School Day, Sick Day and A Day Off

On Wednesday Sean and I took Aiden to visit his new preschool. It was both a relief and and a little anxiety inducing to finally meet everyone and take a look around. It was nice to have an image of where he'll be going in the fall, and both the teachers and the children were so nice and welcoming. I think Aiden was a little overwhelmed but later in the day he told us that everyone was very nice and he wanted to go back and play with all of the new trucks (of course). However, I can't believe he's going to go off in his little backpack (oh yes, they get to bring backpacks) to school. Where is the time going?!

The next day Aiden kept complaining that he was sick. Sometimes he says this because he thinks he can get a movie or a popsicle out of it, and he was pretty upbeat, so I didn't think much of it. By that afternoon he'd slept through naptime and dinner and was running a fever of 103. It was scary how quickly it had escalated. I gave him some Tylenol and fluids and he went to sleep. The next morning he woke up, drank down two huge glasses of cold water, ate his breakfast, my breakfast and Sean's breakfast and was as peppy and energetic as ever. Thank goodness it was just a 24 hour bug and nothing more serious.



Since Aiden was feeling better we decided to drive to Fort Ticonderoga just to get out of town for the day. Once we had completed the winding two hour drive Sean and I agreed we should have picked a better place to escape to. The fort is neat, but not exactly worth the two hour drive, and it's Americade (a huge motorcycle rally) this weekend so it was jam packed with bikers.

Nevertheless, we had fun just doing something out of the ordinary. The people watching was certainly fun. One big burly leather-clad biker even stopped to tell Aiden that he liked his orange sunglasses. And really, you can't get a better endorsement than that.

Sleepy

On (Play)Dating

Aiden has never had an official playdate. I, being his mother, would be responsible for that sort of thing and seeing as how I really don't know any three year olds other than my own, I have never officially organized a get together for my three year old and any other three year old. Whew.

A lot of it (all of it) stems from the fact that my only mom friends are the moms of my friends. Yeah. So anyway, I've kept my eyes open and tried to seize the mom friend opportunity when it arises except it never really does in any solid way.

Sean can't figure out why I haven't made any mom friends yet with the amount of time I spend bringing Aiden to the playground and library and story time. The thing is that meeting a new friend feels a lot like trying to get a date. I'll be at the playground chatting with another mom, who happens to have a child the same age as mine, and the whole time I'm trying to figure out how to broach the subject of a possible playdate.

But I don't want to be too forward! Maybe they actually live quite a long way away and are only in town for the day? Or their child goes to preschool everyday and today was just a day off and they don't have time for you? What if you think they seem really cool but they are secretly thinking you're really boring? Oh the anxiety.

I'm afraid of blurting out "Hi you're really nice and your kid is too can I have your number? You want to come to my house? LET'S BE FRIENDS'' and then looking like a creep. (Although my mom likes to remind me that she said something very similar to woman she was talking to 15ish years ago and they are super best friends to this day).

I had pretty much given up hope, figuring that when Aiden starts preschool he'll make his own darn friends and I'll stop having to be his wingman. Then one fateful day we met this very sweet woman with two adorable kids at the bookstore. Sean and I talked to her for quite awhile before we found out that she, and her 2 and 3 year olds, lives two streets away! Hark! What sounds is this? I do believe it is opportunity and it is knocking!

Both Sean and I did our best to casually mention how nice it would be for the kids to get together! (Wow, I sound really old when I say stuff like that). We outlined the ways in which it would be so convenient! And fun! Our kids! Playing together!

She nodded and smiled and that was that. We didn't see her again. Our hopes were dashed and now Sean understood how completely awkward it can be trying to make friends with a parent for the sake of your kid.

But! We ran into her again this morning at the very same bookstore! She immediately came over and said hello. When started talking about the kids and soon she said that her son would be done with preschool in three weeks and that we should absolutely get the boys together.

Sean and I were giddy and kept nodding and smiling and telling her we couldn't wait. After she walked away Sean asked "Wait, are we supposed to ask her for her number? Should we give her ours? Do we just casually run into her here again next week?"

And so, 3 weeks from now, Aiden is set to have his first playdate ever. We'll just be over here waiting by the phone.

Memorial Day Memories

As of last Thursday Sean passed a big milestone at work. In the days leading up to it he was putting in a full day's work on each day off and pulling some crazy long days (we're talking 17 hours on occasion). Finally things should ease up a bit for him which makes both me and Aiden quite happy.

However, he still had to work straight through Memorial Day weekend which made me feel kind of bad. Every morning Sean would put on his work clothes while Aiden and I put on bathing suits and sun screen. We had so much fun and spent as much time as possible at the pool or the park but we definitely missed Sean.



His day off was yesterday and we spent it getting some errands run, visiting his dad and taking Aiden to see Kung Fu Panda 2. Aiden's first trip to the movie theater was last summer when we saw Toy Story 3, and it was such a huge deal. This time? Not so much. The movie was fantastic but he's so much older now that he sat by himself with the gigantic 3D glasses perched on his nose and kept waving us away every time we tried to hold his hand. He will not be caught holding his mom's hand at the movies, thank you very much.


Today we took Aiden over to the Crossings, which is an amazing park in the next town over. It's got tons of walking trails, a gorgeous picnic area and a brand new playground complete with that cool bouncy rubber surface under all the play equipment (unlike the lovely gravel playgrounds we grew up with). Aiden tends to be a little shy around other kids and hang back when there's a lot of activity. Today however he took off like a rocket and Sean and I kept having to remind him to stay within our line of sight. He was all over the place with the other kids (and there were a TON of kids). Sean and I couldn't help but get a little giddy over the fact that he finally seems to be coming out of his shell.

We hesitated over sending him to preschool this past year because he was very, very shy. We decided to wait until this fall and we're so glad we did. He is absolutely ready for that kind of setting now and rather than focusing on getting over his shyness he's actually ready to focus on making friends.

On a separate note: I picked out the preschool this past winter and Sean gave it a quick review and agreed that it sounded good. After we registered Aiden, Sean suddenly decided he wasn't certain this was the perfect place despite me assuring him that lots of other parents recommended it and that Aiden would be going to kindergarten with these same children. Today he called them to arrange a visit for Aiden, and in classic Sean fashion, he realized that three of the five teachers were mothers of his highschool friends. This just cemented my belief that Sean knows everyone in town. Everyone.