A Little Bit of Bessie: Preschool

So far, Christian is doing great in his 3 year old preschool program. He has made lots of friends, although can never remember their names. He loves his teachers and counts down to the days he attends. I can already tell a huge difference in a few behavioral issues we were having, which makes me so happy. Our biggest was listening & following directions. He has made huge improvements in those areas already. Now with all that being said, I thought I would share our "fun" Friday experience...and our newest hurdle in the toddler life.

First I should start out by saying, we knew something was off with him. He has been acting different for about a week, each day gradually getting worse. It was little things, like not sleeping as well, throwing more fits than usual, not eating things he would normally eat. All of these things are generally signs that something in Christian's toddler world is just not quite right. So on Friday morning, someone decided that 5am would be an acceptable time to wake up (which has been happening more and more frequently...uh, no pal, NOT acceptable). He went back to bed, but not back to sleep, unfortunately. I knew he was going to be a pain today. When he gets up that early, he's never 100%.

So I dropped him off, looked him in the eyes, and told him in my best mom voice to please, be a good boy today. "Okay, mommy. I will." Right. Riiiiiight.

I walked into the school for pick-up and was grateful that I hadn't received a call or text from his teacher. However, that gratefulness quickly changed to "oh crap" as I walked into the classroom. All of the students were sitting quietly on the green carpet listening to their teacher read a story. All of the students except for mine. Of course. Christian was ~~sitting~~ squirming in the blue chair across the room by himself. He ran over to me..."Mommy! Hi Mommy!" "Hi Christian....were you a good boy today?" No response from him. That's when his teacher walked over.

"Well, Christian had to sit in the blue chair a couple times today. When it was time for everyone to sit on the green carpet, Christian was really wild and rolling everywhere, pushing the other kids and even put one kid in a chokehold." UM. WHAT. "He even told me earlier today that he was being mean to the other kids and put himself in the time-out chair." OH MY GOSH. I have the mean kid in class! I have the bully, the kid that can't sit still or follow directions. The kid that's always going to be in trouble. Grrrrrrrreat.

She assured me it really wasn't that big of a deal, he's not usually like this (which kind of surprises me, to be honest...the kid has infinite energy) and all the kids were okay. However, in my house, chokeholds and acting like a wild zoo animal is NOT okay. I told her we would work on keeping our hands to ourselves, and hopefully this won't happen again. So we've spent the weekend learning that we listen and always keep our hands to ourselves. We are nice to other students and never mean. We'll see how much of this sinks into his 3 year old brain.

And to finish with the reason as to why I should have known something was off, Saturday we took a trip to Huber's with friends, and he spent 50% of the time throwing fits...which is NOT like him. For the most part, he is past the horrible 3's, but Saturday, they came back in full. He threw a fit because he wanted to push the stroller, then another because he wanted to order his food, not us. Then another because he wanted to get his own ketchup. Then another because he wanted to stand by daddy not mommy. Then another because he wanted to climb in the jeep without help. Then another because we wouldn't let him grab stuff off the shelves at Target. Are you getting the idea? NON-STOP screaming fits all.day.long. So it was NO surprise at all when he had a fever and runny nose all day long on Sunday, which spiked up to 103 Sunday night and didn't break until early Monday morning. It's so obvious these days when he is getting sick, because he acts like a complete tyrant.

So fingers crossed that Friday's preschool troubles were because he didn't feel well and got up at 5am...because I'm not sure how to handle being the mom of the bad kid in class! I was never hyper or over-energetic. I'm blaming all of his excess energy on his dad. So thanks Dustin!

I'll leave with you some pictures from his teacher and the school's trike-a-thon fundraiser...which Christian had a blast at, of course. Bikes & bounce houses & balloons...oh my!