Real Preschool

R (finally!) started his first day of Preschool yesterday. I say finally because kids have been in school here since mid-August so it seems really late and because he's been asking when he was going to get to go to Preschool. I am really excited about his Preschool, teacher and classmates. The teacher is a member of our Church as well most of the kids. The reason I love this is because the teacher begins and ends preschool with a prayer. R volunteered to give the opening prayer on the first day! What a leader! I was so proud! But I missed it (On the first day, parents stayed for a few minutes for introductions - briefly spotlighting our little one- and then they got started. I brought little brother with me. He was...somewhat of a disaster. See the motorcycle toy in R's hand? S thought it was HIS. He was really tired and ready for an early nap. Anyhow the teacher got started and little brother started throwing a fit because all the toys had been cleaned up, so I took him outsite until he was finished. When I returned, another mom told me R offered to give the opening prayer!)! Anyhow, I was very happy when I left feeling like he was going to have a wonderful experience. His teacher is sooo sweet while maintaining structure. Some of the other LDS kids are from families we know, but have moved further away, so it will be fun for our kids to be friends and to see more of the moms.

The blue bucket is what he brings to and from school eachday. He was proud of the stickers he got to put on his bucket. I'm excited for Preschool to reinforce the things we teach at home...Specifically closing your eyes and folding arms during prayers and holding your pencil or crayon the right way. While he usually folds his arms, his eyes remain open for a lot of prayers...and it's been bugging me. I sweetly remind him and think I must be talking to a wall sometimes. As for holding pencils, crayons and markers, he enjoys holding them at the top and incorrectly, instead of lower to the tip and figers in the right spots. Generally he is one of the most obedient children, really! Such a good boy, but occasionally chooses some things to be independent on and this has been it lately.

*I say real preschool because last year we did a co-op preschool, like Joy School. We had so much fun, but it was only 1 day a week. R longed for it to be more frequently!

After little brother and I left R, we went to the park and I was giving him a ride on a spinning thing. He was loving it. We were having fun together which I wanted to happen because he was traumatized that he didn't get to stay at Preschool. Then in a flash, I was already slowing it down, and I had had my arms on him most the time, but somehow he flew off or spun out or something and hit his chin where his feet go. It was not pretty. He bit the inside of his bottom lip. FORTUNATELY it did not go all the way through his lip. I could see a nasty gash inside through all the blood (the mouth can bleed!). Under his lip and on his chin are scraped. He was a mess. It was very sad. Almost our first Emergency Room visit, but since it didn't go through the lip, we decided against it (verified by the advice nurse - they do not stitch on the inside of the mouth only - stitching is for cosmetic reasons and to stop bleeding). The bleeding did quit pretty quickly but he's got a pretty fat lip and the inside looks awful. R saw the inside of his lip yesterday and says, "Mom, I don't ever want an owie like that."
* Picture doesn't show his fat lip well. The worst part of everything was the inside of his lip that went from a crater to a big yellow/white infected looking bump. Surprisingly, it went down quickly, by the end of the second day, it was markedly smaller and pretty normal.