And Fall begins...

Wednesday was "Jitters Day". Caleb was really excited about preschool starting. I was afraid that he would be resistent and a grouch to try to get into the building. However, he was very interested and excited. He saw his new room, his own cubby for papers, met his teacher (Miss Cheryl) and tried a few of the activities that they had out to play with. Caleb went right into a bead and color/pattern matching exercise. I didn't expect it to be a drop-off day, but it was. I had to drag Jockey out of the school, he really really wants to go to school (or at least be part of what Caleb is doing.)

Thursday was the official "First day". Caleb was a little sad that he didn't have a best friend. He first told me that he didn't need anymore friend because he had Tessa, Donovyn and Gavin. But when he counted on his fingers and only counted three, he got sad and said that that was ALL he had. Then he couldn't remember any of the names of the boys at school and therefore they weren't his friends. Except he could remember "the boy with the striped shirt" showed him how to puff his cheeks up with air and then punch his cheeks flat and make a spitting/zorbitz type noise. I did ask if the teacher asked him to stop, yes, and did he stop, yes. Which is good, so I had to kudos him for listening and obeying the teacher. I worry that he is the "trouble maker" of the class, but I guess he could have done something worse, and he could have disobeyed... Caleb couldn't remember anything else about the day, other than they had Goldfish crackers for snack and he told the teacher that they didn't have food coloring. "See I told you", was what he said with his pattened, dramatic lip curl.

Because of the school schedule, I'm going to have to experiment with Caleb taking or not taking naps, and what times Josh should take his naps. It will take a few weeks to try the different combinations and get it right. I do have to get it straight because Joshy fell asleep in the grocery cart seat at 12:45pm when I was trying to get a quick trip in during Caleb's Jitter's Day.

Today, Caleb and Mike went on a hike in Lord's Hill park. 7 miles later... Caleb was zonked and fell asleep before noon! Mike said he was very talkative with the strangers on the path, which is very unusual for him I hope that going to school brings him out of his shell a bit.

Good News: Joshy is really improving on his potty training. He gets really excited and says "I did" x2, and then does his little celebratory pony dance. And my little gem still only has success for Daddy! But he is having more often and more types of success than ever!

On the other hand, Joshy is in the huge phase of "separation anxiety". He doesn't want to sleep in his room anymore. He screams for long periods of time. Last night, I said uncle at 18 minutes. A couple nights before he screamed every hour on the hour. He said he was afraid, it turned out to be a crane fly buzzing around.

Which reminds me... Joshy has an honest to goodness fear of Spiders. It started with Caleb taunting him saying that the dining room light was a spider coming to get him. From that moment on, Joshy is terrified. He keeps running inside saying something that I misunderstood as "bye" which I thought was bite, really it is "spi" "spi". He really is scared. He saw a spider in a web on the outside of the window in the kitchen. I tried to pick him up and show him that it was on the outside and he cried in terror and tried to squirm away. So I got rid of it, but it took him 2 days to finally eat in the kitchen again! I try to tell him he doesn't need to be afraid. And as Caleb tried to tell Papa Bill on Monday, God is with us in our heart and doesn't want us to be afraid and God protects us and takes the spiders away. He still is upset with them, which is one animal we had to avoid at the Zoo. We ran out of time at the Zoo anyway, but it was something making me nervous about facing Joshy's fear with him.

The boys are enjoying their jumpy house near daily. I feel like a good parent when they get to play in something so great at the jumpy house, and I know that they will have years more of fun to come bouncing to their hearts delight.

We are trying to make the most of the rest of summer. Walks, hikes, swingset playing, parks, fair, zoo, bouncy house etc. I'm even hoping to get out in the trailer at least once more. We'll see.

Happy weekend.