MON: yesterday was k's first full day in preschool. she cried and cried when i dropped her off. but i was told later that she recovered quickly. it is clear that she enjoys being there with her friends and plays happily with them. when i picked her up, however, she and one of her favorite teachers lily looked like two peas in a pod. not only do they have similar hair color and cuts, but both were wearing dark blue jackets with their hoods on and with hands stuck in pockets. it was truly adorable. i guess k's affinity for lily runs deep. (this is the CCW whose laminated photo she carried around when she was a toddler.)
pick up was not exactly smooth yesterday. dad went to the grocery store while i brought the kids home. r and k could not make it into the house without incidents. k wet herself and as usual took off her shoes in the car. r smashed his finger on a rock despite being told to leave the pile alone. both did recover and i kept my cool.
r and dad have started reading charlie and chocolate factory. they are enjoying their reading time immensely. r's eyes are as big as saucers when he hears the story. it's sweet and very clear that he has some of the same narrative bug that mom has. i loved and still do love books with magic in them. he too enjoys a good story. wait until he can read them to himself!
k is infatuated with the book "there are cats in this book" by viviane schwarz. it is adorable for preschoolers and people who love cats. k is both.
there were several renditions of happy birthday to uncle tom by ms. k who did not get to see her uncle but declared "my birthday is next. then grandma sue. then rohan. and then daddy." birthdays are a serious business to our daughter.
TUE: it was agreed upon that dad would ride his bike to work two times a week. (i too am supposed to get exercise soon.) tuesday was his first scheduled ride. as our alarm clock has been dutifully set to 6:30 pm, we have been waking up rather puzzled and late this week. but dad got his gear on and waited patiently for his kids. as it turns out, i think, dad is not able to resist reading charlie and the chocolate factory either as he was present for quite a long time this morning. soon after, everyone headed out. the kids and i in the car escorting dad to the greenway. we then sped along the streets talking about dad's progress though we could not see him.
both kids are excited about bicycling as r has a new bicycle and k is eager to try it out as well.
at school, there was a shorter version of monday's crying by k. but discussions of going to the park quieted her quickly in the room. r went off to join his friends with few backward glances.
pick up did not go as smoothly. i came early and still had trouble working with both. k wet herself on the playground. r did not want to go potty and played in the foyer. it just took a long time to leave.
at home nobody wanted to eat dinner. r kept touching things that he was not supposed to. it just seemed that he couldn't control stuff. we could see the signs but could not change the behavior. i had purchased some shrinky dinks (robot shaped) to practice his fine motor control. when he finally got to them after dinner, it seemed like he was not interested in the coloring at all. it is a bad cycle. he does not like it; we want him to do it. we take it away when he does not and then he does not want to. yikes what a set up to fail. i have to think through this. i thought robots would be fun.
but i also think it is something about his mood/behavior/brainspace this evening. he had difficulty listening at swimming class. he is in the first level and kept getting off his step into the water when it was not his turn. the water is deep and despite the swallowing of water and the inability to touch bottom, dad reports that r did this repeatedly. ok. we can see the problems with the evening. he is contrite, but there is something else we are missing. is he just willful? does he not heed our directions because he does not understand consequence? because the consequences are not taking away things he wants? is it about discipline or ability, neither or both?
i just googled "preschooler no interest in writing or drawing" and found the blog of a homeschooling mom of a child with autism. so many times, what i type in to find resources for r, i get autism. of course, everyone writes about autism so there is a lot out there. and of course, we have been told several times he is not on the spectrum. and i admit that when i read these descriptions from parents, when i recognize r in them, it is always ambivalent. what am i to do with this but keep trying to pursue these resources under the radar. as part of our OT goals, we have decided to focus on handwriting and gross motor bike riding. but i can see that if he has poor hand strength and trouble crossing the midline, these are going to continue to cause problems. moreover, how are we going to deal with the school systems? and how do we raise him without continuing to change him or demoralize him. i wonder if we should home school him but then i realize i do not manage now. so then what?
geez it is complex and tough
k and i did other things this evening. she tried out her brother's bike. she can pedal well but the seat is too high for her currently. and our tricycle is just plain frustrating to all kids. she and i gardened and then sat in the tub together as well to rinse off. in the garden, she used her garden tools and gloves to help dig holes for the plants in the containers. she also made "a big hole for the ants to live in" in the window box. k spent much of her time trying out her "tools;" we also found a robin's egg. k was holding it in her palm and then dropped it. it did break and there was a tiny egg yolk on the grass. we saved the shell to take to school tomorrow. i wonder if it fell with the tree cutting.
not a great evening for the kids. not awful. but less relaxed and successful than the weekend. sigh. back to the drawing board.
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