Muffins with Mom

Ben's preschool extended an invitation for "Muffins with Mom" last Friday. I'm a little behind in blogging but I wanted to mention this because he was adorable. We arrived a few minutes late and circle time had already begun. Ben, Owen and I scooted in to the empty spot next to my friend Leigh Ann and her sweet daughter Kayleigh. Ms. Claire was talking about what day of the week, month and year when Ben quickly raised his hand to start answering questions.

When circle time was over Ben showed us some of the projects around the room. He was so careful when taking things off the shelf and then putting them back where they belong. He was beaming while introducing me and his brother to all of his friends.

It wasn't long until we had muffins and apple juice. A few of the other boys were pouring their own juice and I was trying to keep Owen's little hands out of the muffin basket, when Ben knocked over the juice pitcher. I was absolutely amazed at what happened next. Ms. Claire simply said, "Ben please go get the bucket and a sponge." He comes back with a mop bucket and sponge and starts cleaning up himself!

I got to watch Ben play with his buddies on the playground. Owen had a ball going down the slide and riding behind Ben on the two seater tricycle. While they were playing I was able to talk to Ms. Claire and was to happy to hear that she thinks he is such a little sweetheart.

It was great to see him in that environment and since I saw him cleaning up after himself first hand at school, I've been having him help out a lot more at home. To my surprise- he actually seems to enjoy it.



His Favorite Color is Green

I had to actually set my alarm this morning. Usually I wait until Ben or Owen wake me up and begrudgingly crawl out of bed between 7:30 and 8:00. Today was the beginning of a new routine. No it's not some sort of New Year's resolution-it was Ben's first day of school.

Back in December Jeremy and I enrolled Ben in the Montessori preschool to go part time. He has been very excited about starting and often asked when he was going to get to ride JT's bus. JT is seven and in the first grade so it was difficult to explain that Ben would be attending a different school and not be able to ride the bus quite yet. We were all thrilled to find out that our friend Kayleigh, however would be in his class.

Fortunately Jeremy was able to go with us for the big day. I thought that I might need a shoulder on the way out. We took Ben into his new classroom and introduced ourselves to the teacher. Before I could blink, Kayleigh had Ben by the hand showing him around the room. It was so precious to see. He hardly noticed that I gave him a hug and said goodbye. I fought back tears as we headed back to the parking lot.
Owen and I did a little shopping and tackled a mountain of laundry that needed to be folded and put away before it was time to pick him up. I have realized that I was so used to being coddled by daycare. They would give me a daily detailed report on everything that happened during the day including how much he ate, drank, slept, and pooped. Today I had to rely on Ben to figure out what happened during those four hours.

Heres what I pryed out of him:
He had fun playing with Kaleigh. They made a pile of leaves when they were playing outside. He ate a lot of chicken nuggets but not the potatoes. He likes his teacher, Miss Claire, but does not want to take a nap there. Apparently from the sticker on his shirt he wants to be a Police Man when he grows up. Kaleigh wants to be a "Sallerina". (No one wanted to be a pharmacist.) He's looking forward to going tomorrow.
I figure that this is more that I'll get from him in a few years. Luckily I will have Kayleigh to fill me in on details.

He was exhausted when we got home and fell asleep in the chair before I carried him up for his nap.