One Month Old and End of Preschool

Yesterday Devin was one month old.  The whole day passed without me thinking to try to get a one month beauty shot.  I may still try for one later today.  In the mean time, I took this shot this morning, which shows off those cute jean shorts and demonstrates the fact that baby clothes are not made with bulky cloth diapers in mind.

Yesterday was also Liam's last day of preschool.  I felt sad about this.  Liam has really loved this preschool and so have I.  When we first visited there were dandelions that had gone to seed in the grass outside.  Liam picked one, blew the seeds and made a wish that he would make lots of friends.  He was just a few months beyond three years old.  He has certainly made lots of friends and has been given lots of opportunities to explore the world, learn small and large motor skills, gain confidence and get ready for kindergarten.

The preschool is run by the university and college students get practical experience by teaching sections in the classroom.  They are also assigned a student who they work with throughout the semester and do some assessment on.  We have gotten a couple of beautiful notebooks from these "special teachers" that Liam still enjoys looking at.  Liam didn't have a "special teacher" this summer, but all the teachers pitch in with all the kids.  This scene says more than I could express.

The ground here is actually flat.  I'm not sure why I was off balance in catching these shots.  And I hope I'm not intruding on the privacy of this college student - who I didn't get a chance to talk to - by putting his picture on the blog.  Usually I ask.  But this is a moment I want to memorialize.  It was really starting to hit Liam that preschool was ending.  In the next shot he was crying.  But he had his hands over his face in embarrassment and maybe that's a sign that he could use a little privacy.

Thankfully when the main preschool teacher got done with a parent conference she was in they were able to have a good talk about the end of preschool.  Miss Cyndi has a special gift with preschoolers.  She listens to them and takes them very seriously.  She understands so much about how they think and has helped me be a better mom.  Oh, and the last day of preschool was "Wacky Wednesday" (on Thursday no less)  She and Liam usually dress a little more conventionally.  In the end he still felt sad about being done with preschool, but was mostly comforted and distracted by being presented with a fairly large piece of blue sticky tack.

We also wanted to get a good picture of Miss Cyndi with Devin.  We hope that in three years he can be a member of her class as well.

And in case you couldn't get the full effect of Liam's Wacky Wednesday ensemble, here's a shot his dad took before they left for school.  He said that his dad did a much better job at making his hair stick up with gel than I did, although you can see from previous pictures that by the end of the day it had laid back down.

So now we are on our own (sort of) until the 21st when kindergarten starts.  Liam said today, "I think we are going to have a hard time now that I'm not in preschool any more."  This is sort of true.  After sleeping well last night Devin seems to have a particularly sore tummy today and is prone to wake up out of a troubled sleep with a loud scream.  And then not nurse for very long.  And I can't get the burp out.  Allen's starting to feel the crunch of trying to get ready for the upcoming semester, though, so we need hold down the fort for a while here and let him get some work done.  So far I am "ruining" Liam's plans and by not playing with him.  But I did find some time to get a project started which he seemed to enjoy.  And then I came into the kitchen and found this heart-melting scene, which is the main reason I just told you all this.

Liam is working on "thank you" cards while using his foot to rock Devin's chair.

It wasn't working quite as well as he would have liked, though, prompting him to make this face.  He still really hates how loud Devin's crying is and tends to run from the room when it starts.  I'm trying to reassure him by comforting Devin as quickly as I can, but that means dropping whatever I'm doing, which makes me a less fun companion.