OtterPops: The kid update

1st day of Kindergarten

Five days after moving Jocelyn began kindergarten. She did great with walking right in, getting used to the schedule and meeting friends at the kinder meet & greet. It wasn’t until the next week when reality hit that she realized she has a hard time with change and had a daily meltdown every morning for a couple weeks. She did fabulous her first soccer practice as well, and then proceeded to have meltdowns before every game and practice for a couple weeks as well. Once she is there she does great and really enjoys it. Her kindergarten teacher tells me "she's such a joy to have in class, a model student!" which is nice to hear, but I have to place that information side by side with the fact that I battled her all morning to even get to school!

I think change is just difficult for her as she keeps telling us she “misses the old house” but when we try to pin her down on what she misses she just tells us that “it’s different and she misses the way things were!” I’m trying to figure out how to help her adjust to change easier, but I get worn out dealing with her daily meltdowns so I’m glad they seem to be winding down (just in time to throw a new baby into the mix!) She also began art lessons for the fall and really enjoys them. She will have a piece of her art on display at the community center next month along with the other art students and she is thrilled!

Jocelyn before soccer game

I got a glimpse recently of what it will mean to have such opinionated and strong willed kids. Jocelyn recently grew out of or broke almost every pair of shoes we had for her. I bought Jocelyn a pair of shoes for school in the appropriate budget, size and colors that I thought would work. I brought them home and boy was I out of my league!! She told me how everyone had twinkle toes shoes (which I still refuse to spend that much on kid’s shoes) and she proceeded to have a meltdown about shoes. My mom was coming into town and asked what she could get for Jocelyn’s birthday coming up so I mentioned shoes would be great. My mom bought 5 pairs of shoes and then when she arrived we took Jocelyn to Payless and bought even more shoes within her specifications. I couldn’t believe the coaxing, debating and justifying my mom and I were going through just to get Jocelyn to try on the darn shoes, much less decide on a pair or two that would work. In the end I think we found some solutions but I thought it would be the end of us! Just look at the stack of shoes we purchased in our pursuit, more than half of which had to be returned. I told her at more than one point she could just go barefoot for all I cared, if she was not even willing to try them on! What a spoiled society we live in, yet against my best judgment I felt like I was feeding into it. I'm not sure what the answer is, but hopefully we won't have to buy shoes for another year until she wears these out or grows out of them!!

Shoe Indecision

Lillian has taken to being 4 with a lot of gusto and has jumped right into preschool 3 days a week as well as ballet class once a week. I am teaching her preschool for the month of September (which is a little overwhelming teaching 6 kids 3 days a week with all the prep time, but it has been fun). Then they will rotate to her other friend’s houses for the next 4 months before it comes back to my rotation. It’s perfect for me as far as timing with the baby, even if it has been a chaotic month! Lillian did fabulous at her 4 year old pictures and was excited to be the center of attention. She sure has a lot of personality and as long as she channels it appropriately it can be a great asset! There are times when it can be a challenge, but we sure love having her as part of our family.

Lillian 4 year old butterfly cake

Lillian 4 year old pictures

Lillian Preschool field trip to Gymnastics Center

Lillian Jonas dropping Jocelyn off at school

Jonas has been so fun and cute lately. I told Jared recently I wish that I could freeze Jonas at this age! He is talking like crazy, repeating everything we say, coming up with his own sentences, and surprising us with his input. One of the first times that we were waiting in our car to pick up all the kids for the school carpool, Lillian realized we were picking up all boys besides Jocelyn. She started complaining how “boys are just crazy and mean and she doesn’t like picking up that many boys!” I started to tell her how maybe Jonas appreciated it because he’s surrounded by girls all day long, and how boys can be really kind and good friends and cited some examples where that has been true with boys in her class. Lilly just repeated back “boys are crazy and mean!” to which Jonas replied “No I’m not!” I looked to the back seat to see if he knew what he was saying and he had the cutest smile on his face and kept repeating: “no, I’m not!” He was not only comprehending the conversation, but he was defending himself and being comical about it!

I can see some hints of the times to come though…This weekend he was walking along a curb and fell into a patch of ivy. Jared reached in to help him out and he got so mad at the help that he literally threw himself back into the patch of ivy only to climb out BY HIMSELF! Jared and I were laughing at him and I said “Jonas, can you say terrible twos?” which he immediately repeated “terrible twos!” I then had to explain to the girls what that meant when they wouldn’t stop questioning us…

He also loves going to Jocelyn’s soccer practices and games and will kick an extra ball or one that I bring just for him around the ENTIRE time and gets a little offended when I won’t let him join the older kids on the field.