ropes.

Again, smooth sailing.  I was so proud of myself.  Look at me, everyone!  I’m letting someone help me.

It was liberating.

We get in the car and my boys were being, well…., boys.

They were chatty and loud.  They were fighting and hugging.  They were boisterous and sassy.

The babysitter looks at me.

“Well, now I know why you stopped at two,” she joked.

Smart girl.

mommyhood

Miracle

Full Speed insisted his stomach hurt all day.  It was so critical at one point he had to go to the nurse’s office.

“Okay, then I guess you can lay down when we get home and you can go to bed super early to get better fast,” I sweetly insisted.

Suddenly, he felt better.

The miraculous recovery spilled over to the next day. 

“If you tell the teacher you need to see the nurse again, I will make sure you go to bed right after dinner when you get home.”

No nurse’s note appeared in his take home folder.

He is healed. 

So much in fact, check out this action: (disclaimer–T.Puzzle screams really loud at the end of this for no apparent reason so you may want to cut the audio before viewing)

[wpvideo HnBvLKDu]

So, all is well with Full Speed and he learned how to ride a bike without training wheels in one day this week. 

It seemed the harder I pushed him to learn, the less motivated he was.  I gave up the fight and six months later he got on his bike and rode off into the sunset sans training wheels.

A miracle here, a miracle there, everywhere a miracle.

children, humor, kids, kindergarten, mommyhood, motherhood, parenting

Kindergarten: Take Two

Full Speed is embracing his change of class.  I hope it continues to go smoothly for him.

[wpvideo fFYGbowu]

I’m trying to let this transition unfold naturally even though my Mommy instinct is screaming for me to micromanage the heck out of it.  As soon as I caught wind of his move I wanted to personally escort him to his new class, meet his new teacher (interviewing her at great length of course), set up a detailed and daily email dialogue with her and the principal of the school and actually attend kindergarten with Full Speed at least for the first week (or two)in his new classroom.

Instead, I am taking deep breaths, pretending I am a rational human being and letting the staff of the school handle this change as they see fit.

All I can do is ask Full Speed where his new classroom is (okay, so I asked him like twenty times!) and since he repeatedly gave the same answer and seems to know where he is going, drop the kid off like every other kindergarten morning before us, wave goodbye and say, “Have a great day, Full Speed!”

Now, if only I could somehow manage to jury rig a video surveillance apparatus to his backpack…

children, kids, kindergarten, life in pictures, mommyhood, motherhood, parenting

Changes

I understand there are laws that govern classroom size.

I understand that moving kids three weeks after school starts to a new teacher and classroom is ultimately in the best interest of the school.

But, really, did it have to be my kid?

Does this look like a kid who is happy to be moving to a new room?

I believe that eventually many wonderful things will happen with this transition.  Full Speed will learn valuable skills about handling change, he will meet new friends and he will love his new class as much as his old.  Maybe even more if we are lucky.

However, when life is teaching us lessons, it would be helpful if there was a nanny on stand-by to intervene at the inevitable angry outbursts of a five-year-old when change is upon us.

Any volunteers?

children, gratitude, kids, kindergarten, mommyhood, motherhood, parenting

Happy Face

I am getting better at the kindergarten drop-off.  Full Speed  is still doing awesome with it.  He even does silly things to try to make me laugh (like putting his backpack on his head or doing a funny dance) as he walks towards the doors of school.

Even though it is going swimmingly, my heart still aches as I have to leave him there.  Without realizing this morning, I inhaled sharply and let out a long, slow breath as I watched Full Speed get out of the truck.

T.Puzzle, who seems to have inherited some of my highly empathic genes, immediatlely asks, “What’s wrong, Mommy?”

It shocked me back into the present moment.  I was stunned that my three year old picked up on this and a reminder that little eyes and ears are always watching.

“Oh, T.Puzzle, sometimes Mommy gets sad when I have to drop Full Speed at kindergarten.  I miss him and I miss you while you are at school.”

“It’s okay, Mommy.  Put on your happy face, okay?”

So, I did.  Thanks, T.Puzzle.