Trying new things

 Monday we went to tour two potential preschools for Andrew.  After the second one, all three of us chose that school, The Primrose School. Afterward we took daddy back to work, wasted some time, and then met him for lunch at an Indian Buffet. The food was amazing!! It looked terrible but tasted great. Bombay Bistro.  The manager came out and talked with Andrew at good length and told him if he eats all his lunch, he'd give him a chocolate bar.  He made friends with the older couple at the table next to us and chatted a bit. They all loved seeing such a young person willing to try all the different foods and liking them.
 While at a stoplight:  Andrew: "Mom, what's a canoe?"
Me: "It's a kind of boat. You use paddles to push the water and make the boat move forward."
Andrew: "Oars. You use oars, not paddles mom." 

Tuesday morning Andrew came running in to my room... "mom, there is food in the toilet with my poo! Come see!" You could see the noodles from last night's dinner and he pointed to the toilet with a big grin on his face. He was a slightly concerned but thought it was cool. And then he said, "but you can't see the carrots or peas."

We had an appointment with Adam Roberts later and I asked him what he was working on. He told me the intestines. I told him about the noodles being undigested and didn't know if it was relevant. He did some more muscle testing on Andrew and told me that Andrew was stressed because he's been given too much information and doesn't know how to process it, and it's resulting in his digestive system reacting. Nothing serious or to be concerned about, that Andrew would be fine.
The convention maybe?  I know he was listening because he'd ask me questions. And for the entire drama he was asking me "which one is Mordecai? Who's the king? Is the queen in the pink dress? Why are they wearing those long shirts with belts? Who are they? What are they doing? .....  you get the idea. I was narrating the entire drama the best I could.  But then Monday we toured the schools so maybe he's trying to analyze all of that too.  Or maybe it's just because we were completely off our usual schedule and he's trying to sort through that. 
I realized a lot about Andrew that Tuesday.  After our visit with Adam we went back to the Primrose school to give the paperwork and pay registration. They let Andrew visit with the class he'll be with while I did paperwork. He immediately  made friends and felt comfortable enough to join in the activities. The children were friendly even to me, so that is a good sign.  Anyway... talking to the director, I told her one of my concerns is that it's such a long day for him. Right now he's used to 9-2 or 9-3, and he knows how to read the clock enough and knows when to expect me. I don't want him to get anxious when much time goes by and he hasn't seen us again. And I asked if it was normal for children to be so concerned about what time it is and what is going to happen next, and after that too.  She didn't tell me it was normal, but she told me I'm not going to change him and that he had to have gotten it from one of us.  That he is the type that wants to know what the entire day holds and has it organized in his mind how it's supposed to play out. And anything, even the question 'do you want to go to the park' will throw his entire day off even if he would enjoy that venture - it's just that he wasn't expecting it and doesn't know how to process it right away. It wasn't in his plans.  I realized at that point - that is exactly how I am too.  I don't have to have everything planned out for the entire week, but I make a plan for the day when I get up, or maybe the day before - and I'm good at following that plan. When something all of a sudden changes, I can go with it, but it throws me off mentally and emotionally and will stress me out a little bit as I process the changes.  poor kid. 
I realized then, he NEEDS a regular schedule that doesn't change. Right now, Mondays and Fridays are whatever we need to do days. Tuesdays and Thursdays have been for school at Spring Hollow. Wednesdays Gymnastics.  Although he knows what to expect each of those days for the most part, I think he will thrive on every day being the same. I'm feeling better about him going to school full time.  I can't really explain why he is obsessed with knowing what is the name of each road we're on, and where we are going, and what roads we need to take to get there and why. I've never met another child like him. But because of my visit with Adam and my revelations while at the school - we're just going to have to indulge him and answer his million and two questions. If we don't - we're only going to stress him out because he's not getting the information he is wanting to process. We try to tell him not to worry about it, to just enjoy the time right now. Even though he'll say, "Okay"  he is still
stressing about it.  It breaks my heart that he stresses so much, now that I'm recognizing it better.


Andrew was in his carseat and told me, "My stomach hurts. I need to eat some ginger to make it feel better."  Not sure where he learned that.. but that's my boy!!!

Thursday it rained. All day. Daddy was working in the workshop and I put a raincoat and boots on Andrew and let him play outside. Ted told me that he was jumping in a puddle for a little bit, but apparently that wasn't enough. Andrew went and found a chair and pushed it by the puddle so he could jump off the chair into the puddle and make a bigger splash. 

I overheard him in the other room saying  "I'm in the town of Joppa. I'm in the town of Joppa. (pause) I don't know how to spell Joppa.  Papa rhymes with Joppa."  

Andrew calls me to come wipe his bottom and then puts his feet up on the seat. "Look mom, I was standing on the seat, and that was silly."  Then he says, "When I was little, I fell in and someone flushed me down."  I told him that didn't really happen and he asks, "Why? Would that be scary?"  I told him he's too big to fit down the toilet, even when he was little.  He said, "even when I was an eeny teeny tiny baby?"  I told him when he was that small, he was still inside me.  He had nothing to say to that.

He tells strange stories. For a while he was telling everyone that daddy climbed a tree, fell out and hurt his head.  Lately he has been telling everyone that he went to the circus and fell off an animal. They ask which animal and he says he was riding a tiger and the elephant caused him to fall off.

He almost always wants to help me do whatever it is I'm doing - especially if it's cooking. Some days I really just want to get it done quickly and without mess, but then I feel guilty that I'm not including him in the experience.  I sometimes let him measure out all the ingredients when I'm baking (and have to send him off to wash his hands repeatedly because he can't resist tasting every ingredient.)  Thursday evening he helped daddy pick all the banana peppers and jalapenos from the garden. Then he helped me cut the tops off (yes he got to use the knife) and de-seed them. He also helped grate all the cheese. Then I put cream cheese and bacon bits in them as he stuffed them with cheese and chopped spinach. We made a good team - albeit a slow one. He'd pick up 2-3 threads of shredded cheese at a time and I'd have to tell him to get more, or he'd squeeze the cheese into a big blob and I'd have to tell him not so much. Same with the spinach. Silly boy. He's an extremist sometimes.

Andrew has been asking every day since visiting the Primrose School when he gets to go back. Friday morning, I decided to call the school and ask if they have any part time availability now.  He'd love the interaction, I could really use the extra un-divided time to get things ready and done before I start school in August.  So, he starts Monday.  He'll go to the new school according to Ted's work on M W F, and Spring Hollow from 9-2 on Tues and Thurs.  Spring Hollow is only for the next three weeks and then he's done with that.  I think this will help him ease into the longer schedule and new environment whilst phasing out the old one. This will also allow me to catch up on my work, and get done all the other things weighing on me that need to get done and I just haven't had the ability or energy to focus on.  Lots of changes for all of us!

He told us he wants to do a Bible Reading at the podium in the back school. I told him he had to show me that he could focus on reading from the bible for 4 minutes.  Sunday he asked if we could time him while he read from a new brochure. I told him we could, but it had to be from the Bible. I flipped to a chapter in the Psalms that looked relatively easy and set it down in front of him. He started reading and came upon a few big words he had to have help pronouncing. He got frustrated and said he couldn't do it. I explained to him that when someone on stage is reading - it's not the first time they're reading the chapter, they practice it over and over and over again before getting up to read. Andrew was doing *awesome* at reading the chapter. I told him not to worry so much about how long it takes to read, but focus on reading all the words and reading each line without losing place.   In less than 8 minutes, he read the entire chapter, and that was with him stopping after a few verses because he thought he couldn't succeed, and also getting up and moving to the couch instead of being at his table.  Ted and I both were very impressed. He stuck with it and read the entire chapter, line by line. Ted said he's going to talk to the brothers and see if there is a reading coming up that we can go ahead and let him practice and see how he does.