Remember That Time...

...when I thought that the 2.5 hours that Henry was in preschool that I would have time to keep up with this blog, go out on runs, keep the house in order, etc.  Turns out there is a rift in the space time continuum that makes the time between 8:30 and 11:00 each morning elapse at a faster pace than any other time of day.  This is to say that things are incredibly busy and I'm going to have to manage my expectations!

Henry LOVES school.  This makes us very happy.  He is excited to go each morning and is happy when he is done each day.  The program he is in is really great.  One teacher and two aides for eight 3-4 year old children.  Four of the students are hearing-impaired with either cochlear implants or hearing aids.  They speak and do not use sign language.  The four hearing students are from our town and are in the classroom just in the morning.  In the afternoon the hearing impaired students do more specialized activities like speech therapy.

I like the idea that Henry is being exposed to other kids who are "different" than he is.  Last week on our way home from school one day Henry told me that one of the students has blue hearing aids.  This launched us into a conversation about why the student had them (because his ears need help hearing) and Henry, on his own, made the connection to his own pacemaker (because his heart needs help).  Crazy how insightful a three-year old can be!

Other school highlights:
-Gym class three times a week.
-Music class two times a week.
-Each week the students have a different job.  Henry got to put the weather up on the weather chart each day last week.  He thought it was great.  This week he is the door holder....clearly not as exciting.
-Each week there is a theme.  The teacher sent the week breakdowns to us with a list of vocab words they will be using a lot so that we can reinforce at home.  This week they are talking about friends.  Next week is family.

Working on his first ever school project!

Henry has "played school" at home with us quite a few times.  We have to take turns being the teacher or a student.  You can tell what his teacher must usually say to the students ("I need to hear everyone's voices" or "What do you think is going to happen?") because Henry uses these phrases when it is his turn to be the teacher.  It's pretty awesome.

I loved school so it makes me really happy that Henry loves it too.  I know he still has many years to change but for now it's exciting to watch him be excited about learning.

Life goes on outside of school too...

Swim lessons have started up again, which Henry enjoys.  He is now in the class where the parents don't go in the pool!  Big boy!

We're taking another adventure into Potty Training Land.  We've had numerous short trips into this mystical land without much success but Henry's teacher said that he had been doing a good job with the potty at school and we started sending him in "big boy underwear" this week.  So we started the homefront battle too.  Mixed results so far.  I will spare you the details since Henry might read this a few years down the road...haha.

I know most of you readers tune in here for Henry but there are two other people in our little family.

Eddie has been keeping busy between work and reffing soccer and I've been keeping busy with the part-time work I do from home and the volunteer work I do for the concert band I play in.

But it's not all work.  Last weekend we got to go to Clemson for a football game. We stopped at JMU for the night on the way down and we got to see part of the marching band rehearsal. I got to go out to dinner with some good college friends.  The next morning we drove the rest of the way to Clemson where we met up with friends, got to see Kevin (brother) and Julie (sister-in-law) who are at UGA for grad school, and had dinner at one of Eddie's old hangouts.

During Homecoming students create HUGE displays out of chicken wire and tissue paper squares.  Amazing stuff.

 Deanna worked for/with us when we were at CNU and now she's in grad school at Clemson.

Eddie and I in the spot where we got engaged.

We stayed at the home of some friends and got to catch up with them, which was really nice.  On Saturday we headed to campus for the football game.  Games at Clemson are serious business.....orange everywhere you look, tailgating setups with flatscreen TVs, etc.  It's quite an experience.

Sliding down the hill in the stadium....I may or may not have tried it too.

We headed back north on Sunday with a pitstop outside of Charlotte to see one of my college friends and her family.  We met up with them at a really cool "touch a truck" event that had all sorts of vehicles (NASCAR, Fire Truck, Bulldozer, etc.) that the kids could climb on and in.  Henry loved it and enjoyed hanging out with "Nowen" (how he says "Owen"), my friend's son who is  four months older,  for a short bit before getting back in the car.

 Not sure why there was a camel there but I LOVED HIM!

I can't wait for them to hang out again in November at JMU!

It was a really great weekend and worth the time in the car.

Well, I think that's about all the update for this one....here's to hoping the next one isn't three weeks from now!