History of the J Man

Jonah has completed his first 2 weeks of preschool and he’s done great.  We spent some time with him in the classroom for the first couple mornings but by the third day he was a pro and was ready for us to drop him off.  He gravitates each morning to the cars and the road rug and has to pick up one of the recycling trucks.  I called his teacher after the first week to find out if that is ALL he does all day but she said no.  She said that he likes to start at the road rug where he seems comfortable but that he then branches out after that. 

The classroom is great.  They have different “stations” for the kids to play at.  There’s a sand table; a water table; a dress up area; the road rug complete with cars, trucks and buildings; all sorts of blocks; easels; a table for clay or art projects; a kitchen; a listening station with headphones and music or books on CD; books; plus a table that seems to rotate each day with a new activity.  They also get to go outside for the last 30 minutes or so each day.  There’s no climbing equipment so they play games or use things like shovels, rakes and kid sized shopping cards or wheel barrels.  He seems to be having a blast! 

His class has 7 kids; 5 boys and 2 girls all ages 3-4.  He seems to especially like one of the oldest boys for now.  He knows everyone by name though and talks about what they do, what they eat for snack and about “group time.”  He’s eager to get up and get dressed each morning and practically runs there without me.  I love that it’s 1/2 a block away so we can get there in about 2 minutes. 

Below are some photos from his first day.

Photo from our first family trip to the Museum of Science and Industry.

Reading Thanksgiving books this morning Jonah declaired that he was going to be “Buzz Lightyear for Thanksgiving!” I think the pumpkins in the Thanksgiving book confused him a bit.

Jonah was playing a fun game of “going on vacation” while I did the grocery shopping on Peapod last night.  He packed his bag, told me where he was going, and even changed into his vacation shorts and t-shirt.  I thought it was a great game until I went into his room and saw his the contents of his dresser all over the floor and then saw the contents of his suitcase all over the play room.  No wonder he’d been playing so nice by himself…

It’s been a big week for us here in the Diehl household.  Jonah started preschool this week and Elliott turned 6 months old.

We enrolled Jonah in preschool last winter but ended up choosing a brand new school 1/2 a block away from our house.  This 3 hour-a-day, 5 day-a-week program seemed perfect for us.  The drawback, because it’s new, is that they weren’t ready to start in September as planned.  So school didn’t start for Jonah until this week.  And even then 1 parent or caregiver has been required to stay while he’s at school until they get their official preschool licence.  That’s been an adjustment for Chris and I but the school set up wireless Internet and even gave me an empty office to work in so it’s worked out.  Fortunately I have the type of job that doesn’t require me to be in an office and I’ve been able to make it work.  For Jonah there hasn’t been a difference.  He started school as he would have with me dropping him off in the morning and picking him up when it’s over. 

He seems to have adjusted well.  He runs to school each morning with his backpack on his back and then runs back home when it’s over.  His class has 7 kids: 5 boys and 2 girls ranging from 3 to almost 5.  It’s the perfect size for him, not too many kids to be intimidating but enough to have different people to play with. 

I think school has motivated him to feel like a big kid because Tuesday morning he came into my room at 7:00am and said, “Mama, I got dressed by me-self. The tags are in the back on my pants, my shirt and my underpants!”  And he was right.  He did it all by himself.  I thought it was a wonderful idea!  He’s been good about eating breakfast right away too which is not something we used to do.  We practiced all week before the start of school which seems to have helped.  Hopefully he continues to be excited about going each day. 

Oh! He also discovered that he can get on and off the regular toilet this week without any problem and without a stool.  Hopefully that means I can get rid of the kid potty and the cleaning/emptying steps associated with it.  I welcome that change as well.

Elliott also had a big week turning 6 months.  He weighed 18 lbs. 5 oz at his check up and was 28 inches long.  That’s 5 ounces less than Jonah at 6 months but an inch longer.  He’s now in 75% for weight and 90% for height.  Better than the other way around, right? 

He had a good check up.  He’s on track with his milestones and might be getting some top teeth soon.  He can sit for a couple minutes by himself and is scooting, backwards, when he’s on the floor.  He’s started eating solid foods once a day and so far seems to like most of what he’s tried.  I hope he’s a good eater like his big brother. 

The bad news is that he had to get 3 shots at this visit and didn’t do well with them.  He went to bed well last night but then woke up in the middle of the night with a fever feeling generally crabby.  He slept most of the night (well, the parts when he did sleep) on either Chris or I.  We took turns so we could each try and get some sleep too.  You just feel so bad for them when they are sick at this age.  I’ve been giving him meds today and his fever seems to be down.  He’s still not feeling 100% but he’s been happy and giggling so he’s not totally miserable either.  Hopefully he’ll sleep better tonight because Chris and I are pooped!

I’ll post school pictures once I get them off the camera.

Halloween was fun this year.  Jonah is almost 3.5 and therefore old enough to like the idea of dressing up and candy.  He had been talking about or wearing his Buzz costume for weeks before Halloween.  I had ordered the wings so long ago that I was actually a little worried that he might not be into Buzz by the time Halloween got here.  I shouldn’t have been though.  I think he wore that costume for about a week straight leading up to trick-or-treating.  He and Kate even practiced going door to door here in the house. 

That day we went to Nana & Papa’s house after lunch.  Got our costumes on and headed out around 4:30.  We went up one block and back down the other side before Jonah declared that he was “all done trick-or-treating.”  I think by that time there were more big kids out and some of the houses and costumes were pretty scary.  Plus it was getting dark and cold.  We did get to see his friend Addie though and get a photo with Addie/Jessie and Jonah/Buzz (even if Chris did have to hold him in the shot).

Elliott’s costume was a spider which worked out great.  I strapped him on with the black Moby Wrap then put the web part on the outside of both of us. It kept us both warm and we didn’t have to deal with a stroller that way. 

Once we got inside Jonah had a great time answering the door for the rest of the trick-or-treaters at Nana & Papa’s house.  He liked to hold the basket and tell them they could pick 2 pieces.  He couldn’t understand why the lifesavers weren’t as popular as the chocolate candy bars.  And out of his own halloween bakset the tootsie rolls have been the most popular pick.  (That’s fine more Reese’s for me.)