Deep sleep; Deep thoughts

This one...

This one who drives me nuts because he's five and needs control and so do I...

I love him so much my heart just might explode.

First Week of Kindergarten

Gabriel started kindergarten this week.

The night before school started, as we settled in for bedtime, he asked me to tell him a story he hasn't heard before and wasn't about school.

Me: Once upon a time, there was a boy named Gabriel. He was about to start Kindergarten, so he got some good sleep and then he went to school in the morning and he had a great day. When Kindergarten ended, he rode the bus to daycare, and he had a great day there, too. Then mommy picked him up and they went to Gabriel's favorite restaurant, Jason's Deli, for dinner to celebrate the first day of school.

<Gabriel turned over to face me with the biggest light in his eyes and a huge smile.>

G: Let's bring that to life! Can we bring that to life?

(We did.)

He was pretty goofy when I tried to get a first day of school picture. He really didn't want to take one at all, so I'm glad we still got to capture his silly self.

J and I both walked him into school on the first day. We got to his classroom, and G said he was scared. Bit he walked in the room with both of us, hung up his backpack on the hook next to his name, and found some cars to play with. J and I  both managed to get a hug before we left, and everything was fine. :)

On the second day, I walked him in to the cafeteria where they gather before time to go to individual classrooms. G lined up with his class and followed them down the hall when it was time. J said he didn't even look back.

On the third day, parents aren't supposed to walk past a certain spot without getting a visitor's pass. We planned to drive in the car drop off line to show him what that would be like. At first G said he could get out and walk inside the school by himself, but J and I decided we'd both go in case a parent was needed to walk inside. Sure enough, G got anxious about getting out by himself, so I hopped out too and we walked in together. But when we got to the spot parents should stop at, G kept walking and didn't even look back. 

On the fourth day, I took him through the car line and he got out and walked in. Done.

We seem to be off to a pretty good start.

We're excited that he is in the dual language program. He will have about 90% of instruction in Spanish this year. We think it's going to be great for him, and it's fun to already see him apply what he's hearing.

We had this conversation after the first day of school:

G: Does "more bien" mean "good job"? 

Me: "Muy bien" means "very good."

G: I knew that because I did something good and my teacher said "more bien."

(He argues vehemently that it's "more bien," not "muy bien."

At bedtime on the second day of school:

G: Can we go to a different aqui?

Me: A different 'here'?

G: A different house. <points down>

Me: Well, we're planning to live in this house for a while.

G: ok

He told me on Friday that he can't understand everything his partner says, but he said that's ok. 

The first week of kindergarten was a success, it seems. We're sure the rest of the year holds great things.

Quite the Character

Gabriel has been at a different school/daycare for August. He's transitioned over there pretty well so far. 

I tend to ask him a lot of questions after picking him up. I guess he gets pretty annoyed some days. Like today.

He was telling me about some awesome stuff they did.

Me: What did you do today?

"Mom, first we had snack. Then we had cupcakes. Then we had snow cones and then we watched a movie!"

Me: Wow! That sounds like a lot of sugar.

"The man put the white stuff in the cup, and then the kids got to do the juice. The teachers didn't even do it. Most kids got mystery flavor, but I was afraid it wouldn't be my favorite, so I got watermelon."

Me: And you had cupcakes,too?

"Grayson got to pick which one he wanted, but other kids didn't get to pick because it was celebrating Grayson's last day at school. He got a blue one with no sprinkles."

Me: What color did you get?

"I had green with no sprinkles. And then we had snow cones, and then we watched a movie."

Me: What movie did you watch?

"Madagascar. Wait. It was the one with the zebra and the lion and the hippo and the giraffe. Is that Madagascar?"

Me: Yep. That's Madagascar.

"Yeah. That's what it was."

Me: That sounds like an awesome day. Is there anything that could possibly make today even better?

"If you would stop talking."

...

Y'all. He didn't even miss a beat when I asked him. Not even half a beat. 

Bedtime Struggles

Bedtime has been getting harder and harder around here lately. 

G went through a phase a few months ago where he got up every night around 1:30 and came to our room. One of us (usually me) would get up to put him back to bed or he would climb in bed with us. On the occasions when he climbed in with us, we often didn't notice it for a couple hours...and then, even though we don't want to encourage his sleeping in our bed, we were too tired to get up and force him out. 

The 1:30 am phase seems to be under control, possibly because we started giving him an herbal sleep aid and rubbing magnesium lotion on his legs and feet. I'd like to stop that at some point, but there are still so many sleep things going on that I'm wary about changing that part of the routine since it did seem to help with the middle-of-the-night waking. 

Still, more often than we like, he wakes us up because he's gotten another nose bleed. We've got a humidifier and allergy meds and this and that, but it still happens somewhat frequently. His pediatrician says it's likely caused by digital irritation. We don't know for sure, but I haven't figured out how to keep a 5 year old's finger out of his nose while he sleeps anyway. 

A couple of nights he's woken up crying but not really responsive to our questions. He doesn't remember it in the morning, so we're assuming bad dreams/night terrors. Luckily that has only been two or three times. 

Now just getting him into bed is hard most nights. He doesn't want to be left alone, and I don't want to stay because I am very likely to fall asleep in there and I really need some time to be an adult who isn't acting as an employee or a mom for a while. But his protests remind me so much of my own childhood, lying in my bed in the dark and hating it so much. I remember the feeling with such clarity that if that's what he's feeling now, I feel terrible for forcing it on him. And yet, it is bedtime. And he must be in bed. He must sleep. 

He complains that it's too dark, so we have several night lights. But that wasn't good enough, so sometimes we leave a lamp on for a bit. Some nights that just seems to encourage him to stay awake. We try flashlights sometimes, but that works out to a lot of batteries after a while!!

 

For the past couple of weeks, I've been building nests for him in his bed using multiple pillows and every stuffed animal in the house. I was hoping he would feel comforted by having soft things cuddling him on all sides. Maybe that would work as an adequate substitution for being curled up against me...

But many nights he gets out of bed multiple times to say that he just can't sleep or to complain that he's lonely and needs someone to stay with him or to tell us one last important thing that must be said right then lest it be forgotten by morning. 

Like on a recent night when he climbed out of his bed, creeped into my room, and said, "Mommy, I don't have a lot of things to tell you. I just have one thing to tell you. The thing I need to tell you is that I like it when I get a nose bleed at night because I can get out of bed and come get you. And sometimes we sit in the bathroom or in my bed until it stops. And sometimes I get a long nose bleed and we lay down on the couch. So I like it when I get a long nose bleed at night."

Which makes me wonder if the kid is sticking his finger up his nose on purpose? Great.