Let the Preschool Adventure Begin

Ethan and Taylor have been so excited to start preschool. I feel like we had a countdown going all summer for when school began. Ethan wanted to know exactly what he would be learning and admitted that he was a little nervous that he wouldn't remember all the rules. They were troopers from day one and neither one of them gave me a second thought when I dropped them off. Taylor only goes two days a week and Ethan goes 5 days a week. Taylor was pretty upset about the days she didn't get to go to school but she soon figured out that life was kind of nice with just us girls. She now likes to torment Ethan by suggesting, in front of him, that we go to the park every day Ethan is gone since that is his favorite activity. I will have to say that it is kind of nice to just have my quiet child at home for a couple of mornings. They have such different personalities and Ethan can really get her riled up.

Ethan was a little frustrated the first week with just having to learn his letters again. After the second day when I asked him what he had learned he said "Nothing, she hasn't even taught me to read yet!" Needless to say he was a little disappointed with just learning a few letters but week two picked up and he is thrilled to be getting pretty good at reading his words each week. Taylor has gotten on board with the disappointment in our educational system and when asked what she learned I get a similar "Nothing, and I don't know how to read."

Ethan's teacher has a system where you get blue slips of paper for doing good deeds and once you get 5 you get to pick something out of her treasure box. Ethan always gives me an update on how many he has and how many he needs until his next prize. He is getting good at any math involving the answer of 5. The other day he was reminding the teacher that she had not given him all the papers he earned. She better not try and pull a fast one on Ethan, he has the memory of an elephant. He also enjoys reporting on who is on yellow (green means you had a good day, yellow means you had a hard time following some directions, and red is pretty bad). Ethan prides himself on allows being green but keeps tabs on the yellow kids and what got them there. I love to hear his stories when he comes home. Taylor tries to compete with Ethan's stories and always tells us how Presley didn't know how to sit on her tape (which happened on the first day of school but we have relived it for 2 weeks now.)

This being Baptist preschool has also brought with it a little confusion that I hadn't thought of. After the first day of school Ethan asked if it was possible for there to be two different ways to say prayers. I guess they had a prayer at snack time that was not what he was expecting. Being a child who attended many different Christian churches and preschools I'm quite familiar with "God is good, God is great, let us thank him for our food. Amen." But Ethan thought it was interesting. He has yet to try and bless the food at our house that way. They have also been learning some new songs that they want me to help them learn but are new to me. Ethan was trying to sing me one at dinner and according to him it went something like "and when I'm at the gates with cheese at my side...." I asked him if he thought that it could be "Jesus at my side" and he pondered it for a while and said "yeah, you're probably right. I didn't think cheese made any sense anyway." I love that kid.

Yesterday Abe didn't have to work until the afternoon so we decided to enjoy our first weekend with him in a while and do something fun. Ethan has been begging to go to the children's museum that someone had told us about. We are pretty excited to go from no children's museums to having 2 within 30 minutes. The kids had a great time playing. I love to hear their vivid imaginations as they play and try, unsuccessfully, to boss each other around. Taylor takes make believe very seriously.

The kids loved playing in the ambulance, especially with Abe driving.

Taylor's favorite activity was taking care of the babies in the "hospital". She can't get enough of babies.

Taylor bossing her daddy around with her hands on her hips. We get this look a lot.

Taylor calling Ethan in his ambulance to tell him to come to the emergency room.