Growing up...

With Alex's 3rd birthday comes a whole new set of opportunities. In our small town, there's really nothing you can do with your "under 3" children except for storytime at the library --- which runs twice a year in two 6 weeks sessions. So... filling Alex's days with meaningful, stimulating activities has not been easy... and I confess he watches way more Treehouse TV than he should.

So... maybe I've gone overboard a bit, but my three-year old is now starting to have a social life that does not include me. I have signed him up for preschool Tuesday and Thursday afternoons, I signed him up for parent and tot skating lessons for 6 weeks this fall (not with me, thank you very much... don't want to traumatize the boy... his Dad will be skating with him) and I have signed both boys up for their separate storytimes at the library starting in October, although Alex's will be Thursday mornings so if Preschool's too much, we'll be dropping the Thursday morning story time.

Yesterday was Alex's first day of preschool. He was sooooo excited when I told him he was starting preschool in September. We had to do a countdown (5 more sleeps, 4 more sleeps... etc) and I had to show him, every day, on the calendar which day was his first day of school. Last week we went to Field's (yup... our major department store in this town) and picked him up a new backpack and indoor shoes. For the first two days he had it he wore it around the house constantly with his shoes safely inside.


His classroom is really cute, just like a Kindergarten, with many different stations and things for the children to do. I was really impressed.

And each child has their own coat/bag hook and cubby for their shoes. The children who attend in the mornings have the bumblebee nametags, the afternoon has the star name tags. I had to snap a photo of this when I saw who shares the hook with Alex... that's just too cool!

Gym time... Alex's first time in an organized setting having to hold hands with other kids... didn't phase him a bit! (He's the cute one in the middle... lol)

In Vanderhoof you either sign your child up for preschool at the Catholic Church, or at the Christian church. That's it. I know there is a lot more variety in Prince George, but it's almost nice to have such limited choices... makes the decision a snap. Alex is officially a student at a private Catholic School. There was no spot on the application asking whether or not we were a Catholic family, so I'm assuming we're okay!
Alex did really well. After meeting his teacher (who's a sweetheart) he set about to playing right away. He didn't notice me at all, until I told him I was going home, then he was ready to go too. No tears, just stated matter of factly "I'm done too". I ended up staying in the mudroom as a compromise and that was fine with him. He made it to the end of class and had a really good time. We'll see how it goes Thursday, but I don't anticipate that he'll need me around for too much longer.

So... there you go! My baby's growing up. I can't even call him a toddler anymore. We're into the next phase of his life... Alex is a preschooler.