My trials and tribulation with a 3 year old

Well, Jacob is officially a preschooler. My little boy is growing up. It seems like only yesterday I was nursing him and now he is in school. Time sure does fly. I went to pick him up on Thursday and it was definitely a test in patience. I went to the door a little early to beat the rush of the other moms and when I peeked in Jacob saw me and proceeded to dump out two puzzles. His teacher did not see this. He proceeds to work on the puzzles and ignores his teacher telling him that mommy is here and it is time to go. Well, other another mom shows up right after me and the teacher gets her inspired to leave rather easily and then reminds Jake that mom is waiting. Then another mom shows up and another and another and I am lost in the shuffle. I am becoming a little agitated as soon Josh has lost his patience and begins fussing. Good grief....I know that my child sometimes needs a little more inspiration to finish his tasks so I as the teacher if I need to come into the room and escort him out. I really don't want to make a scene but the teacher told me last week that Jacob has been having trouble listening and transitioning from one task to another so I have been working with him on listening at home. I am thinking to myself 'we are reinforcing him to not listen when he sees that his stalling with the puzzles is ok by not making him leave when it is time to go'. I realize that it is often easier to get the more cooperative children out the door first but WTF? Now my baby is crying and Jacob is getting away with not listening again. Finally after I mention escorting Jake out the teacher goes over to Jacob and tells him she will help him finish his puzzle and Jake responds 'I want to do it.' She said she will help him finish since mom is waiting and I say 'and your baby brother is waiting too.' I arrived at 215 pm and did not get home until 245pm (school is only a five minute drive away). As we are checking out the teacher says that they are holding a screening for speech next month and that she thinks Jake would be an ideal candidate. I have been thinking about getting him screened since his speech is not as clear as it should be at this point so I am welcoming this idea. He is having trouble with his f's and s's and his the sounds too. I don't want his speech issue to become a social issue when other children cannot understand him and decide not to play with him. She also mentions that some school districts have screens. I had already gotten the information from his school so as I drive home I figure I will call them up and schedule an appointment. On the drive home Jacob asks for something I cannot for the life of my understand and he proceeds to become very frustrated. He proceeds to throw a mini tantrum and asks over and over and over again. I was about to pull my hair out. So, I finally get him calmed down and I make the phone call to the school district and get him scheduled for a screen on September 30th. Phew...What an afternoon!

Later that evening as we were playing Jacob and I were eating some smarties. We had them spread out on the floor and I ask Jake to count how many there are. And lo and behold...He counts from one to ten with me! I am on cloud nine! This is the first time he has done it completely through and spoke it so clearly. There is light at the end of the tunnel.

We have been extremely busy planting things at our house. In the last week we have planted a lilac bush, a rhododendron, 3 holly bushes, a bracken brown magnolia, a red bud tree, three pots of mums,a weeping willow, and an evergreen. We are not done yet as we also have transplanted one tree and are planting a whitespire birch tomorrow and hopefully a blue spruce too. Hubby wants to get a lot in the ground this fall as we did not plant anything new last year and he says we are a year behind. Our yard is starting to look good. We have a large lot of around .6 acres so we have plenty of room to load a lot of planting.

The family next door that moved to North Carolina, you know the one with the three year old Jacob loves, well the dad was back tonight to monitor the movers packing up his home. The big moving truck comes tomorrow and after that, they are "officially" gone. It was strange to see him. James talked to him for a few minutes last night. The neighbor said he asked his wife again if she wanted to come with him and she said it would be too hard. He said he understood what she meant as he drove into the subdivision. He was a little sad. He said they have not made any friends yet that are as good as the ones here. Of course they have not yet moved into their new home and are living in a temporary apartment so it is totally understandable. I am sure they feel like a couple of transplants blowing in the wind right now. I just saw him turn out the lights to the house and come out with a suitcase and go down the street to another neighbor's house to spend the night. I sure am going to miss them.