36 Weeks and Preschool Update

We had our home visit for the birth team today. My midwife, her assistant, my doula, my mom, and of course Pam, Makena and I. It was great, we talked about all the supplies and went over what we still need to gather, and discussed where to set up the birth pool. Very exciting!! It's getting more real for sure now. I'm so looking forward to this baby's birth. I can't believe we'll have two kids for Christmas!

And now some photos-

Makena made a wish that she didn't have to go to bed. Of course. Lol. 

We've been having fun with her buddies Ian and Colin.

And we went to the Oakland Zoo for the second year in a row to participate in the JDRF Walk to Find a Cure for Type 1 Diabetes.

While picking up Pam at her preschool job one day Makena wanted to go in and play a bit. She wrote her name all by herself n the chalk board.

She loves to help measure my belly and listen to baby's heartbeat with the fetoscope.

The other day Pam dropped off Makena and I at preschool and went to the bank. She called me a few minutes later and said, "Bad news, I was in a crash." She was going to turn right and then suddenly the recycling truck she had pulled up next to started to turn right... right into our car. So it was more of a scraping pushing than an actual crash. Regardless, the initial report is approximately $4,500 in damage. We're still waiting on the police report to see who is at fault, and find out what insurance will cover. We have a $1,000 deductible which we can't pay, so we're hoping it's determined that the recycling truck was at fault. Sucks to be dealing with this now, but thankfully she was fine and the damage seems to be just cosmetic and not structural. We haven't even had this car a year, 11 months ago I was rear-ended and our car was totaled and we bought this one. It's so frustrating to have bad stuff happen, especially when it involves money. We could really use a good luck streak!!

Bed time has had some rough struggles lately. I was hoping that Pam could be in charge of getting Makena to bed before the baby arrived, but that just isn't happening.

Makena's preschool Fall Carnival was a big hit, and we won the contest for the most sold raffle booklets! We sold 25, and got a $100 giftcard to a steakhouse! My mom (who bought a few booklets) won a $50 giftcard to a different steakhouse. Pretty funny for a bunch of vegetarians. ;) The menus look great though, there are plenty of choices. Pam and I will have a nice final date night before the baby is born.

A few of our friends also won prizes from the raffle tickets they bought from us, and those who aren't local told us to keep the prizes, so we got an interior car detailing gift certificate and 2 passes to Happy Hollow and another restaurant giftcard. Little stuff like that really makes our day, because it allows us to have fun times that we otherwise can't afford. My mom donated a dozen eggs from her chickens to the silent auction, and they were valued at about $8 and sold for $25 I think!

And speaking of preschool, the other night during her bath Makena suddenly burst into tears and said she wishes she was like her friend Natalia at school. I assumed she meant because Natalia can cross the monkey bars and ride a two-wheeler bike, but she was sobbing and said "Natalia's mommy never stays at school with her and she never even cries or is sad!" (Her mom has been on maternity leave since she recently had a baby and her work parent shifts have been covered by the rest of us. We've never talked about that with Makena and I'm surprised she picked up on it.) Then she asked if I had to leave tomorrow or if it was my work day. I told her I would stay with her in the beginning then leave for a little while. She was crying and saying she wanted to stay home and not go to school. :( It was breaking my heart. Then yesterday morning she work up and started to cry and said her belly hurts and she thinks she has a fever and can't go to school. But we got ready to go and on the drive she said "I'm so excited! I can't wait for the baby to be born so I can have some milk! It's been so hard for me to fall asleep without milk."

Oh, my heart.

I had emailed her teacher to let her know that we might need some extra help when I leave, but Makena was fine, said goodbye and ran off to play. I went to Blossom Birth to volunteer some time and when I returned to preschool Makena gave me a huge tight hug and we sat down for the final story time/songs.

I love this outfit she picked out.

Then I was sitting and chatting with some other parents and I heard her screaming and saw her running towards me. She had been running along a paved path and fell, scraping up her cheek and knees and hands. Poor girl. We went over to her friend Natalia's house to play and they had a great time. We hope this means they'll play more together at school now!

Camping trip

We'd been wanting to go camping all summer, but it was one of our toughest summers financially and we just couldn't afford to pay for it, or have Pam take off from work. But my parents and sister wanted to go too, so they booked a site and we said we'd join them. Ont he drive up to Lake Del Valle we got stuck in crappy Friday rush hour traffic. And that's precisely when Makena announced she had to go potty "right now!!" We pulled over and the little travel potty seat came to the rescue!

Hiking with Mama and Grandmo.

Playing in the dirt with cousin Sofia.

Helping Grandpoppy with the fire.

Smores. Makena wouldn't eat them (have I mentioned how much I love this kid!), but she liked helping to roast the marshmallows!

Grandmo reading the kids a bedtime story.

Picking up trash while on a hike,

It was a fun short trip, Makena was pretty much covered in a layer of dirt the entire time. She liked riding her scooter with Sofia, and going on little hikes and exploring. And she liked finding long sticks to poke at the fire with cousin Nicolas. She had been going through an exceptionally clingy phase and that was difficult at times, even being outdoors wasn't helping! But we made it through, as always!

First few days of preschool

Makena's preschool is so amazing, we feel very lucky to have found such a gem! We're attending thanks to a partial scholarship, and we're putting in as many extra work hours as possible to help bridge that gap. There is a high parental involvement commitment with this co-op, which we love. We may not have money to donate to the school, but we do have time and enthusiasm! Makena goes on M/W/Th mornings, and Thursdays are our official work parent day. Just recently I stopped staying with her on M/W, but I'll write more about that later...

Photos from her first day! Pam's preschool job hadn't started yet, so she got to come too! 

She loved finding her cubby!

Dot art!

Playing with shaving cream. As we left she was looking for her shaving cream picture, and I had to explain that she didn't actually make a picture, lol.

How cool that her preschool has a zip-line?! The kids call it the Flying Fox. I'm so proud that Makena will do it solo!

She loves the outdoor painting that's always set up and available. She also loves being barefoot. I've worked in with schools and always enforced the shoes on policy for safety, but this school is pretty "free range" and the kids have the freedom to do what they want for the most part. It's completely play-based and there are always art/math/writing stations set up with parents leading the activities, but none of it is required for the kids to participate in. Aside from the obvious like not hitting, he only things they "have" to do are play in the correct playground (we switch from the large front one to the back playground on days when the other classroom is in session) and sit at the rug for story/music time. They also need to wash their hands before snack and sit at the tables for at least a few minutes, then bus their own plate/cup and dispose of everything in the correct compost or recycling bin.

With her teacher and holding the class pet guinea pigs! The kids get to play with them outside on this clover patch every day. These are the friendliest guinea pigs I've ever met. Thank goodness for such a hardy little pet, they get handled constantly and are such good sports!

Riding a two-wheeler (with training wheels)! She was so proud of herself.

Building a volcano in the huge sandbox.

She wrote the STO all by herself, but I helped remind her to make a line then a loop for the P!

Putting on a puppet show for some classmates and the teacher.

This is her favorite swing. On the first day that I left her at preschool I sat in my car and spied on her, and she seriously was in this swing for over 30 minutes.

So, the transition to having me with her 24/7 and me dropping her off at preschool has been a bit of a roller coaster, and it's still a work in progress. I feel so conflicted about it, because I don't have anything else I need to be doing and I genuinely love being with her. Forcing her into a situation that upsets her just upsets me, and I find it all so pointless. But I would love for her to love her school and be comfortable being there without me, especially since the baby will be here soon and I think it's important that she has a place where she can have her own fun. And I didn't want the baby to be born then have to suddenly start dropping Makena off.

Her teacher has been super great and supportive of us taking baby steps. I started by not following Makena around constantly, even though she'd whine and ask me to be with her and sit next to her, etc. But I'd encourage her to sit down and do the project while I stood off to the side, or I'd sit on the couch while she played in the dress up corner, being present but not engaging. We talked a lot about the other kids who are dropped off and their parents pick them up at the end. We talked about all the work parents and the teacher and aide that are always there to help. Sometimes parents just decide to stay for the day with their child even if it isn't their work day, it's all very casual. Some parents just leave for an hour or two, not the full 3 hours. The teacher started giving me tasks to help her with. Sending me to the storage room to look for something, or into the kitchen to help with snack, when really it was just an excuse for me to separate. It was working well, Makena was doing mostly fine.

One day I said I was going to the car to get my jacket and Makena started crying and clinging to me. She was so stressed out about me leaving that I burst into tears myself. We sat together at story time and I just couldn't stop crying while she clung onto me so tightly. While everyone else went out to snack the teacher sat with us and rubbed my back while I rubbed Makena's back and we talked about what to do. The next day in the morning Makena panicked and asked if I was leaving today. I told her that I'd still be there, but might be busy helping the teacher. And while she was busy playing outside the teacher (loud enough for Makena to hear) sent me into the other room to help with a craft workshop that was going on. I stayed there almost the entire day, peeking at Makena through the window to the playground and sticking my head into her classroom so see how she was doing. I heard her ask for me a couple times, but she never cried and the other adults easily distracted her and got her involved in something. Then for the last story time at noon (school is over at 12:15) I came over to the rug and sat with her.

The next day we were ready to do a real drop off. I told her ahead of time, and when it was time for me to leave (I stayed for about 30 minutes) we said goodbye and I left to sit in my car.  I did go to Starbucks and then back to the school to sit and spy on her occasionally. The rest of the week went just as well. She resists at first, crying and clinging, but we let her pick one last thing for us to do together (read a story, paint a picture, do a project...) and then we hug and blow kisses and I go. Only once so far has she been actually crying as I left, but her teacher was holding her and I know she was fine within seconds. Still, it's super hard and I don't like it at all. I'm glad she's starting to get used to it, but it makes me sad that it's so hard for her. Such is life, I know. Overcoming struggles is a crucial skill, and I know she's blessed to have had so few obstacles in her life! The addition of the baby will be probably her biggest transition yet. It's one thing to not have my attention constantly, but it'll be another thing to see my attention shared with a new baby.

There is a little girl Makena's age in her class (Makena's on the older end, some kids are very young and just turning 3) and she just became a big sister 7 weeks ago. She and Makena are a lot alike, they are both quiet and slow to warm, but they both talk about each other when not together and say they are friends, even though at school they mostly just parallel play since neither of them takes the lead! Her mother and I are trying to help encourage their friendship, they invited us over to play and I think that will be good. Plus the mom and I can chat about having a second baby! We're looking forward to getting together next week. 

In other preschool news we're getting ready for the fall carnival fundraiser event. Each family is required to sell 3 booklets of raffle tickets, and their are prizes for the top 3 selling families. So far we're in the lead with like 16 booklets sold! We're trying to sell as many as possible, especially since we pay a reduced tuition. Our friends and family have been incredibly generous! We're very excited for carnival day. Pam and I are signed up to do the face painting.

Okay, up next I need to post about the camping trip we took!