Day 896 - Five Days of Preschool: A Recap

 Today marked Ellie's fifth day of preschool.

The last time I blogged, I wrote about some nervous feelings on my end about having my little girl head to preschool. For the record, those feelings were not aided at all by the whole shoe-licking incident (**sigh**). However, with "two weeks" in the book, I can definitely say that things are going well. Ethan may or may not agree though.

In case you're interested in knowing, Ellie is at preschool for the hours of 9:30 to 11:45 on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday each week. I drop her off each day around 9:00 and pick her up at 11:45. Those time frames aren't anything too crazy and we thought it would give her a chance to test the waters with school and not get too nervous or anything. Honestly, things are going better than expected.

Each morning when we get in the drop-off line at Little Lambs, Ellie gets progressively more excited until our turn to drop off comes. Then she's out of the car like a bullet, barely even stopping to say goodbye. As for a hug? Ha, like that's going to happen when school's "a-callin'." When we return to pick her up, Ellie's generally excited to see Ethan and me. However, it may just be because she wants to tell us every last detail of what happened in school that day.

Thus far, Ellie has been working on the months of the year, days of the week, some letters, and sight words. We'll also hear plenty about whichever boy she decided to flirt with on the day. For the record, she doesn't have choice other than to play around with boys since there's only one other girl in her class. Outside of a small punching incident where Ellie and some boys picked on another little boy, things seem to be going quite well. Once again though, Ethan might disagree with that assessment.

While the thought of Ellie starting preschool initially caused me some distress, there was one thing that excited me about it. I was looking extremely forward to having regular periods of 1:1 time with my son. We've spent plenty of time together throughout his life but there's something special about those 1:1 times. In fact, I already had grand ideas for how to spend those hours each day. Park trips, puzzle time, reading books, maybe even a trip to the trampoline park. Anything is on the table. 

 

For Ethan though, there was one thing that bothered him about Ellie being away and that was Ellie being away! On her first day of school, the second she hopped out of the car, Ethan began crying and didn't stop until he finally exhausted himself and passed out from all of his crying. Initially, I figured that would be a one-time reaction. However, it is now a traditional part of dropping Ellie off at school. The only difference is that it happens the moment we pull into the school's parking lot, persists through her leaving the car, and mercifully ends when we get home or he falls asleep in the car, whichever comes first.

Honestly, it is pretty cute seeing the love that my kids have for each other at work.  Obviously, Ethan has his somewhat depressing reaction. Meanwhile, Ellie's reaction is sweet as well. One of the final things she does before heading inside the building with her teacher is to tell her brother "Goodbye."

Now, if they can just keep that kind of love for each on into their teenage years, I'll feel pretty good about this whole parenting thing. #DaddyWrite

Day 889 - The End of an Era aka The Sandal-licking Fiasco

Dear readers,

I regret to inform you that today marks the end of an era. Today was Ellie's last day before starting preschool. 

 

I realize that shouldn't actually sound so solemn and mournful. Instead, it really should be cause for celebration since a lot of cool things will come out of it. Ellie's going to make new friends and learn a lot of new things. For one thing, she's super excited to learn to write her real name. While she's long been able to write "Ellie", "Eleanor" has been a little more difficult to grasp. She's also pretty excited about getting to do different science experiments and art projects.

Despite her palpable excitement, there's also some serious trepidation on her part. That trepidation was definitely on display as the family loaded up this afternoon to go meet Ellie's new teachers at Little Lambs Preschool.

It was important to all of us that Bethany get to be a part of meeting Ellie's teachers today. Therefore, she scheduled her meetings and responsibilities around leaving the office (home) for 30 minutes over the 2:00 hour. Of course, Ethan didn't really have a choice other than to tag along for this very unusual experience.

I realize "unusual" really isn't the kind of phrase a person would normally use to describe something as mundane as meeting your child's teachers. However, there were several things that made this an experience to remember. For one thing, this was a drive-through event. When we arrived at the school, we joined a line of cars outside the front door and waited patiently.

After a few minutes of waiting, our turn had finally arrived.. The first thing we did was pass two Wal-Mart sacks of school supplies through the windows into the waiting arms of the teachers.  Then, we rolled down the back window for Ellie to meet Ms. Anna and Ms. Molly. While we expected Ellie to be her normal exuberant self, she was anything but. First of all, she was mumbling and basically refusing to make eye contact with her teachers. However, that was far from the strangest thing she did.

As her teachers continued to interact with both Ellie and Ethan in the back seat, Ellie then did something that we have never seen her do before. She carefully lifted up her leg so that her foot was right in front of her mouth and proceeded to lick the sole of her sandal. Allow me to say that again. She LICKED the SOLE of her SANDAL. Feel free to join me in saying "EWWWWWWWWWWW." Seriously, I don't even want to think about the germs on the bottom of that particular piece of footwear. Also, what a first impression to make with your preschool teachers, am I right?

 

Moving on from the sandal-licking escapade for a moment, I want to be real for a moment. It's actually kind of a sobering thought to realize that after four-plus years of spending almost every single day with Ellie, she's getting ready to head to preschool. Yes, it's only two and a half hours a day, three times a week, but it's still kind of weird.

I know she's going to learn a lot, make a ton of new friends, and have so much fun. However, that doesn't stop me from thinking about all the times I've gotten irritated with her or selfishly didn't spend time with her. I just can find solace in the knowledge that there are still plenty of good times ahead for the two of us before I inevitably embarrass her to death as a teenager and isn't that all that I can really ask for? #DaddyWrite

 

Day 886 - "The Great Escape"

I'm 99.9% certain I have written about the classic Steve McQueen film, "The Great Escape", on #DaddyWrite before. If I haven't, then I know I meant to at some point. I probably also mentioned how I should watch the film since it's such an important part of cinematic history. However, the sad fact is that I still have never watched the movie. Tell Steve McQueen I'm sorry and that I have listened to the Sheryl Crow song about him if that helps matters any.

Despite not having actually seen "The Great Escape", I do know what it's about...kind of. I know it involves prisoners of a German POW camp trying to escape. I'm guessing it takes place during World War II but I'm not definite on that. I do know that it includes one of the greatest stunts and chase scenes ever conceived in the film's iconic motorcycle chase. 

The thing about "The Great Escape" is that is can refer to almost anyone and anything. Everyone has found themselves in that position from time to time when they need to escape. For me, it's seeking the occasional refuge of a grocery store during a solo shopping trip. For Ellie, it's going out onto the back deck and screaming at the sky when she's upset. For Ethan, though, it's a little more simple. Simply put, he wants out of his bed and out of his room and nothing is going to stand in his way. 

Up until the past week, Ethan actually has been content within the confines of his crib. After a little snuggling, we would lay him down and he would go straight to sleep. When the time came to wake, he would either start babbling or just stand up in his crib and open his bedroom door to wave at Bethany if she's on the clock. 

Over the past week though, Ethan has become much more brazen when he decides that he's done napping or that he's going to refuse to sleep. Simply put, he would crawl up onto the side of his crib and then throw his little body over the railing to the floor below. And yes, it sounds just as horrible as you might think. Despite his best efforts at gracefulness, it's always pretty easy to hear his thump on the floor. One night in particular, we heard that very sound hit the floor six times in the span of about 10 minutes!

Finally, Bethany and I reached the point where we actively feared Ethan was going to hurt himself. As a result, we made the decision to convert his crib into a toddler bed. As you can probably guess, we weren't totally excited to do so. The idea of Ethan having carte blanche to wander the house during the night is slightly terrifying. However, it's not like there was really anything keeping him from doing so as things were.

Actual footage of Ethan post escape. Just look at that guilty little face!

If forced to grade our little toddler bed experiment, I think I would give it a C right now. It's not a pure failure but it's not a rousing success. In order for us to even get Ethan asleep at nights, Bethany or I have to lay on the floor next to his crib and talk/sing to him while rubbing his little back. Once he's asleep though, things do get a little easier. That being said, I still find myself making two or three trips into Ethan's room each night. 

Oh, I almost forgot. Since we didn't want Ethan to make his own Steve McQueen-themed escape from his room each night, we took precautions to stop that from happening. A simple sock and rubber band combo has kept him from achieving adequate momentum to actually turn his doorknob. That being said, there is definitely some anger there when he does wake up and try to escape. However, I'm certain Steve McQueen felt some anger while trying to escape that POW camp as well. The only difference is that McQueen had a motorcycle while Ethan does not.

Side thought that just entered my mind: Do you think Lightning McQueen is named after Steve McQueen. That would just be way too cool if I do say so myself. "Ka-chow!"  #DaddyWrite