Open House and Paper Todd

Had Open House at Todd's school. Since the kids don't normally attend, Mommy had to stay home with Todd while Daddy attended. Got a good look at what the little man does in school everyday, as well as discussed some ideas for future directions the school hopes to take.

One of the items showcased? A life-size version of Todd, created by him out of paper. The kids had a template to use to trace and cutout, and then drew in their faces and clothes and colored it. Here is a picture of Todd and Paper Todd (apparently he was so good at it that he helped some of the older kids trace and cut theirs out!) Click on the image to view it larger size and see the details of the drawn-in face (toothy grin and all-- how very Todd-appropriate!)

Food substitution?

Little man and I spent the morning shopping so Daddy could sleep in, and when we were done, we stopped by El Pollo Loco to grab some lunch and bring it home. Do you remember the things with the crumbs? Well, this time Todd remembered what they were called, and asked for churros. I included the order of "two churros" in my order, and we went home.

As the three of us settled at the table to eat lunch, Todd showed Daddy the churros, diving them up as so:

"One for me, and one for Mommy."

Daddy asked if he could have a bite of Todd's churro. To our surprise, he rejected Daddy's request! Instead, he offered this bit of food-substituting advice:

"You can make cinnamon toast, and put sugar on it. Then it will taste like a churro!"

How to recognize Daddy's hand

Last night, I'd just gotten done uploading Toddy photos onto my Facebook account-- a couple dozen ranging from newborn to current school picture taken last week. How he went from a teeny creature growing in my tummy to this giant ball of energy is beyond me.

Anyway, when Todd came by with Daddy to pick me up from work last night, I had this photo (taken when Todd was about 2-3 days old) on my screen:



Curious to know if he recognized the baby in the photo, I asked him who it was. He pointed to himself. Then we asked him what he was holding in his hand.

"A hand", said Todd.

Whose hand?

Without hesitation, he proclaimed: "Daddy's hand!"

How do you know it's Daddy's hand?

"Because you can see the hair on his arm!"

On another photo-related note, he looked at a picture featuring Mommy and Toddy, and (I'm guessing, since I'm the one who always takes pictures) he wanted to know:

"Who took that picture??"

Class Photos

Last week everyone at Todd's school took their class pics. Here is our little boy, looking quite grown-up:



Here is his entire class. As you can see, there's only 6 kids total in the kindergarten class. And he is (albeit barely!) the tallest one... while at the same time the youngest, too!



We've ordered prints and shall be mailing them to the family as soon as we receive them. So keep an eye out on your mailboxes in the coming weeks :-D

Routines

After a couple weeks, we've finally begun settling into a routine.

At first, when I found out that Todd would be dismissed after lunch, and the school didn't provide after-school care long enough, I was a bit dismayed. It would mean having to drive to school to pick him up and drop him off at an after-school care center somewhere else.

But soon I realized that this minor inconvenience was more than made up for by the fact that Todd would get to eat lunch with us!

When he was in preschool, my chief concern (aside from hygiene and staying dry) was that he wasn't eating/drinking (well) enough. There were many days when I'd pick him up at 5pm only to discover more than half of his lunch still in his bag. No amount of cajoling, threats or bribery worked. Harder still was providing a variety of healthful things to eat-- just about the only thing I could really pack, that would ensure he ate it all, was sandwiches.

But now? I can send him off to school with just a little bit to eat (some fruit for morning snacktime and a small sandwich and juice for lunchtime), and then whisk him home for a proper, nutritious, hot lunch. Top it off with plenty to drink and making sure he gets scrubbed down clean before sending him off for a few hours of after-school care.

Another good thing is that it breaks up the monotony of the day for Todd. Rather than spending 8 hours nonstop at a child care facility, he gets to see his parents in the middle of the day, a nice little change. It's fun for us, too, to eat together as a family. Makes a nice break for Mommy and Daddy, as well!

We can also change him out of his uniform and into regular clothes for Boys and Girls Club. You know how boys like to roughhouse. This is good way to preserve his uniforms :-)

Todd has taken to going poopies at lunchtime, which is great because it ensures that one of us can wipe his little po-po properly, rather than have him attempt to do it himself at school. It's yucky enough to have him walk around with skid-marked undies, but its even worse if he gets some on his hands and doesn't wash it off properly.

So, all in all, this difference in venue for both school and after-school is working out to be a blessing! We're certainly settling into our routine nicely :-)

What can Mommy play with?

While I exchanged some uniform pants at Sears, Daddy and Todd amused themselves at the toystore next door. When I re-joined them after taking care of business, Daddy showed me a game he thought I would like. He was laughing as he approached me, because before he showed it to me, he showed it to Todd, mentioning: "Hey, Mommy would like playing this."

Todd took one look and shook his head.

"Nooooo... Mommy likes turtles!"

Down with beards!

As Todd kissed Daddy good-night, he complained about the roughness of Daddy's five-o'clock shadow. Nobody likes being scratched by facial hair!

So he rubbed Daddy's face, and came up with a solution:

"You can ask God to make your beard stop growing!"

If only!

Clothes in a locker

Today Daddy picked up Todd from school (which dismisses at 12:30) and brought him back to work, where we enjoyed lunch on the back patio. Afterward, Daddy took him into the bathroom to get washed up. While there, Todd spied the door leading to the shower, where there were also a few lockers.

Upon peeking inside, Toddy spied an open locker with someone's clothes in it.

He then surmised that: "There's someone walking around here with no clothes on!"

Makes sense, right? After all, if that person's clothes are in the locker, then what could he be wearing?

First Day of School

Today was Todd's official first day of school.

He joined 5 other kids in the kindergarten class of St. John of Damascus Academy. It was exciting, dressing him in his school uniform (either a white or burgundy polo shirt, and navy pleated trousers) and sending him off with his lunch on his first day!

He is the youngest in his class, but also the tallest, thanks to his freak Daddy. Figures!

He seemed to enjoy his first day of class, and his first day at Boys and Girls Club, where we drop him off for after-school care. They get plenty of exercise as well as structured activities like reading, coloring, and computer time.

All in all, a successful first day!