Last Day of School

Yesterday was Tyler's last day of preschool. I'm not sure who is more sad about the school year being over, Tyler or mommy. He had so much fun and I enjoyed the peace and quiet.

I began a habit of taking a picture (with my iPhone) of the "Today in Preschool" board when I picked Tyler up. It started when I realized that I couldn't remember the great things that the teachers posted about the day when we got to dinner time and Tyler and I were trying to tell Steve what had happened at school. Most days there was a picture or two posted on the board, so I would take pictures of those as well (especially if Tyler was in them).

Catching Up

So I realized the other day when I was posting about the stitches that I hadn't posted in quite a while. Things had gotten really crazy around here! I didn't post for a while because the hard drive in the computer was full. At first I just couldn't download pictures, but towards the end the hard drive was so stuffed to the gills that even surfing the Internet was painful. We purchased a new HP Pavilion PC with a 1T hard drive during the back to school sales in early September. (Let's see how long it takes Paparazzi Steve to fill this one!)

So, what was my excuse for not posting once the computer problem was solved? I started a new job, and Tyler returned to preschool. Life got in the way! So, here is a quick recap on what we have been up to.

I was offered an assistant coaching position with Mercy Crew, which I accepted. I'm officially in charge of the novice team, but I help out where ever I'm told. I now have one-day weekends (if I'm lucky!), but have a lot of fun travelling with the team to the regattas. I'll be going to Boston for the Head of the Charles in two weeks. After that it's off to Philadelphia for the Head of the Schuylkill regatta. I'm really excited for that one because I'll get to catch up with one of my former athletes who is still rowing and a senior at UPenn this year. Philadelphia will be the novices' first trip, so that should be exciting...

Tyler returned to the Woodbury Preschool the week after Labor Day. He was so excited to be going back to school. In the last weeks of summer he noticed that a few leaves in the tree in our front yard were changing. He insisted that meant that fall was here and he should be going to school. He is in the Monday, Wednesday, Friday AM class this year and just loving it. This year's class has 14 students, 7 girls and 7 boys, all four-year-olds. The teachers for the class are the same as last year, Mrs. Maya and Mrs. Cheryl. The aide from last year (Mrs. Theresa) has taken a new position, so this year we have Ms. Marlene. There is also a student teacher for the first few weeks of school, so there are four adults and 14 kids, a 3.5:1 ratio. Charlie the Tortoise (class pet) is very active in the morning at drop off and has really piqued Tyler's interest. Tyler selects a new leaf from the backyard every morning to bring to Charlie. Tyler has already drawn some pictures at school! We will get to see them on Curriculum Night. Can't wait!

Emma continues to grow like crazy. She is beginning to assert her independence. She wants to try to dress herself, particularly the bloomers she wears under dresses. She also insists on feeding herself, using utensils, and drinking from a big-girl cup. Yes, it's getting really messy around here. She says more new words each day. Right now one of her favorites is, "all aboard!" She says this whenever the show Dinosaur Train is on. We have also started going to a co-op music class together on Wednesdays while Tyler is at school. She loves to play with the instruments and dance. She even knows many of the movements already and joins in while we sing. It is really cute.

Welcome Spring

We saw these daffodils outside of preschool yesterday afternoon. What a welcome sight. We are crossing our fingers and hoping that we have seen the last of the snow for a while.

Preschool

Tyler started preschool this week. He's going to the Woodbury Preschool. Here he is charging into the museum on his first day. He'd had me worried that morning, and even during the car ride to school. He would wimper, "Mommy, please don't leave me at preschool."

I thought we were in for a big meltdown at drop off, but when he got out of the car he really suprized me. He got all excited and started running into the museum. Luckily a good friend had volunteered to stay with Emma so I didn't have to tote her along while trying to keep up.

Here he is, making his "CHEESE!" face at the door of the drop off room. You can see the two teachers, Mrs. Cheryl (standing) and Mrs. Maya (sitting with her back to the camera) in the background. He wanted to burst into the room.
First order of business is putting the book bag (Tyler informs me I can only call it a backpack) in your cubby. He recognized his name when I pointed it out to him, then promptly spelled it for me. He's really into spelling words right now...
And then, he was off. It was time to play and he dove right in, not even stopping to look back at either Steve or me as we were standing, hovering in the doorway. He went straight for the plastic elephants. He has some that are very similar at home and he LOVES playing with them. We had also been to the zoo the day before, so he had animals on the brain.
He took the elephant over to this table to play. Later he informed me, "The king didn't like to live with the elephants... they kept breaking the castle." I guess he was acting out a scene from The King, the Mice, and the Cheese. I hope he didn't do too much damage...

The first day was shortened, only an hour long. They played in the first room for about 50 minutes while the parents went to a conference room for tea & coffee and to hear about the procedures for the preschool. We were given our security badges and had our pictures taken. Then we were allowed into the observation area (there are mirrored windows into one of the rooms so you can see the kids but they can't see you) to watch our kids for the last 10 minutes. It was neat to get to peak at what they were doing. Tyler decided to draw a picture instead of participate in circle time while we were observing. He's very proud of his drawing, which he informed us is a picture of the night.

"The Night"