Preschool - Day 1

What would a poet say about the road to knowledge? It is a path that hopefully never ends, long and winding, full of highs and lows, with tests and tribulations waiting 'round every curve.

But nowhere – from inspiring quotes to over-used cliches – have I seen mention that the start of that road involves threading beads on a plastic cord.

Alas, in our land of Fins and lumberjacks, this seems to be a popular activity. AJ has brought home several necklaces for me in recent months from daycare. Likewise, at the preschool's open house, he got to make a necklace using Halloween- and autumn-themed beads. So I suppose it shouldn't have been a big surprise that his first activity on his first day of class was making yet another necklace.

AJ started preschool on Tuesday, and parents were asked to accompany the kids on the first day. This gave us a glimpse of what to expect for the coming year, while reminding each of us how lucky we are to not have a job that involves trying to hold the attention of twenty 4-year-olds.

Back to the necklace assignment... this specific project involved threading beads imprinted with the letters of his name. Lucky AJ, that meant two beads and he was done. Cadence and Cassandra, two of the little girls at his table, understandably needed a bit more time to finish their project.

Gender differences are already quite obvious at this age, I discovered. As the kids moved on to open play, AJ headed to the corner with trucks and dinosaurs. So did all but one of the other boys.

The girls, meanwhile, gathered 'round the kitchen playset. The lines seemed drawn, until it came time for singing and stories. Suddenly it was okay for the boys and girls to interact again. For the Hokie Pokie and Wheels on the Bus, apparently, it's far more important to sit by someone you know. Especially if that someone is the young lady you think you may someday call your wife. Earlier in the day, AJ told me, "Mom, when I'm big like you and Daddy and I get married, I'm going to marry Hanna."

Day one wrapped up with a short bus ride around Esko and a lesson about bus safety. Never mind that AJ won't be riding the bus for at least another year. For him, riding the bus was the highlight of the day.

It's good he could find something to be happy about. We belatedly discovered that what he'd been most excited about for preschool was... drum roll please... getting to wear the Incredible Hulk costume again that he'd tried on during the open house. Sadly, for AJ, the costume was one of the toys in the Cool Kids room next door to his preschool, and he won't be starting there until next week.

The road to knowledge, it seems, is sometimes pocked with disappointment, too.

Go Vikings!

It's so easy to get kids to jump on the Vikings band wagon. Jeff is not exactly a quiet football fan. And Sydney in particular seems to be following in her Daddy's footsteps. (Especially the footsteps that involve jumping up from the floor while cheering.) When she hears Daddy shouting and cheering, she claps and shouts, too.


Part way through the Vikings/Packers game, I dug out an old jersey of AJ's, and sure enough, it fit Sydney perfectly. Right about that time, she found AJ's Vikings horns. And a purple and gold princess was born. Are you ready for some football?!!!

Or maybe not. She does, after all, have the attention span of a toddler, and this obsession with watching football is kind of silly.

Because with a big brother who was quick to recruit her to join his team, it's far more fun to play football, rather than just sit and watch. Let's get ready to rumble!

Remember your manners

This story got rather buried by the news of AJ's pneumonia. But still worth sharing...

Trying to get ready Friday morning... Sydney was still asleep. AJ was watching TV in the living room. I checked with AJ to see if there was anything he needed, and told him I was going to take a shower.

Maybe a minute later, from the closet where I was trying to pick clothes to wear (in the dark, so as not to disturb Jeff who was still sleeping), I could hear AJ calling rather urgently, "Mom! Mom!"

Quickly tiptoeing out of the closet and bedroom, so as not to wake Jeff, I finally reached the living room on the fourth or fifth "Mom!"

"What AJ?" I asked.

"I sneezed."

That's it? He felt a pressing need to tell me that? I waited for him to continue, but finally had to prompt, "So?"

He was quite concerned. "Nobody said 'bless you'."

As for how he's doing - he's still sleeping, and I haven't heard him cough once. Always a good sign. If you ask him, he'll say, "I'm mostly better. Maybe still a little bit sick."

Woo!

Why the goofy grin/head position? Because AJ is listening as Daddy reads to him a letter that just came in the mail.

It's not just any letter. No. This I think falls under the category of a love letter. From an older woman - a kindergartner!

It's from his friend Addie. Along with smiley faces and what I believe are balloons, Addie had her Mom transcribe:

Dear AJ,
I loved, loved the wonderful playdate. I hope we meet again.
Love,
Addie

AJ was quite excited to get mail. His response was an enthusiastic, "I want them to come play, too!"

*****

And now a quick update on AJ's health: I'm already seeing good improvement. He still has coughing fits, but they're much fewer than before. Also, his appetite seems to be coming back. He's being a very willing participant in the healing process. He's taking the medicine without whining, and is doing a better job of blowing his nose.

Pneumonia!

Our battle with colds took an unexpected path last night. To Urgent Care.

AJ has pneumonia. That explains why my normally incredibly healthy child has been hit so much harder than the rest of us.

He's been congested all week, then late in the afternoon he started getting chills. By dinner time, he was complaining that his right leg hurt. I took a closer look and discovered a rash. I looked a little more and found a similar rash on his right arm.

Jeff must have figured it'd be easier to sit with AJ at Urgent Care rather than stay home and watch Sydney, because he volunteered to go. I'll bet he never makes that mistake again. Close to four hours, a throat swab, blood draw and battery of other tests later, they finally returned home. Jeff carried medicine and instructions. AJ carried the more than half-dozen Superman, Spiderman, Sponge Bob, Halloween and other stickers he'd obviously been rewarded with for enduring the various procedures.

He's not considered contagious, but we do need to keep him calm for the next few days. We also need to give him plenty of yogurt to replace the natural bacterias in his mouth that are likely to be killed by the antibiotic.

Jeff described AJ's expression during the blood test as "a look of terror." The poor guys. Though AJ did find time in the waiting room to make a new friend - a young boy with a sore throat. According to Jeff, AJ walked over to him and said, "Hi, I'm AJ. What's wrong with you?"

Of course all this couldn't have happened a day - or even a few hours - earlier. No, it will be much more fun to see the hospital bill, as opposed to the $20 co-pay for a visit to his pediatrician.

Bubbling over with patriotism

An alternate title could be "Bubbling over with germs."

We've been battling colds at our house this week. And since AJ has never really mastered the fine art of blowing his nose, and Sydney seems to have forgotten how, we're resorting to other methods to clear the congestion. Namely, we've been taking nightly bubble baths. The bubbles come from Johnson & Johnson soothing vapor bath.

With ground rules firmly established (by them) that they don't have to wash their hair, and just get to "swim," the kids really enjoy it. Last night, after tiring of the normal bath toys, they came up with a new game "Bubble fight!"


Suddenly, scoops of bubbles were flying, as they splatted handfuls of foam on each other's backs, tummies and chins. It took a while to snap a photo of Sydney that hopefully she won't hate me for in future years.

Seeing AJ in the above shot, I couldn't help but notice a resemblance to a certain famous, though made-up figure. Can you guess? Not Col. Sanders.

Imagine him wearing a red, white and blue top hat.

"I want you!"

Forgotten post

Is it really possible that these pictures are less than two weeks old? Sydney is sleeveless and AJ is in shorts. And this morning I am wearing a wool coat, and expect to need an ice scraper to get out of the driveway. For the second day in a row.

I'd loaded these photos onto the blog back on Sept. 21, and then apparently never wrote about them. The kids must have done something else that was cuter, followed by our trip to Canada, and somehow, whatever I intended to write, remained in draft form.

We were at the Hermantown Elementary School playground. I wrote about this place in an article for Duluth~Superior Magazine, noting that in this day and age of towering, plastic playgrounds, this "firetruck" is proof that sometimes it's the classics that best capture a child's imagination. My kids love this playground, just because of this one piece.

Much to AJ's dismay, Sydney now enjoys the firetruck as much as he does, which means Mommy had to work quickly to convince him that riding in back as "the ladder guy" was just as cool as being the driver. Sure enough, within seconds, Sydney was willing to forfeit the driver's seat, "I do ladder." Sibling squabble prevented!

A side note for history's sake. It wasn't just my imagination that summer finally seemed to arrive in September. I'd heard a statistic earlier in the month that the average temperature for the first two weeks of September was warmer than June, July and August. Last night it was reported this was Duluth's warmest September in 102 years.

It was nice while it lasted. But I doubt the warm fuzzy feeling will do much for me when I head outside in a half hour to scrape the frost from my windshield.