Lessons

We are at the start of birthday party season. For some reason just about every child I know out here was born between August and November. We get invited to A LOT of birthday parties, I mean tons, as in just about every weekend, sometimes multiple parties in one weekend. I think I mentioned before that these parties are NOT my favorite things to do. But, I go to some, occasionally. This past weekend was one such occasion. It was for a little girl named Neve and it was her first birthday. The party was at a place called Music Together, it's one of those places where you can take your kid for mommy & me music classes. The party was actually really well done and very nice. The kids got a nice music class where they could sing and dance and play instruments, they also got to do an art project. Of course there was cake and lots of other food. The biggest draw however was the window washing. Smartly, the owners of this particular establishment are well aware that kids can't stay away from windows. Instead of dealing with the constant fingerprints on the glass they set up a little window washing station for the kids: spray bottles of water, little squeegies, towels, and a drying rack with clothespins for the towels. The lesson here was a big one for mommy - what a smart idea! And yes, Ben & Alex have been washing windows at home all week.

The bigger lesson from the party was not for me, but rather for Alex. He didn't actually get to go to the party. Weekends seem to be his favorite time for major catclysmic meltdowns. He was warned all day Saturday that if behavior didn't change, there would be no party. It didn't change, he didn't get to go. Mike stayed home with Alex and I took Ben to the party. Alex completely understood why he stayed home. He did make the best out of it and while he said that he missed going to the party he was glad to get to stay home with daddy by himself. Of course it didn't hurt that a goody bag was sent home for him. Interestingly, Ben was ridiculously shy at the party. He wouldn't let me put him down until the very end - and that kid is HEAVY! He would close his eyes whenever anyone looked at him, thus becoming invisible. The crazy part of all this was that there wasn't a single person there that he didn't know and hadn't spent lots of time with. He really does shadow Alex.

Which brings us up to the last bit of the day. Alex will start preschool in September. Yeah I know it's kind of a big shocker to some. But, after much agonizing thought this is the decision that Mike and Alex and I all came to together, and we are all very happy about it. Alex is definitely ready and excited beyond words for school and I am hoping that he will learn some much needed skills for kindergarten. I'm not concerned about academics - he's so smart, but socialization and listening to other adults, interacting with other kids, etc. I guess that's all I have to say about that for now. I'm sure there will be more to say after he starts.