Building a new road

When Erik told me today he wanted to build a new road, even though the gardener had just been here in the morning and my yard was perfect, I didn't have the heart to stop it. Today was just not the day to fight him, so I let him build a road. The funny thing is, once I started taking pictures he kept requesting over and over for me to take new ones and was relentless about me doing it. He was very interested in this new road he was building.

 

 

 

 

As I saw him doing this I thought to myself, this is a really good metaphor for my life these days. I am trying to build new roads. In so many ways, this fall has brought familiar changes, but I am also creating change in myself for the things that make me unhappy, or for the things I always wanted to do.

Elliot thought it was hilarious and fun for me to take a picture of his finger, so I did.

One of the first mantras I told myself for this year is to get involved. I decided to not get too crazy my first year, but just do a few little things to get my feet wet before I join the PTA and get immersed in Erik's elementary school next year when he joins kindergarten. So I am again volunteering to be the room parent for his preschool class if I make it to the sign up sheet on time Friday. Then for Elliot I volunteered to be a room rep and get involved with BPEC which is the preschool version of the PTA. Just the little things, but its out of my comfort zone and good for me.

 

There are other small areas I have tried to build new roads. Part of it is just with my diet and meal planning. We were home sick for a couple days and I basically prepped and freezed 4 different meals for the week because I am getting so involved and become much busier with meetings and such. We had the first one today and it was actually delicious. Tomorrow I plan on making eggplant parmesan and doubling the recipe and freezing it so I'll have even more food for the next couple of weeks.

Lastly I am trying to make a change for Erik, I have been trying to make this change for a while but have not been successful so far. I am just trying to make more out of school, male friends for him in his life. I have a great group of mom's that I love dearly and who have been with me since Erik was a baby, but they all have girls Erik's age. The older Erik gets, the more he needs more male interaction, so I need to create this change. This means if someone asks us for a boy playdate I won't say no.

Today a couple of Erik's friends from preschool came over after school with another mom's coordination. So while Elliot napped, I had five other boys at my house, which NEVER happens for us. It was so fun to watch these boys interact because they were obviously comfortable with one another. They were in the same preschool class all last year and now this year. Its funny too because I don't know the mom's that well, and its fun to get to know them, but its amusing to me because its usually the other way around. Erik meets his friends through me, not me meeting friends through him. It was amazingly peaceful to sit around and talk while these boys played. Although I must admit it wasn't all that different from when he plays with the girls except that did have a lot more swords or light sabers in their play.

Crazy, I didn't have to take a nap, eyes today.

So the change isn't big by any means and some of it might just be for right now, but everytime you build a new road you change a little about yourself and your perception. That is something I am always willing to do. I am just excited to see what other new roads we might build as the year progresses.

Parent Participation Day

Erik's preschool is great because they encourage the parents in so many ways to meet each other, the teachers and get inside the classroom. There is also no pressure, you can attend somethings or not, but if you don't have time no big deal. Today was parent participation day where we got to meet and talk with his teachers and then play with our kids in the yard for an hour or so.

Events like this always present a challenge, and our school does offer babysitting for a fee. Recently though I joined a babysitting co-op and one of the moms in the co-op is in our preschool and has two kids as well. Her son is in a different room than Erik so we basically switched days. She watched Elliot today and on Wednesday I am watching her little girl. Makes life simple and Elliot got to have a nice little playdate this morning and I didn't have to worry about him hating the babysitting room since it is mostly for babies and not 2 and 3 year olds.

The conference was great, I liked the teacher's ideas. I even got to see which parents are in Erik's classroom and meet some new faces. There was good information, many people have two kids like me, most even have three believe it or not. One in our class had 5 children! Crazy to think of having that many kids.

So after our meetings with the teachers we got to go back to the classroom and play with our kids. I asked Mrs. W if she minded if I took pictures. She laughed that I even asked, so here is yet another opportunity for Erik's scrapbook for year 4.

As first Erik wasn't sure what to do with me. It is so rare that it is just me and him, no daddy, no Elliot and he can just do what he wants. So he showed me his picture book with the picture of him and me.

Then we were looking for something else to do when we headed out to the play yard for outside time. Erik was looking for a friend from Room 2 while we were out there, but unfortunately due to the parent meeting we weren't playing with Room 2 today. Quickly Erik rebounded and found things to do and showed me around.

His first stop was the boat and we pretended to go on a trip someplace and he even got to honk the horn.

 

 

Then he showed me how he knew all his numbers and counting to 10 in order by jumping from number to number.

The thing I was most curious about with Erik is how he was getting along with other kids. I just don't know what it is like for him and am worried about him starting kindergarten and his social skills. In my observations today he sees a kid who doing something fun and he joins is for a minute or two before finding something else he thinks is more fun. I think this is pretty age appropriate. I don't think he has a best friend in the class though and wonder how that works if I don't instigate playdates with his classmates.

These kids were playing Star Wars and coming up with an elaborate imaginative game with all the characters. I think Erik is way to young to learn about that stuff yet, but it did make me feel a tad guilty that he would be left out because he didn't understand the game. When the boys were telling him about the characters though, Erik's response was, "I don't know about that game, tell me about it." I was so very proud of him for using the proper words and actually being responsible about it instead of angry or shy. Mostly he just butted into what the kids were doing and tagged along, but it was cute to watch.

He also talked me into a game of hide and seek. We were hiding all over the play yard. At one point I hid behind the boat and it took him so long to find me I had to give up my hiding spot, boy was he mad.

We had to count to 20 today.

One of his many hiding places.

Telling me to turn around and count again because I didn't count long enough.

Looking for me while I hid behind the boat.

Still looking for me. 

I revealed myself and he said, "I was just about to look behind the boat."

I have never seen Erik do a somersault before and while another mom was talking to me, Erik did two of them! I pretended like I didn't see it and asked him to show me. I am impressed and this reinforces the fact that I should sign him up for gymnastics.

Sadly I did have some errands to run, including picking up Elliot, so I had to say my good-byes sooner than I would have liked and felt so guilty leaving before the other parents. Kids with siblings get it especially when I say, "I have to go pick up Elliot." We came back bearing stickers from Trader Joe's and all was well. Although I made the stupid mistake of giving Erik the stickers in class and not having enough for everyone. The kids didn't care because they were too busy saying hi to their parents, but Mrs. W was pretty annoyed at me. Duh, not sure what I was thinking there. Mommy guilt before common sense I guess.

Labor Day at Point Dune

My friend Alicia is off the mountain now and back in Ventura County. Far, but easier to get to these days. We were talking this week about getting together and our schedules don't match, but it dawned on me, we have no plans for Labor Day, Carl's off making life easier, so let's hang out at the beach that morning.

My logic with the beach on the weekends is arrive around 10 and then leave right before 1 pm when the beach starts to get crowded. We have been a couple times like this and it works out really well. For hours we were at the beach and all the families with little kids were there and the parking lot was half empty. Then when my kids started breaking down the crowds came in, but I stuck my tongue out at them because I had the perfect parking spot and was heading home. Haha, they all had to wait in line!

It was a bit chilly when we got there, but I can't keep Erik out of the water so in we went. As it is with us, Carl watched Elliot and I watched and went in the water with Erik. I swear I am the only girl wearing a swim suit because I have to go in with Erik he is so wild and crazy about the ocean.

It was a fun day. Erik and Audrey are so very crazy about one another and I am pretty sure the feeling is mutual between these two.  Since the moment they met as babies they have matched up well, but no wonder, I adore Audrey's mommy and love when we spend time together.

Its nice watching Erik around Audrey though because they are so comfortable with each other and she is so calm that she naturally calms down Erik. These days a natural calming presences is someone I want to be around a lot with Erik. To say my kids have a lot of male energy is an understatement.

Its nice to go places with Carl. In so many ways he is just a big kid and has so much fun living through his children. He is also such a big softie and has an open heart for all our friends kids so its just fun being around him. We did make jokes watching him with the three that he really should reconsider that third child, I mean he looks good with three on his arms right?

Elliot does ok with the beach. Its definitely not his element, but he LOVES his Aunt Annie and they had a good time together walking to the rocks and playing the sand. They were great pals today.

 

Elliot did eventually warm up to the water, of course right when Erik was starting to melt down. These kids were crazy, they were sticking their finger in the water and tasting it. Simple things are silly I guess when you are four and two.

 

 

 

It was a good day for beach sitings too. We saw a whale in the distance, a dolphin about 50 feet from us, some rock climbers, a wedding, just so much to see and do today. At the end Alicia was trying to come up with a plan for us to do this once a month we all had so much fun. Definitely going back, and definitely a great way to start Labor Day morning.