....the day Nixon asked to leave BeBe at home has arrived. My baby boy is growing up, for real!

* Some days I'm almost grateful Nixon is acting a fool in public. Today was one of those days. We're standing in the check out line, and Nixon is upset because he didn't get to go to the toy department. While he's starting to freak out, the woman in line behind us starts going on-and-on-and-on about shopping for toys for her grandson! Really, lady?!? I'm trying to avoid that "t" word and you keep bringing it up. Instead, I try to be courteous and ask how old her grandson is. I'm not sure how old she thought Nixon was, but her grandson is 8! Now, Nixon is tall, but c'mon!
  Eventually, Mac told me to just take Nixon to the car. I did. I picked him up and carried him to the car. Poor Mac, the lady was still talking after we left.

* Sometimes Nixon's cute hits an overload.
   Last night, at Third Eye Comics, Nixon and I were walking around one part of the store and Mac was in a different area. Nixon stopped at the front counter and says to the guys who work there "Excuse me...have you seen my Dad?", just as cute as could be. He knew I was right behind him but he was still concerned about finding Mac.
  I fall in love with him a little more every day...last night this was the moment.

* Nixon and I had to run to Target today, while Mac slept. Before we left Nixon told me "Momma, BeBe needs to take a nap. Can you put him in bed before we go in the car?". I obliged, tucking BeBe into Nixon's bed and we left.
   The amazing part isn't that Nixon wanted BeBe to be tucked in for a nap. It's that we left the house, without a fight, without BeBe. Nixon has had BeBe in hand almost his entire life, so him asking to leave him home is a big step. It's one I knew had to come eventually, but it kind of surprised me too.

No trick camera angle needed, this kid is all legs

* Before bed, Nixon decided to watch the end credits of Wreck-It Ralph. He loves that song and he was dancing to it. Let me tell you, watching an almost-5-year old figuring out how to do the running man all by himself is something to behold! He was doing really good too! I wanted to get a video of him doing it but he said he's not ready for it.
   I can respect that. He'll be working on it, I'm positive

An apology...and then my kid almost made me piss myself!

(I have a good excuse for not posting last night. Mac had a sleep study and was given a sleeping pill for, with instructions to be driven to and picked up from the hospital. It was nearly an hour drive one-way and Nixon and I got home at nearly 9:30pm and needed to leave by 5am this morning. I didn't do the post because I needed to sleep.)

* Nixon and I woke up around 4:45am today, in order to leave and pick up Mac by 6am. Nixon was really good about getting up, dressed and in the car. He was even good when we got home and needed a nap (seriously...I was exhausted!). Nixon was so tired by 1pm, he was incredibly hyper. I finally had to force him to nap because I thought he was going to hurt himself! and I was going nuts listening to his hyper jabbering about total nonsense <- bad mom confession

* This evening, while making dinner, Nixon mastered the silent sneak up behind someone and yell "BOO!". It would've been a super awesome, proud mom moment...except he did it to me and I was in the middle of draining hot pasta in the sink and he was right behind me and nearly got elbowed in the face!
    Good job and the scare, bad timing.

* Finally....Nixon finally cleaned his room. By himself. While I supervised. When he was done I explained it's important for him to keep his room clean because for his birthday we're getting him a fish and his fish will need a nice, clean room to live in.
   He is super excited about his birthday gift! Nixon said "I can do it, because I'm a big, growing boy, Momma! Growing boys keep their rooms clean, like me!"

...and today he wore a size 6 pants for the first time ever. Stop growing, baby boy!! Just slow down!

* Nixon heard Mac come home this morning and proudly showed him the clear path in his bedroom! He's been sleeping in our bed because his room is such a disaster even he doesn't want to sleep in there and possibly have to get up in the middle of the night to pee and walk across the matchbox-car-angry-birds-stuffed-animal minefield he created in there!
    To be fair, he had some help. We had a friend crash here last night and she was up when Nixon woke up. She told Nixon a great way to surprise his daddy and make him very happy would be to clean his room up a little before he came home. He did just that and was super proud of himself. And Mac? Mac was super pleased with the effort!

* It was pretty chilly in the house this morning, so I grabbed a blanket and Nixon and I snuggled while watching our Saturday cartoons together! Nixon would get up, say he was warm, then come back and say "Mommy, let me in, my feet and hands are cold!"

* Tonight was a major milestone! We had to go to the grocery store, and normally we go armed with the PSP or iTouch for Nixon to keep him occupied, but tonight we left without it and went anyways. This was either going to go really well or really bad!
   Turns out, it went really well! Nixon was great! He got a little cold in the meat and dairy section, but he liked picking out granola bars for himself and weighing the fruits and veggies for us. He didn't get antsy until the very end and even that wasn't bad.
    Best part of the whole trip? On the way out, Nixon walked past 2 older men and (of course!) said "Excuse me" as he passed them. These two guys were just blown away, completely awed by our little man's manners. The man closest to Mac and I said "Did you just hear that little boy say "excuse me" as he passed us? That's incredible! He's yours, right? Great job! He is so polite."
    Yep, that's our boy and we are so proud!

About last night....Sept 30th's post

   I couldn't write a post last night. I was raw and emotional from the day.

   It started really bad, with Nixon crying and refusing to go to school. Ultimately I sat down with him and talked to him (and listened). My poor, sweet boy is dealing with what sounds like a bully situation at school...in preschool?!?! For real!
   Mac and I took Nixon to school, and I spoke to his teachers about the situation we face at home (sadly, this is not the first day Nix hasn't wanted to go to school) and what he had told me that morning. Nixon pointed out the child to Mac, who in turn brought it to the teachers attention.
   When we picked him up, the teachers assured us nothing out of the ordinary happened and they saw no inappropriate interactions between Nixon and the other child. It was also mentioned that Nixon sometimes overreacts to some social interactions (example given was Nixon telling a teacher she was mean when a Lego she tossed into a pile, bounced and hit Nixon's arm. The group was sitting on the floor and it was clean up time, and the Lego toss was part of a clean up effort, apparently) and perhaps Nixon is just misinterpreting normal play with bullying. It was also said that Nixon was playing with all the boys yesterday, as they were all chasing each other and "shooting" each other (gun play is not allowed on school grounds and this was quickly discouraged).
   While I'm not totally opposed to listening to that, I've witnessed the child Nixon pointed out mock Nixon in the past. Nixon has a very sweet voice, and has trouble with some pronouncing some words and I heard this child mocking Nixon's voice and speech. Nixon, at the time, laughed it off and walked away that day. It makes me wonder what happened since then.

   I was, and still am, upset over the idea that Nixon is being bullied already. But I'm listening to him, talking about things and helping him deal with this at home, all while letting him know his parents are here for him no matter what. Sometimes I just need to slow down and listen to him instead of reacting to him. Yesterday morning was that day.

Today Nixon started trying his hand at stand-up comedy, his delivery is good but we'll work on his punchlines together!

* Nixon walks up to me, wearing his plastic HULK Halloween mask. I say "Hi HULK" and Nixon says (from under the mask) "I'm not HULK, it's me Nixon. See my eyes?"
   He then tells me he's wearing the mask to hide from the bugs.

* Nixon: Knock, knock
me: Who's there?
Nixon: Me!
me: me who?
Nixon: It's me, Nixon! I'm right here!
and he runs away laughing!
It's his first knock, knock joke so I'll give him a break. It still made me laugh! Why? Because I'm his mom and I laugh at him when ever he's totally adorable!

* I took Nixon to Pet Smart today, to get some cat things. While we were there, Nixon and I walked around to look at the animals. Nixon went from wanting a hamster to a bird (never happening!) to a fish. Since we're already thinking of getting him a fish for his birthday, I'm good with the last one.
   We went and looked at all the tanks, including the really odd looking googly-eyed goldfish ones. Nixon declared these fish "so adorable!" and the clerk in the fish department looked mildly amused when I responded "You and I have wildly different definitions of 'adorable' there kiddo".

Today felt like a Monday, not a Friday at all.... but then I remembered it's Friday the 13th, so maybe it felt like a Friday afterall, just a really, really bad one!

* Let me start by saying: none of what we're being told is unexpected. There is a reason I was adamant that Nixon get into a preschool program this fall, before he goes to kindergarten next year. I knew the transition was going to be difficult for him.  

   Onto today: First Nixon didn't want to go to school. His reasoning was he'd be hit again. Did he really believe this? I don't know. I do know I used momlogic and worked him into getting ready for school little-by-little.
   He was told if he stayed home, he was in bed, sleeping with no TV because the only way he was staying home was if he was sick. I asked him if he was sick and he said "NO!", then he says, very matter-of-factually "I should go brush my teeth so the other kids aren't scareded of my stinky breath."
   Take him to school and he is fine. There is the cutest little girl in his class who was so happy to see him! She started saying "Nixon! Nixon's here! Hi Nixon! Hey! Nixon! Nixon! Nixon hi!" as he was putting up his backpack. He played it cool (or rude, depending on your point of view I suppose) but did smile when she came over and joined him at the table he went to play at.

* And then we (Mac and I together, because Mac promised Nixon he would be there...which turned out to be a huge help) went to pick Nixon up. All the kids were in a nicely formed circle, but I didn't see Nixon...until I heard him, in the office, with the head administrator.
   Nixon decided to act an ass most of the day. He was refusing to do any of the choices of activities he was given, arguing instead to do only what he wanted. He was getting to the point of disrupting the rest of the class, so in swooped the Admin and off to her office they went. The goal was to calm him down, which today was not happening. He was rude, talked back and full of sass. When we arrived, he heard our voices and started crying. Until that moment he hadn't produced real tears.
   Mac took Nixon out to the car while I spoke to the Admin. She is amazing! Together, during about a 10-15 minute conversation, we discussed Nixon's issues and how to best address them. She said "He's smart, and he's stubborn. He's a difficult one because he knows what he's doing and he chooses to do it knowing the consequences thinking he can outsmart his way out of the consequences." Yep, that's Nixon.
   Our joint plan of action, during which I explained he'd been evaluated and is a self-led learner and can be very determined to get his own way, is to let her us the punishments we use at home as leverage at school. I also told her he responds very well to sticker charts (because they do individualize things for each child as needed, a HUGE plus and big reason why we chose this particular school as Nixon's intro).

* When we came home, Nixon was told NO PSP and NO iTOUCH for the day. Because of how he acted in school. He asked to go to his room and take a nap. He told me, as I tucked him in for his nap "I just need some time to be alone right now", and I get it. He's dealing with a lot of changes, but he also knows better.

   This weekend we'll be focusing a lot on proper behavior at school and why how he acted in school today is not okay. He learned the hard way, I wasn't joking when I said a bad day at school would mean to video game play time at home. He got none of that today.

This is what I saw when I walked into his room...an empty bed!

He's lying on the floor, next to his bed. This is a photo from under his bed. How cute is he?!

Another major milestone reached today: Nixon's first "injury" at school at the hands of another child....holy crap is it really only the 2nd week of school?!!?

* Nixon gleefully returned to school today, after staying home Monday due to some pretty bad congestion issues he had going on. He bounced back from that very quickly and woke up excited for school today.
   When I dropped him off, he went skipping...literally skipping, towards the toys singing "It's time to play! It's time to play!" without a single glance back at me.

* When it was time to pick Nixon up, he rushed from the center of the group circle and came over to tell Mac and I about his day, which it turns out was not that great.
    It seems Nixon got hit in the head by another child. He was hit with a wooden block, and Nixon was given an ice pack while the other child was spoken to about why hitting others with blocks is not okay. The other child apologized and Nixon has no bump so all is well in his world.
    His teacher also said, other than this incident, Nixon was incredible today! He helped her, followed instructions, stayed in circle during circle time.

* When Mac and I got Nixon into the car we talked more abut what happened at school. I did what I do best, I focused on the good. Nixon didn't hit the other child back, he didn't retaliate and he accepted the apology. He focused in class today and was on good behavior. I was (and I am) so proud of him! This is really the first time he's been in a situation like this, without me around him, and he handled it like I've always tried to teach him to: without losing his temper or resorting to violence in response. No whether this was a conscious effort on his part or he didn't respond because he was shocked, I can't say for sure, but to me it really doesn't matter so long as he didn't hit back.

Nixon's first milestone in school: home sick :(

  (no pictures tonight, I want him to have a full good night's sleep uninterrupted)
* Nixon got up 4 more times last night. His nose was getting super congested and he freaks when he can't breath, which is why he woke up crying last night.
   After the last wake up, I talked to Mac and we decided we'd keep Nixon out of school today, let him sleep in and hopefully he can go back to on Wednesday. I went to comfort Nixon in his bed and let him know about our choice, fully expecting a meltdown. Instead....I got this: "Yeah, Mommy, I need sleep to feel better. School is no good." What?!? He must be sick!

* He stayed home, he's very congested, deep stuffy voice because of it. He took his medication with no issue, after a small sip and he declared "That's not so bad!". He asked for a nap, relaxed in bed was obviously ill and under the weather.
   Here's hoping tomorrow is a better day for him.