Music Class, Art Class, The Zoo and 5 years of marriage!

To say the past three weeks have been a blur is an understatement.  Things have gotten so busy around here that there are definitely not enough hours in the day!  Brody's fall classes have started up and besides that we are getting out everyday to enough the amount of nice weather that we have left before fall hits.

The past three weeks have also been full of tough decisions.  After much consideration, we decided to pull Brody out of preschool.  It was an emotional decision but we know it is what is best for him at this time.  He is very socially immature and just needs a little more time to grow up.  The main reason I was wanting to send him this year was to help build his vocabulary and to get him around other kids on a regular basis.  I took him for a speech evaluation a few months ago and was assured that he is not speech delayed, he just needed to be around other children more to help strengthen his vocabulary. Up to this point he has always been at home with me and my nephew Jackson, who was also a late talker. His speech has improved immensly since then but I know he still has a long way to go.  He has tons and tons of words it is just difficult for him to put them together.  I was informed that Brody was trying to run out the classroom door after me each day when I left him and even though he didn't cry for me and was fine once I left he kept wanting to go out the door.  Tim and I talked to him about this and I decided I would go and observe him in the classroom setting to see what was going on.  I observed for a half hour last week outside the room (so he didn't know I was there).  Brody was doing typical 3 year old behaviors: playing blocks, painting, playing cars, alphabet sorting, etc.  But I noticed each time he moved onto another activity he was getting yelled at for moving from one thing to another.  Anyone knows the attention span of a 3 year old is 3-4 minutes max, which is the time he spent at each activity (if not a few more minutes).  He also got yelled at for sticking his hands in the paint after he completed his project which I thought was not that big of a deal.  Obviously I taught preschool for 7 years and worked in a childcare facility for 4 years during college so I have seen a wide range of behaviors and have seen much worse things out of 4 and 5 year olds (keeping in mind this group is 3!)!  I also know he wasn't wanting to sit for story time so we just decided it would be best to take him out before his first school experience turned into a nightmare that made him hate school forever.  He has the next 18 years to sit at a desk, for now we just want him to have fun.  I have done a lot of networking about this and have come to see it is very common for boys to not only be late talkers but to also not be able to handle preschool at 3 years old.  We are going to wait until the 1st of the year and see what happens up until then. He is also not 100% potty trained (he is getting closer all the time) so he really is not suppose to be going unless he is but I kind of scooted around the topic figuring he was at least trained enough to go for 2 1/2 hours.  If I am still concerned about the speech in January then I will take further action. For now I just want to sit on it all and let my son be a kid and develop at his own pace (which is how things shoudl be anyway).  If he doesn't start school until next fall it will not be the end of the world.  I absolutely just want the best for my son and this wasn't the right fit at this time.  3 is such a tough age in itself, we have started giving Brody a ton of freedom lately and it has been good for him but is also a challenge at the same time.  We both admit we should have given him more freedom earlier on as it would have made him learn sooner than later what is expected of him. I have totally and completely babied him but he is my baby and that is the only thing I knew to do, but I am regretting be overprotective somewhat now.  I guess I can't be punished for loving him so much. :)  But regardless of that, 3 is a difficult age, so we will just keep working with him as hard as we can.  One positive thing is my nephew Jackson was having a much harder time at this age than Brody is and Jackson has completely turned things around and is a totally different child.  It is all about growing up and maturing.  Since they are over 5 months apart I am hoping that we see the same changes in Brody during the next 5 months.  It is a work in progress but he still continues to be our sweet little boy no matter what!!

We started our art and music classes last week.  Music is on Mondays and Art is on Fridays.  He loves both classes and the music does require circle time so it is a good practice for him with the sitting.  We did these classes last spring too and I can already see Brody doing a much better job with the circle time at music this time around.  These are things he was not exposed to until almost 3 years old so it just takes him to learn what is expected of him.  Art is so much fun as the kids get to choose what they do and move from area to area (which is perfect for Brody right now!).  We pretty much have something going on each day of the week.  We will continue to go to the library for story time on Wednesdays and will fill our Tuesdays and Thursdays with trips to the museums in town, the zoo while we still can, etc.  Anything to keep Brody busy and entertained.  We now have memberships to both museums which will be nice once the weather gets cold.  It is all a learning process for kids and the more they do the more they learn so hopefully keeping Brody busy will be just what he needs.  I have been working with Brody at home since he was born and he is super smart because of all that we do but I am going to start doing circle time and adding a few more sitting activities at home to help him with the areas he is lacking (a.k.a sitting!)  I sometimes wonder if maybe I have been too structured with him at home and that is why when he gets in the classroom setting he wants to do anything and everything he can in the time allowed.
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On a good note, we had a follow up on Brody's eye last Monday and things continue to look great.  We will continue to go every three months to keep a close eye on it and make sure that one eye does not become stronger than the other.  He passed all his tests with flying colors and was such a good boy considering how much sitting, testing and prodding is always required at these visits.

Briana continues to do great.  She has her follow up on her shoulder this Thursday and hopefully the doctor feels nothing and we can put this all behind us.  I am really hoping she will finally hit the 20 pound mark, we will see!  She has taken her first steps and takes a few here and there each day but is not full out walking yet.  She is into everything and literally nothing is safe in our house anymore.  She eats like a pig and is very happy most of the time unless things aren't going her way.  She is very attached to Mom and Dad but we think she loves Brody the most.  They have really started to play together and they crack each other up.  It is so funny to watch!

Brody is developing the most vivid imagination, I love it.  He is very into match box cars right now and on Sundays he helps me look through the Sunday paper.  He will pick out certain ads and he will tell me his car is "going to Hy-Vee" or "going to Walgreens" and he will spread out the paper and drive his car on them.  He is also very into "Jake and the Neverland Pirates" and I bought him a figurine set of the three characters this weekend.  He takes one of them everywhere now and has the characters "read books, go to the store, take a bath (he washes them in the sink), go potty, etc".  It is so creative and fun to watch.

Over the past two weeks we have made two trips to the zoo and one trip to the Children's Museum.  Last Sunday we went to a Fall Festival put on by the library where the kids all got a free book.  They had several bounce houses, a petting zoo and a hay rack ride. Brody thinks feeding animals is hilarious. Last Saturday Tim and I celebrated our 5 year wedding anniversary with a day trip to Iowa City for the Iowa Game.  Even though Iowa lost we had a nice day and it was nice to get away just the two of us since we never get to do that.  This weekend we celebrated our little friend Carter's 3rd birthday and attending my cousins wedding.  Brody blew me away with his awesome behavior at the wedding. He was a little angel and entertained himself the whole time. Maybe he is gradually growing up after all?? :)