New school, round 3

We switched schools for Ryan at the end of his school year and now starting into Summer school.
So far I feel good about it. I am not sure if it is that I am in the better place (emotionally), Neil and I are in a better place, or its just timing.
When we moved Ryan from Peekaboo to a Montessori school we thought he would like it. It had uniforms (so cute) and great teachers.

Something we did not think about too much was that we had just moved a few months before (while being homeless for a month) WRITEN HERE or that it was the middle of a school year would be such huge issues.
Ryan did NOT do well. Now he was learning and he was growing and changing and he was also have behavioural issues. BAD ones.
Around March/April the owner and principle of the school meet with us. Ryan had pushed a kid and he hit his head on a table. The kid was okay but that was the last straw for the school. We were giving till the end of the school year and we were not allowed to come back. I was sad about this because I loved his teacher. She was sick (like spent the night in the hospital) and she STILL called me at work and talked for 45 min with me about Ryan. After seeing we were on the same page the only thing we could do to change was start having time out with him. That helped but we were looking at time out 3 times in the course of 2 hours sometimes. It was brutal.
Do not raise your voice, stay calm, be there but do not engage until he has calmed down. it is SUPER hard.
Happy to say he is MUCH better, today was the first full on melt down in almost a month. (during soccer). He cried and grunted in the car but no screaming or hitting me. After we had a very good talk.
Maybe its that he is 3 and we give him more freedom. Maybe he feels that I am a happier person (running, eating better, its summer so I don't have the winter blues).

Back to my original thought, Ryan's first day of school was July 2nd. We walk in and right away we see Sloane there. (THANKYOU!) Ryan runs over to her and hold her hand. We go together to put Ryan's stuff in his cubby slot. I ask Sloane to show Ryan how the water dispenser works and introduce myself to the teachers again, warn them of his forgetting to pee and give Ryan a big hug and kiss (and Sloane too) and tell him to be kind, use his words and have an awesome day.

He wears no uniforms in the school, also because its summer its much more chill (a better way to introduce him) and he has Sloane with him in the morning and afternoon. She is 8 months older and is transitional into the older class. But they have those 2 hours together. I am so grateful for her. They can sometimes be a bad influence on each other but she is also a huge calming part of his life. Someone he has always known. And someone he loves.

(splash)

So far its going so great, he likes his teachers and he even got an invite to a party from this super cute little boy that told me Ryan and Sloane are his best friends (OMG so cute).
Overall things are going great. I really hope it keeps up! Oh crap. I hear him waking up from nap. More to update later. I promise to keep this up better starting now. Ryan is changing so much and saying the funnest things and sweetest things "you are a pretty princess mommy!"
I have to keep track of this awesome kid.

Bad days and good

Saturday was so bad. It started off great but after Ryan had lunch (some cereal and carrots) it got so so bad.

 He loves to sleep on his side

He went down for a nap so I used this time to shower. I turn off the shower to hear Ryan screaming his head off and Neil trying his very best to calm him down. Neil told me he has been screaming for about 10 min. I ask what happened. Nothing, he just woke up and started to cry.

So we try everything to calm him, try breast feeding, bouncing, walking, I held him, tried a shower, held him under the fan, tv, music... nothing helped. Rita came downstairs because she was worried and it distracted him a little bit.

Got him calm enough to feed him and get him back to sleep for about an hour.

We think it was gas. He farted a little and felt better after his nap.

I think I gave him too much food too fast. We are going to try again but this time just one or two baby spoons, not as much as we gave before. I gave him too much because he was so happy to eat it. He didnt turn away and once he did I would stop. I have to control it and make sure to start off slow.

Sometimes we forgot how little and how young he is because he acts like a big boy. He can sit up, he is so aware of everything. But he is still a baby. Only 4 1/2 months old. You can really tell he is a baby when he cries.

Poor guy got hives he cried so hard.

I was happy he was happy at Sloane's party though. Didn't cry or fuss at all. Which I was really worried about but the kid LOVES going out and being around people. AND he slept great that night. Almost 7 hours after his night feeding. My boobs hurt so bad when I got up because I am used to him eating every 2-4 hours at night. I woke him up to eat after 2 hours of sleeping in the morning. I hate pumping.

Sunday was a chill day and we went out for a bit and had a nice dinner with Rita and Tim. We put Ryan in his feeding chair so he could sit with us. But his arm kept getting stuck in his side so he kept getting fustrated. 

Neil is showing him pictures from Sloanes party and Ryan is very interested.

 Gotta love $2 hats from Joe Fresh (on sale)

 Nomming on his fish teether on our walk today (fish heads fish heads rolly polly fish heads...)

Saturday we are supposed to go on Robins boat to see the fire works but the life vest Christina let us borrow is a little tight on Ryan. I think the plan is to boat out to center island and hang out there. So far the weather looks shitty. 37c and thunderstorms. We shall wait and see how it turns out. Mike invited us to his house for a party so if the weather is shit we might hit that up.

I would like to go on the boat at least once this year and I would love to see how Ryan handles it. I have read that babies love boats (its a sale boat not a speed boat!) 

Also we are going to a new place with Rob and Chris on Sunday... O.Noir 

You dine in complete darkness. It sounds pretty fun.

 

Happy 1 Year Sloane and reflections.

Today Sloane is 1 year old. WOW.

Our good friends had a daughter 1 year ago today. It's amazing how much she has changed.

Taken Aug 22, 2010

How much she has grown and how much she has experienced already in this world.

Sloane also has so many more new things to look forward too. The life for a baby is insane so many things going on. No wonder sometimes they get cranky.

(Sloane is the one on the left)

Taken Aug 11th 2011, also why is my four month old almost as big as Sloane?

Now she is walking, full on walking! And as I have she seen getting into everything she can. Can you blame her? All this new stuff she can see now that she is standing and shiny new things to get into. Poor Tara must be getting tired of chasing her! I think its Tara's new work out routine, chase the baby.

Now Sloane can look forward to bike rides, running in a park, swimming in the ocean, chasing butterfly's and falling leafs, apple picking, trick or treating, opening her own Christmas gifts this year, snow ball fights, eating real food and so many more things.

I find having a kid now I am experiencing new things and not just poopy diapers. When you do stuff with a kid its all new to you as well. Seeing the wonder and excitement though them.

Watching Ryan at the EX he was all wide eyed and he didn't even know what was going on. It was just from the lights from the games all around us. And the new smells though he doesn't know what they mean yet. Mmmmm the smell of popcorn or cotton candy. I get so excited when I think of all the things he gets to explore.

Even putting him in his highchair was exciting because it was new.

Kids are a lot of work and sometimes its really hard but seeing Sloane now 1 year old and knowing what is in store for her it's so worth it.

I never fully understood a lot of things about kids and how parents dealt with it until we had Ryan. Drooling was so gross to me before as were poopy diapers. I remember almost screaming when I changed my friend Jenn's daughters diaper. Now Rayna is going to be 9 in December, friggn' 9 years old. Where did the time go?! Now if Ryan is drooling and I don't have anything to wipe it away I use my hand and wipe that on my pants or shirt. Its better then him staying wet and getting a rash.


How I have changed as well. Neil told me the other day if I saw myself 10 years ago now I would have laughed. To be fair I was wearing a tank top, little black shorts and a white hair band doing the dishes while Ryan was playing in his bouncer. I think Neil is right. I didn't want kids 10 years ago. Things have changed.

I like it.