Preschool!

We had our preschool orientation this morning. Since we were out of milk and bread when we got up (thanks, Uncle Robbie!), Vincent and I were planning to go to the diner down the street for breakfast when Dan got up and decided to come along too! So it was a rare three-in-the-family morning, and really fun. The diner is next to the metra stop, so we watched the commuters go by and the trains pull in (and the occasional express fly by without stopping). V was such a good big boy, he ate almost the whole waffle, the egg, the bacon, and the sausage, then stole some of my eggs too.

We drove over to school, the whole way V was so excited talking about how he's going to go to school with mommy, mommy goes to school in HER building and Vincent would go to school in HIS building and so on, and kept saying he was so! excited! for! school! Pretty much right up until he got there. Then it was clingon time. We stayed in the room with him for about five minutes and then they were having "rug time" when everyone sits on their spot on the rug (marked by a different colored shape) and they sing and talk about the day ahead of them, etc. So V was sitting there quietly watching while we and another set of parents were in the back, when the director's assistant came and got us to go do paperwork. I didn't know how long we'd be gone, so I just went over to V and whispered in his ear to be sure to go tell the teacher if he had to go potty (he had refused to go earlier, all excited to go on the new! toilet! at! school!), and that we would be back soon.

So we went and it turned out to be about an hour of forms and reviewing policies and signing things. I was getting pretty anxious to see V, mostly because he hadn't gone to the bathroom yet today and I had no idea if he would be confident enough to speak up and ask. So we went back and V seemed fine, ran up and asked if we were leaving now, but as he turned away he was messing with his backside, and I thought hmmm. So I went over to his teacher and asked if he had gone, and she said that he had, he went to her and said he had to go so she sent him off to the little bathroom there in the classroom. Which is how I found out that they do not go in there with them, the kids are entirely on their own. (We pull his pants down for him and put him up on the potty, and when he poops we still wipe him off). So apparently he had gone in there, tried to pull down his shorts himself, but I'm guessing he didn't get them down far enough because he peed all over the back of his underwear and shorts. Then he apparently put them back on. So he was messing with his backside because he was wearing damp underwear!!! It looks like we're going to have a very busy couple of weeks of teaching him the finer details of this potty thing. The policy at the center is that they do not touch the kids at all. I just got off the phone with the teacher from the younger kids room where they do potty training, getting pointers from her on what to do.

Anyway, the teacher said that he had cried some when we were gone but then he was ok. As we went home, he kept telling us that he had "cried and cried because mommy and daddy were gone and we didn't come back". He also said that he was all alone there, without anyone to play with, and we asked him about the other dozen or so other kids and he said, oh yeah. It was kind of funny, actually. I just wish we had prepared him better for the hour or so alone. I really didnt' know that was going to happen.

It's also finally sunk in with Dan what a transition this is going to be for the boy. I plan to have Marissa here in the afternoons in July and August and have V go to half-days to get used to the idea, then transition to full days in September. Dan thought it was dumb, until we were there and it hit him that if I was planning to drop Vincent off at 7:30 in the morning five days a week, that meant V would be having to get up at 6:30, no hanging out time for an hour in the morning, no leisurely breakfasts, no TV or DVD, just up and eat and out. At least being able to come home for nap and unwinding in the afternoon will make this a little less of a shock, he now agrees. I'd like Dan to try to move his schedule a little earlier to help out, since he won't have anywhere to be in the morning and I'll be trying to get ready for work, but I'm not hopeful. I think I'm going to be continuing to do the morning routine by myself every morning, even if it gets exponentially more complicated and difficult. I'm pretty stressed out at the thought, but I'll just do what I have to do and make it work somehow. I'm sure it won't be as bad as it seems right now. Getting any exercise is going to require me to get up at 5 a.m., though.

I do think that Vincent is going to love it at school. After he said for the millionth time in the car that he was sad and cried and cried when we were gone and how he was all alone and he didn't like school, we asked him if he made any friends and he perked right up and said YES! I played with boys and girls!! So I think he'll be fine.

Saturday

This morning it was drizzling and cold (55 degrees), so Vincent and I watched a lot of Thomas the tank engine while Ivan snoozed on the rug. By 10 a.m., though, Ivan needed to go out and I was pretty sick of the couch, so I convinced V to give up Bob the builder and we went out for a long jog in what was now a decent rain. The jogging stroller has a great rain cover you can put on it, though it could use a defrost switch. There was an old (clean) diaper left over in the basket of the stroller so I occasionally stopped to wipe the rain off of the front and the fog off the underneath part. We did our usual route, from our house over to the Rockwell Street el stop, which is at street level so has gates and lights flashing, where we always stop and wait for the trains to come and go (this time under a tree so we weren't getting rained on while just standing there, somehow it's only not uncomfortable when running), then we go over the bridge over the Chicago river, then run around Blogejovich's neighborhood on the west side of the river. It's really nice over there and there are a lot of trees so again the rain doesn't come down as hard.

I haven't been running much since my little race at the end of April, so coming back I was really, really tired and kept walking. V kept yelling "NO MOMMY! YOU HAVE TO RUN! YOU HAVE TO RUN FAST!!!!" I was like, thanks buddy. We've been out for an hour here.

Got home, put the boy to bed for his nap, and took one myself. First time in a long time I've felt like I have time to do that!

Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday?

Really? It's been almost five days? Sorry about that!

We've had a fun and busy week. Vincent and I have been walking the dog together every morning, two blocks down, then one long block over, then back up and over to complete the square. The only way I can get him to leave the house is by allowing him to bring his new battery-operated electric guitar (Marissa's birthday present to him, it plays and everything), and putting sandals right on over his footie pajamas. So he looks pretty spectacular walking down the street in his bright green pj's strumming his guitar.

Marissa has been coming every afternoon while I go in to school to try to wrap up all the loose ends before I start my new gig in July. She and Vincent have been playing over at Lincoln's house a lot. They have a gigantic playground thing, like a swingset but with a climbing wall and a bunch of cool things like that, in the backyard so V is obsessed with going over there. She interviewed for a new nanny position, since in the fall V will be starting school and we won't have him home at all. I hope she finds something soon, as I don't think she and her fiance have any sort of savings to cushion the blow if she stops bringing in money. It's a tough time to be on the job market for anything.

Vincent is getting trained along with Ivan. Ivan is learning to spin in a circle, back up, and scootch along the floor. Vincent is learning to pet the dog gently and not hit him or pull his fur or tail. They are about equally motivated and receive the same treats for behaviors: puffed wheat cereal. Good thing Robbie's here until October, he may need the whole time for these two guys.

Sunday/Monday

Vincent and I went back to the Raven (see previous post) on Sunday. We got his face painted like a tiger (so he went around roaring at everyone, pretty funny), and he actually started going through the whole long two story (!!) bounce house on his own. He was in that thing for three hours, I think, though he took breaks to go back to the little petting zoo and go listen to the music (every band, I think there were five while we were there, covered that "867-5309 Jenny" song from the early 80's, it seemed).

(Unrelated to Vincent stories but speaking of bands, my friend Staci wants me to meet up with her while V and I are in Bath and go see some band she loves. They are playing at Dundee Raceway, and Staci actually said, "It's one of their best venues, pretty much the entire audience has all their teeth!". I told her that I'd have to give that one some serious consideration.)

This morning Vincent and I went swimming at the Welles Park pool across from the library. It's indoors and huge and really quite nice for being a Chicago Park District pool. We went with Michelle and her son Max, neighbors of ours in the condo complex. Max is the one who is a year and a half younger than V and totally idolizes him. Apparently the park district has swimming lessons for kids V's age starting in the fall. Though I am also thinking of the little tots soccer league (soccer! for 3 year olds! Can you imagine?) which may conflict. It would be good for him to learn to swim. We have to get him a life jacket for Keuka Lake.

Gotta run, beer is waiting on the Gershfeld's back porch. I could get used to this tenured thing! :)

Saturday

Dan and I took Vincent to the playground around the corner this morning-- Dan left for a week-long conference this afternoon on the outer banks of North Carolina (tough life, this academic gig!) so he wanted to spend some time with the boy before being gone for so long. He'll get back and Vincent and I leave for upstate NY less than a week later for ten days or so, then Dan will drive out to meet us and we'll visit with some friends for a week before coming back to Chicago in early July. Phew! Where was I?

So V was adorable at the park showing his daddy all his new stunts that he can do, and we generally had a terrific time. After his nap, I took Vincent back to the park for the annual neighborhood festival called the Raven (our neighborhood is Ravenswood). They have two inflatable moonwalk like things, which Vincent went totally berserk jumping in. They also had a small petting zoo, which Vincent LOVED, he hung out with a huge llama, and pairs of donkeys, chickens, and calves, and many goats and sheep. After much hand-sanitizing ;) we split a funnel cake. Apparently fried dough is an east coast invention, in the midwest they have funnel cake, maybe they drop the dough through a funnel into the hot oil to fry? Either way it's the same powdered sugar basic result, though funnel cake has more fried outside than doughy inside, which I think is kind of a loss. Easier to eat the funnel cake though... We go back tomorrow, hopefully it will be warmer (today it was 60 degrees and rained on and off, blech).

So now it's just me, Vincent, and Uncle Robbie for the next week. Robbie is on a training tear, he is teaching Ivan all kinds of stuff. Tonight it was "come", "speak", and "target" (which involves Ivan touching his nose to your fist, which means you can get him to go anywhere). Ivan is so excited about it he's becoming insufferable for the attention. He keeps going up to Robbie and sitting in front of him expectantly. Really funny.

Thursday part II (WARNING: adult content)

Today V was running around naked and I actually had to say this out loud: "It's not nice to put your penis on the dog."

Wednesday

In the morning, I took Vincent to Hermitage Park, which is a 15 minute walk away, with the stroller, where we could only stay 10 minutes before we had to walk home to meet Marissa (the sitter). He had been obsessed with the place, and even though we could be there for a short time and it's never got many kids there (in this case, only one besides V), that's what we did.

Uncle Robbie is staying with us, and he eats a LOT. So he finished off the box of Cinnamon Life, not realizing that's V's current favorite, and when V found out he said he was going to yell at Uncle Robbie. Sure enough, when Robbie came home from the aquarium, V ran up to him and full-on scolded him, saying that he is not allowed to eat ANYTHING. Then he told Robbie, "You suck!" I'm blaming Uncle Robbie for that one, which merited a very grave discussion with Vincent.

Ivan is blowing his coat, and I brushed enough fur off of him yesterday to fill a laundry basket. V likes to play with it and make giant piles using his digger. He calls it the bad grass that we took off of Ivan, because the landscapers killed all of our grass over Memorial Day weekend (they dumped a bad batch of fertilizer on it and literally killed everything), so they have been here for the last few days, tearing up the entire lawn and laying down new sod, a noisy and kind of spectacular sight for a 3 year old.

Tuesday

Tantrums. LOTS of tantrums.

Sunday

Another lovely day outside for us. Vincent and I went over to the Gershfeld's Sunday morning, they are our friends who used to live in our building until they bought a house across the alley. Now they have a beautiful backyard with a great deck, though their house address is actually on Ashland so the front of the house opens out onto a very busy and noisy street, with no front yard to speak of, just high fence and littered sidewalk. But the backyard, they decided, made it worth it. As their friend who gets to come over and visit all the time, I would agree. ;)

Anyway, the Gershfelds have two boys, Oscar is a year and a half older than Vincent and Levi is three years older. The three of them have so much fun running around and playing with bubbles and the sandbox and playdoh. I hung out with Liz and she was showing me the raised bed they just built. They saved a couple of squares of it for Vincent, it was so nice of them. Of course, V had zero patience or the whole planting thing so Liz and I did carrots and lettuce on his behalf. V and Oscar were champion waterers, though, and actually watered every plant in the backyard with little watering cans. So cute.

After nap, I took Vincent back to Chase Park. He is really into the big swings these days, so I spend a lot of time pushing and pushing and pushing. We also ran around on he baseball field kicking a ball around pretending to play soccer. He was having a really hard time with himself during every transition (leavign home to go to Oscar and Levi's, coming home from the Gershfelds, going to the park, coming home from the park) yesterday, there was a lot of screaming and tantrums. Fun. This is even with giving him plenty of warning and lots of choices about how the inevitable change occurs. On the bright side, the kid actually dressed himself yesterday for the first time and I think he is fully, completely potty-trained now. Hooray!