School!!

I know I haven't written in a while but now seemed like the perfect time for an update. Jaimisen started preschool last Wednesday, August 11th! He is going to the Walnut Creek Christian Academy, First Baptist Preschool, Monday through Friday from 8:30-2:45. I needed him to go full time because starting in November, I will be teaching full time. So Jaimisen dove right into preschool. I thought for sure he was going to have a hard time adjusting and we would be struggling day after day getting him to stay at preschool without crying, being upset, or sad. I have been prepping him for preschool all summer. I told him exactly what was going to happen - "Mommy is going to drop you off with your teacher and other kids and you are going to get to play and learn new things! Mommies aren't allowed to stay at preschool so I will leave then come pick you up after naptime" - I told him how nice is teacher is once I met her at info night, he got to shop for his school supplies, and we started our "preschool routine" two weeks before he started school. I woke him up at the time he would need to wake up for preschool, we got dressed, ate breakfast then drove to his preschool so he could see it. Then he took a bath and went to sleep at an earlier time. I had done everything I could to prepare him for such a huge step.

The first day: He kept saying "I don't want to go to preschool today" all morning but wasn't upset or crying so I kept reassuring him he was going to have a great time and I would stay with him for a little while when we got there. When we got there, I signed him in and directed him toward his classroom door. As I was behind him, guiding him through the doorway, Jaimisen FROZE, dropped his lunchbox and turned around CLINGING to my legs. I thought this was it, it was beginning. We finally got through the doorway and Jaimisen seemed impressed when his teacher came up to him and said "Hi Jaimisen!" without him having to tell her his name. His teacher talked to him for a minute and Jaimisen just listened and looked around. We walked around the room - he found his cubby and his seat at the table - and we looked at all the toys and books to play with. He slowly unglued himself from my side and started to venture into the room for a few minutes on his own and then would come back to me. All of a sudden I saw something click in his face, he was happy and comfortable and felt safe. In an instant he was skipping around the room then came back and said "I need to show Miss Cassi my lunchbox!" He grabbed it from his cubby and showed his teacher his name on the front and spelled it out for her. She was impressed and he was happy. I told him I was going at that point and would be back later and he said okay, gave me a hug and a kiss and smiled up at Miss Cassi, holding her hand as I walked away. I knew he was going to be okay after that. However, my mom called twice during the day to see if the school had called yet saying Jaimisen was freaking out. She has no faith in him. The second day was just as good. He only had good things to say about preschool and his teacher said he was doing "Great!"

The third day: This is when naptime presented a problem. I think Jaimisen finally realized, "We have to have naptime EVERY day??" He started crying, Miss Cassi tried to console him to no avail and eventually he made another kid start crying. The preschool director Ms. Schnabel came to take Jaimisen to try to help him calm down. She let him work with her in her office, giving him little tasks to do and he even got to help her make copies! Of course he was completely happy with this, so Miss Cassi tried to get him to come back to the classroom to lay down with the rest of the kids to finish naptime. He refused and had to change his green card (meaning he's being a good boy) to a yellow card (meaning he got a warning). He listened after that and the rest of the day went fine. Ms. Schnabel said he was a great helper and even a different preschool teacher said he was "an absolute doll!" Oh Jaimisen. Haha.

The fourth day: Miss Cassi said when she started getting the nap mats out during lunch to prepare for naptime, Jaimisen started getting upset again but she assured him it was still lunch time and it would be okay. She said he cried a little bit but was able to calm himself down and then fell asleep :) She said he did much better than the third day.

Obviously he's not very keen on naptime every single day, but he seems to be getting through it. And the fact that he's getting through it without me is a huge accomplishment for him. Usually when he gets himself so worked up, he won't calm down for anyone but me. I am so proud of him for not only being able to stay at preschool for such long days without me, but also for trusting his teachers and the environment that he's in to the point where he can calm himself down and know that everything will be okay :)

Today is his fifth day. Evan is picking him up from school because I have class from 2-4 (how inconvenient) so we will see how that goes! I think Evan is a little nervous. Haha. Hopefully Jaimisen doesn't cry at all today! He did so perfect the first two days, I think it finally all caught up with him. Hopefully he is able to turn things back around today and have a happy day :)

Videos

Here are some videos. Yes, I know, the first one is sideways but I can't flip it. The first one is Jaimisen on his scooter. He has recently gotten REALLY good at it! The second is Evan and Jaimisen messing around. Evan taught Jaimisen how to "fall like a tree" Haha. Jaimisen has no fear and is full of trust :) The third one is Jaimisen on his new big boy bike!

Birthday

So I know I'm WAY behind on updating this thing and seeing as tomorrow, YES TOMORROW, is Jaimisen's third birthday, I thought now would be a good time. I don't even know where to begin. Jaimisen is growing like a weed; he is 38 inches tall and 35 pounds. I think his biggest accomplishment recently is going potty COMPLETELY by himself. He just gets up, goes into the bathroom, closes and locks the door, and does his thing. The first time he did this, I followed him and told him he needed to unlock the door and his response was "You have to wait one minute. I'm going pee!" Haha! :) He is also playing computer games now. I just go onto the Playhouse Disney website and he navigates by himself. He goes to the TV Show he wants to play on, and he knows which buttons have games. He has also taught himself how to play most of the games. I only showed him how to play one game and when he started navigating the site by himself, I figured he could figure out which games he can and can't play. I have watched him go from not being able to play a game at all to listening to the instructions and watching what happens to learning how to play all on his own. He also likes playing Wii Sports on occassion. He gets frustrated with that easier because he doesn't have the timing down as well. As I sit here writing, Jaimisen is playing on the computer..
Yesterday, for his birthday, I bought him a "big boy bike." It's a 14 inch, neon green, Tony Hawk Climber. My parents bought him a Harley Davidson Helmet and Horn to go with his new bike. He LOVES it. He's had a smaller bike but he hasn't liked to ride it around for very long and I think it's probably because it was too small making it more difficult to ride. He will literally ride his Tony Hawk bike around the court for an hour! It's awesome because I just get to watch and he gets tired out! And he LOVES it! I'll be posting a video soon don't worry.
Jaimisen was supposed to be starting swim lessons tomorrow but they decided he was "too young," which I think is ridiculous, so they won't be letting him do it. Everyone keeps telling me that I should just do it for him. The reason I won't is because I know him, and I know he won't get as much out of it if it's me teaching him. So one of my friends offered to give him private lessons at our house for a really great price, so that's what we will be doing starting in June! I will also be signing Jaimisen up for MyGym Summer Camp. He will go for 3 hours a day, one day a week, for six weeks. He is really looking forward to all that MyGym time.
Finally, Jaimisen starts preschool in August! I don't know what I'm going to do with myself.
I hope that catches everyone up for the most part. Again, I will try to keep it updated better. Jaimisen's birthday party is next weekend so I will update again after that!

A Few Updates

Story #1: As usual, we were at Northgate this week. We practice in the forum and the forum is enclosed by slightly tinted ceiling to floor windows; we can see out, but people can't see in as well. Jen and I noticed a few people walking around the outside of the forum carrying BAGS of candy, like halloween-sized, costco-sized bags of individually wrapped candy. We were watching them, of course talking about the candy when one of the guys dropped a bag on the ground. I told Jen she should go get it when she came up with this brilliant idea: "Where is Jaimisen?? JAIMISEN GO GET THE CANDY!!" Of course Jaimisen perked right up and started walking toward the vending machine. In the meantime, the guy who dropped one of his bags had tried to pick it up and dropped the rest of his candy. He happened to be standing right outside a door. As Jaimisen passed, his head whipped to the side and stared right at the fallen-candy guy. He looked back at us while Jen said "Jaimisen go get that candy!" I told Jen he woulnd't do it because that guy was standing right there and Jaimisen was too shy. By the time I finished my sentence, Jaimisen was proving me wrong. He walked out to the candy, picked it up, and came back in the forum with a huge smile on his face! Juse like that! No hesitation, didn't talk to the guy or ask for the candy. Just walked out, took it, and walked away. I was in total shock!!! It was SOOO hilarious. It was at that time Jen decided we needed to install cameras in the forum to capture all the funny things Jaimisen does there. Of course I ran up to Jaimisen and told him I needed to give the candy back. I handed it back to the guy as he continued to stand in shock that a tiny person just jacked his candy and said to me "I thought the little guy was going to help me! Then he just took off!" At the same time a girl had come to help the guy and was laughing hysterically, "That was the cutest thing ever!" Oh Jaimisen. Haha.

Update #2: We are going to Nebraska this Wednesday to see Tiffany and Shane, Jaimisen's godparents :) We are VERY excited. We come back Sunday so there will definitely be another blog update after then about our trip. Jaimisen's first time on an airplane!

Update #3: My dad's BBQ is coming along quite nicely. Of course, Jaimisen has been helping quite a bit:

Just Call Him Linus

So I'm folding laundry tonight and hear this strange noise behind me. I turn around to see what Jaimisen is getting into and this is what I find. That little black box on top of my dresser is filled with candy. No surprise. Lol. I'm in deep trouble with how smart this kid is.

Playing the Wii

So for Christmas, Jaimisen got a Wii game designed for "Early Childhood." We had tried playing it once before and Jaimisen quickly lost interest because he couldn't control the Wii remote. A couple days ago, he found his game again and said he wanted to play so we tried it out. He did AMAZING! Some of it is still too hard for him to understand what to do, but I got him to the mini games section and he LOVED it. There were matching games; matching shapes, numbers, letters, colors. There are memory games; find the matching letters or numbers under the rubber duckies. He controled the Wii remote REALLY well and was able to play completely by himself. Sometimes he has trouble keeping the Wii remote steady enough to click on what he's going for, but he keeps trying until he gets it. It's so cute seeing him play the Wii. He looks so big! Here are a couple videos of him playing his game :)

Tahoe

Jaimisen and I went to Tahoe this past weekend with my parents. Except when I say "the weekend," I actually only mean Saturday to Sunday. My parents are so afraid of getting stuck in holiday traffic they avoid it at all costs. *Rolls eyes* But Jaimisen did get some good snow play time which is the exact reason we went. He absolutely loved it. I think saying he loved it is almost an understatement. I'm pretty sure he was smiling the entire time he was outside. I think his favorite part was playing snowball fight. I think he loved the idea of being able to throw snow at people and not getting in trouble.

The first time we went out, his pants didn't stay tucked into his boots and his sock got soaked and he didn't care. The second time we went out, my dad [who did have two children of his own at one point] put Jaimisen's boots on the wrong feet! He also couldn't put Jaimisen's gloves on correctly. The poor kid, but he still didn't care! We didn't realize his boots were on the wrong feet until he was already playing! He played with his boots on the wrong feet the entire time. Haha. Oh, Dad. He made it up to Jaimisen, though, by making him a pretty cool fort perfect for a little boy.

My dad found this little "hill" and got one of our sleds out, put Jaimisen on it and pushed him down. Jaimisen had a HUGE smile on his face! It added to the humor that we didn't think to put anyone at the bottom of the small run so I had to chase and dive after him when he didn't stop like we thought he would. He thought that was just hilarious. He very quickly graduated to a bigger hill that me, my brother and cousins sled down. I, again, ended up literally diving after him when his sled took a sharp right and headed straight toward a tree [video is at the bottom]. Another time he ran straight into my mom. Haha. All in all, we had a fabulous time. He actually got really upset when I said we were going back to our house at home. He said he wanted to stay at Tahoe. He loves Tahoe just like his mommy :) Don't forget to watch the video at the bottom!