"screen time" junkie

Adam has gotten really into wanting to play the Wii.  I let him play yesterday because we had stayed home from the Community Center.  I thought he would get frustrated or bored quickly but he just kept on wanting to play game after game!  I finally managed to redirect him to his toys and that was it.

This morning he came downstairs and went right to the Wii and popped his Dora game in!  Luckily he doesn't know how to use the TV remote to change it to the Wii.  He ended up getting a time-out for just pressing button after button trying to get to the game when I told him no.  Then, as soon as we got home from the Community Center, he went straight to the Wii AGAIN! I had to take all the games and Wii-motes away.

Later today we were snuggling on the couch watching stories and I thought for sure he would take a nap.  That didn't happen!  He started getting crazy and wanted to watch more TV but it was time to turn it off. He thought that meant he could watch videos.  When I said no to that, he went up to my room and got my ipod touch and started watching the videos that I loaded on that!!

My kid is a "screen-time" junkie!!

Random stuff

Adam had his ultrasound and labs on Thursday.  As soon as we got there, he told the receptionist that he didn't have any blood.  He is now old enough to know what comes after his belly pictures!  Even when we walked into the ultrasound room, he told our tech that he didn't have any blood.  Poor guy!  Luckily Children's has some fantastic phlebotomists and we have gotten quick pokes despite the screaming and struggling to get away. I keep telling him he only has to get blood drawn 2 more times and then he's done with AFP testing but he doesn't understand.   He was soo mad that he DID have blood, he didn't want a band-aid and tried to rip it off.  He learned that the hurt more and left it on until it came off after his swim lesson.  Results came back in record time (the next day!):  AFP is back down to 3 (I think it had jumped to 8 from 2.5 last time) and ultrasound normal.

We are finally out of pull-ups.  Adam has been wearing undies during the day since he started school in September but we had been keeping him in pull-ups at night because he was having some random accidents and because we had a bunch left.  Well, Adam has been dry at night for a while but now we are officially out of (as in we have no more) pull-ups.  He's been wearing undies to bed all week.  Now we just need to use up the swim diapers and our house will be diaper free!

We have a winner!!

I know you are probably getting tired of the preschool dilemma - I know I am!  Well, we have found our preschool!  Adam and I went on a tour to Central College Preschool today.  We toured with one other mom and her 4 year old daughter.  We got to look at an empty classroom in which Adam found the potty and had to try it out.  Then, we got to check out some classes in session.  Adam walked right in and started playing right along with the other kids.  All the rooms are big and bright and each has a different "sensory table" - a storage box full of sand with buried stuff in it in one room, cedar chips in another,  soapy water in one, magnet bars with nuts and bolts, dried corn, etc.  Adam thought those were all really cool!  The school has a "muscle room" in the basement that has some play equipment, tricycles, cars, blocks, and toys that they can play in when the weather is bad. There is a cool newer playground outside when the weather is good. It even has a little path they can ride trikes on and through a little house.  They have a full size gym with a gym teacher on staff and a music room with a music teacher in another part of the basement.  The class ratio is 2:16.  They are a "Step Up to Quality" rated program.  All the kids in class and in the stay-and-play program looked like they were having a good time learning.  As I said before, the location isn't the best, but Adam was really interested, the times are good, the price is good, and they have been around for 40 years - they must be doing something right!  Registration is in the mail!

Valentine's (pic heavy)

Saturday, Dave and Adam built a little Valentine's house that Grandma left for Adam.  As you can see, Adam helped a lot (not).

But he thought it was fun at the end...

We decided to give Adam a couple of gifts from the "Kissing Bandit" for Valentine's day.  He got cards from all his "friends" - Batman & friends, the Yo Gabba Gang, Spiderman, Toy Story guys, Cars guys (no idea how late Dave was up last night because he wrote Adam's name on every card, put smiley faces or something extra on them,  and put them each in an envelope with Adam's name on it....)

He got a little robot, some super hero books, Playdoh, and chocolate.  He shoved a chocolate carmel in his mouth so fast he had to take half out because he couldn't chew it.  It was pretty funny!

And here's a boy happy that the Kissing Bandit showed up today.

And one last picture of swim lessons last week because I thought the kids looked cute lined up like seals at Sea World.

Robot

Adam took Dave's old beat-up Mazinga Shogun Warrior to Target with him Saturday.  We had to buckle him in the backseat so he could be safe.  Adam pushed Mazinga into the store (he has wheels on his feet) and then sat with him in the cart. Adam didn't stay in the cart long so Dave ended up pushing the cart around the store with a 30 year old robot in it.... 

Decisions Decisions

I think I am going to drive Dave crazy with this whole picking out a preschool thing.  I brought him to the Open House of Little Blessings - the school I really liked but not their times.  He agreed that the staff is super friendly and the classrooms are big and bright, etc.  But their times and that they don't offer any "extras" like music or gym (they say they do some large muscle stuff before dismissal) is bumping them down the list.  He also came along on a tour of All the Children of the World which is a newer (2000) charter preschool up here.  He manned Adam (who was running around like a crazy man) while I tried to listen to the tour guide (we were with 2 other families).  We like that they offer afternoon classes,  teach Spanish, music, and have recess time.  Their location is great to go grocery shopping afterwards - alone! :)  What I don't like is that the student-teacher ratio is 1:10.  There are 2 classrooms for the 3 year olds and they each have 1 teacher to 10 kids.  It seems like everywhere else, there are 2 teachers and between 12-16 kids to a room.  It makes me nervous.  I also noticed on their website that many of the teachers are newer.  I am going to tour Central College Preschool next week in hopes that they have everything I am looking for. The only thing that stinks is their location.
Ourday (where he is at currently) is still in the running.  They do offer afternoon classes from 1:30-4:30 (doesn't 4:30 sound late?).  Adam says he likes his school.  And it is closer...

Oh, and another work-out friend also recommended Central College and Westerville's Preschool Peers program.  I'm trying to get more info from the school district but from what I could find, it is a program for special needs kids.  They enroll about 8 special needs kids and 4 typically developing peers (peer models) .   It sounds interesting, and why not have your kid help out others?  

Friday the 18th is the registration cut-off for many places so a decision will be made by then.  I'm sure any of these places are fine or they wouldn't still be in business, right? I'm just over-analyzing as usual.....

Chuck E. Cheese!

Soo, I kind of jinxed myself with the last post.  Adam ended getting up at 2 am and Dave tried to get him back in bed but he wanted to "snuggle with Mommy!" He sat and knocked on my door until I got out of bed despite Dave telling him I would be mad (he wouldn't let Dave open the door - I had to).  I threw him back in his bed and left him with Dave.  The only way Dave got him to stay in bed was to read stories and promise him that I would snuggle with him in the morning.  I had to wake Adam up for school in the morning and even though we were running a bit late, I had to snuggle for a couple minutes.  I'm not complaining; I just think it's funny that he held on to that all night.

Despite of that middle of the night wake-up and coming into our room Friday night because he heard scary noises (which may have been Pop-pop snoring next door), we decided he still deserved to go to Chuck E. Cheese on Sunday.  We got a bunch of tokens and let him play!  I ended up leaving my camera in the car and was too lazy to go get it but it was soo claustrophobic in there that I don't think I would have been able to get any good pictures.  2 hours later, we hid most of the tokens so that we could say we were all out and had to go home. I think he really liked the "hamster tubes" and slide the most which kept giving Dave and I anxiety because we didn't know where he was half the time.   We had a couple games eat our tokens and a couple that were out of tickets but Adam ended winning 22 tickets.  He wanted a Chuck E. Cheese ruler and a little plastic thing that you can make hop.  We also ended up with a Chuck E. silly band because they were out of the bookmark thing that he really wanted.  He fell asleep in the car 5 minutes from home at 6:30.  We put him in bed fully dressed so we wouldn't wake him.  He woke up at 4 this morning wondering why he had clothes on and then needing to go potty.  We told him to go potty and go back to bed - and he did!  He came back at 6 am saying he was really hungry.  I tried to explain that it was still dark out and to go back to bed but he said he liked being awake when it was dark.  He told me I could stay in bed and he would let the dogs out and stay downstairs.  Ha Ha! (By the time I got downstairs he had let the dogs out and one back in!).

Adam was supposed to get a bath yesterday but since he fell asleep, he really needed one today. Dave was just about to go down to work and I was trying to get some laundry in the dryer when Dave told Adam it was bath time.  I was like "Wait a minute!" because Adam will go running upstairs to get in the bath (most of the time) and I wanted to get the laundry taken care of.  So there goes Adam and Dave goes upstairs to get the tub started.  Next thing I hear is a big THUD, Dave saying "are you alright", and Adam crying.  I leave the clothes and go running upstairs.  Adam is holding his head.  Dave said Adam tried to jump into the bathtub while he was sitting there trying to get the water temp right.  It was more of a feet slipped, butt hit bottom of tub then head bumped side of tub so no major injury like the 1st time he fell on the tub.   Dave's words "I didn't think he was that stupid."  Adam thinks the tub is a mini swimming pool so I tried to explain that you should never jump into water that is not as tall as you.  Just glad no one was hurt!

Consistency

It seems we are turning a corner in the battle of bedtime and beds!  Adam has been going to sleep by himself all week and has been STAYING in bed all night!  We finally put our foot down Monday night when he was being really crazy at bedtime. No more mommy and daddy in bed! I sat outside his door and he pretty much stayed in his bed and played for a while before falling asleep.  At some point he turned his light on and slept with it on the rest of the night.  Now we just leave it on since he says it keeps the scary shadows away.  Last night I tried to venture into my bedroom only to have him call me into his room to show me that he took EVERYTHING off his bed.  After putting the many layers of his bed back on and a little more jumping on the bed (the reason he thought he needed to take everything off), he fell asleep.   Tonight I started outside his door but he started throwing stuffed animals at me so I moved to the playroom.  Hopefully next week I can venture downstairs!  He knows he only has a couple more nights of staying in bed before he gets to go to Chuck E. Cheese but hopefully the pattern will be set and he will continue to stay in bed after his reward.