Friday, September 10, 2010

My Big, Brave 5 Year Old

Brady came down this morning wearing a shirt that is known to have an itchy tag. He always wear another shirt under it to protect his skin.

He let me help him put on the "short socks" that he threw at me the last time we tried them thinking they were Henry's and telling me they were waaaaaaaay too small (ankle socks instead of crew socks) .

He got through his first fire drill at school, said it was just a little scary but he was brave and got in line with the other kids.

He allowed me to put on his socks and shoes yesterday even though he had a little boo-boo on his ankle. I was bracing for the shoe being thrown at me, but he just calmly told me he was ok with it.

He went out to dinner and then to bed last night and to school this morning w/out finding his lost toy lizard.

He says he loves the noise of the cafeteria!

He said he'd rather play chalk during recess than on the equipment??

He's been fine with the string of the nametag around his neck, which he couldn't stand touching his skin at orientation.

"Now that I'm 5, I'm a lot braver and that stuff doesn't bother me. When I was 4 it did, but now that I'm 5 it doesn't."

I could just cry! He's come so far in the last couple of years. At least so far, it's looking like Kindergarten is agreeing with him. I hope it keeps up! And I hope the itchy tag and short socks don't make him have a bad day today after he insisted he was fine with them.

Thursday, September 9, 2010

Kindergarten!

Brady started Kindergarten this week!! After two days, he says he LOVES it.

He did very well getting ready the first two days, but today I got a glimpse of how it's probably going to go more often than not. He gets so darn distracted when he's supposed to be getting ready in the morning. He has his clothes picked out for the whole week in his closet, but comes down this morning in something different. Grr... that means he has to go back upstairs to change after breakfast (and no, he didn't want to wear his initial outfit which would have been fine with me). So, Henry is downstairs eating breakfast and Brady is upstairs doing who knows what? He FINALLY gets changed and comes down. Apparently, when he was eating breakfast he had asked to help me clean (he saw me wiping the table) and I had told him yes, once he was ready. Too bad it took him close to 30 minutes to be ready and at that point it was almost time to leave. So, to avoid an explosion, I gave him a sponge and let him wipe the table. Luckily, once Henry was done eating, he was ok stopping the cleaning because he's determined to the first one at the bus stop. Letting him clean always worries me b/c he doesn't want to ever stop, EVER. Combine these things with a new plastic lizard that he has to take care of AT ALL TIMES, and I'm starting to see our rough mornings getting to school coming back.

Oh, and we've just started soccer with practice on Wednesday nights. He gets off the bus at 4pm and has to be at practice by 5:30pm. So yesterday (our first time doing this), was a nightmare! I let him watch a show when he got home, and then he had to eat some dinner. He ate a tiny bit of dinner and then I started asking him to get his soccer stuff from his room. The process started off well enough, but then something changed and his tiredness led to meltdowns and explosions. I'm not even really sure what happened, but I remember one of them was caused by him tripping over his own feet. He blamed me b/c I was sort of near him, so he ran away from me and crashed onto the couch, screaming that he needed to be alone and don't talk to him and don't be near him. So I have to grab Henry and carry him away screaming(he's missed Brady all day and just wants to be near him). I could see it in Brady's eyes that if we didn't get away from him that we would be hurt. So, we sent Daddy off to soccer (he's the coach and HAS to be there on time) and let Brady cool off. About 10 minutes later, he came to the other room and let me help him finish getting ready. We had a small explosion at the soccer field, but luckily it was all directed at me b/c I wouldn't let him pull up all the turf on the field.  Bedtime wasn't much better b/c he couldn't find an appropriate blanket to tuck his lizard in with. It was almost 9 by the time he fell asleep. I'm worried about this evening b/c of the lack of sleep and the grandparents will have to put him to bed as we head off to preschool orientation. And grandparents get him very keyed up.

On a good note - When he gets that crazy, "I'm gonna hurt someone" look in his eyes, he's running off to be alone and hiding behind the couch cushions instead of running at me with his fists and feet flailing. I think he might actually be learning some self-control! So, whether we're running late or not, I guess I'll just have to be thankful that he's finding the time and place to cool off instead of hurting me or his little brother.

Thursday, September 2, 2010

Happy Birthday!

Brady's 5th birthday was yesterday.

Last Saturday, we had a party at Chuck E Cheese (his choice).  He chose this venue because we had been there for another birthday party a couple months ago. The birthday child gets an inflatable crown with tokens and gets to try and catch tickets in a ticket blaster. He was VERY excited about getting in the ticket blaster. I knew VERY well that there was no way he'd actually do it. I wanted to give him the best possible shot at being able to do it, so we had them turn it on beforehand so he could see just how loud it was. He was still excited about it. They said Daddy could go in it with him.  Once the time came, he insisted that Daddy go first, without him. He LOVED watching Daddy do it (and Daddy gots LOTS of tickets!). After Daddy was done, he managed to get himself in there with a terrified look on his face. They started it up and he begged to get out instantly. Luckily, the attendant turned it off very quickly when I told her to so that he didn't completely freak. I could see it in his eyes that if he was in there for 5 more seconds, he would have completely melted down. In the end, I was just super proud of him for trying, especially considering how he probably would not have even gone near it a couple years ago. It's hard, though, to know that your kid really wants to do something and just can't handle it.
Waiting for it to start



 
So, happy birthday to my sweet little boy! It's been a long road, but I feel like we're finally starting to understand you and how to help you be the best Brady you can be!