And, not to be outdone.....

Kindergarten..the saga continues.

Well, it hasn't gotten any easier. At least the drop off part. When we picked him up that first day, he was just fine. And he has been just fine every day that we pick him up. It's leaving him in the morning that sucks.

I don't know how to help him. He is a child of routine and he does not like change. He hasn't made any friends yet, although he is usually a very friendly social boy. And he knows how to work us. He knows it's hard for us to leave, especially when he's crying. And he has this habit of just walking (or running) away that just infuriates us.

I don't know how to help him. He needs someone in the class to help make the transition easier and for a few days there was a wonderful woman named Miss French but she was only there for the first week, I believe. And his teacher just does not have the ability to focus on him.

This morning I arranged for him to go to after/before care for 5 minutes before class so that he could walk over with them, but he wouldn't do it. Wolf couldn't get him even near the building. What do we do? How do we make this easier on him? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Guess we just keep plugging along....

First Day

Well, it started out okay. We got to school and he was checking out his classroom and meeting his classmates. But I think Wolf and I made a few mistakes. One, we both went to drop him off. This was something I wanted us both to do but was probably not a wise choice. Two, we stayed longer than we should have. But I wanted to meet his teacher, see his classroom, meet other kids and parents. But when it was time for us to leave, Mason was having none of it. He kept trying to run away. Wolf even sat with him for awhile and stayed during part of circle time. But he tried to leave, it didn't go over so well. We left with the teacher's assistant have to hold him back from chasing us, and him screaming "mommy, I just want a hug." Broke my heart.

When I got to work I called the office to see if I could check on him and the secretary said that if kids do not calm down and are too upset to stay in the classroom, they are brought to the office. And he wasn't there. So I guess that's something, eh? It is now 1:00 and in 15 minutes class ends and he heads off to aftercare. Another transition. But I think that there are quite a few kids from his class in there with him so it should all be good.

On a side note, he did end up getting in to the bilingual program. The principal left us a message last night saying that one of the kids in the program was moving and there was an opening for Mason. Yeah, persistency pays off! I am just so glad that we were able to settle all of this before he actually started school. And I have heard nothing but great things about his teacher. Sigh..is it 5:00 yet? I miss my baby. Wait, I was corrected last night, he is no longer my baby. I miss my little man.

Many happenings...

Wow, there is so much going on in the Schuster household right now, it's kind of crazy! Let's see, where to begin....

Mason starts kindergarten tomorrow. I am scared and nervous and excited for him all at the same time. He is scared and nervous and excited for himself. We have been waving good morning to his school every morning for months now. We have been talking about what kinds of things he can expect to learn and see. We have been grooming him for his first real steps into his future. We are preparing him as best we can, which is all we can do, I suppose.

I know a lot of parents say this about their kids, but Mason is really freakin' smart. Too smart for his own good, actually. He is learning multiplication and how to count by 10's, he's reading and writing, he's growing and changing. He has a memory like you wouldn't believe and can hear even when he's not listening. My heart aches that he is no longer my baby yet at the same time is excited to watch him develop into his own autonomous being.

We are having some issues with his school at the moment, which I am hoping will get worked out. The reason we chose to stay at our local school, rather than try for an intra/inter district transfer, was because we were pretty positive we would get him into the bilingual program, wherein he would learn spanish. Which, in a school that is 60% hispanic, seemed like a very good thing. Well, he did not get in. Apparently, the information we were given stating that he had a great chance of getting in the sooner we registered was false. It was all random. We are pissed. Not sure where we will go from here, there might be a chance to still get him in, but not until classes have started. Wolf and I both wrote letters to the principal, although I do not think it will do much good. We shall see. All we can now is focus on Mason having the best experience possible.

Then there is Morgan. Man, is he going through some changes. A few months ago he quit cold turkey on his binky. Was just done. And now he is potty training. Two nights ago he woke me up at 3 am to pee but still had his diaper on. Last night he did not wake me up (well, at least not to pee) and he slept in underpants! We are so proud of him. Every time he pees in the potty his face just lights up and he exclaims, "I did it!" Wolf and I have promised to buy him something BIG to celebrate both events. There is a lot of focus on Mason right now and we want to make sure that he does not feel left out, that we celebrate his amazing accomplishments too.

Wolf and I have finally latched on to a date for our 10 year wedding annivesary party. Now we just have to tell everyone and send out invitiations! So for all of you who are reading this, please know we are working on it. And the party will be SEPTEMBER 20TH at STAFFORD LAKE in Novato. More details to follow.

Okay, enough for now. Love to all of you from all of us.

Morgan Musings

Now I may have this wrong as Wolf told me about it while we were in the midst of our morning routine, but an exchange between Wolf and Morgan went something like this:

Wolf was explaining to Morgan that the spots on his face are called freckles.

Morgan looked at Daddy's arms and said, "Are there sparkles on your arms too?"

I will verify the actual comment from Wolf but I wanted to make sure I did not forget to post this.

More Mason Musings

"Mom, did you know that stain remover removes stains?"

"Oh, really? Where did you learn that?"

"The t.v."

Morgan the Cowboy

Fun on a HOT almost summer day

Happiest of Mother's Days

It was truly wonderful mother's day. I couldn't have asked for a more relaxed, carefree day. I got to sleep in until almost 9, which is pretty much unheard of around our house. Then I woke up to homemade waffles with fresh whipped cream and strawberries and a large wrapped box. The boys had to help me open it, of course, and to my utter delight, it was a huge lego castle set. See, I totally love legos. Not sure why, but I do. Wolf said he showed my present to his co-workers and only one of them thought is was really cool. Everyone else was like, uh, yeah, that's uh, interesting. But you have to know me...and my husband does.

So we spent the morning on the floor in the living room, putting the castle together and having great fun. The afternoon was spent lazing around, soaking up some sun, playing video games. For dinner we went to this great vietnamese restaurant in San Rafael. We had never brought the boys there and wasn't sure if they would like it, but Mason professed to love it, saying "I just knew I'd love this place!" He's such a character. Morgan didn't like it, but that is no surprise. He's at that age where he doesn't want to eat anything except hot dogs and tator tots.

Once the kids were in bed, I got to curl up on the couch with my husband, an ice cream sandwich and the movie PS I love you. ::sigh:: I felt loved, happy and truly content.

To all of you mother's out there, I hope that you had an equally wonderful day, whether you got to spend it alone or with your kids. As we all know, it is not an easy job and I salute each and every one of you.

And to my Mom - I want to thank you for being my mom. You are an amazing woman and I am so proud of you. You are strong, you are beautiful and you are my mother. I love you.

Mason's 5th Birthday

Today Mason Grey turned 5.
Wolf and I took the day off so that we could spend it with him. His Grandma Ginger and Grandpa Dave were here from Oregon and we all spent the day together. In the morning we opened presents and, as you can see by the pictures below, had a great time doing it. Then we took a walk to the dog park with Sadie, Grandma and Grandpa's dog, then we headed to the Farmer's Market. We took our time and enjoyed the perfect weather. Mason had a great time and simply glowed from all of the attention. Then we went home. We had planned on heading to the beach or doing something else but Mason was tired and just wanted to play with his new toys. So the rest of the afternoon was spent quietly hanging out at home.

Mason continues to amaze us every day. I am so proud of him that my heart is ready to burst. He is always asking questions, always learning, always having fun. He's beginning to read and I love watching his face light up with accomplishment. He loves to practice his writing and other than the occasional backwards "s" he is doing very well. We are at such a fun and exciting stage in is life and I look forward to every minute.

He will be starting Steve & Kate's camp in mid-June, which should be a great adventure for him and the kindergarten in the fall. I think he's a little nervous, as am I, but I know he will do beautifully.

We love you, Big Man, with all of our hearts.
Happy Birthday.

A Day at the Races

Today we celebrated Auntie Claudine's birthday at Bay Meadows. It was an absolutely awesome day -the weather was beautiful and we all had so much fun. In fact, we barely took any pictures, we were so busy! Mason and I bet on 2 races - I picked 3 to win in my race and Mason picked 10 to win in his race - and we both won!! It was awesome. We made back our wagers and walked away with $36. Yippee. Applebee's, here we come. It was great spending time with Claudine, Lance "Uncle Wooie" and all of their friends that we like so much. Happy birthday, Beautiful Claudine. Thanks for letting us share in the fun.

You would never know from the look on his face that we actually won...

Happy Birthday, Morgan James and Mia Denise

Morgan turned 3 today! He had a great day at school, eating gluten free cupcakes made by mommy (who was only able to cook them because his rock star daddy fixed the oven) and getting presents from his friends. He got to have fish sticks, tator tots and hot dogs for dinner and a very small piece of yummy gluten free cake (which caused him to stay awake until past 9:00, which is another story). His present to himself was a shiner on his left eye, which he received when he tripped on the big hill at school.

His birthday party with his friends will be on Saturday at a small park down the street. Not sure how many people are actually coming but we'll have a great time none the less. Lots of balloons and Backyardigans paraphenalia. Woohoo!

Happiest of birthday wishes, my dearest boy.
We all love you so very much.

And a very special birthday wish to Mia who turns 5 today. I think it is the coolest thing in the world that my best friends daughter, Mia, and Morgan share the same birthday. And I think it's just as cool that Mason and Mia are 3 weeks apart. Life is good.

We hope Mia had as wonderful of a day as Morgan did and that her party on Saturday is full of lots of presents and happy memories.

We love you too, Mia.