Pre-School

I may have found a Pre-School or two for Joshua to start next fall. Why so late you ask? Well, Joshua won't be 5 until the end of November 2013 so he will miss getting into Kindergarten at our local elementary school. I do not believe he needs more than a year of prep time. He is an extremely smart child and is very bright, but needs some time learning directions from someone other than Mom and Dad. He will go Tuesday and Thursday mornings only. I am a stay at home mom and do not feel that him going to school longer than that is necessary. It would defeat the purpose of being home.
My search has been quite difficult. I'm rather picky about where I am going to be sending my son for school. You see...I DO NOT want my son to go to a daycare/school. I do not want him where there are babies. I want him where most if not all of the children are potty trained. I want a school learning setting. I know this seems rather harsh, but if I had needed to go back to work after he was born a Daycare/School setting would have been fine, but he has been able to be home with me for his daily care needs and now it is time for his School needs. That is why I am rather picky about where I am sending him.
My two choices are specific pre-school Schools. They only have children there from 2-5yrs of age. No babies. It is not an all day daycare system. I am rather pleased and will most likely go and see them to see which one will be better suited to our son and his ever growing curiosity, this fall since he won't start until next fall.

What Do I Do?

If you've been following along with Joshua's blog from the beginning then you know about our sleep issues with him. For almost two months he's been sleeping in his own bed, in his room. Well, this past weekend he's been begging to come to our bed. I refused to give in (Yeah for me) but we still ended up a couple of times a night.

Today I removed the TV and DVD player from his room. We worked really hard to get him to sleep in his bed, but it took letting him watch a cartoon until he fell asleep and we would go shut it off, just to have him wake up a few hours later wanting it back on. Last night I literally sat in a corner of his room and eventually fell asleep on the floor myself in order to get him to sleep in his bed and room without the TV on. It took THREE HOURS.

So, what am I supposed to do? I don't know if I can handle sitting on the floor or sleeping on it for that matter just to get him to stay in his bed and go to sleep. As I've said in the past it can be 10pm or later before he falls asleep. I'm really working on getting him down at a decent hour, like 8pm at the latest so that Raul and I can have some time to ourselves on occasion, but rarely happens because even if Joshua is asleep by 8pm so is Daddy because he has to get up at 3:30am to get ready for work.

I hope the removal of the TV and DVD helps and he stays in his bed and goes to sleep. We'll just have to see how long this takes to kick in. I want to be able to tell him to go to sleep, tuck him in, leave the room, and know that he will stay put and go to sleep.

Mail Time!!!

Joshua loves to get mail. I have asked friends to send him postcards from where ever they visit or live. He gets a National Geographic Explorer Kids magazine every other month as well. He gets occasional letters from his Nana & Papa in California so I thought...why not get him his own mailbox.

All I can find is the black ones at the store. Not very much fun for my little imaginative boy. So, today I took it off the wall, took it outside and blasted it with blue and green spray paint.

Before

After

Getting his mail from friends

Some Updates

I've realized I haven't done some updates to previous posts in quite a while. So, here we go...

1. Joshua was day potty trained within three days and night potty trained within a month. We do still have the rare accident, but that is bound to happen. Also, many moms have told me that the potty training process is not complete until the child can pull down and up his/her pants...well, Joshua can do this and quite well. Also, he is now pretty much standing to do his peeing so no need to take his pants off completely so he can straddle the toilet. I am so proud of him and how quickly he did it. Especially since I didn't wait around until HE was ready...I did it when I was ready. He was almost 2.5yrs old at the time and I was tired of changing his diapers. He did it and never looked back.
2. We have gone two days straight of Joshua sleeping the entire night in his bed. I mean the entire night...does not come to our bedroom at two in the morning...he sleeps in his bed all night. When I asked him why he was such a big boy yesterday at breakfast he said, "I'm a big boy because I slept in my bed all night long!"
3. "The Wildest Colts Make the Best Horses" by John Breeding is now becoming my latest book to be read. A sister in the hall mentioned it to me and suggested I read it. She said her oldest was a crazy child (very much as I feel Joshua is...his name is also Joshua) and she said it puts a lot of things into perspective for you and helps you to handle your "wild colt". Because let's face it, not all of us have perfectly docile children to contend with so I am hoping that my "wild colt" will grow to be a "wonderful horse".