Aaron is attending preschool twice a week on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 12:30-3PM at Tammie Stratton's home, who is a woman in our stake. I love that she's less than five minutes from my house! It works out great to drop off Aaron and hurry back home to get Logan down for his nap by 12:45... squeeze in some writing time, and then wake up Logan at 2:5 so we can grab Aaron and make it with plenty of time to pick Aiya up from school! Fun little juggling act. But enough about me and the satisfaction I get from organizing my scheduled mom-life...
I love preschool Aaron. He is so happy to attend and I really wasn't worried about his behavior one bit. Anytime I've sent him somewhere without me, I only hear great things from adults about how polite, thoughtful, and smart he is. We spent the morning at Kohls buying a couple new outfits--dinosaur themed, OF COURSE. (His obsession with dinosaurs hasn't died out, which I'm happy about.) By the time I walked him towards the front door of the preschool house, he was dressed in his dinosaur shirt and dinosaur backpack with "handsome hair" crisply applied (hair gel!). "I'm excited AND nervous," he admitted to me before we walked through the door. But he found his bin with his name on it, went to his desk, and had a huge smile on his face when I picked him up 2.5 hours later! I loved hearing him talk about his afternoon on the car ride to pick up Aiya, jabbering away with lots of details. (With Aiya, I really had to prod her about what she did).
Noticed a HUGE difference between Aiya (at this age) and Aaron. Aaron was eager to complete his homework, so while we were parked along the street of the school, I let Aaron have at his worksheets. He traced the circles and squares with fast movement, missing most of the actual dotted lines as expected. But he was fine with it! I was so relieved. (Aiya at this age screamed in frustration and threw fits every time she'd do her homework because she couldn't trace it perfectly and just desperately wanted to do it right--a trait that hasn't bypassed her in most areas, although she manages her frustrations incredibly well at school now.) Aaron has had homework twice now and is just happy to do it! He's not concerned about perfection or neatness, but seems to enjoy following through with the assignment. It's made the experience pretty enjoyable! This easy-going side to him is so refreshing.
Random Highlights about Aaron:
- Embraces his creativity as a strength in his personality. He truly takes pride in every piece of arts and crafts he touches. Dan says its adorable.
- He can make a toy out of ANYTHING and has a vision about his contraptions that I can't see until he points it out. I'm truly amazed and pleased every day at how he makes an animal or some kind of device out of whatever he can find. (Most recently, he was just happy to envision a pterodactyl out of a bent cardboard tag from one of my new T-shirts).
- He loves to learn FACTS, especially about dinosaurs. When he's checking out library books, he's willing to read almost anything with a dinosaur on it, but his first pick will be a realistic-looking non-fiction book. He also enjoys spouting off about these facts, making sure you know that HE knows what he's talking about. ("I learned it from Dino Dana, Mommy. I already knew that.")
- He is still very much attached to his beloved "Puppy", but has finally reached a stage in his life where he can sleep with other stuffed animals if we can't find it. Hallelujah!! Gone are the days of scouring every nook and cranny at 8 PM, frantic and desperate because he won't go to sleep without it! I cannot even tell you all of the random places we have found that raggedy stuffed animal, but to name a few: under the sink, stuck between the wall and couch, inside a tiny compartment to a doggy-door that we don't even have use for (!)...
- Over the summer, he was in our bed at night. A LOT. He'd creep in somewhere between 12 and 3 AM, and Dan and I were too exhausted to fight him on it. With surviving morning sickness and fatigue, it was just easier to let him slip between us than get out of bed and walk him back. Fortunately, he has mostly kicked the habit, in part due to earning "two tokens" when he sleeps all through the night in his own bed. We are so grateful for this because once Aaron was in our bed, Aiya seemed to follow within an hour or two, scared without him. (They still sleep together in Aiya's queen bed in her room).
- Aaron connects with music. He loves learning and singing primary songs and has a cute, high little voice. He also takes pride in learning songs on the radio, asking if I heard him singing along. He picks up on inappropriate lyrics, too, which is helpful! "That song say naked. That's not appropriate!" He really can pick out words, even when the car is kind of chaotic with a bunch of kids all talking at once. He also likes to sing Daniel Tiger jingles at fitting times, like when he's being thoughtful. "Whatever you do, think about what other people need to." When I praise him, he follows it up with an animated, "Yeah! Sharing is caring!"
- Fifty-fifty success rate with putting his shoes on the right foot. Lol
- Aaron and Logan finally play well together! Aaron is teasing him now and then a few times during the day, but mostly, the two of them get into a pretty great groove. I love watching them engage together in quiet play, jabbering away about whatever.
- Halloween and Christmas are Aaron's favorite holidays. Green is his favorite color.
I can't believe my little A-Man will be in kindergarten next year. I know that will make life easier but I'm already sad thinking about him being gone from me all day, just like it took some adjustment with Aiya. My goal is to make more individual time with him while I can!
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