Henry the Gymnast

After months of contemplating and debating Henry started gymnastics last Wednesday at Pioneer Gymnastics.   Classes at Pioneer are year round and new students can start anytime.  I checked their schedule a few weeks ago and the open classes didn't fit our schedule; I checked again last Sunday and there were a few new openings.  Henry was not overly excited about this decision.   He can be our wild child but when it comes to new activities he is clams up and puts up a negative front.

Henry and I arrived Wednesday, a bit earlier than recommended but with traffic at 5 pm you can never quite be sure how long it will take.  Henry held my hand as we entered the building and his gripe tightened as we stepped in.  We waited in observation area until his instructor came out to greet the class.  Once the door opened the other students hustled over to go in; I walked Henry over and introduced him - he went through the door and I returned to my seat.

There were about 4 circuit stations.  The class would do each one for about 10 minutes before moving on to the next one.  As the group started on the first circuit and leaned forward to find Henry; he saw me through the window and started crying "I want my mommy".  I hid a bit giving the instructor a chance to take control.  She had him seat on a nearby stool and watch.  After the group moved to the next circuit Henry became more involved - and when he'd see me in the window he'd wave.  He got a little excited moving from the 3rd circuit to the 4th and raced over to be at the front of the line . . even though he didn't know what was involved since he was new.    All in all, a good end to a rough start.  I'm hoping next week goes smoothly!

The various circuit stations involved doing somersaults, hanging from rings, walking on a low balance beam (some with obstacles to step over), going down a slide into a foam pit, and doing a handstand by walking up a wall among other challenges.

I did notice Henry had more nervous habits than the other kids - I am hoping they fade once he becomes accustomed to the routine.

At the end of the session the instructor came out with the kids, she talked to a few parents and then came over and thanked me for not coming in when Henry was crying.

Ralph: Celebrating 5 1/2 years!

Ralph turned 5 1/2 years yesterday without too much fanfare.  As much as we acknowledge he needs to get to bed earlier than he did in the summer because he is not getting naps during the week AND he is absorbing so much new information, we are not able to accomplish this goal on Wednesdays and Thursdays so by Friday afternoon he is beyond tired, just a tad sensitive, and a bit glossy eyed.  We took advantage of no evening activities last night and spent some extra time reading and cuddling.

Ralph does not stall at bedtime and can easily go to sleep these days but still can wake up too early (and unfortunately has some help being woke up once in awhile).  On a good day he is in bed by 8 pm; on our busier days bedtime ends up being closer to 8:30 pm. He seems to wake up around 6:20-6:30 am most days on his own; yesterday Henry woke him up around 5:30 am which doesn't help the sleep deprivation.

His breakfast of choice has shifted from frozen waffles or mini pancakes to cereal (Lucky Charms, Captain Crunch, Cocoa Puffs).  He was on a Lunchables kick for a few weeks but that seems to have waned.   We are catering a little less to him at suppertime - not always making a different meal for him but serving one meal for the four of us.  Unfortunately we have leftovers a lot and I don't feel like forcing him to eat the same meal for two days in a row so will make him a different meal the 2nd night.

He is wearing size 10.5 shoes, size 5 pants (soon to be 6 - his current 5's are almost a bit short but not sure if they shrank too much or he has gone through a growth spurt), and size 5 shirts (S or M depending on brand).

Ralph shows signs of aggression that needs to be curbed - not sure if it's from classmates or watching too much ninja turtles during Henry's breathing treatment.  Last Sunday and Monday he blatantly pushed, from behind, younger kids. He was lectured plenty both times but I'm not entirely convinced he will not push anymore.

We are (still) working on getting him to listen and follow directions better; to react quicker to a request, etc.  If there is too much protesting or whining when I pick him up from Fingerprints, he may get sent to his room until suppertime - I know he is just tired and there's a small part of me that hopes he may get a quick catnap in.

My little boy still lets me give him a hug & a kiss when I drop him off at Fingerprints; luckily he doesn't think he is too big for this tradition.  Lately this includes a kiss for our pockets which involves a kiss on the nose and then taking the kiss off our nose with our hand and placing it in a pretend pocket.

(took this photo as Ralph was practicing his ninja moves.  the angle also makes him look a little smaller than he is)

Ralph: One month of Kindergarten under the belt!

Ralph came home one day last week declaring "I love Kahoa, It's the best!"  I sure hope his attitude does not ever change.

We are getting used to the backpack being the means of communication between home and school.  The school folder (manilla envelope) comes home on Wednesday in the backpack.  We empty the contents and return in the backpack the next day.  The math home is in a purple folder.  We send "stuff" in the backpack and it's not there when he comes home.  He brings home crumbled up papers, work he has completed . . and we usually forget to clean it out until the next morning or on the way to Fingerprints.

Since Kahoa is now School, we now have to call his old "school" by its name Fingerprints.

During the 2nd week of school Ralph tell me the cherries were not very good and I should come to lunch and try them.  He even suggested I could tell Jim (my boss) I had somewhere special to go for lunch.  Unfortunately I was busy for a few weeks but did have a lunch date with him on September 3.  They were serving cheese quesadillas.  Unfortunately Ralph was the last one in his class to get his lunch and by the time we got to the tables we were seated by ourselves.  The tables in the lunch room seat 6; not the long ones I remember.   Unfortunately (or fortunately?) they did not serve cherries that day so I can not tell you if the cherries were any good.  It was kind of fun to let him show me how the lunch room works - how to get your milk and food - and how to put it all away.  I did get to meet a few of his new friends while standing in line with him briefly before they went outside to recess.

It took almost two weeks but Ralph finally had homework, math homework. It comes home in a purple folder.  It has been pretty basic - a single front/page piece of paper that incorporates a few different concepts. There's squares that asks him to draw so many of something (ie. 5 logs, 3 mugs, 2 legs, 4 animals, etc) and then has him practice writing a number.  It wouldn't be so bad but some of the words are not ones we use a lot - instead of 'mug' we say 'coffee cup'.  Sometimes he has it done by the time I pick him up from Fingerprints; sometimes not.  Sometimes the older kids in the before/after school program lead him down the wrong path as they read and interpret the directions wrong.
 
Less than a month into school "we" already had an overdue book!  I received an auto-generated email on August 31 letting me know we had an overdue book which means the very first book he checked out never made it back to the library.  Books can be checked out for 2 weeks.  Ralph bought this book home the first Friday of school.  Mike read it to him the first night; I read it the second night, we put it back in the backpack the following Monday . . .so how did it not get returned in time?  I quizzed Ralph.  The day his class went to the library, they went to the gym first.  The class passes the library on the way to the gym.  Ralph was not sure what to do to with the library book in gym so he problem solved and decided to put the book on a shelf as they walked by the library.  He didn't want to get in trouble for getting out of line and he returned it to the library, right?  Ugh.  I contact the librarian and she was able to find it.  Hopefully he has learned library books need to be returned appropriately.


Ralph did bring home Amelia Bedalia Plays Ball last weekend.  It's great to see him bring home books I remember reading when I was young.  His selections are pretty diverse though, this week he brought a book about Squids home.

It seems the "specials" (computer, gym, library, art, and music) are on a rotating basis; each day is A, B, C, D, or E - and the letters do not correspond to a certain day of the week so it's nearly impossible for me to know/remember which special is on which day.  Ralph likes to say "today was B" (or whatever letter it was) instead of just telling me what the special was . .as if I can remember which special is B.  Maybe at conferences (in October) I can get a list of which specials are which letters.

One day I was working on the laptop and he tells me I need to tell Mr. Price (the computer teacher) to buy one of those computers they have for me . .they have lots of games on them.  He reminded me again yesterday morning I needed to talk to Mr. Price.

We have learned in the last couple of weeks Ralph does need to go to bed earlier than his previous bedtime of 8-8:15 but unfortunately the schedule does not allow us to be consistent with an earlier bedtime.  Between no naps and all the learning going on he is very sensitive by Friday.  Last Saturday he took a 2.5 hour nap; I can not remember the last time that has happened - I do not have long nappers.

Tonight as he was going to bed he had to whisper the first verse of Yankee Doodle Dandy in Mike's ear then do the same for me.  It has been fun watching him learn, absorb information, and share with us.