Amazing progress!

I think Dylan is starting to get REALLY excited about Kindergarten! For awhile he wanted nothing to do with it and kept insisting that he stay at his preschool. He'll be going to K at Red Mill and I love how much the school has to offer for children who will be attending K in the fall. I signed Dylan up for a story time at Red Mill. It's a nice way for the kids to get used to being dropped off at the "big school". The first day Dylan was a little hesitant, but went and sat with the kids and did everything he was told to do (I stayed and watched, but told him that I wasn't allowed to stay in the future). He had such a great time that he was skipping out of the building talking a mile a minute about all the things he did. This past Tuesday was his second session of story time and I simply dropped him off and he was totally fine! That makes me feel so much better. It's amazing to think about what those first few days of preschool were like for him - he cried and screamed and begged me to stay and wouldn't sit anywhere near the other kids etc... He really loves his new school already! The school also gave the kids each a DVD that introduces some of the staff. We watched that a few times. Tonight they had an event at the school for the kids and parents. The parents sat on the stage in the all-purpose room and watched as the kids went through and did 'stations' with the different teachers/staff. They painted and played at a water table and did their ABC's and wrote their name and cut with scissors and did color games and a shape bean bag toss etc... Dylan went through and did everything he was supposed to and talked to the teachers. Then the parents got to get involved and we all did the giant parachute. Dylan loved that! He was excited to show daddy his big school. Oh, actually, Dylan now refers to Red Mill as his "real" school. haha. I think he's catching on that pre-school is way different and that he'll actually get to experience SO much more in K.

Dylan is also signed up to go with a group of other kids to visit a K classroom in session. He'll go with the group (no parents) and they'll spend an hour in a classroom during the day with the K students and they'll do crafts etc.. Another great way to get the kids used to the school. Then later in the summer they'll have an open house where the kids and parents get a tour of the school and they ride the school bus together etc.. I heard there is also a summer reading program at the school too. I am SO glad we decided on K for him. I think he would have been bored in preschool again. And he is making such MASSIVE improvements socially. It's almost like a different child. Now he's acting more like a typical shy child and less like a 'scared to death of the world' child. :) He is warming up really fast to new situations - before it was a massive undertaking just to be near someone new.

Dylan got a goody bag of stuff at the event tonight and there was a picture of a school bus and he proudly said "I'm going to ride a school bus to school!" Not that long ago he wasn't too fond of the thought of having to take a bus to school. There are two K teachers at Red Mill - a women and a man. I was trying to think which would be better for him. Tonight after meeting them I was thinking that maybe the man would be better - not sure why, maybe I can envision an Uncle George type relationship between them. The female teacher didn't seem to get as involved with the kids - or as excited and silly. At the end of the event I said to Dylan "Didn't both of the kindergarten teachers seem nice?" and he said "Yes. But I like the boy better." I was surprised that he went out of his way to make a preference. I don't think we get to choose, but being that we are having a special 'transition' meeting with Red Mill staff (because of his shyness and speech therapy), I wonder if maybe we will have a slight advantage. We didn't even officially receive our school info pack yet because he's not officially signed up for school yet, but several of the moms from Dylan's preschool are the ones that told me about all the events that are going on at Red Mill (the story time, the thing we went to tonight, the classroom visit.....) But the moms said that they only take a limited number of kids and that everything is already full. I simply went into the school office and talked to them and got Dylan into everything! SO.....I'm hoping to have a say in which teacher he gets (and whether it's am or pm K - I hear that you don't get to choose that either).

Dylan has already picked out what he wants to wear when he starts school.....in 4 months. haha. He wants to wear his sweatshirt w/ the yellow/black digger and he wants to take his digger lunch box and wear his yellow/black backpack....

We took the boys to church on Easter Sunday and Dylan went up to the front of the church during the children's segment. Of course Cameron and Bryson were there too, but Dylan crawled his way to the top of the alter steps, in between all the other kids. He didn't even sit with Cameron. At the chiropractors today Dylan was talking like crazy to the dr. and helped assist the dr and showed him his new snowplow Matchbox truck. On the playground the other day Dylan found a playmate and initiated playing with the other child. Dylan came up with all the different games and told the other child what to do (not in a bossy way). He suggested that they run a race and play tag. It was amazing to see Dylan not only interacting with another kid that he didn't know, but to be in charge!! They played for like 1 1/2 hours. Yelling back and forth and laughing and chasing and taking turns pretending to be the 'bug catcher' and the other was the 'bug'. Then when it was Dylan's turn to be the bug, he came up with the brilliant idea to be a BEE and turned around and started to chase the bug catcher "I'm going to sting you!!!!" he'd yell. For those of you who know Dylan, you know that he's been in preschool for 7 months and still doesn't talk in class, but lately if you get him anywhere else, he's a whole different kid. I think the whole transition to pre-k was so crazy that he's kinda stuck keeping up the 'quiet' act. I really feel that once he's in his "real" school, he will totally flourish. I was so mad the other day when his pre-k teacher told me that he didn't know his alphabet, numbers etc.!!!!!!! I was like "WHAT!!!!!!???" He's known those for years! Then tonight at the event at Red Mill, when asked about all that stuff, he quietly told the teachers exactly what he knew! Also today at the chiropractors, when we walked in it was packed with people. Dylan just walked in a looked around and loudly said "Why are there so many people here?!!" and started to be all goofy and was totally trying to draw attention to himself - it was SO unlike him! He wanted to make sure everyone there saw and heard him. No more quiet little Dylan in public!

It's so great to see him opening up. I really think that he's very excited about all the new experiences he'll have at K - all the learning and all the opportunities. He needed pre-k, but now he's ready to move on to bigger and better things. Even his speech teacher said that she thinks he'd be totally bored if he were in pre-k again next year. I agree. I'm just so happy to see him coming out of his shell and enjoying all the amazing new things he's taking part in.

Today on the way to the chiro the boys were talking about how I went to the dr twice today (baby checkup and chiro). Cameron said something about needing money to pay for the doctor and Dylan got really serious and tried to explain to Cameron, in the sweetest little voice, that you don't need to pay to go to the doctors. It's all free since doctors are there to help people. I didn't dare destroy his innocence on that one.

Cameron shocked me today. While we were at the chiro we were in the waiting area and the boys were looking out the window. From the outside, the words on the glass read "BECKER CHIROPRACTOR". From what Cameron could see, all the letters were backwards. Cameron loves to spell out all the words he sees all over. He looked at the letters and without missing a beat he quickly began to name off each one even though they were all backwards. Not only does he know/recognize/say his upper and lowercase alphabet and the sounds most of the letters make, but he knows them backwards too!

Of course I don't ever want to sound like I'm "bragging" about the boys, but as their mommy, that's my job! :) All moms do it, it's human nature. It's in our blood. I can't help but be proud of them and being that this is pretty much only read by close family and friends, I like that I can share all their accomplishments with the most important people in their lives. I don't know that if what they do is advanced or delayed in terms of other kids their age (I don't really have anyone to compare them to), but I just know that I think everything they do is great and everything they do is worth sharing with the world.

I'm sure some of my ramblings may not seem that interesting, but to me they are....and I'm sure there are two grandma's and some great grandmas and a few aunts and uncles who actually get excited about the boys' day to day adventures. Plus, life moves and changes so fast that it's nice to have a written record of the little things. Like how at the chiro today Cameron kept wrapping his arms tightly around my neck and loudly proclaiming his love for me "I LOVE YOU! I LOVE YOU MAMA!" or when I go upstairs for 10 min and when I come back down Cameron tells me how much he missed me. :) Today Cam kept saying "I want to whisper something in your ear" and then proceeded to put his ear up to my ear while he said what he wanted to say out loud. I kept cracking up and he'd gently put his ear to mine and talk to me some more.

The boys have this game where they can either clap or say "Yay!" if they see a school bus or a train. Dylan got mad at Cameron because he said "Yah!" to something other than a school bus or train and I suddenly hear Dylan yell "ttttssss. I took your yay away!" I guess he felt that by getting really mad and making that noise, he was able to steal away Cam's yay. You had to have been there, it was funny.

It's after midnight and I'm beyond tired. I'm sure I bored half the audience to sleep by now.