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.

Preschool Visits

It is time to start registering for preschool next year.  Since Adam is 3, there are a lot more options than we had last year.  The Community Center held a Preschool Open House at the beginning of this month where they had a bunch of the area preschools there to hand out info and answer questions.  They also gave us a booklet that listed all those preschools, addresses, websites, ages, times of programs, dates of open houses, etc.  There's nothing really wrong with the preschool he is at now but I wanted to see what else is out there.

Yesterday we visited one that is down the street and recommended by one of my work-out friends.   Things I liked:  they have their own parking lot, their classrooms are upstairs and nice and bright,  they have an outdoor playground, one of the teachers we talked to really likes to teach about science, teaches sign language, and they answered my few questions directly.  Adam had fun playing in the one classroom but he thought the teacher was scary.   Things I don't like:  the two days of week are either M/T or Th/F from 9-11:30.

Where he is at now we have to park in their lot across the street or try to find a spot in the public parking behind. They have a gym inside so no fresh air when the weather is nice.  No big deal, just minor annoyances.   Their program is M/W or T/Th from 9-1 and the kids pack a lunch.  I still need to talk to them about their curriculum.

Tonight there was an Open House at a brand new Primrose school nearby so I figured we would take a look there too.  He said he wanted to go and even got his shoes and coat on and said "I'm ready!"  He waited relatively patiently as I filled out their guest book and waited for someone to show us around.  Everything was going well as we walked down the hall talking to the assistant director.  Then we got to the classroom.  She opened the door and Adam FREAKED!!!  Adam: "NO, NO I don't want to go in there!!  Let me out!"  I stand in front of the door and try to talk to him and see what's going on.  Still freaking out!  The teacher walks over with a puppet.  Teacher" "Adam, do you know who this is?"   Adam: "NO!  I don't like that! Where's my Kleenex!??  Kleenex!!! Kleenex!"  I find his Kleenex on the floor and hand it back to him.  Me:  "Adam, did you see the toys over there?"  Adam:  "I don't LIKE toys! I want out!!"  Teacher: "Adam, you are safe here!  You are safe here!"  Me: Let's go talk out in the hallway.  Adam runs down the hall to a bench.  We start to talk some more and Adam says, "I want to leave!"  and runs to the door.  I grab him, apologize to our tour guide, get a folder of info from her and leave.  Adam didn't even want me to take the folder and wanted me to throw it away instead.  Needless-to-say, I don't think Adam will be going there.  On the way to the car, he said he wanted to go to the school we went to yesterday...like, right now.  He couldn't understand that they were closed for the day since this place was open.

There are a couple more Open Houses in the next month which we may go to but I am leaning towards the first 2.  Ahh, decisions!

Call SuperNanny!!

We have been having a HECK of a time getting Adam to listen and to stay in his bed at night.  I don't know how I still have a voice some days because I am always yelling.  Time-outs don't work because I can't even get him to stay on a chair, bench, whatever.  He'll run around so I can't catch him and then when I do, I sit him down and he'll pop right back up and try to run away.  I have to stand and block him or hold him on it and that seems to defeat the purpose.  We've tried putting him in his room but we have to stand and hold the door closed.  I just want to be able to walk away for a minute.  Spankings evoke an "OW" but don't really do any good.  Anytime I tell him NOT to do something, he HAS to do it.  Today, he poked his finger through the package of meat I was going to buy.  I said "make sure you don't put your fingers in your mouth" on the way to the bathroom to wash his hands and guys what he did?  Even after washing them, he kept putting them in his mouth!  He wanted a cookie from the bakery (since they always have free ones out).  I told him he needed to wait until we were finished and show me he could be a good boy and he tried to jump out of the cart.  Once I got him out without him injuring himself, he ran over to the bakery and yelled at the workers to get him a cookie (since the container was empty)!

Adam comes in our room pretty much every night.  Sometimes I don't hear him and other times I'm just too tired to fight with him and put him back in his room.  Now we are really trying to get him to stay in his room.  We told him if he stays in bed for 7 nights, we'll take him to Chuck E. Cheese's.  Well...he still comes in and we tell him no and remind him about Chuck E. and he says he doesn't like Chuck E., he doesn't like his bed, and there are too many scary shadows in his room.  Last night we were able to get him back in bed after a lot of screaming and a couple of books but I had to stay with him until he fell asleep.  A couple hours later he was back in our room.  Dave slept in the guest room because Adam was coughing like crazy.  Last week, Adam was coughing and kicking me so I left and slept in his bed.  I thought he would come in with me since he was alone in my bed but he stayed all night.  I want my bed back!

Swim time again!

Adam is LOVING his swim class.   I was a little worried at first since this is the first time he gets to go to lessons without me in the water but he has been fine.  The first class he started splashing his instructor as soon as he got in the water.  All the kids have to sit on the steps while they wait their turn so Adam took that time to entertain himself by licking the handrail (and I wonder why he's sick again) and filling his mouth up with water and spitting it into the little girl's hair beside him.  This past week he kept trying to go lower and lower on the steps.  They were told to stay on the 1st or 2nd but he likes to see how far he can push it.  It's a little scary when both instructors are out in the water with other kids.  Anyway, here's a little video and some pictures.

Adam is also in a "Sports Jam" class Tuesday mornings.  The coach introduces a new sport each week.  Last week was basketball and this week was soccer.  He was in heaven last week when he walked into the gym and had lots of room to run and a ton of balls to bounce and throw.  I found out he's pretty good at kicking and running with a soccer ball this week.   But like his mom, as soon as someone starts telling him what to do he doesn't want to play anymore.   For some reason, he wants NO part of the stretches at the beginning of class.  Then, whenever the kids have to wait in line (shooting hoops, kicking goals), he doesn't want to play anymore.  I think we spent the last 10 minutes of class today sitting on the bleachers and watching.  As soon as the coach said it was stamp time, he was up and running to her.

What to do?

Adam got another time-out at school this week.  (He also got a time-out in the Sprouts room yesterday but he said he didn't know why - effective, eh?).   It would be nice if the teachers and the sprouts room people would tell me when I pick him up instead of just hearing Adam's versions of things.  The teacher didn't say anything when I picked him up today but as soom as he saw me he started saying time-out.  I asked him if he got a time-out (yes) and why.  At first he said he didn't know why and then he said he was being too rough in the gym.  The teachers said last time that he gets too rough with the other kids (especially a little boy named Vincent) and he's one of the bigger kids in class so we've talked to him about keeping his hands to himself but, ya know, he's 3!  I don't know what else to do.  I'm starting to feel like I have the kid that the teachers dread having come to class.