The Small Family     

It’s long been joked about that we will probably get more than one call from Theo’s school when he starts, because let’s face it, that boy has “mischief” written all over him when he gets bored. So yes, I’m fully expecting the, “Um, Mrs. Small? Theo’s been sent to the principal’s office…” calls at some point. Wasn’t quite expecting them yet, though!

Nope, not at preschool. And actually, not a call to the principal’s office--but more just a sign of what may come! We took Theo to his Little Gym class on Saturday, and the little turkey got suspended! For two minutes, anyway. But oh yes--we were those parents in the waiting room who had their kid brought out while the teacher very politely said, “Theo needs to stay out here and calm down for a couple of minutes.”

Well, it’s not as bad as it sounds. Actually, he was far from the worst behaved in the class. Another boy got kicked out for hitting another child. And a third was being a bit of a bully (to Theo, actually, among others), but the teachers didn’t catch that.

So what did Theo do? He thought it would be fun to dismantle the gym instead of doing the activities. Not in a destructive way--he just kept moving the mats around to different places, even though the teachers repeatedly asked him to leave them in place. And he kept leaving his station and going over to the other station, which apparently looked like much more fun.

So, he got kicked out for a few minutes of “cool down” time. And we reflected that it was probably only the first of many times!

Obviously, it’d be great if he listened to his teachers when they told him not to move the mats, and we certainly gave him a good talking-to about it. But I was comforted by the fact that he got ejected for some relatively innocent mischief, rather than for slugging another child….

Theo actually had two days at Little Gym this week, as I signed him up for a day camp on Wednesday. We had two more freebies to use up for either Parents’ Survival Nights or day camps, so I decided we’d try a day camp. He really seemed to love it, though oddly enough, three hours playing at Little Gym was NOT enough to tire him out for a nap. (He skipped his nap four times this week--I’m very, very sad to say that I suspect naps are on the way out. Sigh…I will miss them!) Anyway, this particular day camp was a “Fantasy Castle” theme, so he got to pretend to be a prince and a dragon and heaven knows what else. The kids got to make either a shield or a crown as a craft, and Theo apparently chose to make a shield. When I went to pick him up, it was hard to tell whose crafts were whose, as the names were hidden. But I knew just how to find Theo’s: Look for the plainest one. The boy does not care for coloring or drawing or art of any kind! Sure enough, I found a shield that had a single green squiggly line drawn on it, in contrast to the other elaborately colored crafts, and indeed that was his!

It so happens that they have an animal-themed day camp available the day before we leave for our big East Coast trip in August, so I’ve signed him up for that so I can spend a lovely, uninterrupted three hours packing and cleaning up the house before we leave. Bliss!

Preschool went well this week. I’m not sure exactly what he did, though, since all Theo will tell us when we ask him about preschool is, “Teacher Dorothy play the guitar.” Evidently that’s the highlight of it all. Actually, he has confessed to doing “number jobs” a few times, so I assume he’s gravitating toward the math-related activities.

I did find out a bit more, though. On Tuesday, when I went to pick him up, I could hear inside the classroom but not see in there. And I could hear Teacher Beth reading a story, and one insistent voice kept interrupting. Shall we guess who the voice belonged to?! He was very polite, but he kept interrupting, and I kept hearing Beth say, “We’re not doing that right now, Theo--we’re doing a story.” I later pieced together what happened: Apparently on Tuesdays, closing circle is a story. On Thursdays, it’s singing and music. Theo was very disturbed that there was no singing and music on Tuesday, so he kept interrupting Teacher Beth to suggest that perhaps there ought to be music. That is so Theo--he’s very polite (well, interrupting isn’t polite, but we all know every three-year-old does it…a lot), but he’s just determined to make his point. He won't generally throw a fit, but he'll just keep repeating his point to you until he thinks you've gotten it through your thick skull. He’s definitely not the kid who will sit back and go with the flow. Luckily, his teachers are wonderful with the kids, from what I’ve seen so far, so I’m sure he’ll get with the program eventually. ;-)

When I went to pick him up on Thursday, he was the last one out of class, even though I was the first parent there. (They release the kids as their parents arrive.) Teacher Beth told me, “Theo wants to stay until the end of the music.” No great surprise there, and I certainly didn’t mind, so I stood outside and waited. I finally heard Teacher Dorothy say, “Would you like to show your Mom the ukulele?” and out came Theo, clutching a ukulele, with Teacher Dorothy right behind him. Apparently she had brought a ukulele to closing circle and was showing the kids how to play it, how to tune it, etc. Theo was entranced and wouldn’t give it up, so she decided maybe if he showed it to me, he’d give it up. He told me all about how turning the pegs changed the sound, and we finally convinced him to give it up by suggesting he help Teacher Dorothy put it away.

On a related note, I was talking to the dental assistant who cleaned my teeth on Friday, and (very long story short) her daughter has been taking music lessons since age three (and is actually a very accomplished violinist at age 11). I told her I wanted to get Theo started with some sort of instrument when he was old enough, since he loves (that word may not even be strong enough…) all things music, and she suggested I contact her daughter’s piano teacher. I wasn’t sure he was quite old enough (and I guess time will tell), but Sunie (the dental assistant), after hearing a bit about how into music Theo is, said, “Oh, you’ve got to have him try something! He’ll love it!” My sentiments exactly…. I emailed the piano teacher to see whether she works with three-year-olds, but I haven’t heard back yet. Her lessons are just half an hour once a week, which I think would be about perfect for Theo’s attention span at this age.

We stuck around the Sacramento area this weekend, but we still had a lovely couple of days. Grandma Diane was nice enough to babysit twice for us--once on Friday, so we could get our will done (we’ve been meaning to do that since we had Theo--it only took us three years to get to it!), and also on Saturday, so we could go see the final Harry Potter movie. We both loved the movie--both of us nearly cried at some parts! As is almost always the case, the books are even better--but I do think the movies are actually really well done, and this final movie wrapped up the series beautifully. We repaid Grandma D for her kindness by having her stay to dinner--ravioli from Chris’s favorite Italian deli in San Jose. (We brought some frozen ravs back when we were there earlier this month.)

Sunday was a nice, cool day, so we opted for the Sacramento Zoo--a fun, free outing, since we’re members. Here’s the funny thing about the zoo this time: Theo was kind of dragging his feet about doing much. He really just wanted to stand and look at this sign that had the number 27 on it. (The zoo has a cell-phone tour you can take, where you punch in a designated number at each station, and you get info about the animals.) No amount of coaxing would get him away from this sign. We tried it all, “Theo, let’s go see the red pandas! Hey, Theo, remember they have giraffes here? Want to go see them? Mommy wants to go see the orangutans…” You name it; he was not budging. And then Chris had a stroke of genius and announced, “Theo, I heard they have more numbers over by the giraffes!” I snickered, but darn if the kid didn’t suddenly leap to attention, yell, “NUMBERS!” and run as fast as he could to the giraffes. Oh lord, I am raising a total math geek, aren’t I?! But it was good motivation--every time we wanted to move to the next exhibit, one of us would just say, “Oh, I bet we can find number 11 [or whatever] if we go to the next animal…” and off he would run.

My Aunt Sally, who we are visiting in Virginia in a few weeks, was telling me that my Uncle David, who also loves numbers (I swear, he and Theo should be blood-related--they share many traits!), has all sorts of little number topics and games to try with Theo, and I suspect Theo will be in heaven. He will sit with his wooden or foam numbers making two-digit numbers forever: “That’s 46! Now it’s 64! That’s 27!” Occasionally he ventures into the hundreds, but he’s mostly into two-digit numbers right now. Hmmm, if Uncle David can keep a three-year-old entranced for more than 10 minutes, I’m going to be seriously impressed! But he’s got numbers up his sleeve, so he just may do it!

And that wraps up our week. We’ve got a busy week/weekend coming up: On Friday we’re going to the Bay Area so I can visit with Auntie Lisa and Cason, who will be staying with her dad in Santa Cruz. Then on Saturday, we’re going to a little party at Lisa’s dad’s house to visit some more. Sunday, I have to go to a wedding rehearsal to get the final planning done for a wedding that I’m shooting with Amber and Kim (my two shutterbug friends) on Monday evening. I’m pretty nervous, having never “professionally” shot a wedding, but because Amber and Kim are shooting as well, I’m sure it’ll be fine. This is actually a friend of Amber’s who is trying to keep her wedding on a reasonable budget. Knowing that Amber is an aspiring professional photographer, Abby asked her to shoot the wedding--and Amber suggested that Kim and I join her so that we could cover more than just a single shooter could.

All this is my way of explaining that because I’m shooting a wedding, I’m renting a fancy-pants lens for the occasion--but I get it on Thursday so I can play with it over the weekend and get used to it before the wedding. So hopefully, the pictures on next week’s blog will be lovely due to my $2,500 lens, which I dream about but can probably never hope to own!

Last but not least, we have a fun little event planned on Tuesday, so I may do a midweek write-up of that, depending on how it goes. Check back Tuesday or Wednesday, and you may see a bonus post. :-)