Man Walking a Wienie Dog

For his friend, Vedant

Freddie's End of the Year Conference

The last of the preschool conferences, oh my.  The conferences are pretty informal, for me anyway, as I see both teachers several times a week and they always give me little updates and anecdotes.  I also don't really have any concerns and I'm with Freddie quite a bit so I fell like I have a pretty good read on where his development lies.  However, with his heading off to Big School next year, I did want to discuss my concern, my fear:  will Freddie stand up for himself or reach out for help when necessary?

Both Miss L and Miss J comment on Freddie's flexibility and kindness all the time.  They say he is easy to please and compromises and is easy going.  All qualities I am so happy my boy has because it makes life so much easier to go through if you are able to truly let things wash off your back.  But I have been concerned that he may compromise too much, accept too much, and perhaps not realize what things are important to stand your ground on or whom it is important to stand your ground with.  I've gotten to see him more with peers now that he's involved in sports and he's not aggressive or pushy.  Rather, I see him as passive and perhaps uncomfortably passive.  An example that comes to mind is a friend playfully squeezing on his face while they waited in line to bat, and I was quite sure Freddie wanted him to stop, although he never said so.  I was able to talk to him about it later, and he did indeed  not like being touched, so we went through some ideas of how to stop the interaction, and to avoid future contact.  I tried to talk to him about what he thought would happen if he had asked the friend to stop, but he really had enough of the Mom conversation.  Next time.

His teachers feel Freddie has a voice with his closest friends.  He will ask his friends to stop or express his desires with his friends.  They agree he will need some practicing with those he isn't close to or strangers.  I suppose this is pretty normal behavior for all of us, eh?  He really sticks to a small group of friends and avoids playing with the kids with the strongest most dominating personalities so he manages to not put himself into situations where he is pushed around.  He avoids groups who typically get involved with reckless or wild behavior and when things start getting heated with a group or in a game he typically peels off and finds something else to do.  I've definitely seen him do this at birthday parties when a game starts to go sour and the kids start arguing and Freddie will just walk away and find  new group.  He just doesn't have time for the drama.

Something interesting his teachers shared with me is that although Freddie doesn't necessarily stand out as The Leader in the class, the leaders seek out Freddie, his opinion and and companionship.  This made me smile.  Perhaps he is really the leader after all.

He makes friends easily.  He is excited to listen and share during discussion.  His attention span and time on task is exceptional.  His vocabulary is exploding.  He loves praise and is a pleaser (which will serve him well in the formality and structure of Big School).  He asks thoughtful questions.  As far as his academic development, his teachers find him to be beyond preschool expectations in all areas and beyond kindergarten expectations in most areas.

They tell me he's ready for kindergarten.  There' nothing to worry about.  He wants to have his own place to be his own person to grow in his own way.  He has his way, and it is more than enough for him to be happy and successful.

I'll never doubt you, Freddie.  Never.  Take the lead, my sweet boy, I'm here to hold your hand when you need me.

Memorial Day Weekend

• Oklahoma City
• Great Grandmother
• Great Aunts
• Birthday celebrating, a wee bit early
• Ice cream cake for breakfast
• Playground visits
• Rain, rain, rain…it seems to follow us
• Bare feet and backyards
• Mexican food

Caterpillars, again

We've had painted lady caterpillars the past three years and I almost didn't order caterpillars this year, but  decided it's kinda a symbol of the transition to spring for us.  

Watching the metamorphosis never gets old, not matter how many times you've seen it or how old you are.  It's pretty amazing.

Hans really didn't remember them from last year, so I'm especially glad we got them.

All five of the caterpillars made the metamorphosis and they made for an interesting centerpiece on the table.  We had lots of conversations about the caterpillars, chrysalis, and butterflies.

We released the butterflies in the backyard of our building.  In previous years they'd hang out in the garden for quite some time, but that wasn't the case this year.  A couple butterflies took off as soon as their habitat was opened, and the others didn't waste much time getting out into the world beyond our building.

Next year I won't hesitate to order our annual caterpillars.  I love the boys observing and discussing.  I love listening to their ideas and questions.  I love seeking out books and more information on what their asking about.  Learning never gets old.

Lovin'

• Brothers who have their own pretend world to play in together
• Travel plans
• Endless requests for 101 Dalmatians, both the book and the film
• Shorts and sandals
• Painted toenails
• Mint growing on the windowsill
• Carnivores who love their steak
• Reading with my big boy each evening
• Snuggles from my baby boy each morning
• Children's Zyrtec
• Fruit salad
• An arti covered refrigerator
• Size 10.5 sneakers neatly tucked in random places

Allergies

The red watery eyes and sniffles over the last two weeks seem to be a sure sign that my guy has some seasonal allergies.  The pollen count is exceptionally high lately, which I kinda figured considering Freddie cannot stop rubbing his eyes whenever we step outside. Not sure what the options were for a five year old, we popped in to see Dr. G who is also a pediatric allergist.

Who needs a tissue when you have a sleeve…yuck.  Boys are gross.
Thankfully he will scramble for a tissue of some sort when he has a particular bad sneeze.

Apparently five is right around the time when allergies begin to appear in kids, so Freddie is right on target.  Sigh. She heard some wheezing in his chest so hooked him up for a breathing treatment, which didn't do any good.  She suspects the cough is viral and not related to allergies, but she sent us home with a few vials of albuterol just in case but suggested skipping steroids or other aggressive treatments since the cough hasn't been restricting his activity and she thought his body would sort it out on its own.  She recommended either Claritin or Zyrtec syrup, 5mg, but said it was fine to give him the 10mg dissolve tabs since I had my doubts about him swigging syrup each morning.  She recommended eye drops if he'd tolerate them.  He's on day 2 of Zyrtec and there's a marked improvement.  I'm hoping the pollen counts come down soon so we can see if that helps as well.

*Note:  Active pollen right now:  oak, mulberry, birch.  The grass and weed pollen levels are low to none.

Coney Island

It's been a long time since we'd been out to Coney Island.  The area was damaged from Sandy, but the New York Aquarium is building back bigger and stronger so we have been trying to get out to visit.  

The boys talk about Coney Island as though it is the far off land.  I hear the location come up frequently in their pretend play, most likely due to the fact that "our train," the F train, runs all the way to Coney Island.  I'm sure the amusement park and sand have a little to do with it as well.

Checking out the factoids

We spent the morning in the aquarium.  I remembered when we brought Freddie here when he was a little guy he was terrified of the walrus.  Thankfully is feeling much braver now that he's a mature five year old, but he loves hearing the story of the 1.5 year old Freddie running from the walrus habitat.

Watching the walrus

We caught the sea lion show and checked out the fish, but it didn't take us long to see everything.  The aquarium is tiny, and not all of the exhibits have been fully restored since Hurricane Sandy.

Small is actually a plus for Freddie because it makes map reading easier.  I swear he LOVES to read the maps and direct everyone.  He even wanted to know if I had a pen so he could check off the spots we had already visited.  Love of maps?  Anal?  Who knows, but I love it.

After the aquarium we headed out the the boardwalk and hit the "beach."

Just a wee bit excited, I'd say

Coney Island is definitely a city beach.  It does not make me yearn for frozen drinks with umbrellas, but for these city boys it counts as a beach and satisfies their need to dig, dig, dig.

We had a picnic lunch with our feet in the sand while people watching.  People watching will only get better here as spring turns to summer.  

Then off to the boardwalk and the anticipated main event…RIDES!

On our last visit to Coney Island the amusement area, Luna Park, hadn't yet opened for the season so we didn't do any rides.  Freddie had not forgotten and regularly asks to go check out the rides.  We figured it was best to hit that up before Memorial Day and Summertime, although the beautiful weather meant there was a pretty good crowd.

Luna Park is broken into a few separate areas based on "thrill level."  We stuck to the kiddie rides since Hans was abler o ride just about all of these on his own.  Freddie took great care of him, buckling him in and out, although I think perhaps Hans was the braver of the two on those rides that were on the more daring side.

Even with some thrills, Hans' favorite is always the carousel.

After exhausting our tickets it was back the the boardwalk for the other highly anticipated event…french fries, or in this case chicken tenders, eaten with a little plastic fork.

You have to have Nathan's at Coney Island.  I will say having a LARGE beer in the sunshine pretty much made for a fantastic day.

And you also have to have ice cream on the boardwalk!  Although the boys decided to go with one ice cream and one cotton candy.

I'm not sure how Freddie managed to be in control of both the ice cream and cotton candy.

We loved our day in the sunshine.  Maybe one year we'll get brave and grab a bench on the boardwalk for the 4th of July for some prime people watching and beer drinking.

A little soccer...

Soccer continues to be a great experience for both boys, especially in this glorious spring weather.

Freddie sticks with the drills even when he's not the best or the fastest, and best of all he does it with a smile.  I hope that's a theme in his life.

Hans on the right listening to instructions

Hans is finally singing along with the songs the coach sings to help the kids remember not to use hands.  Just like in gymnastics it has taken him a few times to totally get on board with everything, and he maintains a look of skepticism listening to a grown man singing with a bunch of kids.  I get it, Hans, I get it.

We're proud of these boys.  Can ya tell?