No Shopping! Yippee!
Monday, November 17, 2008
Preschool was fun today. I think my snack went over well. I was drawing a blank with some of the mommies' names the whole time and I was too embarrassed to ask what their names were. I would have, except we are past that whole, "I didn't catch your name" or "Remind me again what your name is" point. I feel like it would be rude to ask now because I should know. Luckily, there's a little message board group dealie online for the co-op, so I can get on and jog my memory. Of course now that I'm home, all the names are coming back to me. I wish I was better with names. I could remember most of the kids' names, so at least I had that going for me. Scout was having a really tough time sharing today. She's usually not like that. And I noticed that she has picked up a bad habit from me. She now says "Mm-m!" (a closed-mouth "Uh-uh"), like I do when I'm telling her not to do something. If someone was playing with one of her toys, she would walk toward them pointing and saying "Mm-m!". (Sigh) She used to be so sweet.
It took me a LONG time to get her down for a nap today. When I tried rubbing her back when I laid her down on the bad, she woke up and started pushing me away and saying "Mm-m!" Oh gees. So we struggled for a while and I gave up. She played for another 2 hours and I finally was able to get her to sleep.
I was supposed to get groceries today, but I didn't want to stay "in town" to grocery shop after our preschool group, for fear that Scout would end up with a crappy 30 minute nap in the car. DH volunteered to do the shopping on the way home from work so I wouldn't have to waste gas driving back into town after Scout's nap. What a trooper. I feel bad, 'cause I know he'll probably be so tired after work and won't want to brave the crowded store. I e-mailed him a list, so I hope that helps. I'm sure shopping will take him half as long as it takes me, since he won't have an impatient/restless toddler with him. When I take Scout shopping, I swear that we end up with 10 packages of open food when we get up to the check-out because I have to keep her happy with crackers, cheese, lunchmeat, and even yogurt. Doesn't matter if we just had lunch. She's still got to snack the entire time. I love trying to feed a toddler yogurt, pushing the cart through a crowded store, all while trying to keep track of how much I'm spending using the calculator on my cell phone. And then Scout sees me playing with the phone and begs for it, so I have to be all stealth about it and hide the phone in the back of the cart when I'm not using it. Thank you, DH, for sparing me the frustration of shopping with Scout today. I really appreciate you.
Labels: dh, doh, food, school, shopping
posted by Unkempt Mommy @ 3:44 PM,
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Blah blah blah
Night # 2 in the toddler bed went great! Scout slept all the way through the night. It was a bit of a challenge actually getting her to go to sleep, but once she was out, she was out. I moved her mattress out of the bedroom yesterday and that made room for her big toy bench and some other stuff, so instead of sitting in the floor to nurse her, I sat on the toy bench. It was much more comfortable than having to heave myself with babe in arms off the floor when it was time to lay her in the bed. She did wake up as soon as I put her in bed, despite my efforts to keep her latched on and nursing. Phooey. She squirmed and talked and tried to get off the bed, but I just kept talking softly to her and rubbing her back. She finally succumbed to the soft, circular sweeps across her back and legs and conked out. The whole process probably took me twice as long as putting her to bed on her old mattress....and there was a point last night when I was frustrated and wondering WHY I ever decided to introduce this change in the first place....but I think it'll be good in the long run. She's getting all relaxed and ready for bed with the nursing session, yet she's actually falling asleep just by the touch of my hand. It's definitely new frontier for us. I've been nursing her to sleep while laying next to her for so long, but I feel like she's ready and I'm ready for this little change.
What else is going on today? We're going to our preschool co-op this morning and I am the "snack parent". I'm bringing gluten free graham crackers (no one in our group has a wheat allergy that I know of, but someone gave us 3 boxes of the crackers and I figured I'd make good use of them) , sliced cheddar cheese, and grapes. I cut the grapes into quarters because I wasn't sure how all the other toddlers eat them. I usually half or quarter grapes for Scout, but I know of one 1.5-year-old in the group whose parents allow him to eat whole grapes (like, shoving 3 whole grapes in his mouth at once) and he seems to do fine. I hope the other parents in the group don't think I'm a paranoid freak for cutting the grapes so tiny. I just don't want anyone to get choked...especially while I'm the "snack parent":)
Wow. What an exciting life I lead. All I have to write about is my daughter's bed and how small I cut grapes.
Labels: baby sleep, food, school
posted by Unkempt Mommy @ 7:11 AM,
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First Day of "School"
Monday, November 10, 2008
Well, the prescho0l co-op thing went really well today. Scout had a great time exploring her surroundings and interacting with the other children. I love that it is more than just a play group - that there is story time, songs, snacks, and activities. Not that I think that kids can't learn a ton from simply having unstructured play time with each other. Obviously, playing is the backbone learning. But I think that sometimes kids also thrive on a little bit of structure too. I could see the excitement and pure joy in Scout's eyes when we all got in a circle to sing songs together. We sang some songs that she is already very familiar with ("If You're Happy and You Know It"..."Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes"..etc) so I think it made her feel good that she already knew some of the lyrics and hand motions. The person in charge of bringing the activity this week brought some plastic jars filled with colored water and oil and the kids had fun shaking those around and looking at how the liquid swirled. There was also a big plastic butter tub with a hole in the lid that the kids could pass around. They had a blast sticking their hands in and pulling out colorful fluffy little pom-pom balls. They tossed them up in the air, collected them and put them in different containers, and shoved them back into the butter container. The kids were also able to color with crayons and play with all the toys that each parent brought and dumped in the middle of the floor.
The class is held in a Sunday school classroom of a large church, so the tables and chairs are just the right size for the kids. This is something kind of insignificant, but I noticed as Scout helped herself at the snack table, I couldn't help but see that she looked so pleased to be spooning her own apples and raisins onto her plate. She was looking around at the other toddlers who were doing the same thing and I was imagining that she was probably thinking to herself, "This is a buffet just for us...and we're allowed to touch the spoons and cups and shovel crackers by the fistful onto our plates if we want to!" Okay, maybe I'm reading a little too much into that moment. But I guess I'm just trying to say that I think the way the class was set up fosters her desire for independence, and I like that. And in the same breath, I can say that it also fosters her need for dependence because she can come sit on my lap or hide behind me while peeking through my legs at the other children if she's feeling shy.
There were 5 or 6 other children in our class and their birthdays are all within just a few months of each other. While Scout does have a couple friends around her age at our church, she has never gotten to play with so many children her own age at one time and I could tell that she thought it was pretty cool.
My fears of feeling like a reject around the other parents were unfounded. I got along great with everyone there. They all seemed super friendly and easy to talk to. After all, no matter what our differences may be, we all have a common bond: a desire to provide our toddlers with some fun educational playtime!
Labels: firsts, learning, outings, play dates, playing, school, teaching
posted by Unkempt Mommy @ 4:52 PM,
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Pre-preschool
Friday, November 07, 2008
Scout has gone to her Sunday school class at church a few times and seemed to (mostly) be alright with mommy and daddy not being there. I let her cry one time when I left the class and stood outside to listen and make sure she calmed down. She did stop crying pretty quickly and the teacher said she ended up having a great time, but I still did not like doing it that way. Last week, I stayed in the class with her (the teacher said that parents are welcome to stay, which I am thankful for) because she was being especially clingy and I just felt like she needed me. This morning, DH took her to Sunday school and it took a couple tries before she was finally okay with him leaving.
I think it's very natural for children her age not to want to be separated from their parents. I can't help but think it's a survival device - that they are hardwired to want to be with their parents (particularly mommy) so that if another adult tries to steal them or they wander too far away, their instinct is to scream bloody murder. I have no scientific basis for this theory...it's just an idea that someone shared with me once and it made sense to me. It seems like there is a REASON why all toddlers suffer from separation anxiety at some point and I don't necessarily think it's a bad thing that we have to "break" them of.
That said, I still like the concept of SLOWLY introducing Scout to the idea that it's okay to be under the supervision of trusted adults that aren't mommy and daddy....that I can leave the room and she can still feel safe and have fun, knowing that if she needs an adult, there's one there. I'm not in a big hurry to force it on her, though.
I'm excited, because it seems like a perfect opportunity has come along for me to do that! Scout and I are joining a preschool co-op and our first "class" is tomorrow (actually, it's a "pre" preschool co-op, as it is for children ages 1-4). From what I understand, there is a different activity every week, a snack, and a large chunk of time for free play. In the 1-2 year old group, all the mommies (or daddies) stay in the class room with their children. As the children get older and closer to school-age, 3 parents stay in the class with the children and the other parents are free to leave the class but remain in the building if they wish. The parents don't have to leave the class if they feel their child isn't ready or just needs them to stay that particular day. I think it sounds like a wonderful way to prepare a child for preschool. It's especially handy for mommies like me, who don't work (outside the home) and spend pretty much 24/7 with their toddlers. Scout doesn't spend the day with grandparents and is rarely left with a babysitter, so the idea of just dropping her off at preschool when she's 3 or 4 sounds like it could potentially be a very traumatic experience.
Maybe I don't have to worry about that, since DH and I are considering homeschooling Scout, but I still think the pre-preschool co-op will be a good way for Scout to get out and play with other children and for me to meet other mommies.
I'm excited and nervous all at the same time. It's always nerve wracking going into a situation where everyone knows each other....to figure out how the group dynamic works and try to fit into it somehow. I'm nervous that our parenting styles won't mesh or that I just won't hit it off right away with every mommy there. I like to think I'm a fairly confident person, but I'll admit that sometimes I find it intimidating to be around a bunch of other moms.
Wish me luck!
Labels: feelings, learning, play dates, school
posted by Unkempt Mommy @ 2:24 PM,
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