trick-or-treat fun

Happy Halloween! We've had a couple of days of big fun. Last night we had our family & friends Halloween party at the lake where we ate spooky foods and toured a crashed alien space ship (complete with a Probe Room). This scared Dennis a good bit, even though he knew it was Gigi's house and not a real ship, even though we assured him it was all make believe, even though we all wore tin foil on our heads so the aliens couldn't invade our minds. Dennis quizzed us about extraterrestrial phenomena and its possible truthfulness all the way home. And he ended up sleeping with us because all he could think about was aliens coming to get us.

Today he toured the pumpkin patch again on his midday date with Gigi and Gran. They picked him up from school early and took him to have some fun. They had so much fun that he took a three hour nap before Transforming into Optimus Prime to go trick-or-treating tonight. This was his first year of honest-to-goodness, actual house-to-house trick-or-treating (and yes, I've now officially hyphened myself to death). We've done the trunk-or-treat before where you go from car to car, and we stopped at one of those at a local church before heading to the subdivision most popular with kiddos on Halloween night. Things have changed. We didn't march house-to-house and ring doorbells. Instead, all the homeowners sat outside to greet passing children, HUNDREDS of passing children, and hand out candy. We saw tons of people we knew, people from church, people from Preschool... We admired costumes and enjoyed watching Optimus run up to houses to give his greetings and thanks, shopping bag slung over his shoulder. He scored some serious chocolate. I hope he shares. We did some serious walking!

infestation of love!

Dennis has been visiting me often as I lay in bed over yesterday and today, having finally succumbed to the cold that I've been fighting for weeks. He is still fine, thank goodness, but I have a very nasty and painful cough that I hope will be gone by tomorrow morning. This morning, Dennis stuck his hand up my sleeve and crawled it along my back. He asked "do you feel something?" and I said that I did. He laughed and said "it's a shirt bug!". He was about to be a pants bug as well, but I stopped him.

heroes on parade

It's been a long, full, fun day. We began our day with the trick-or-treat downtown with three of the preschool classes. This is a major cuteness fest, 30 or so small characters of all kinds marching through banks and businesses and the courthouse, holding out bags and saying "trick or treat!" and "thank you!". Dennis had many classmates that were also superheroes. And later, after the three classes of Halloween-ers left after the big party, Dennis was playing with the kids in the 4 year old class who will go tomorrow instead of today (so none were in costume). The boys followed little Captain America all over the playground, and in sweet generosity, he loaned out his cape, his mask, his shield, and his star to 4 different kids so they could all be superheroes together. After a while, he got tired of keeping track of who had what and for how long, so he brought it all to me to put away. He was so good today. He and the other kids in afternoon care even napped today (and we stayed at school long after the others left so he could finish his nap).

After school, we had child care duty at the gym, and Dennis had his Taekwondo testing. I hear he did great, and 6 people told me he was the cutest thing they'd ever seen. Then the classes went out to eat afterward to celebrate. Dennis sat at the table with the kids and instructors, and David and I sat with the parents. I heard him inform the others that he had some "private business to discuss with Mom" and he walked over to whisper in my ear "this is important private business: I love you!" before returning to his seat. He's the best!

exhaustion has set in

If we can just make it through tomorrow, everything will be alright. Today I substituted for Dennis' teacher AND for the science teacher. I loved it. I got to know Dennis' classmates, and I learned how his class operates. We did a couple of neat graphing projects today, as it was Rainbow Day in his class. Each child told me his or her favorite color, and we put his or her name on that color paper crayon then he or she found that line on the graph and added the name to it. In the end, we counted the named for each color and found that red was the most popular. We also graphed Skittles. Mrs. Nancy has special graphs made up with circles in columns marked by colors. The kids arranged the Skittles on the graph, observed which color their snack sized bag had the most of, and then ate their Skittles. Very popular project. And they all did a great job graphing them.

I didn't even attempt the nap with the afternoon kids today. We did the Prayer Walk that the church has set up for this week, we played on the playground, and we came inside and played board games. There were three happy guys today, and they were mostly well behaved, and I spared my own mood by not fussing at them to nap when they almost never do.

Tonight I taught the church preschoolers, and I have been with Dennis nonstop today save one hour and fifteen minutes (total over the course of the day) when he was in a different class. I had thought that he'd finally be satisfied that he was getting my attention, but he still had to act out once or twice (push a kid in class). And when we got home, he wallowed all over me and followed me around nonstop. I'm so glad that I won't have to do the afternoon care anymore, that he won't have to share me with other kids, that I'll only be teaching my class when he's busy in his own class and it won't matter to him so much. We'll have this last precious year of afternoons together before he has to go to school all day long.

Tomorrow is a BIG day. Lots to do, and we'll be away from home for 12 hours with school and gym work and Taekwondo! He tests for his yellow belt tomorrow night, and then we're coming home to bed!!! I love all the things we do, and it's a good tired, the kind you get when you're accomplishing things. But it's tiring for sure, and lately I'm falling into bed worn out completely, which I am about to do again!

bullying the bully

Dennis pummeled a kid today, jumping on him and kicking him in the back until he cried. This does happen to be the class bully that he walloped, but it was still inexcusable behavior. I put him in time out on the playground for a long time, long enough that his victim said "he's been in time out long enough, Mrs. Christi; I already forgave him." So I gave him another chance and he pushed the other two boys out of the playhouse. As explanation, he said "it's my shop, and my shop is CLOSED." So he lost his playground privileges. And after the other boys whined me to death: "he won't share (did you know that 'share' can have three syllables?)" and "he won't play with me" (these times not referring to Dennis who was on the Time Out Bench), I made everyone come inside and stretch out on their mats, where I sternly reminded them repeatedly for an hour to STOP TALKING and close their eyes. This part of the job I don't love. I love teaching a class, LOVE IT, but Afternoon Care makes me feel like a worn out hag and is greatly increasing my gray-hair-to-brown-hair ratio. But this is the last week of it!!!!

the longest week

Day 1 of the long week ahead is complete! Dennis (Captain America) spent his morning with Gran while I worked at the preschool (he doesn't have class on Mondays). They had great superhero fun, and when I arrived to pick him up, he was in full Captain America dress. Gran had cut out a white star for his chest and rigged him a red and white striped belt (which is awesome because now I won't have to). What was even more awesome than that was that Gran and Hobbs were wearing white stars as well, Gran's taped to her shirt and Hobbs' taped to his head. I could tell that some serious fun had occurred, and they told me about their picnic and playing on the playground, which happened at our house while they were supervising the laying out of materials for the pouring of our new porch (tomorrow!!).

Dennis and I both took afternoon naps before going to Taekwondo class, his last before he tests for the next belt on Thursday. The rest of the week will be filled with preparation for the Halloween festivities that will happen at the end of the week, a parade through downtown and party at the preschool and a family party over the weekend. We have three afternoons of afternoon care at the preschool (our last three!), and a long night at the gym on Thursday, and trick-or-treating on Monday. And I'm so tired just reading this that I think I'm ready to go on to bed. Though Dennis assured us "I will NOT go to sleep unless you read me another book," he is indeed asleep.

the superhero with the achy tummy

Dennis was just not himself today. He slept very late and was whiny and clingy at church (weird for him). He cried when I picked him up, refused to speak to anyone, and complained of a tummy ache. He ate when we got home and said the ache was "just a tiny bit" after that. He also convinced me to get him the Captain America mask and shield that had been marked clearance at Walmart (the last of each item in stock). He tried them on and played a little, but then he asked for Sprite to help his little tiny tummy ache. I wonder what's going on with him. I hope it's nothing major. I just hate it when he doesn't feel well.