Blessed Beyond Measure: A Team Week 71: Preschool Woes

So for those of you that read my post from Week 70, I will start by saying that this week was significantly better. Not stress free, not perfect, but better. As I'm sure it was quite apparent in my last post, a large cause of my current anxiety is the realization that Asher will soon be a child of school age and I (we) have no idea where to send him. Additionally, I would like to send him to preschool, but do not know where to send him for that as well and need to find a(n affordable) school that includes extended care, since Eric and I are both working parents and will not able to pick him up from school to bring him to daycare.

During my panic last week, I began searching for information on our possible options and found out that one preschool was holding an open house that Saturday morning, so we headed over there. It (Kenosha Montessori) was interesting. The preschool itself seemed great, both engaging and student-led. The extended care program though (where he would spend 7 of the 10 hours of the day that Eric and I are gone) was not at all to my liking. It would have been interesting to actually see everything in action instead of touring on an off day, but even without that I was convinced this was not the place for us.

Side Story: While we were taking the tour of the preschool, Eric and the boys headed off to the side to check out the classroom pet parrot. As they all stood around staring at it, it looked back at them and said "peekaboo". The boys were shocked. Asher was thrilled and excited that it could talk and Avery was completely flabbergasted...I'm sure thinking "man, that parrot can talk better than I can!"

On Wednesday of this week, Eric and I took another tour of a preschool that is just blocks away from the in-home daycare that Asher and Avery attend. This school was a small Lutheran school and I was really hoping I would love it because the location is perfect and I knew it was not a secular environment. Unfortunately, I wasn't in love with it either. Like the Montessori, I liked the preschool, but was not a fan of the extended care program. The price for this school was better, but I have a very difficult time picturing Asher spending the entire day there.

So, that is where we are at...even two weeks later as I type this. I still don't know what to do and question how important it is for him to even attend preschool at all. I know the lady that watches him works with him on his letters, numbers, colors, shapes, etc., and I love that he is in a home environment, even if it is not our home. However, I also know that he seems to have difficulty playing with other children his age, which I assume has much to do with the fact that he is currently the oldest in his daycare and is used to playing on his own, with adults or with little kids. Man, this parenting thing is HARD!

Besides being anxious about finding a preschool though, the rest of the week was pretty typical, just me and my (3) boys. <3

On Tuesday I got home with Asher and Avery and began the typical 'just got home' routine of putting shoes, jackets, etc. away when I turned around to see Avery with an Oreo in his mouth. In the last month or so he discovered the pantry cabinet and now thinks he can help himself to whatever he wants whenever he wants it. He was a happy boy with his cookie and proudly showed it to me, but wasn't too happy when I took the cookie away. Don't worry though, I did let him finish it that evening after he'd eaten his dinner.

Video: Dancin' Fool

Our littlest man loves to dance and he has the best moves, getting his hands, arms and butt into the mix. This video makes me smile, but my favorite moves are about 3/4 of the way into the video.

On Wednesday, Asher desperately wanted to play outside. I was not as interested and couldn't let Avery go outside without me, so I told Asher he could go if he went by himself. Surprisingly, he did. I bundled him up and off he went to boy around in the frozenish tundra that is our backyard. Soon after I peeked out the window to see what he was up to and found that he was scaling our branch pile in the back yard.

On Wednesday night I could't sleep at all (due to the anxieties mentioned above and in previous posts, that tends to happen a lot lately) and I spent most of the evening tossing and turning. The next morning I headed downstairs per my typical morning routine to have a bowl of cereal before work. Asher was up and sitting at the table with me, obviously not as tired as I was. He was talking to me a mile a minute and asking me every question that popped into his mind, but being that I was completely exhausted I just couldn't keep up with him. Finally, I looked at him and said, "Buddy, Mommy is really tired this morning." He replied "then you can go to work and take a nap." I responded, "I wish, but adults are not allowed to sleep at work." Curious, Asher asked what would happen. Not knowing what else to say, I said, "Mommy would get fired." This obviously perplexed him but he really didn't say anything after that. I finished up my cereal and then minutes later as I was loading the dishes into the dishwasher Asher asked, "Mommy, why you have fire at your work so you cannot sleep?" Exhausted and barely coherent, this took me a minute to understand, but when I did I couldn't help but smile.